Fox Ball

This vision began much the same as the last. A flurry of images and sounds flying around me with no rhyme or reason. The sound of metal against metal, screams echoing in the darkness that surrounded me, and the whisper, “Olivia…help me…”. I saw Peter talking with his minions, talking to my brother and the sight of Tyler spitting in Peter’s face, an eerie smile and a dangerous glint in the dark fox’s eyes.

It almost began to be too much until the swirling images and thundering sounds came to a stop all at once. The silence was more deafening than anything.

I found myself in the clearing of the Forbidden Forest once more, alone. I searched around me and found absolutely nothing, no house, no bonfire, no chairs, nobody. This time, I was able to move, my feet, while heavy, crunched through the frozen grass. I hadn’t noticed how cold it was in the clearing until that moment, the breeze chilling me to the bone. I shivered, in part from the chill of the air and in part from the fear settling like a stone in my belly.

Something was beckoning me to the woods surrounding me, something that I couldn’t hear or sense in any way. I started making my way through the clearing, entering the tree line within the minute. It felt as though a rope was tied to me, pulling me through the shrubbery against my will. I stepped over a fallen branch, landing on a twig with a loud snap. I gasped at the sudden sound, heart racing in my chest. I attempted to take a couple deep breaths to calm it down, but it only kept hammering. I could feel it through every part of my body, pounding in my head, rushing through my ears, causing my hands to shake and my feet to stutter in their movement.

I don’t know how long I walked through the darkening woods without a sound. I didn’t dare break the silence. “Olivia…help me…” the whisper sounded from directly behind me. I spun on my heels, power resonating through my chest and into my hands, ready to defend against the enemy. But there was nothing there, just more trees, their branches twisting and swaying in the wind. I took a deep breath and continued moving forward.

A few minutes, though it felt like hours, later, I heard another sound coming from my right. “Little one.” Peter’s voice repeated the phrase, sounding like nails on a chalkboard, causing me to cover my ears from the onslaught. It filled my mind, echoing through it as I squeezed my eyes shut.

Suddenly, his voice stuttered out, allowing me to redirect my attention to the front just as a low, threatening growl resonated from directly in front of me. I saw glowing green eyes, unblinking, staring straight at me. It was only a few feet off the ground, coming to about chest level, but all I could feel was unencumbered fear. I couldn’t see what the eyes were attached to, just that it was only a few feet in front of me. The trees shrouded the body of the creature as it stayed unmoving, unnerving me to my soul.

I needed to escape. I needed to run, but my feet were planted to the ground. I continued staring into the eyes of the beast. I couldn’t blink, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move. The only thing I could do was watch as the creature began moving toward me in slow and steady movements, its eyes never once leaving my own. I still couldn’t see the body of the creature, but I knew it was nothing that I have ever encountered before.

Finally, when it was right in front of me, definitely within striking distance, I was able to see the outline of it’s body. It was slender, covered in black fur with a thick, poofy tail swishing from side to side. It’s ears were large and pointed, snout puckered in a snarl. It was a fox; the biggest fox I had ever seen in my life. “Olivia…,” the whisper echoed through my mind, “run…”.

I tried moving my lead-like legs and I found that I was finally able to move. I took a couple steps back, trying to gain some distance with the fox, but it wouldn’t let me. Every step I took was mimicked by the beast. After a couple moments of this song and dance, I whipped around and started running back towards where I remembered the clearing being. My steps crunched beneath me as the leaves started freezing over on the ground, twigs slashing and whipping against my clothes and the exposed flesh on my face, opening the skin to release a small bead of blood. The pain only made me run faster. The scent of metal flew through the air, almost making me gag. I could hear the creature behind me, not quite gaining on me, but I was definitely not losing it either. It was almost like it was chasing me towards something, making sure I went the right way, corralling me into a trap.

After what felt like years of running, I finally made it back to the clearing. I broke through the trees, the wind suddenly whipping me in the face. The trees creaked with the pressure from it, swaying violently in the sky. The frozen grass rustling and crackling, being uprooted by the wind and swirling in the air around me. I kept running until I was in the center of the clearing.

