Wolves: Chapter 2

            I rolled to my stomach soundlessly, hoping the body of the dead wolf beside me would hide me from the wolves circling below the house, waiting for the alpha to give a signal. They didn’t notice me until my hand slipped and I fell face first into a pool of blood. They snapped their heads around, eyeing me with smiles only wolves can give.

            Their lips pulled back to show white teeth. I snarled back, wolf blood trickling into mouth. It was bitter.

            “I’m not your dinner tonight,” I hissed.

            The wolf in front growled, deep and throaty. “We’ll see about that.”

            “Remember last year and let me go.”

            The wolf hissed and took a step back. I stood, face still dripping with blood, and walked through the pack towards the house. The fight was still strong inside but it sounded muffled. The night was silent outside the chaos. Even the stars were not singing.

            “You are denying your family!” the wolves circled me at a distance.          

I turned back to the animals. “These girls are my family now and you knew it the instant your loyalty fell. Leave,” I commanded. “Spare yourselves the loss of your comrades. If you do not, we will slaughter you one by one until not a single pup remains.”

            The wolves exchanged uncertain glances. Their gold eyes dulled in the wake of my threat. An axe was suddenly flung out the window and I heard the screams of the fallen beast. I didn’t even flinch but caught the axe as it plummeted and swung it to aim the eye at the nearest wolf. They scattered into the forest.

            Xandra’s rope was closer than my own but neither spring had been reset so I slipped the axe handle through my belt and climbed hand over hand to the open window. The scene was gruesome. Blood and fallen wolves covered the floor. The girls stood, panting and weak, over the corpses to make sure they were no longer a threat to the children and mothers who stood against the back wall.

            My boots hit the wooden floorboards and the entire room swung around to stare. I raised one hand in a weak greeting, scanning to find Annette. She ran to me, limping slightly but undeterred. The others began pumping water to clean the floor and throwing the wolves’ corpses out the window. Annette grabbed a wet rag and began wiping my face.

            “What happened, Maylie?” she worried, her gentle hands wiping blood from my hair as well as my skin.

            “I got tossed out the window,” I answered, my voice coming out soft and hoarse. “Fell in blood. I’m okay, I promise. Not hurt. What happened to your leg?”

            “I’m okay. Just got hit in the knee. It’ll be a big bruise but nothing is broken.”

            “Are you sure?”

            “I have a low pain tolerance.” she smiled. “I’d know if it was something worse.”

            “How is everyone else?”

            “Em got a big chunk taken out of her arm. Lila got trampled by a few wolves but she’s okay except for some bruising. The younger girls are shaken up.”

            “Understandably. How is Cara?”

            We looked towards our newest girl, clinging to her infant child but bravely talking to younger girls, already able to make them smile and laugh. “I think she’s doing well,” Annette smiled again. I agreed.

            Annette went to get more water for the floor and I joined the cleanup. Blood doesn’t come out of wood easily.

            Bade climbed to the roof, lifting her flute for a haunting dirge. We always honored the dead, even those of the enemy. As her notes floated into the night sky, the bodies of the slain dissipated into dust and disappeared among the stars. My hands gathered splinters as I scrubbed the floor. I’d cleaned it too many times to count. Blood was not uncommon in our small town. If from a girl’s body, the blood was sacred, if it occurred once a month. Then I cleaned with gentleness, respectful of the power it held. Other times it was the result of violence, and I scrubbed with so much anger I hoped flames would spring forth and burn the evil out of the world. Now as I mixed blood with water, hoping to remove the memories, another instrument joined Bade’s horn.

            Voices.

            Slowly, one by one, the house’s inhabitants started singing. Tears stung my eyes at the harmony we had managed to find in the wake of such horrific brutality. Annette pulled my hair back and braided it loosely to keep it from falling into the blood and I could hear her strong, quiet voice singing the words with faint aching. She had seen so much brutality, felt so much pain, yet she was the one tending to the others with untainted gentleness, cleaning and binding scratches.

            Bade’s tempo quickened. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. She was warning us. Something was coming. I looked around to see if anyone else had gotten the same feeling I had. No one seemed particularly suspicious, but before I could even move, we all heard it.

            Marching.

            I ran to the window. Torches and masks were marching up the road toward our sanctuary. Several of the younger girls started crying. Annette and Xandra rushed to hush them gently. Bade’s song dissipated. I motioned for everyone to climb to the roof. Starting with the youngest, they began climbing out the window and up the ropes silently, trying to conceal their fear.

            I was weak from the fight.

            They would know this.

            I cursed myself for not realizing the plan sooner. No wonder the wolves had come. Michelle pushed our last piece of cacao into my hand before climbing up the rope after Annette. I slipped it under my tongue and pulled a table to the middle of the floor.

            The masks had almost arrived.