章節 3: Are You Shivering?
Seven hours into her watch, Ruby is still sitting on her knees, unflinching. She fixes her eyes on the huge scythe resting in front of her. The two of them have been through a lot, she thought. It has been her only company after losing her whole family to the wolves. As much as she hates to admit, there were times she had talked to it like it were alive. She likes how it's a much better listener than some people.
Looking forward to get some sleep, Ruby looks up to the sky to estimate how long she had been keeping watch of the town. Her eyes peruse the blackness that is the night for a group of stars forming the Big Dipper and the North Star. As her eyes wander, the darkness begins to disappear. What used to be a jet black sky was dyed crimson by the blood-red moon that emerged from an ebbing sea of clouds.
Ruby was taken aback by its beauty. Like a child getting candy, she rose from her seat and stared at the moon in awe. However, her admiration was cut short by an awfully familiar bloodcurdling howl. The howl was so loud it woke up the village behind her, each house lighting a lamp after the other. The hairs on her back rose like tiny needles. It's him! It's him! It's him! She tells herself. Her eyes dilate with either fear or excitement —or maybe a combination both —and they frantically scan the shadows, looking for what's to come.
The howl was followed by possibly a hundred simultaneous ones, all a pitch lower than the first but longer.
Ruby begins to shiver. She cups her heart with her right hand, trying to calm it down. The beating in her chest sounded like the drums at one of the festivals she attended. She could hear it herself, in fact. Paying no heed to what she was feeling, Ruby picked up the huge scythe from the floor, clenched its handles tightly until her fingers dug into her palm, and took a deep breath.
One of the villagers peered over what's supposed to be the gate. His eyes went over Ruby's blood red cloak and fixed them on the darkness in front.
"Stay back!" hissed Ruby.
Taken aback by Ruby's tone, he stumbles backward and falls on his hip. As the villager tries to gather himself, he feels the ground start to tremble. Pebbles reposed one ground start to shake vigorously. The sound of a hundred footsteps followed —and it was getting nearer and nearer.
"Stand up! Warn the others!"
Just as the villager was about to get on his feet, a wolf twice his size pounces on him and rips off a piece of his flesh with one swift bite. The villager screams in agony, but the wolf went on chomping whatever it could sink its teeth in.
Enraged, Ruby swings the scythe at the wolf, targeting its mouth. When the blade got caught in the wolf's jaw, Ruby pulls the scythe towards her with great force, splitting the beast in half. Blood and guts splattered across the ground, painting the earth crimson.
Ruby rushes to the aid of the villager but it was too late. He had already lost insurmountable amounts of blood and is only waiting for his last breath. Ruby took his hand and looked at him with watery eyes. She could no longer bear what people have to go through just to survive another day. It was when she decided this has to end tonight. Not tomorrow. Not the next day —only tonight, and there shall be no survivors.
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