31 Days of Halloween #8

The Goosemother Scroll Episode 4Text below for those who'd like to read along.

There were only seconds to make a decision, but three decisions were made, and only one was wise.

Pyg looked behind her and saw a brick stove in the corner. “This way!” she mouthed to her brothers and ran to it, climbing up inside the chimney just far enough to stay out of sight.

Strongheart followed her until he spied some forgotten kindling off to the side. He grabbed a stick from it and broke it over his knee, making a crude spear. Then he crouched in the shadow of the stove and waited.

Meekfoot panicked. He spun this way and that way until he found a pile of straw much closer to himself than the stove and dove underneath it just as the creatures from the attic arrived.

What are they doing? Pyg wondered of her brothers, but she was afraid to look lest she attract attention, and the creatures were much too close. She could hear them. There were so many! The floorboards creaked from their weight, and they had claws that tapped upon the wood as they moved. They panted like dogs, and she could hear the wet sound of tongues as they licked their chops. Wolves. They had to be!

“My, oh, my!” said one of them. His voice was rough and deep. “I am so very hungry. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had ourselves some fat little piggies right about now?”

The others laughed in their snarling way.

“Yes, indeed!” the first continued. “And wouldn’t it be even lovelier if there were a plump little piggy just waiting for us...”

He moved past the stove.

“Right...”

He was at the straw pile.

“HERE!”

Pyg heard Meekfoot squeal in terror as he was dragged out from his hiding place. Then there was a horrible sound like a snapping of twigs, and Meek squealed no more. Pyg wanted to cry, but she couldn’t even breathe. At times she thought she’d lose her grip and fall right out of the chimney.

“This one’s for you boys,” said the first wolf. “I believe I spotted at least two more with him. Find them. Why, I’m so hungry I could eat an entire family of fat little piggies!”

“Yes, sir, Captain, sir,” said one of the other wolves. Pyg could hear their noses working at the air, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before they found her out.

But Strongheart had other plans. He jumped out from his hiding place, brandishing his pathetic spear.

“Think you can gobble me up? You’ve got another thing coming!” he threatened to much laughter. He fought bravely for being so defenseless, but his bravery merely delayed his inevitable and gruesome end.

Pyg felt the world spin around her. She could barely hear a sound beyond her heart pounding in her ears, but she thought she heard one of the wolves say, “There’s too much blood, sir. We shouldn’t stay in this place.”

“Yes, I think you’re right,” agreed the one they called Captain. “Boys! Time to move out!”

There was snarling and howling and other frightful noises, and then those sounds grew further away until there was nothing. Not a whisper. Not even the gossip of crickets.