Caught By Fangs

It was a dark and chilly night in Sannaville, and Maris was asleep, enjoying the cold breeze that caressed her skin from her wide-open windows.

As if summoned by some unknown forces, her eyes snapped open, and she sat up like a dead man with red, wavy hair falling down her back. Without blinking, she kicked off her blue Hermès duvet and got to her feet.

There was a disembodied sound, like chimes and many women singing 'ah' in one key. It called her and her feet moved of their own accord as if she had no control over them. Actually, she didn't because she was still half-asleep.

"Into the forest…into the forest," soprano voices whispered in her head and she followed them to her window.

Maris tried to move, but the window was in her way. She climbed up the window and the breeze blew her hair in different directions.

She jumped down barefoot but couldn't feel anything because she was hypnotized by the voices in her head.

"Forest…forest, child…" the many voices chanted in her head, bewitching her even more.

She walked straight without moving a muscle in her face and was lost in the evergreen forest full of tall, scary trees. Birds flew from one tree to another, and the place was only illuminated by the ever-shining full moon.

Maris walked deeper into the forest in her Hello Kitty blue pajamas, numb to the sticks she was trampling.

"To the left, our child," a voice uttered, but the other voices argued with her loud and angry.

"Not left, that'll be too long," a calm and quiet voice objected, "Right, child."

Maris took a step to the right but was confused once again by the voices having an argument in her head.

"Fine!" a different voice yelled, a voice that sounded like a whistle. "She can go right."

Maris went right and stopped again when she had to wait for the voices to say left or right.

"Right," they sang in one tone.

Just as Maris was about to go right, the smoke from a burning bush rode the air into her nose. She coughed and was suddenly distracted. With her nose held high, she followed the smoke of the bush that was ablaze.

"No, you dumb child!" the voices chanted angrily. "Go right!"

Maris' subconscious state, or should I say hypnotized state, didn't heed the warnings. She went deeper into the forest, following the flames and the howling of wolves.

The owls hooted and turned their heads three-hundred-sixty degrees as she walked past them. Their eyes opened and closed weirdly with more hooting.

"It's your fault. If you hadn't told the child to go right, she wouldn't have smelled the smoke," a voice argued.

They continued with their argument, insulting each other until they agreed to let fate take its course.

Instantly, Maris' leg got stuck in a hole and she wiggled like a zombie, trying to free herself from the clutches of the hole, but it was an epic fail. The hole widened and sucked her in.

She rolled down the hole and banged her head on a tree. Pain spider-webbed across her entire head and shot down her ears.

"Ouch!" she winced, nursing her bruised head.

Maris peeled her eyes open and beheld a strange dark forest with unusually tall trees. She blinked owlishly and slapped her cheeks numerous times.

"Wake up, Maris." She slapped herself harder and it stung.

The moment she realized it was real, her heart skipped a beat and beads of sweat formed on her forehead, but they were instantly dried by the harsh wind that huffed and puffed at her. Dust made its way into her eyes.

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her palm and blinked rapidly before getting to her feet. There was a flickering light that she followed to a blazing bush.

Her eyes widened and her jaw slackened when she saw the disturbing images of naked men. Quickly, she hid behind a tree and felt pain in her foot from whatever she had trampled on earlier.

Peeking from behind the tree, the men stood in a circle and chanted. There was something in the middle of their circle, but it was very hard to see. Was that a human on the floor?

Abruptly, a black hole opened and a very handsome man with a chiseled jaw jumped out of the hole. His chest was broad, and his stomach was adorned with abs. His lips were full and pink, and she resisted the urge to look below his waist.

"Ilam, illam, we use thee as the entity!" They all raised their hands to the sky.

Instantly, something evaporated from the ground, smoking, and forming a small cloud just a meter above their heads.

"Sweet," Maris muttered, pulling out her phone and tapping on the camera icon. She tapped on the middle button, trying to be quiet, but the loud sound and flashlight of her phone made her presence known to the men.

"Shit!" she cursed and dug her phone into her pajama pocket.

Their heads snapped in her direction, so she hid behind the tree.

"Who was that?" the man who jumped out of the hole asked with a harsh voice and tight, but raspy and drip worthy. "Isn't this supposed to be a sacred place?"

"Who dares to enter the sacred forest of Azelbub?!" another man roared, voice sounding like thunder.

Hastily, Maris turned on her heels and pivoted from behind the tree with her heart threatening to burst out of its rib cage. Her grey eyes widened. Just as she started running, the smoke rushed into her nostrils, and she sneezed.

"I can smell it. It's a woman!" a man thundered. "Get her!"

With ragged breath, Maris ran with a thumping heart as thoughts whirled in her head.

