Hellhounds

“ I don’t care who you think you are. You can’t just show up after fifteen years and tell me to marry some stranger!”

The words flew out; my voice trembling with sobs but sharp enough to cut.

“You will marry him! It's not by choice. It's the only way that you will be protected. I know that you're scared…,” he said, hands raised in a half-pacifying gesture. 

“Scared?” My laugh was bitter and cynical.

“I was just attacked by four big dog monsters trying to bite my head off! So no, Christopher, I’m not scared; I’m terrified. Which is why I’m calling the police.”

He blocked my path. “You can’t. They’ll trace the call and know where we are. What we need to do is to move. Now.”

“They? Who is they? Who’s after me? What were those things? Who sent them?” My heart thundered as I headed for the kitchen. “I’m not going anywhere with you until you explain.”

He swallowed hard, like the truth itself had weighed his tongue down. “Those things were werewolves. The ones you saw today; we call them hellhounds. They’re sent to the human world to destroy their target. And right now, you, Joyce, are that target. I swear I’ll answer all your questions, but not here. Now is not the time.”

Hellhounds? The word alone chilled me. The beasts that attacked my car were obviously too huge to be dogs and too terrifying to be wolves. All four of them were at least five feet tall. It gave me chills to even think they could come back.

“Werewolves? Hellhounds?… what is this? The Twilight saga fanfiction?”

His mouth twitched. “Without the fiction and the glitter, yes,” he said with a straight face.

I stared at him. He was wearing a pair of Levi's, a checkered shirt and a baseball cap. My prodigal father who had finally come back after fifteen years of being absent in my life.

He sounded crazy, but looked like he hadn’t changed since the last time I saw him. He looked so normal; like he hadn’t aged a day.

“You cannot expect me to believe you,” I whispered, fighting the rising tremor in my chest because I did believe him.

“You can believe me later,” he said quickly. “That was a narrow escape and we need to move. The Eldermans are the only ones who can protect you. The fifth commandment binds them to family bloodlines. You’re covered as long as you are under their protection, and you can only be under their protection if you are bound to the family by blood.”

“Who are the Eldermans? What are they? Why is marriage the only reason they will protect me, I have money, I can pay them my savings.”

“They don't need your money Joyce, they are billionaires till infinity. Marriage is the only way that can prevent any harm from coming to you. I promise you.”

That was when I noticed the bag. My bag; with clothes stuffed inside without my permission, without my even realizing.

“You think you can just pack up my life and drag me off?” My voice cracked with the tears I wanted to cry but couldn't.

“Why should I trust you? The man who sells me groceries every weekend has been more of a father to me than you ever have!”

His clenched his teeth, guilt flickered through his eyes. “You’re right. I deserve that. But if you can’t trust me as your father, trust me because I'm here now.”

A howl in the distance came like an answer, long and low. Three more followed, echoing in my bones.

And at that moment, without saying anything else, I got into the car with him, following him into the cold and dark night.

***

Three hours later, Christopher parked at the edge of nowhere. The trees are dense and tall. Christopher didn’t say a word. He just got out, yanked my bag from the back seat, and walked into the woods expecting me to follow him.

I stumbled after him with a flashlight, murmuring, “This is crazy.”

He stopped when we reached a large crooked boulder that was so imbalanced it looked like a single breath could bring it down.

“This is the nearest portal,” he said, resting a hand on the rock. “They won't think of tracking us here. It’s been closed for years.”

“And how do you know that?”

He turned to look at me, dark and secretive. “Because I closed it.”

Then, without another word, he stepped straight into the rock and vanished.

My scream echoed through the trees and made the birds fly away. Whatever options I had were gone. There was nowhere to go.

So I followed him.

As I stepped into the world of werewolves, heat washed over me, sunlight greeted my skin like a desperate lover’s touch, and I stood in a valley of lilies as white as heaven. I thought maybe I was dead, and that this was heaven.

And then I saw it.

The castle.

It loomed over the valley, black, darkening everything beneath it. A bell rang in the distance.

"It's okay,” Christopher said, looking at me with his soft brown eyes.

“They know we're here. A bell rings in the north, that means someone has crossed a portal in the north. Same goes for the South, East and West.”

“I know this place,” I said, shocking myself with my words. I had never been there before; except in my dreams.

“Humans are not allowed to enter this world, but when they do, and they manage to leave ALIVE, the longer they remain in the human world, the more of this world they forget.”

“If no humans are allowed to enter, then what am I doing here?” I asked, but I already knew what he was going to say.

From the castle, the wolves appeared, tall as men and twice as fast. All the muscles in my body told me to run because the creatures coming towards us didn't look like saviours but doom.