Dragon of a Broken World

Chapter 7

The rumors of something monstrous lurking in the woods had been going around for ages. They were the town's background noise, the old wives' tales used to scare children away from the dense, unlit perimeter of the ancient forest. It had always felt like campfire stories, the kind you’d dismiss with a laugh, until this morning.

On my way to school, the sheer number of police patrol cars swarming the area was impossible to ignore. They weren't just parked; they were clustered at the edge of the woods, their blue and red lights painting the early morning mist in urgent colors. Yellow caution tape, fresh, bright, and offensively official, slashed across the winding access road. A heavy, armored, official presence had descended, making the absurd suddenly feel chillingly, irrevocably real.

I leaned forward in the plush leather seat of the car, my nose nearly touching the glass. The air felt heavy, not just with morning chill, but with the specific, metallic scent of crisis.

“Hey, what’s with all the cops today?” I asked my driver with my curiosity overriding my usual sullen morning quiet.

He glanced up into the rearview mirror. “Oh, you didn’t hear, ma’am?”

“Hear what?”a knot of cold anxiety tightening in my stomach.

“There was an animal attack in the woods last night,” he said, his voice dropping slightly.

Last night? The memory was immediate and visceral a distant, bloodcurdling scream in my mind. “Wait, an animal attack?

“Yes. It attacked two people. They found them near the trailhead just before dawn.”

“Wait, what? Two people? Two?” I felt a sudden, profound nausea.

How? What animal would do that?

“A bear, probably. That’s what the police are saying,” he answered, his tone unsettlingly normal, as if he were discussing the weather.

“A bear? That’s weird,” I murmured to myself.

School was a blur of whispers and anxious phone scrolling. Everyone was talking about the bear attack and the victims. But in class,Diva’s her usual sunny disposition was gone, replaced by a fierce, focused solemnity I’d never seen before. We sat at our corner table, the clamor of the cafeteria washing around us as she pushed her untouched tray away. She leaned in close, her eyes wide, glistening with unshed tears.

“It’s not a bear,” she whispered, her voice barely a breath.

I scoffed weakly. “What? What do you mean? The cops said it was a bear that attacked them. Besides, there are no survivors, so how could you possibly know?”

She stared at me. “What do you mean, no survivor? That’s a lie. There is a survivor.”

“What?”

“I know this is hard to believe, Elizabeth, but my sister, Clara, was attacked yesterday in the woods.”

“Wait, what? Diva, are you sure?”

“She’s alive. Barely. I visited her at the hospital. When no one else was around, she swore to me it wasn't a bear that attacked her.”

“Then what was it?”

“She blacked out and can’t remember everything, but she is certain. She was terrified. I think the police are covering something up. They’re hiding the truth.”

“This is crazy, Diva, and if this is true, it’s serious.” I met her gaze, seeing the desperate resolve in her eyes. “What are you going to do?”

“We could tell the police,” I suggested.

“They won’t believe me. They’re the ones covering it up in the first place.” Her voice was tight with frustration. “I need your help, Elizabeth.”

“Me? Okay, what are we going to do...” I trailed off, realizing her crazy intention.

“No. No…” I shook my head frantically, pushing back from the table. “Diva, you’re not planning on going into the woods, are you?”

She simply nodded, her jaw set.

“What? Diva, are you crazy? That place is a death trap! No! It’s too dangerous!” I whispered fiercely.

“That’s the only way I can find out the truth,” she countered. “If I don’t find out what this thing is, who knows who it will attack next? And this is not the first case, you know that.”

“But all those were just rumors that have been going around for a long time!”

“No, they are not!”

Then, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “So, are you in on this dangerous mission with me?”

I knew it was insane. Every rational thought screamed no. But I couldn't leave her to face this shadow alone. I nodded, a tiny, reluctant movement that committed me to a midnight mission into the woods, which was insane, by the way.

We agreed not to tell anyone. Our first stop was the local hardware store where we amassed a ridiculous collection of makeshift weapons and tools: plastic toy pistols for distraction, a can of industrial-strength pepper spray, a heavy-duty hammer Diva dubbed 'Thor’s Justice,' and a package of cheap, noisy fireworks.

Under the cold, oppressive cloak of night, around eleven o’clock, we slipped under the police tape and entered the woods,the moment the trees closed in, the world changed. The woods were terrifying: cold, dark, and filled with the creaks and whispers of unseen things. Every snap of a twig sounded like a gunshot; the air was thick with the smell of pine, damp moss, and a faint, unsettling metallic tang.

We held our cheap flashlights low, pushing through the thick undergrowth. Our search was agonizingly slow, our nerves frayed by phantom shapes and noises. After what felt like an endless hour, I stumbled on something.

