Chapter 17：The Woman in Blue

Red stares at her father, baffled and at a loss for words. Why would he say such a crazy lie?

"Would you mind elaborating Jerard? How did you become the Demon Wolf?" There's a long silence before he speaks. The lights in the parking lot sizzle a bit, turning off for a second before returning to normal.

"...I, was born the Demon Wolf, I wasn't originally human..."

...

A lone wolf sniffs the corpse of a cub she just gave birth to. Her tail lays low as she covers the body the best she can before taking her litter to a safe place. A bear soon comes wandering by, smelling food, but something unseen scares it off. A figure made of shadow appears, as it removes the leaves covering the dead cub

"You're perfect," A deep and demonic voice states as its claw-like fingers run along its body. The figure picks up the cub as it starts to chant incantations in an unknown language. The puppy suddenly comes to life, it's eye glowing a bright red before it closes its eyes once more and starts wiggling in its hands.

"You and I have a lot to do," The demon says as the two suddenly vanish into nothing.

...

"I was nothing more than a wolf cub that died at birth that the demon found. Years passed and I grew bigger and bigger until I became the creature you all came to fear and know as the Demon Wolf,"

"What demon?"

"A necromancer demon," Jerard says finally looking up at them, his face full of worry, "It's never told me its name, and I thought I killed it ago...but seeing Gerald at the store this morning...it's just been hiding this whole time,"

"So Pierre was right," Randy states, arms crossed, "There are two monsters in this town now. What I don't get is, how the, hell, can you turn into a human if you were originally a wolf, and why did you spend all these years not hunting us like chickens in a coop up until now?"

"...Clara...she's the whole reason I've worked so hard to suppress my demonic beginnings, and the reason I was gifted this," He stares down at his hands, then closes his fingers and puts his arms around his sides, "It was long ago, maybe a year before I fully stopped attacking you guys..."

...

The air is deathly still as the demonic being known, by the locals of the nearby town, as the Demon Wolf stalks through the woods. The last rays of sunlight quickly die off, the moon struggling to protect the town from the oncoming darkness. As the town comes into view the creature thinks of where it might be able to find someone to eat. That's when they see someone at the forest's edge.

Moonlight shines down on them, their blue hoodie covering their face. Seemingly glowing golden hair flows down on the sides. As the Demon Wolf quietly gets closer, now a hundred feet from them, he sees their face. Vibrant brown eyes show the true terror they're fighting as they step into the woods. Unlike most of the other foolish people who come into the woods, hoping to fight the monster, she has no weapon, but a basket. This intrigues him.

As the women ventures further into the forest, she starts calling out.

"H-hello?!" She says with a shaking voice, "Anyone out there?!" The wolf just watches from afar, watching in amusement and curiosity, "D-demon wolf, i-if that's your name...I have something for you," Deciding to play along, he approaches her. She loses her breath when she first sees his glowing blood red eyes.

He lets out a low growl as he gets closer and lowers his head to her height, but still keeping some distance in case this is a trick. The woman has to choke down her scream before she can speak.

"I-I made you something to eat, so you don't have to eat another person," She says fumbling with her basket as she tries to open it. This is the perfect opportunity to strike, but something makes him wait to see what she has.

"Here," She says holding out a fresh hot pie, "It's a shepherd's pie, I made it myself," The wolf looks at her skeptically, "It's just some peas, carrots, potatoes, and lots of beef…" She says with a smile, her hands visibly shaking a bit.

The wolf takes a step closer, getting a whiff of it. It's enticing smell luring him in. She jumps back when the wolf snatches it out of her hands with its teeth. The taste that feels its mouth it unlike anything its ever tasted. The woman just watches in slight shock as the wolf gobbles up the pie in a matter of bites. It turns back up to her, wanting more.

"...um...I don't have any more, I didn't think you were this...big," She says holding her basket close to her. The wolf starts growling out of anger, "B-but, I could make more...but you'd have to wait till tomorrow night..?" The wolf sits there, glaring at her. Every person he's met has run in anger, or tried to kill him, but this one...this one is being, nice…

To her relief the wolf walks away into the woods to find a bear or elk to eat instead.

...

"It took me a long time to figure out why I let her live that night...but it was cause I had fallen for her," Jerard says, a face on the side of his face as he looks to the side, trying to hide the pain, "I stalked her after that, and sometimes she'd come see me to give me food hoping I'd eat that instead of the townsfolk. It was our little secret that only the two of us knew about. The demon wasn't happy that I wasn't killing people as often and was working on some way they could do it themselves.

To make him happy and ensure Clara wouldn't get hurt, I tore through the town, breaking down whole houses and eating whole families..." He glances at Red to see her staring back at him which a look he knew all too well. He quickly looks away, "It's something I've regretted doing since I saw Clara's face that night,"

...

"Stop!" A voice exclaims as the Demon Wolf is about to finish off the last member of a family he just mauled. Before he can get the kid between his razor sharp teeth Clara jumps to them, pulling them away from his jaws.

"C-Clara?!" Wolf exclaims in his deep growling voice. Before he can say or do anything else she runs off, child in her arms, towards the approaching police cars. Lights soon shine in his eyes as cops draw their guns. Clara making it to safety, bullets start to fly, Wolf let's out a deafening roar before taking off into the woods.

Several hours later Wolf finds himself pacing around, troubling thoughts filling his head.

What if I had been a second too slow? I would have killed her...Why should I care?! Ah! Why does this one person cause me so much trouble!?

Approaching footsteps draw Wolf's attention away from his thoughts. He turns to see nothing, but after awhile Clara stumbles through some bushes into view. Brushing off some leaves, she stares at the giant beast before her, an expression on her face he's never seen.

"Do you even know, how many people you've killed?" She asks in a shaky voice. He just glares at her with no response, "Of course you don't, cause we're all just food to you, except for me. Why?"

There's more silence as the faintest breeze rustles some leaves on the ground.

"Why?" Her voice starts to get louder, "Why don't you try to kill me?!" She shouts at the top of her lungs, tears starting to form in her eyes. Wolf finds himself unable to think of what to say or do. He looks down at the ground as he asks himself that once more.

"...I, don't know..." Wolf finally speaks, "...I can't, get you out of my head...no matter what I try, I find myself thinking about you...I have nightmares about me killing you. I can't stop worrying about you, and I don't know why..." He can't manage the strength to look her in the eyes, as if something is preventing him from looking in her direction.

"...no, no, that, that can't be true..." Clara mumbles, "You can't be...y-you're the Demon Wolf,"

"What?" He asks, finally able to bring himself to look at her.

"You're...in love...with, me..." She says looking off to the side as she runs a hand through her hair, not believing the words that just came out of her mouth.