The Wolf Days

I ran scared, hearing the deadly screams behind me. My white pelt dancing in the wind as I ran. I could hear the footsteps getting farther and farther away with each step I took. Home seemed like days away. My paws were sore and I could have sworn they were bleeding, but when I looked down, they weren't. I looked up to see the moon peeking through the holes in the tree branches above me. It was a beautiful full moon outside. I jumped over a fallen tree but landed wrong and my paw got caught in a pile of broken branches. I yelped but got back on my paws to continue. My paw felt broken but I couldn't let that stop me, so I pushed on, but slower than before. The woods seemed endless until I hit the end of the trees on a dirt road. I looked both ways, trying to figure out which way to take, and decided to turn left to follow the road. I figured it had to lead me to somewhere safe at least. I trotted down the road for a few minutes when I saw him. The man who I was running from somehow caught up to me. We locked eyes. He appeared to be just as scared as I was. He had a gun on him and lifted it up to point it at me. I was too terrified to move so I just stood there frozen. A man further behind him yelled for the first man to take the shot. I heard a bang, then everything went black. I shot up from my bed screaming and crying. My midnight black, midback length hair was a mess and my teal-colored eyes red from tears. Kody, a girl who slept in the room next to mine, came running in faster than anyone else could have. Her bleach blonde hair with a blue streak in it was a mess, probably from sleeping, while her baby blue eyes looked exhausted. I felt so bad for waking her up. This isn't the first time and probably won't be the last time I wake her up from her slumber. "Emmah, you seriously need to seek help. This is getting ridiculous. How is anyone supposed to get any sleep?" She sat next to me on my bed and pulled me into a caring hug. We were wearing matching PJ's thanks to the orphanage we lived in. Kody was considered one of the "mean girls" but in all reality, she was like the mom to all of us kids. "What was it about this time? Foster mom said no boyfriends? No soap for your hair? Oh! No pizza for pizza night?" She tried to turn the nightmares into a joke because she knew how much they bothered me. "I was a wolf again, running away from hunters. They shot and killed me." I replied in a shaky voice. I looked down sadly. This was the fourth wolf dream I've had this month. It started a week ago when I turned 14. Kody was the only one I felt safe telling my dreams to. She was the only one I felt I could trust and I knew she wouldn't go tell everyone. I was worried all the other kids would see me as different from them. Once you're seen as different, you were treated like you had a plague or something. "Maybe it's a sign or something." Kody looked around as if to check if anyone was around or listening in. "Did you hear the story of Elysah?" I shook my head, confused. "Well, when I first arrived here, there was a girl named Elysah. She was as normal as they came. On her 14th birthday, everything about her changed. She also had nightmares that would wake her up screaming. She refused to tell anyone about the nightmares. I think she was afraid of being seen as different. She slowly started to pull away from everyone as the days went by." Kody looked down at the floor. She looked as if she was about to cry, remembering Elysah. "What happened to her? Why isn't she still here?" I asked curiously. "No one knows. After a month of the nightmares and after everyone just left her alone for being different, she disappeared, never to be seen again. We all went to bed and she was sleeping in her room. The next morning, she was gone. No one really questioned it." I could see tears forming in her eyes as she spoke. "Do you have any theories?" I asked, leaning into her in an attempt to comfort her. She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. It's in the past. My point is, dreams sometimes have a message. I think for her it was to leave. Maybe you should figure out what the message is for you." "I'm confused. Why did you tell me this? Do you think maybe our dreams are the same? Maybe she also had wolf dreams where hunters were after her?" She shrugged again and then got up to leave me to my thoughts. "I told you so you know you aren't alone. Others have dealt with the same. Whether or not they are the same, we will never know. If they are the same and you feel you have to run away and escape whatever is coming, please come to me. I may be a jerk and act like I don't care, but honestly, I care more about everyone than I may lead on. I will do my best to help any way I can." With that, she tucked me in like I was her child, kissed me on my forehead, and left. I couldn't sleep after that. My mind refused to turn off. Why did Elysah run? Were our dreams the same? Did she also have dreams of hunters after her? Or maybe Kody made her up in hopes of making me feel less crazy? If they did mean I needed to leave, why would I? I'd been there for a few months now and finally felt safe and wanted. I didn't want to leave. I came from a bad family. They were abusive drug addicts. They would leave me home alone for days at a time with no food or way to get around. I would have to walk to school wearing the same dirty clothes for days, sometimes weeks. When they were home, they were drugged up and fighting. A lot of times, I was put in the middle of their fights and would get hit. I was only 10 when they died from a bad batch of coke. I was taken into custody and put into the system. Ever since, I have been bounced around different orphanages. The first one was shot up. Some crazy person decided an orphanage was the best place to test out an assault