Walking into the wolf’s territory
949 Words
The night swallowed her as she fled down the sidewalk, tears blurring every flicker of light.
The snow that once seemed gentle and magical now stung her cheeks like shards of glass, carried by a wind that only grew harsher with every step.
Aisha didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t care.
All she knew was that she couldn’t breathe—not with the image of Daniel and that woman burned into her eyelids, not with his cruel words echoing in her skull.
Not enough.
Pathetic.
Needy.
Her boots crunched through fresh snow, her breath turning to white mist, trembling and uneven. She kept walking until the city lights faded behind her.
Streets turned into empty paths, sidewalks into winding trails. She didn’t even notice when the last house vanished from sight.
Her sobs broke into the quiet night, lonely and small in the vast wilderness of the snow-covered outskirts.
Eventually, she realized she had wandered far past the town—too far.
Ahead, the land sloped toward the forest that stretched at the edge of the valley, a dark, ancient mass of pines that locals rarely ventured into.
Some said it was beautiful.
Others whispered it was cursed.
Aisha didn’t remember deciding to walk toward it.
Her feet simply led her, searching for silence, for somewhere her shattered heart could fall apart without witnesses.
By the time she reached the first line of trees, snow had begun to fall harder. Thick flakes coated her hair, her clothes, her eyelashes.
The cold bit through her coat, but she didn’t stop. She stepped into the forest.
The world changed instantly.
Sound dampened, wrapped in the heavy hush of snowfall. Trees loomed like towering silhouettes, the only light coming from the faint silver glow of the moon pushing through the storm clouds. Her boots sank deeper with each step. Her fingers went numb inside her gloves.
Still, she walked.
Still, she cried.
The blizzard rolled in without warning.
Wind roared through the forest, whipping snow in furious spirals. Branches groaned and cracked overhead.
She squinted, barely able to see more than a foot in front of her. Her heart lurched—she could no longer tell which direction she’d come from.
She spun around, disoriented.
Left looked like right.
Forward looked like backward.
Everything was white, swirling, blinding.
“Hello?” she called out, though the wind snatched her voice away. “Is—anyone out here?”
Only the storm answered.
Panic clawed up her throat. She tried retracing her steps, but they were already buried beneath the fresh snow. Her legs trembled, exhaustion setting in.
She couldn’t stop thinking of the apartment she had left behind—warm, safe, lit by Christmas lights she had planned to string across the window.
Now she was alone in a freezing forest, her heartbreak clinging to her like a second skin.
A branch snapped.
Aisha froze.
Slowly—very slowly—she turned her head.
Between the trees, something moved.
At first, she thought the storm was playing tricks on her eyes. But then she saw them:
Two glowing eyes.
Luminous, unblinking, watching her from the shadows.
Her breath caught. “H-hello?”
The eyes didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Didn’t vanish.
They simply watched her.
Aisha took one shaky step back, snow crunching beneath her heel. The eyes followed the motion, tracking her silently.
A chill ran up her spine—not just from the cold, but from the eerie awareness that whatever was hidden there could see her perfectly… even in the blizzard.
“Please,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure if she was speaking to the storm, fate, or the unseen creature. “I… I don’t want any more trouble.”
As if responding, the eyes stepped forward.
And through the snow, a massive shape emerged.
A wolf.
But not like any wolf she had ever seen in books or documentaries. This one stood nearly shoulder-height to her, its fur so black it seemed to absorb the moonlight rather than reflect it.
Snow clung to its thick coat, melting as it touched the heat radiating from its powerful frame. Its paws were enormous, its stance regal and still.
But it was the eyes—those glowing, molten-gold eyes—that held her frozen in place.
The wolf didn’t growl.
Didn’t bare its teeth.
Didn’t advance further.
It simply stood there, watching her with a strange intensity.
Not hostile.
Not friendly.
Something else entirely—like a guardian evaluating a lost, trembling creature who had stumbled into its domain.
Aisha couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift her arm to wipe the tears freezing on her cheeks.
The storm howled around them, but in the small bubble of space between her and the wolf, everything felt eerily quiet.
She didn’t know how long they stared at each other—seconds, minutes, hours. Time blurred with fear and exhaustion.
Then, just as silently as it had appeared, the wolf lifted its head slightly, ears twitching at a distant sound only it could hear.
And in a single, fluid motion, it turned and disappeared into the forest.
Vanished as if swallowed by the falling snow.
Aisha stood alone again, chest heaving, unsure whether she should feel relieved… or even more terrified.
The storm raged on, and she realized she was shaking uncontrollably—not just from fear anymore, but from cold sinking dangerously deep into her bones.
The wolf was gone.
But she could still feel it watching.
Somewhere.
Somehow.
And though she didn’t know it yet, she had stepped into territory where no human wandered alone.
Not without being seen.
Not without consequences.
Not without waking something ancient in the dark.
- Writer
