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Description
It was horrible. City life, I mean. The streets were always crowded with shouting drivers who were ‘already thirty minutes late for work’ and fist shaking pedestrians who ‘nearly got hit by that fools car.’ The apartments were crummy and riddled with debris and stray cats and dogs were always getting into the food that sat on window sills.
          Micha was disturbed when he came to this unforgiving scene. The loud nights of gun shots, the long mornings of blaring car horns. This scene reminded him of the “Grinch.” The noise, noise, noise. Work days were hard for him. He was a councilor and his wife, Sherry, was a waitress. The people he counseled were by far the meanest saps he had ever had the benefit to talk to. Most of them were ax murderers.
          Micha and Sherry were tired of living in the streets of this horrible town. They both dreamed the same idea. They were living perfectly. In the wooded area, but a bunch of people lived there. It was near perfection. In the morning, they  realized their dream.
          Four months later, they finished. Having lost their jobs two weeks after they started, they thought it worthy. The “village” they erected had ten houses good enough to hold two families each. A small Christian/Catholic church and a good plantation. No markets or bakeries, just farms. Livestock had been added as a bonus and to attract inhabitants, brochures. The population maximum, was around ninety.

       It’s been a year since the town of Rea had been deserted.

  The livestock rustled and sounded with moo’s, cackles, baa’s and oinks. Micha emerged from his parade with a shovel over his shoulder. He had a piece of straw hanging out of his fuzzy mouth. The now farmer overlooked his better utopia he had erected only five months past. Only forty people live here and five had moved in the past. The children ran around playing tag or whatever game they had concocted.  Other farmers, livestock breeders and butchers were out doing their jobs. Micha smiled at this.
          Toby, one of the strange inhabitants, sat on his rocking chair, chewing his black gum and spat it out in a jug. He had no family except his brother, Eston, the one who dragged him here. Micha walked up to Toby and tried to start a friendly conversation. Toby sneered and spat. “Sorry, Micha,” Toby said under his hat. He didn’t even look up. “Don’t care about the weather or livestock. This is a utopia, correct? Well, then I don’t need to care.”
           Micha looked up. The burning sun beat on his face. He heard Toby laugh and step up from his chair. Slowly, he limped inside. Micha shook his head. Toby’s been like that ever since he got here. Micha thought that at least Eston would knock some sense into him, but Eston was also the village idiot.
           That night, Micha sat in his house by the window. Sherry came in with her robe on and ignored her husband who’s been watching Toby’s house since he came here. She knew his familiar speech like the back of her hand and mouthed the words with her lips and hand as he said them. “He’s up to something, I know it.” She sat in her bed and brushed her hair. Humming a soft lullaby she sang to her daughter long ago. Micha recognized the tune. “I miss her.” He said softly without looking at her. Referring to his daughter to whom the village was named for. He got up and lyed next to her. She shut off the lantern and got comfy.
          “Cancer is a killer.” She said.

