• tab My friend and I walked in silence on our way home. The moon shone brightly on our hair making Loki's chesnut locks seem silver. We were coming from the store down the road, our Saturaday night meeting place. It was past midnight and the sky was the color of pitch but the full moon eliminated the darkness making it as bright as day. We were both exhausted and before Loki spoke a huge yawn escaped her pale lips. "Hikari, what time is it?" she questioned tiredly. "Bout' midnight" I replied, uninterested. At first the reply meant nothing then suddenly the exhaustion wafted from her eyes and floated upward to the heavens."It's already midnight?" she yelled, a little louder than neccesary. "Yeah. Why?" I asked, confused. "I gotta go." she said hurriedly and before I could say a word she was gone, fleeing into the dark, murky woods.

    I stared after her for a while dumbfounded, unable to wrench my eyes from where she had disappeared. After minutes of my idiotic staring I heard a low, deep voice growl "Don't move." Since I was already frozen this wasn't hard and I glared toward the source of the mysterious sound. In the woods, where my eyes were still locked, lurked two blood red eyes, looking at me and filled with hunger. It slowly creeped a bit from it's spot then gracefully strode into the moonlight.

    There, before me, stood a wolf like no other. It stood at at least five feet tall and it's perfect white teeth glistened with saliva. Round sharp claws left marks in the dirt where they walked and the creature stared at me. Swiftly it leaped high in the air clearing the ten feet seperating us and landed right in front of me, hot breath heating my face that was now drained of color. The warmth didn't stop that shiver from trembling up my spine and I automatically thought of my friend who had just diappeared into the woods where this creature had come from. "Is Loki okay?" I wondered. Then the pieces clicked together and I realized something fatal. I was so consumed by recognition that I didn't notice the beast smash my fragile body to the ground.

    Just as it began to take it's first bite i whispered horridly "Loki?" I could barely say the word because my throat ran dry when I knew what would follow. The wolf stared intently at me for a moment then lept away. As it danced in the moonlight it looked like a oversized puppy. It chased it's tail but I could see that it wasn't chasing it for fun, it was trying to hurt it's own self. Then it began to snap at the air. The hate shimmered in it's eyes once more but it was in hate of itself not me. I realized that this beast was fighting an unwinnable battle within itself and that so far it was miserably losing. I wanted to reach out and help, dispite the fact that it had wanted to eat me, but I resisted the urge and waited. After minutes of agony it finally collapsed. I approached the mangled heap of fur and watched it with curious and worried eyes for several minutes. Then it began to shrink leaving behind the unconscious form of my best friend, Loki.