Red Night

Episode 3

The cold was still there, but it was no longer as unbearable, and the terrifying, incandescent twilight added to the already alarming and sinister image of this new realm of perdition.

Her pursuer, too, seemed stunned by this transformation or teleportation or whatever it was, so Diria took the opportunity to slip away as quickly and discreetly as she could. But that was without counting her predator who, with his animal killer instinct, pulled himself together and rose in turn to seize her and this time have her.

"Leave me alone! Go away!" Diria howled.

Her cry of anger and despair was immediately answered by a mocking laugh, a rather hoarse laugh echoing throughout the space, and coming neither from her nor from her hunter.

Immediately, an ocean of shadow spread across the scarlet ground and beasts emerged from it, majestic, gigantic wolf-like beasts twice the size of the monster. Their gleaming red eyes stared down at their solitary foe who, at the sight of them, no longer dared to be malicious. He had become the prey. And to his misfortune, he didn't even have the chance to run away or struggle, as the pack of night-coated, ember-eyed wolves pounced on him at terrifying speed and devoured him in no time.

When they'd finished, they licked their lips, turned to Diria, motionless in the middle of the endless desert, and circled around her before smirking, howling and returning to their shadowy realm. But she forgot all about it when, sensing an even more overwhelming and frightening presence behind her, she turned and saw him.

He must unquestionably be the leader of the pack, it was as clear as the water in the cursed hill's blue lake.

He was even taller and more imposing than the others, but with a gaunt, decomposing body - but this time, without the sickening, nauseating smell of the devoured monster.

His light-gray eyes, almost as transparent as glass, deep and unfathomable, rested on her with a fixity that made her shiver from head to toe.

He didn't seem ready to talk. Diria didn't know where her certainty that he could, came from, but there she was, and she began the discussion.

"It was you who laughed, wasn't it?"

The young woman thought he wasn't going to answer, but he did anyway.

"Yes."

His voice was just like his image.

Grave but disembodied, a voice that made her tremble terribly and touched her deep inside.

In fact, everything about him shook her to the core.

A superb animal the likes of which she'd never seen or even hoped to ever see, gigantic, powerful and utterly damaged.

"You could have intervened earlier. I had to cross the threshold of your cursed forest for you to finally decide to take action!"

The sovereign raised an eyebrow before shrugging.

"Indeed I could have. But I didn't want to."

"But I could have died!" cut in Diria, indignant and flabbergasted.

"But you're not! I've decided to wait a little longer!"

"You're telling me! You waited until I crossed the threshold of your cursed forest before agreeing to save my life!"

"Yes!"

Diria opened her mouth wide, attrited.

"How dare you?"

"The one who dares here is you, who you think I had to save you. How do you know I don't want to kill you too? To devour you down to the last crumb."

Diria was still trembling, but this time she raised her head in defiance.

"If you really wanted to do it, you would have done it from the start. By your pack."

"If I really wanted something, I wouldn't let my pack take it. I'd do it myself."

Diria swallowed her saliva.

"And do you desire me?"

For all her phlegm, the young woman guessed that the wolf was surprised by this direct and most daring question.

"It's not even a question."

And he was right. Diria had already noticed men's desire, whether it was her who was the object of it or not, her last boyfriend had desired her after all, desired her to the point of pain, to the point where he thought he had no choice but to turn to Natacha to satisfy it, and as best he could, but without ever really succeeding. She knew it instinctively.

However, even in her wildest dreams, she would never have believed she was the object of such a desire, so powerful that it radiated completely, his glassy eyes shone like a thousand stars, and her body trembled as if under the blow of an emotion too great to be controlled, but above all this warmth radiated by his whole sublime, broken body, which reached her, and enveloped her entirely.

"Would you have saved me if you hadn't wanted me?"

"What does it matter now." he replied in an unsettling whisper, "I did, that's all that matters."

"In other words, the answer is no."

"You have to let go now. Just as I must let you go, since it's dusk, and after that, night."

Diria was again flabbergasted and very curious.

"Why?"

"Because you have to go home now."

"And what happens if I stay? I'm curious to find out. I'd like to stay and see."

"And I'd like to have a virgin, but you can never have everything you want."

"I'm a virgin!" exclaimed Diria helplessly. Then she raised her hand to her mouth as her wolf stared at her with even greater intensity.

A short, electric silence followed these words, which were as disturbing as they were significant.

The wolf finally moved and, like his pack before him, slowly approached her before circling her, gauging her with expert eyes, sniffing her body, his heat rising and almost burning the young woman.

"Hmmm, a virgin, eh, a human virgin." he murmured almost to himself, starting to salivate like a hungry wolf, growling in that icy twilight.

But soon, he finally stopped his circus and turned slightly away.

He irradiated and opened a rectangular door surrounded by interlocking metal and wood.

"Go now."

But Diria vigorously refuted, backing away a few steps, her face tense.

"No!"

Again, the wolf was surprised.

"Why?"

"Because nothing will protect me once I'm through this portal or whatever it is. I'll find myself alone again and fall prey to monsters like the one your pack just devoured, or even something worse."

The sovereign wolf rolled his eyes before retorting.

"Nothing will happen to you. In this kingdom, there's nothing worse than me."

"Ahah! Arrogant and self-confident to boot."

"But what I say is the truth. But anyway, next time, don't go back to the cursed hill. It wasn't named that for nothing, as you just found out today."

"But it's such a beautiful, quiet place, so..."