My right foot landed on something I hadn’t noticed. It was hard, round, and slightly yielding. I shone my flashlight down. What I saw made me gasp,it was a skull. It was resting disturbingly on the mossy earth, staring up with empty sockets.

I screamed, a primal sound of absolute terror that ripped through the quiet. Diva instantly clamped her hand over my mouth. “Shhh!”

I dragged her attention to the gruesome sight. “My God,” she breathed, her face pale.

“I can’t do this anymore. We have to leave,” I stammered, already turning.

We scrambled to flee, but a detail, tiny yet compelling, caught my eye. Right next to where the skull rested, in the soft, loamy earth, was a clear footprint. Adrenaline, no longer still, became a cold, driving force. I knelt down instinctively. The print was large and strange, not round like a bear’s paw, nor elongated like a human boot. It was deeply impressed, with a heavy, uneven heel and what looked like five distinct, almost clawed toes. It looked wrong.

We were compelled to follow it. We tracked the bizarre print deeper and deeper into the woods, until it abruptly stopped at an old, heavy basement door; a square of pitted, rotting wood and rusted iron, set almost flush into a slight embankment of earth.

“I’ve seen this before,” Diva whispered, her voice trembling.

“Really? Where?”

“In an old newspaper, I guess.

“I think we should stop. This is too much,” she admitted, shaking with cold and fear.

I stared at the door. We were here for answers. “We’re here for answers, right?” With a heart pounding against my ribs, I reached out and pushed the heavy door open. It groaned in protest.

“Wait, what? Are you actually crazy?” she hissed, but followed me inside anyway.

The basement was a horror movie cliché: dark, dusty, and filled with a thick, musty air. But as we moved further in, we realized the basement was merely a shallow, camouflaged passage. It opened up into something completely unbelievable; a vast, enclosed garden field. The moon cast the scene in a spectral, silver light.

“Oh my... What?” Diva, surprised while

staring at the large, shadowy mansion.

Wait, I know that mansion. My eyes widened in the realization of knowing whose mansion it was.

“The Wilsons?”

“The basement leads to a mansion? Not just an ordinary mansion, but it’s the Wilsons’,” I whispered back, the implications of linking the terrifying animal attacks to the town's most powerful and reclusive family making my blood run cold.

“Did you hear that?” I whispered. We paused, straining to catch any sound beyond our own breathing. Moments later, it sharpened into the unmistakable ring of raised voices. They were close.

This new sound forced us into motion. We adopted a slow, creeping gait, hugging the shadows of the deteriorating foundation as we edged toward the mansion’s rear perimeter. Every step was tentative.

“They’re arguing,” Diva breathed beside me.

“You don’t love her! No one is going to love you like I do!” A woman’s high-pitched shriek cut through the air, and a chilling sense of familiarity washed over me.

We reached a jagged, crumbling corner of the wall. I flattened my body against the cold stone, then cautiously extended my head just enough to allow one eye to peer around the obstruction.

There, bathed in the sickly yellow glow of a single security lamp, I saw my own sister, Lina, locked in a vicious confrontation with Edgar Wilson. Her next sentence detonated my reality:

“I want Elizabeth out of my life forever!”

My eyes stretched wide in a silent, internal scream. The shock was so profound, it stole the air from my lungs. My own sister wanted me gone?

“You need to calm down, Lina,” Edgar said dismissively. “I might actually like your sister.”

“That’s a lie, and we both know it! What are you planning, Edgar? Tell me,” Lina insisted, desperately trying to wrap her arms around his neck. He deliberately, slowly, pulled her hands away. “I love you, Edgar, I really do. Elizabeth doesn't care a damn about you.”

A slight scuff; Diva had misstepped, the sound barely audible, but it was enough. Edgar’s gaze instantly snapped to the shadows where we stood. His eyes, dark and sharp, pierced the gloom. Diva was wildly gesticulating for me to run, but the shock of my sister’s betrayal had rooted me to the spot. I was useless. She had to physically wrench me from staring, dragging my stunned body back toward the dark refuge of the woods.

As we scrambled back toward the cellar entrance, the last coherent thought that fired through my brain was a chilling one.

Lina and Edgar were involved in something monstrous, and my own sister had just expressed a desire for my permanent disappearance. The hunt for a monster had turned into a terrifying, personal fight for survival against my own family.

When we stumbled out of the basement and into the clearing, we were no longer the hunters. We had walked straight into a new, far greater danger. Standing before us, their eyes glowing yellow in the darkness, were a pack of werewolves. Diva and I were horrified, silent and motionless, as the hungry pack stared at us, their next meal delivered right to their door.