          The next morning, the church bells rang. The preacher made his weekly sermon about an ‘eye for an eye.’ “If we kill, we must be killed. If we hurt, we must be hurt ourselves.” That was his sermon every Sunday and people were just getting sick of it. Regina, the Pastor’s wife, sat next to Micha and Sherry. She kept an eye on the kids who were messing around in the back pew, talking silently and giggling. She had a strong belief about children who did nothing but lollygag, were the devils subordinates.  Corgal was staring at all the pretty girls in his pew, but mostly at Sherry.
          Corgal was a butcher and loved to flirt. He came to Rea during the sickening time of rush hour. He never came back and didn’t plan to. He was especially fond of this Utopia idea. Though he had his cons. He had no family but planned to have one soon.
          Micha looked at Corgal suspiciously. He was another one on Micha’s ‘he’s up to something’ list. He looked over to his wife and Sherry just sat there all serious like. Rev. Periwinkle raised the sign of the Cross and proclaimed Mass over. Everyone rose as the choir sang a soft hymn. Eston ran over to Micha. Which, what he said, was a bad idea.
          “Dude, Toby’ s up to something.” Eston swayed with all his might. He was indeed drunk and Micha didn’t have the time to realize it.
          “I knew it.” Quickly he ran out of the doors. Eston took another drink.
          Meanwhile, Sherry walked up to Corgal and swept a strand of hair over her ears. “Sorry I missed you last night.” Corgal said all smooth like. “Got a little carried…” Sherry grabbed his hand and led him into a closet in the back room.
          “That’s alright, husband couldn’t sleep anyway.” She grabbed his head and kissed him madly.
          “Toby!” Micha yelled. No answer. “TOBY!” No answer. “Dog-gone it!” He opened the door and there was Toby, sleeping like a baby in his rocking chair he moved inside. Micha made his way in and slammed the chair on it’s back and Toby awoken with a start.
          “Micha what the…”
          “I don’t know what your up to but I swear I’ll find out.” Micha pointed a finger at him. Toby got up and spat on the floor, too lazy to find his jug.
          “What in God’s name are you talking about?” He lowered his finger and said in a threatening voice.
          “If I catch you doing something to my home, I swear…” He slid his finger across his own neck slowly. Toby picked up his chair and swished him away.
          “I miss one day of church and automatically I’m the town culprit.” He sat down and rocked. Micha went home to get his gun ready.

                                 Toby smiled evilly.

        “C’mon Chester, stop being a chicken.” Tori, one of the children said three weeks later. Her, Chester and Candi walked to the rim of the barbed wire and dared each other to cross it. They were all thirteen years old, except Candi, who was seven.
          “I’m not a chicken. I’ll cross it.” Chester saw the forbidden fence in sight and ignored the sounds of the farm animals. “It’s over there. I stay over there for five minutes and you’ll give me your dad’s chicken.”
          Tori slapped his hand with five dollars. “You haven’t seen one of these in a while huh?” Chester looked at his hand like a huge spider bit it.
          “Where’d did you get this?” He said with surprise. Candi looked at it to. She stared in awe and surprise.
          “Kept it.” Tori said. She put her hands on her hips. “Are you going or are you gonna stare at it all day?” Chester slammed the bill in his pocket and looked at his little sister. Candi smiled at him. Chester walked to the fence and took pliers to the spiked wire. He crossed over and walked into the woods.
          “GOOD LUCK…” Tori covered Candi’s loud mouth and shushed her.
          The woods were all full of bare and naked trees. The leaves crunched under him and no animals moved or made a sound. Thus, something moved  little bit away. He quickly turned and looked at his watch. Thirty seconds. He swallowed and moved to the path. The dirt was loose and muddy from yesterday’s rain. The mud nearly swallowed his shoe and sucked in half his leg. In one spot, it did. He pulled and pulled but the only way out of the mud, was to take off his shoe. He couldn’t do that, that was the only pair of shoes he had left. He looked at his watch. Two minutes. He pulled and pulled. Strengh was not his strong suit. Then, suddenly, he saw something in the woods that made him rip his foot out of the mud and run like a madman to the fence.
          “What’s happening?” Candi said as Chester ran out of the forest. Tori knew that Chester isn’t this easily scared. Something was in there.
          “I don’t know.” Chester ran pass them with mud to his knees and no shoe on that foot. Then, they saw what scared him.
          The gray eyes looked into theirs hungrily. The ears were up and the gray fur stood on end. It bared it’s teeth and it’s tail wagged wildly. It was Rea’s most feared enemy, the wolf.
          The three kids ran back into the farming crowd crying and pleading. They called wolf and ran into their houses. Screams were heard as women ran from the corners of where the kids were. “The wire was cut! Someone cut the wire!” Chester heard this and slowly put away his pliers. No wolves appeared again that day. The hunters scouted the area and said the kids were imagining.
          Micha locked the doors that night and warned his wife not to go out for anything. Sherry agreed with crossed fingers. He kissed his wife goodnight and turned off the light. Sherry waited patiently for the “pain killers” to kick in.
          Success. Micha was sleeping in nearly ten minutes. Sherry threw on her coat and left to her other life. She walked out the door and there was Corgal, waiting. When she went up to him, she kissed him and before she could drag him off to another closed area, there was a loud cackle and a growl among her chickens. They looked at each other and went to investigate. It was dark and the only light was the moon, but it was full enough to see a small slight glimmer of eyes. The animal walked toward them with a slaughtered chicken in it’s mouth. Again, it bared it’s teeth and dropped it’s fowl. Sherry and Corgal backed away slightly and slowly. The wolf bent it’s head down and then, sprinted toward them. The two lovers ran for their lives. The wolf was on their heals and soon, Sherry was in Corgal’s house. The sudden slam of the door woke up Eston and Toby. They asked what happened and that’s when Sherry forgot that Corgal wasn’t here. The three ran out into the night and the wolf had already buried it’s bloody fangs into the back of the man named Corgal. Sherry screamed out bloody murder and the wolf saw Eston run out of the house with a shotgun. The wolf cocked back his head and sang into the night. Eston cocked his gun and Toby forced it out of his hands. “You twit!” Toby yelled. “You don’t even know how to use that thing.”
          “Yes I do.” Eston yanked the gun back. Toby bumped the gun as it fired and the stray bullet found it’s way to a sheep barn. Lights turned on as the shot rang out and the animals cried their specific cries. The wolf ran into the night.
          “See?” Toby said. Sherry ran back into the house before Micha woke up. He asked what was wrong and she replied:
          “That drunkard is firing off shots again. That’s alright, Toby’ll get him.” He fell for his wife’s story and went back to sleep.

