Hence, I am being made to sense whatever my recurring emotions want me to.
Oops! I forgot in wondering all this, I must take some water to ease myself up more" Martha finally took a break from her self-conversation and reached out her hand to find the water bottle.
She has finally gained much composure to go on with the rest of the journey with a free mind.
"As far as maintaining the secrecy of this place is concerned, it could be that there is something really great about this place that shouldn't be brought to the attention of the general public" she thought as she opened the cap of the bottle.
Taking a look at the fire flanking both her sides, she again came up with a thought,
"Fire in many cultures means energy. If I am not wrong, there hasn't been an instance when the fire was blown off while we were passing through it.
Only that we have gone through that path that the fire torch lighting it up has been blown off.
The fire has always remained with us ever since it had begun to lead the way for us.
On the contrary, I should feel energized rather that to get afraid as the symbol of energy has been remaining by my side for so long" she kept holding the bottle with cap open until her train of thoughts came to a halt.
Gaining her composure back was her first priority before anything.
She finally took a gulp of large amounts of water which bulged out her cheeks and she preferred the water to remain there for a while before she gulped it down.
She could feel her face reenergized with a positive force and she let the positivity spread throughout the body as she gulped down the water down her throat. "Indeed revitalizing" she thought as she smiled. She lifted the bottle again to take a gulp from the bottle.
As soon as her lips touched the tip of the bottle, she was thrown a bit forward and so did the bottle.
Benjamin pushed the brakes with great force, as if to avoid colliding into something in front of the motor car.
The water bottle slipped out of Martha's hand and some water even fell on her dress.
She remained in the state her father had put her in by applying brakes in a forceful manner.
She was pulled with much force to the front of her and her eyes remained closed while her head was low.
She had apprehended something big must have come in front of the car that made her father to apply brakes without even slowing down, though the car was moving at a slow pace only.
She opened her eyes and lifted her head up to investigate the object in front. As soon as she looked up to see the reason behind breaking the vehicle with great force, all the composure regained by her faded away. In front of her she witnessed, a full-fledged wolf!
She couldn't stop herself from getting Goosebumps. Each thought she had believed in to soothe herself in these adverse hours couldn't help her in believing what she was seeing.
It was pitch black outside except for the fire torches that were giving the impression of a gloomy night.
The beast however bore an even darker color.
Through the windshield, Martha could observe its razor-sharp claws reflecting the dim light emerging out of the fire torches.
She couldn't look into its eyes for more than a fragment of a second.
In the fragment of second she did look into its eyes, all she could perceive was rage and hunger.
The wolf was the centre of emergence of the heavy breathing sound since its act of inhaling and exhaling exactly corresponded to the breathing sound.
It stayed in front of the motor car for barely a couple of seconds but it felt like an eternity to Martha to have it in front of her eyes.
For her, all her fears throughout the trip were accumulated and morphed into this reality.
Her fear of never visiting her village again was in front of her, the fear of detaching herself from her ordinary life, fear of not being on good talking terms with her parents again; all these fears were portrayed right in front of her in the beast figure.
The beast moved to the left of the car and vanished into the woods. What frightened Martha even more is the wolf didn't move with all its 4 legs but rather his rear legs only.
Though very much afraid, she wasn't as much frightened as she was bewildered. "How come an animal walk on just with his rear legs?"
It didn't take much time for her to recollect the bedtime stories her grandmother often used to tell her when she was told of the legend of the werewolf.
"A werewolf is a human who once in a while would grow bigger and get dense hairs all over its body with sharp claws replacing his otherwise normal nails and the all distinct types of teeth transmuting into a single set of canines" her grandma used to tell whilst Martha rested her head in grandma's lap when she was a little 5 year old girl.
She recollected those bedtime stories and those imaginary characters, one of which had appeared just before her a while ago and that too, a sinister one.
She literally rubbed her eyes to check if she wasn't dreaming and actually saw a wolf-like figure running with its pair of rear limbs.
"Mommy, what was that?" she asked her mother in an almost crying tone without attempting to make any delay through her thought process.
The car still hasn't started to move again and the fire torches ahead of them were still lit. "Don't worry dear.
It will not harm us" said Cindy in a tone very much similar to that of Martha's crying tone. She too was freaking out now.
Yet she had to bear with that and keep moving ahead since it has gotten too late to reconsider the decision of visiting this very destination.
"Let's move ahead" said Cindy, pointing her eyes towards Benjamin.
No sooner had Benjamin set his foot on the accelerator that the some noise came from the same part of forest where the wolf-like beast had vanished into.