Black Ghost

Eight

He greeted her with a smile, one that made her spine tingle in utter fear. You shouldn’t have gone to sleep, he mouthed to her with a hard stare. That made Quiet’s hair along her back stand up straight, and with a harsh jab she began desperately prodding Gruff, praying that he would wake. It only took a few sharp prods to his side before he lifted his head, grunting as he blinked away sleep. “Quiet,” he mumbled, blinking a couple of times so that he could see. “What are you doing?”

Not daring to try and waste time by mouthing any words, she nodded her head furiously in the direction of the den entrance, where the black wolf still stood. Gruff looked in that direction, understanding her desperate gesture. The moment that he saw the wolf’s head, his expression changed. Relaxed ears pinned down to his head. Tired eyes widened and pupils dilated. His jowls tightened around his teeth, lips pulling back in absolute horror. “Quiet,” he sputtered finally. “Is- is that-?”

The black wolf grinned. He grinned, and grinned, and grinned, right before he lashed out harsh claws, skewered Captain by the back of the neck, dragging their alpha violently out of the den and disappearing into the night.

Gruff and Quiet looked at each other. Both of their eyes reflected the same thing: fear.

“Wake the others!” Gruff shouted, loud enough to make Soft lift her head. Quiet spun around and prodded Wonder in the side, waking the older coyote within a few prods.

Gruff didn’t wait for all of them to be woken and instead, blundered right out after Captain and the black wolf. Quiet waved her tail frantically before following him, and she let out a relieved breath when she heard Soft and Wonder following.

They came out into the clearing to find that the black ghost had Captain by the throat. He was shaking him around, flinging his body this way and that, with what looked like pure joy in his eyes. His jaw flexed with each movement and Quiet could hear splintering crunches every time that he was whipped around.

Gruff tried lunging at the large wolf, snapping his teeth, but he simply dodged away and lashed out with long claws at Gruff’s face. He was unfazed by the coyotes now being present to his murder. Suddenly he paused, bowing his head to look across the clearing at the four coyotes. A smile curved up in the corners of his lips, before he pressed his mighty jaws down.

Crunch. Snap.

Captain’s head and the top of his neck fell to the ground while the rest of his body remained in the black wolf’s jaws. Spitting out the corpse, he grinned at the four of them, blood dripping from his teeth. Swishing his tail, he stepped over Captain’s corpse, smiling at them with eyes that were purely hungry for death.

“That’s the Black Ghost,” Wonder whispered, her voice shaking.

Quiet processed her words while trembling. Four words, four syllables, and yet such a simple sentence made the mute coyote know that this was the day that she was going to die.