A Mate in Disguise

Possible triggers: death, violence, loss of a parent . . In a sunny forest, on a warm day in late summer, a family decides to go camping.. “Eight..nine..ten! Ready or not, here I come!” The mother’s voice rings out, echoing through the tall trees of the woods. A little girl giggles as she hides behind a large boulder from her mother. She risks a peek to see where her mother is when, “Gotcha!” Her mother grabs her, picking the girl up and twirling her around as she bursts into a fit of giggles. “Again! Again mommy!” The mother laughs along with her daughter, tucking her unruly brown hair behind her ears. “How about a snack first?” The mother asks. The little girl thinks carefully about this proposition when an idea lights up her face “Can we have marshpillows?” The mother chuckles at her baby’s pronunciation of ‘marshmallows’ “We can my sweet, but we should save some for your Daddy,” the mother coos, before lowering her voice to a conspiratorial tone, “or maybe we should eat them all and save none for Daddy.” The little girl giggles again when suddenly a man bursts through the trees at the two. “Hey! I heard that!” The Father shouts indignantly at his wife and daughter. “You two know how much I love marshmallows.” The Father scoops up his little girl while kissing his wife passionately. “Ewww, gross!” The little girl yells as she gets squished between the two. The couple smiles at their beautiful little girl and they both place big kisses on either cheek. The family walks back to their campsite, swinging their little girl along the way as they come into the clearing where their tents are. The little girl runs toward the edge of their camp, fascinated by a butterfly as it glides from flower to flower. “I’m going to go get some firewood so we can roast those marshmallows,” the Father calls as he walks to his daughter “Can you find us some good sticks Essie? Make sure they are long and straight!” “Okay Daddy!” The little girl says as she runs off to the woods on a mission. The mother starts to dig in their bags to find the snacks they brought when she hears a large stick snap within their camp, “Well that was fast you two,” she says as she turns around and comes face to face with a giant wolf. Its coat is stringy and covered in dirt and mud, its scent has a horrid burnt smell as it snarls at her. The mother gasps at the sight of the rogue wolf and calls out frantically to her husband, “Alec! Ru-,” her warning cut short as the rogue tears into her shoulder, a pained scream leaving her lips as it continues its assault. The father hears his wife’s screams, quickly grabbing his daughter and pushing her into a bush. “Stay here!” He commands as he shifts into a massive black wolf and tears off toward the camp. The little girl cries as the sharp branches scratch at her, quietly crying for her parents as the sounds of a horrible fight are heard in the distance. Finally, the snarling stops and the little girl carefully crawls out of her hiding spot and runs back to the campsite. Rubbing the tears from her eyes, the little girl trips and goes flying forward , scraping her hands and knees on the sharp stones. She lets out a sob as she turns to see what tripped her, screaming when she sees it is the body of the rogue wolf, still bleeding as life leaves its eyes. Scrambling to get up, she runs towards her father who is hunched over a body, sobbing. “Daddy?” The little girl cries as she sees her mother, covered in blood, her eyes staring emptily towards the sky. “Mommy!” The father grabs his little girl and pulls her face into his chest, trying to shield her from the gruesome scene, his own sobs echoing through the forest.