riffle. Luckily, there was a huge basement that everyone fit in, so no one was harmed. I had to leave though, because the home wasn't in a safe living condition. The second one, someone started a fight with me after learning about my parents. I bit them in self defense and they called me a rabid dog, so I bit harder. I ended up drawing blood, so they listed me as a threat to the other children. The third one was closed after there was an inspection and the home was condemned. This was my fourth. There probably could have been others but I doubt they wanted me, seeing as chaos seemed to follow me. This one took in all the girls other orphanages refused to take in. We, the children, practically run the place. We were responsible for everything such as washing our own clothes, cooking, which we always took turns doing, and washing our own dishes. Whoever cooked, had to wash everything they used to cook with. The head master was basically like our supervisor, making sure we kept up with our chores and had everything we needed. We were almost a family here, almost. If you were classified as different, you were shunned by everyone until you learned to be normal again like everyone else. In the morning, I got up early. It was my turn to make breakfast. I walked into the kitchen and was greeted by a half asleep Kody. "Ah man. First you wake me up in the middle of the night again and now we have to cook together? You look wide awake! This isn't fair at all!" She gave me a joking smile as she pulled out some pans we were going to use. I gave her a sarcastic laugh in return. She started on making the pancake batter as I cracked eggs for scrambled eggs, the only thing I knew how to make without screwing them up. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked over, I jumped. Standing before me was the wolf in my dream. I only knew it was her because of seeing the color of my paws and legs in the dream. She was merely just a pup, pelt white as snow with a gray streak running from the top of her head between her ears down to the tip of her tail. I looked over to Kody to see if she also saw her, but instead was met with a concerned look on her face. "You okay?" She asked worriedly. I looked back at where the wolf was, but she wasn't there anymore. "Yeah, sorry. I guess I must be more tired than I appeared. My bad. Let's get this breakfast going." I gave her a forced smile to ease her worry, but it didn't work. I tried to push back what I saw into the back of my mind. No way I actually saw that, right? Just lack of sleep getting to me. The rest of cooking breakfast went as it should have, smoothly, minus the worried look I kept receiving from Kody. We made small talk about life and what we wanted to do when we got old enough to leave, something everyone here was known to talk about. Breakfast was served and everyone ate. We all joked about my inability to cook and if it wasn't for Kody, we would all just be eating eggs. I swore to them one of these days I would learn how to cook more. After breakfast, I went to wash all the dishes. I told Kody I would wash all the pans so she could go do other things. She thanked me and ran off. I was happy she didn't question it since I just wanted some alone time to think about what it was I saw. It had to just be my imagination after all, or so I thought. Maybe it wasn't actually the wolf in my dream. I was seeing a first person's view after all, so it could have been just my mind playing tricks on me. I felt tired but was too scared to go to sleep. What if it happened again and others who were cleaning heard and went in to check on me? I didn't want to give them any questions about my normality. The rest of my day consisted of my normal chores; washing my clothes for the week, cleaning my room, and my part of cleaning the house. Luckily for me, I didn't see her again. Running fast again through the woods, I could smell the pine trees all around me. I could hear the leaves crunching under my paws. Nothing seemed like it was chasing me this time. It was a fun run for once. The moon was high in the sky and shining through the trees. The wind was flowing around me, making me feel calm. I approached a house in the middle of the woods cautiously. I could hear people inside. I crouched down low as I came to the window to peer inside. Two men were inside arguing about something I couldn't hear. One picked up a riffle and was headed for the door. In a panic, I got closer to the house and hid behind some bushes that were behind the house. I heard the other man follow behind through the door. I could hear them talking about finding their prey and hoping it was fast. Something else about how there were too many monsters out in the world that needed to be put down. I waited until they were further away before I made my escape in the opposite direction. I did my best to be unseen and unheard, but I failed that quest. Moments later, I heard their footsteps rushing to catch up to me. I knew I was in danger. I needed to find the road, wherever that was. The leaves and branches broke and echoes from behind me as they ran. I knew I could easily outrun them as long as I didn't stop. It felt like hours, though there were only mere minutes when I saw the dirt road again. Just when I was about to hit the road, something caught my paw. I yelped out in pain as I looked down to find my paw was in a bear trap. I checked behind me and, sure enough, they had caught up with me. The riffle was pointed at me as the man holding it screamed "Die you monster!" before pulling the trigger. I shot up from my bed screaming, but this time I covered my mouth in hopes to muffle my screams. My face was wet from tears and sweat. Luckily, this time Kody didn't come running in. I laid back down and stared at the ceiling, trying to understand what the dreams meant.