It is strange to think that when you lose someone you love, the world seems to darken, nothing makes sense, and for the first time, you realize how fragile life truly is.
My father used to say when I was little that I would miss him one day, and I would laugh at it. Inside that dark place, being tossed from side to side and hearing laughter and thuds coming from behind me, scenes flashed through my mind relentlessly. I couldn't believe I was awake. The image of Anne jumping into my arms, my mother with that beautiful smile on her face as she served our food, my father—stern but loving in his own way—made me weep in a way I never thought possible. I felt so much pain that I couldn't describe it other than feeling as if my heart were being torn in two. Not even the lashes and the beating came close to hindering that suffocating feeling that took my breath away, making me feel as if I were drowning on dry land.
Living in my tiny corner of the world, I never knew how cruel a man could be.
...….
The carriage swayed as the group made its way back. The Priest was in high spirits, enjoying himself with his women. The four knights, each at a corner of the carriage forming a square, conversed while the enormous gray moon shone brightly. It seemed to cover half the sky, dipping down somewhere behind the trees.
Leonardo rode in silence, his blue eyes gleaming with cunning as he looked around.
Something is wrong, he thought. The forest, with its massive trees, formed a wall of wood and green leaves around them, but the hair on Leonardo's body stood on end.
A shadow and a crash—that was all they noticed before something knocked the carriage off the road, slamming it into the trees and sending it into a ditch. The cargo compartment burst open, throwing Gantz out, where he fell unconscious. Despite the brutal impact, the carriage remained intact, with only two wheels loose on the side sinking into the mud.
The men drew their swords as they turned toward the trees. Whatever had hit the carriage vanished instantly. The Priest was silent; one of the women he had been with had broken her neck, and her mouth was bleeding.
Damn, I was almost there, he thought, trying to climb off her. The other woman had been tossed to the side and seemed merely unconscious.
As he tried to stand, he heard one of the most terrifying sounds anyone could hear on an empty road at night: the bizarre howl of a werewolf, sounding like a mixture of a man's scream and a wolf's howl. His skin crawled completely; he threw himself onto the dead body and lay still.
Leonardo waited. He knew the first attack would come soon; the wolves would pick the weakest target, and then one of them would begin the slaughter.
It didn't take long. The tension in the air snapped when a massive shadow emerged from behind the carriage and lunged at the man furthest back. The proud horse bucked, trying to ward off the creature, but with a swipe of the beast's long hands, the horse's legs were knocked aside, sending it crashing down onto the knight's leg. The man began to scream, feeling his leg shattered beneath the animal. The shadow lengthened as the man tried to crawl away.
One of the soldiers ran toward the enemy with his sword raised, but another shadow struck his horse's ribs, launching them into the air and sending them rolling to the feet of Leonardo's mount. Meanwhile, the first shadow was already on top of the fallen soldier. His breastplate was crushed by teeth and ripped away, exposing his well-trained chest. The man screamed as the beast sank its jaws into his belly, pulling the soft skin upward and tearing out his entire stomach and guts at once. The beast's mouth filled with blood while the hanging entrails spilled waste onto the ground. The man vomited blood, his eyes bulging as if he couldn't believe what had happened.
Leonardo arrived too late and delivered a strike, severing the beast's arm. He summoned a blue lance that floated above his head and sent it toward another animal coming from behind. The creature dodged while trying to escape the blade of the other mounted soldier.
The man who had pulled out Anne's tooth moved to help Leonardo.
— Captain! — he shouted, warning of another beast emerging from behind the carriage before he was snatched. His arm was crushed between the teeth of a massive white wolf. He screamed, his body hanging by the cartilage of his arm. His horse bucked before its skull was pierced by black claws and tossed into the woods, where its body was torn apart by a pack of wolves lying in wait.
The massive white wolf seemed amused by the human's attempts. It tore off his other arm using its hand, doing it slowly, watching the muscle fibers pull away from the torso. The man screamed until he passed out, only to be woken up and have his right leg torn off the same way, followed by the left. A small stump of a man dangled in the beast's mouth, his dead eyes swinging from side to side. The last thing he thought of was the irony of dying that way.
Leonardo was surrounded, but he moved atop the carriage, firing lances in all directions. The Great Wolf watched with an amused expression, which made its bestial face look bizarre.
It opened the carriage door and found a naked woman, awake and staring in terror, and the corpse of another. It lowered its blade in resignation. Wolves were everywhere; a myriad of teeth grabbed him from all sides and tore his skin, ripping out his guts and crushing his skull. He didn't know which part of his body hurt most before everything went black. The woman in the carriage met a similar end.
Silence dominated the road after the savage feast that had just occurred.
The white wolf walked over to Gantz's body and sniffed it a few times before backing away.