"Wake up if it's a dream," she cried, not knowing where she was going.

Suddenly, something huge and hairy grabbed her and shoved her into a tight space. This time, her heart had already leapt out of her throat.

Just when she was about to scream, a boy with hair as black as ebony clasped his warm hands around her mouth and held an index finger to his mouth.

"Shh," he hushed her, and she nodded, basking in the beauty of his piercing blue eyes.

Maris was in a deep slumber on her average-sized bed as the sun smiled on planet Earth. Her face was covered in sweat and her sheets were rumpled.

She struggled on the bed like she was fighting. Her head moved from left to right, hinting at a bad dream.

Maris stood in the middle of some naked men whose bodies were half human and half wolf. She was confused. Was she still in a nightmare? Hadn't she been saved by some blue-eyed god?

"Stop!" she screamed as two men clutched her wrists and forcefully laid her on a wooden table. "Help me!"

Abruptly, she inhaled a puff of smoke. It filled her lungs and made her cough. She opened her mouth to suck in a deep breath but was stabbed in the gut by an unknown force. She screamed.

That was all she needed to wake up.

Maris sat up, breathing heavily, and scanning the entire room. The moment she realized it was a bad dream, she heaved a sigh of relief and slumped back on the bed with both her eyes shut. She reached up a hand to her forehead and massaged her temples.

Maris pinched the bridge of her nose and made a mental note to change her cotton bedspread to something lighter. She could feel how soaked in sweat her bedspread was beneath her back.

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy beside her pillow lit up and began to ring. It was her secretary. As soon as her eyes caught the caller ID, she groaned before taking the call.

"Morning, Tracy," she answered, feeling a little sore in the jaw.

"Ma'am, you have two clients waiting for you," she announced then reduced the volume of her voice, "One seems to be going bananas."

"I'll be there in a minute."

With that, the call ended, and Maris groaned. She laid on her stomach and screamed into her pillow. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in her head, and she sat up, reaching up a hand to nurse the place.

A frown creased her brows the moment her eyes caught something else—a red bruise on her wrist, as if she had been clutched roughly. She rubbed it and frowned deeper, trying to figure out what could have bruised her wrist.

After much thought and racking her brain, she shrugged the worry off and jumped out of her bed to get ready for work.

She walked past her mirror with a grey towel secured around her chest and instantly reversed to take a gander at her butt.

"Oh." She pushed out her butt and struck a pose for an invisible camera. "They are finally growing." She was referring to her butt cheeks and rushed into the bathroom.

Maris turned off the shower and stepped forward, but she almost slipped. She was lucky enough to have gripped the necklace she hung around the shower head.

"Darn it!" she swore out loud when she still landed on her butt holding a broken necklace.

She got to her feet and rinsed her legs before stretching and walking out of the bathroom, making a mental note to get less slippery slippers. She felt funny in her stomach, like some entity was living in it. Perhaps, her period was on its way.

Maris drove out in her Honda and halted in front of her work building.

Aura, check, her subconscious listed as she raised her head high and bounced in her heels.

Coffee, check.

She grabbed a hot cup of coffee and tapped her fingers on it for a bit, waiting for it to cool off.

"You said I have two clients?" she asked the moment she approached her secretary.

"Yes, ma'am. One already left because he was tired of waiting," the brunette spoke with her eyes glued to the record she was going through. "Oh, he didn't leave a note or—"

"Hold on," Maris cut her short and rushed over to the balcony rail to see who the person walking past the building was.

A line formed above her eyebrows. How did she know someone was walking by her building?

She squinted at his back and tried to make out who he was but didn't have any luck, so she rested her elbows on the rail and stared at her cup of coffee.

Instantly, he stopped, and her heart picked up its pace in anticipation. Would she see the face who had captured her spirit in some type of way or was she just exaggerating?

He spun slowly and their eyes locked. She felt as if he could see through her soul, and she instantly became weak.

What's happening, her subconscious asked when she found it difficult to break eye contact. His nose and lips were covered by a handkerchief, but she recognized the pearls he possessed—his eyes.

They mirrored the blue nail polish she had on. He turned and walked away, and she was released from whatever paralysis she was in.

She heaved a sigh of relief and clutched her chest. She wondered if she was safe.

"Ma'am?" A soft hand gripped her shoulder and she jerked with a small scream. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine." Maris nodded and urged her to continue.

"The other client is waiting."

Maris adjusted her chiffon top and nodded. "Wait, who's that?"

She pointed to where the man had been, but there was no one there.

"Who?" Betty asked and Maris, shocked, pressed her palm to her chest.

"He was right there…" she trailed off, then raised her cup to sip from it. "Ouch!"

The hot coffee had burnt her tongue and lips. There go my taste buds!