NOTE: This book will now be continued from a third person's perspective.
Judith got overcome with emotions. She squinted her eyes to see the pictures she was holding. The sight of the young investigator's leg fractured and bent abruptly was too much to bear.
The flesh had been removed and spread beside him, and so had his knees as they had opened. His clothes had shredded to bits, and he was practically unrecognizable.
That couldn't possibly be the work of a person, could it?
As she examined the images more closely, she wondered aloud.
Her faith in her husband got shattered by the tear that streamed down her face.
"Are you all right, Judith?" She was startled back to reality when she heard a loud cry.
"Did they say anything about what killed him?" She summoned the guts to inquire. What would be expected of her if her husband was a member of the Mafia?
His brothers and cousins had never disobeyed him since he was a toddler. They pampered him like he were a crown prince about to take his father's throne.
Even those who came to see him admired him. From when he was a child, men and women in high positions and rank bowed to him.
Perhaps it was because his father was a well-known figure. Maybe it was because his aunt, who assisted his dad in raising him, was equally as prominent.
Because of a traumatic event that resulted in his mother's death, no one mentioned her. There was no trace of her in their home, not even a photograph.
"That's the odd thing! The investigator had released a video on his social media the day before he died. He was videoing an intriguing scene of two large canines fighting and promising his audience that he would show more once he had a better look.
I suppose he left the camera on, but no one knows what happened after that because the video wasn't streaming live." He ended on a subdued note, with his head hung low and his eyes looking up. Bismarck explained as he gestured what he was telling her.
"Who found him?" Her eyes remained locked on the pictures as she raised her voice to her colleague.
"Naaah, I'm not in on that rumor. I have to go and check the papers. I'll see you later," Bismarck said shortly before vanishing from Judith's view.
Something wasn't quite right. Why would Mark, her husband caution her not to have him followed, and why would the investigator die after seeing two dogs fighting?
If he hadn't died in the woods, exactly where he had taken images to inform her that her husband could be an agent or a mafia, it would have been far less of a coincidence.
They didn't have any dogs, and neither did his brothers, as far as she was concerned.
The family loathed keeping dogs as security and could go on and on about how animals had their feelings and thoughts.
She felt light as if she were of a paper. As she picked up her bag to leave the office, her breathing was labored.
She quickly sent a message to her boss informing him that she was returning home due to an emergency.
****
When Judith returned home, the air was bitterly cold, and the leaves of the house's trees had been shaking vigorously. Her gaze was concentrated on her feet as if she didn't want to miss a step and fall.
As she approached the front porch, her mind was blank. Was she going to ask her husband if he'd ever committed a homicide?
She didn't want him to think she was crazy, either.
How was she going to confront him about the murder case without appearing nuts after accusing him of cheating not long ago?
She heard a loud snarl just as she was about to take the first step. It sounded both close and far away. She searched the area but couldn't discover anything.
With each additional step she took, the roaring became louder and closer. Then there was another, followed by two creatures growling.
She became concerned: had the dogs been released to pursue her as well? Or maybe she was just being paranoid. No one in the Estate owned such a wild dog, so it could only imply-
'No'
She heard herself scream angrily. She had to keep her wits and break out of her stupor.
Before turning her head and facing her door, she took a long breath and thought of a mild remedy her father-in-law had suggested to her when she was a child.
Then she heard the final growl, followed by the appearance of two large dogs.
If the enormous dogs were spotted on the street, she would have been less afraid.
The monsters were in her compound, which she was confident she had entered after closing the gates.
She knew how dogs looked, so she assumed they were bigger dogs, possibly from a different breed, because they didn't look like the dogs she was used to seeing.
However, they appeared to be scarier than that.
The fangs of these animals were as visible as the light during the day, and their teeth were as sharp as the blade.
As a trail of saliva fell to the ground, their tongue came out.
The wolves sniffed around with their noses held high, and as soon as their eyes met Judith, they charged toward the woman who appeared to be vulnerable and still shaking.
Her entire body froze for the whole minutes she watched them. Her mouth and eyes both as widened wide as they could get.
The two large dogs continued to sprint toward her, with the grey one strolling ahead of the dark blue one.
"Run Judith, let's run," a voice murmured to her immediately.
That jolted her awake and gave her the energy to flee.
Not to her door: she'd have to go through her bag for her keys, rummage among the many items within, insert the key into the lock, open it, sprint through it, and shut it behind her.
There was no way. The roving monsters were getting close enough for her to try her hand at finding the keys.
They outran her as she ran.
'After all, they are werewolves.'
Judith was oblivious to the fact that a different voice was speaking to her—that of her wolf, Ezer.
'Werewolves? What?' Without realizing it, Judith screamed out at the voice.
It occurred to her at that point that the things chasing her could be wolves rather than enormous dogs.
One jumped over her head before she could conceive of where they came from.
Her eyes widened, and she dropped to the ground, terrified. When the wolves saw this, they abruptly stopped charging toward her and snarled once again, slowly approaching her while circling her.
She was terrified as she attempted to scare them away as well. Her palms stirred the earth, bringing sand and stone to hurl at them.
She was trembling like a leaf, and the tears streaming down her face made it even harder for her to see. Her heart was thumping furiously against the inside of her chest.
Her anxiety became intense upon realizing she was about to die, and that too, it would be a horrific death.
Why she didn't collapse or lose consciousness, was probably because her mind had gone blank and her body had been numbed by terror.
The wolves facing her slowly stepped back, exposing their teeth wider than they had been, and charging ferociously at her.
She let out a scream and tightly shut her eyes.