I whipped around on the heel of my shoe and faced the being. It must have been crouched when I had first seen it because now that I was truly facing it, it rose above me by a couple feet. I couldn’t help the shudder of fear that shimmied down my spine. I shivered, not from the cold, but from the desperate desire to keep running. I knew I needed to escape this beast, but I also knew it would not stop following me, it wouldn’t stop chasing me until it got what it wanted. What that was, I had no idea.

I stood with my feet planted in the grass, my hands opened and closing at my sides as I let power rush through me. It warmed my inner being from the inside out, like a fire consuming my soul. My fingertips crackled with the power, waiting to be unleashed in an attempt to protect me from the thing trying to kill me.

It just stood there, a few feet away, staring into my eyes like it was looking for something. For what, I couldn’t say. The standoff lasted several minutes, neither of us moving for fear of what the other would do. I heard some rustling coming from where we had emerged, the steady sound of feet hitting the ground. It sounded like more than one being, but I couldn’t pinpoint how many people were coming towards us. I just hoped I would be able to withstand the onslaught.

What I didn’t expect to see was Rose, Guide, and Talia emerging from the tree line, large smiles on their faces. They worked their way toward me, seemingly unafraid of the giant beast emitting a constant growl in the back of its throat. They didn’t even look at the creature, their eyes never straying from my face. My gaze flittered between my companions and the fox, urgently trying to convey that they needed to run. They either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Once they had reached me, a couple feet from the fox that had started growling louder at their approach, their smiles faltered. “What’s wrong Livvy?” Talia asked, looking around the clearing for any sign of danger, her gaze completely ignoring the large beast. “Where’s the fire?”

I tried to speak, tried to tell her that it was right beside her, that they needed to run, get away from this thing before it took their lives. My tongue was glued to my teeth. I couldn’t speak; I couldn’t even make a sound.

The smiles returned, though there was a slight difference in them. They were sharper, showing more teeth than is natural, with a dangerous glint to them. I took a step back, away from my companions, away from the individuals I considered my family.

I didn’t understand what was going on. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Suddenly, the fox turned it’s gaze away from me and towards my family, an evil grin taking over it’s muzzle.

In a split second, it had moved from it’s position directly in front of me and had lunged at my companions, a sharp growl splitting through the air. It took Guide down first. He didn’t even fight against the weight of the fox, maintaining the smile that spoke all kinds of wrong. The beast leaned down, wrapping it’s huge jaw around Guide’s head and snapping it closed. Within a moment, Guide simply disappeared. I took a step forward, towards the carnage that was about to occur, but there was nothing I could do. The power that was zipping through me calmed without my permission, settling like a weight in the soles of my feet. The one step was all I could manage for when I tried to take another, my feet were too heavy to move. I could just stand there, watching as the fox moved from where Guide’s body had been and locking eyes with me.

It grinned a sinister smile before reverting its gaze back on my remaining family. It lunged toward Talia. I expected her to fight, but just as Guide had done, she just laid there, the same smile on her face as she gazed toward me. She met the same fate as my previous companion and disappeared from the clearing in a puff of smoke. I whimpered at the sight, tears starting to blur my vision.

With one remaining, the fox hunched down, something akin to a laugh coming from deep within it’s chest as it prowled toward Rose. I tried to reach out my hand, to do something to keep her from meeting the same fate, but no matter how hard I tried, my body wouldn’t move. I couldn’t even move my eyes, couldn’t blink, forced to watch as the fox took down my love. This time was different. Not different in the way that she fought against the weight of the beast, but rather she lifted her arm and began petting the creature on the side, a whisper coming from her lips that I couldn’t quite make out. She only said a couple words before she too met the same fate as the rest of my family.

The fox turned back toward me, the grin stuck in place as it winked and moved toward the trees once more, leaving me alone in the clearing, alone in life, alone to face whatever Peter had planned next.