The Dark Guardian

Chapter 4 A Fainting Frenzy

        

I woke up warm, far too warm. When I opened my eyes I found the ceiling to my cottage looming above me like a bad dream. My chest was tight, it felt like someone had crushed my sternum, splintering the soft bones. I squeezed my eyes shut again with a deep breath filling those punctured lungs, it took me a moment to come back to myself and remember that I had the most atrocious hallucination. By far the worst one. My hands covered my chest as I remembered silver eyes glowing into the blackness that would forever haunt me.

"It felt so real." I breathed as I opened my eyes again to peer at the sterile ceiling that brought me much needed comfort.

"I must have taken too many this time." I moaned as I lifted myself up in the bed and began to rub the pain in my temples. The headache radiated to the back of my skull, and like a bad hangover, it was dormant until I actually lifted my head from the pillows. A groan escaped my as I massaged the aches and stinks in my swollen brain. I knew this type of headache. It was from having a panic attack. I placed my hand on top of the comforter to lift myself on the bed. Just then, my clammy hand felt over something strange. Something dusty? My eyes opened with urgency as I focused my vision on the strange detail. My heart leaped causing my chest to tighten further as it painfully beat into my bones. There was dirt in my bed. Dark smears of mud and dirt littered the top layer of my white comforter making a swirling pattern around my body. Near the end of the bed, I found distinct foot prints. I lifted myself up to inspect it, my body frantic and shaking now. They were large paw prints that Puffy was too small to make.

"Wolves." I gasped and my heart began to rage inside my sternum. "Wolves in my bed?" Without allowing that question to sink in long enough to garner an answer, I leaped form the bed. My body wobbled and swayed as I stood in my room staring at the mud crusted paw prints. Then I found my self searching around the nightstand like an addict, my hands knocking over things clumsily.

"Where are my pills?" I asked myself before I remembered I had left them in the kitchen. My body wobbled towards the door. As I flung myself around the corner towards the bathroom, I heard it. The sound of scratching, but it was too late I had already taken the steps and now my eyes grew wide with what was in my kitchen.

Wolves. They were in my cabinets, pulling things from my counter top. They even had the refrigerator open and a few of them chewed through my tupperware to get to the leftover macaroni and cheese from last Friday. The tile floor was covered in ripped open packages, spilled food and muddy paw prints. It was an infestation; a wolf infestation. I gulped and attempted to not swallow my own tongue. My fingertips tingled with my loud heart beats until they became numb. I was going to faint again. The wolves paused for a moment to regard me with their wild animal eyes and now I was able to count thirteen of them. Thirteen wolves in my cramped kitchen. I began backing into the wall as I could no longer control my erratic breathing and panted for air. It became hard to take in air and all I could do was swell up in a ball until it went away. As if the wolves knew, they all stopped feasting on my kitchen and looked towards me, this only increased my heart rate and made it even harder to catch my breathe. My chest rose with my fears as I tried to catch my own lungs over and over but I was loosing the battle and soon I would faint. The frantic heartbeats became painful and I cried out as my chest tightened up, panic attacks could be just like a damn heart attack. My eyes were still wide as the wolves began to make strange sounds whilst they watched me fall apart. I wished I were stronger, that I could not fear these creatures but instead chase them away. I wished, but right now my heart was giving way to my anxieties and my legs began to fold under me. My body became limp and gravity pulled my form to crumple over the floor like those weird goats that sporadically flop over. But as I began to fall, something was preventing me from reaching the ground. It was a someone, I felt the warmth of hands over my sides, they would not let me fall and slowly I was guided to the floor. The strength was beyond comprehension and I fell into who ever had been in my kitchen to witness this wolf infestation, though this person did not seem so affected by seeing a pack of wolves. No, this person did not fear them. The soothing sounds that he hummed into my ear. For a moment I thought I had imagined that the wall had sprout hands that held me so firmly as I lay crumpled into something that felt similar to stone, my vision had become murky like a black mist. I was holding onto consciousness like a squirrel holds onto food. If you have ever fainted you will know my meaning.