          The next morning, after Corgal’s funeral, there was an emergency town meeting held at the church. Everyone came, including the children. Everyone, except Toby. Though, the only one who noticed, but didn’t bother to say, was Micha.
          The meeting was about how they were to rid of the wolves. By morning, a whole chicken shed was massacred and four sheep were gone missing. Many people voted on night watches and more people decided on better fences. No one knew it was Chester that cut the fence except the girls that were with him. They knew it was all their fault. The meeting lasted for three hours.
          That night was another town meeting to set schedules for the night watch. Toby didn’t show up again or all that day for the matter. This time, it was heard of.
          “Toby is either dead, or he’s the one controlling them.” Micha said. Rev. Periwinkle suggested the sighting of Toby in the woods. So it was confirmed that Toby was indeed, dead. Though, Micha didn’t believe him. He thought Toby was behind this somehow. He made his point in the “congress” and they laughed at him. They couldn’t believe that Toby (or anyone) could control wolves.
          Meanwhile, a whole pack of ten or fifteen wolves surrounded the Church. The Master awaited and smiled. His eyes flashed. That was the signal. Inside the church, Regina was about to blame one of the ten children, but the windows crashed open and big gray blurs jumped through. They bared their teeth, and their fur stood up. The tails wagged in nearly unison. They came closer and everyone started screaming. They headed for the door and found out, it was locked. Micha grabbed his wife and ran to the back room and locked it before a wolf pounced in there. Everyone else was beating down a bunch of doors and getting killed by a wolf or two. Some grabbed their kids (or what was left of them) and jumped though windows. Periwinkle found his wife in the mouth of another wolf and he watched the pandemonium. Then, he turned to another wolf and spread his arms.
          Everyone who did escape ran into their houses and grabbed their guns. They shot as many wolves as possible but their were too many. So the wolves ran the whole town of Rea (around twenty people after the massacre) fled. Candi, was the only child survivor, but suffered horrible mental illness for the rest of her life.
          Micha unlocked the door and what he saw, made him scream. There were bodies all over the place, but no wolves. Blood smeared in everywhere. Micha and Sherry stepped out of the church to more bodies of humans and animals. Including wolves. Though, in the distance, a howl called through the night. They packed their bags and Micha left without turning back. He didn’t notice that his wife was killed from right behind him. He didn’t care anymore. While her little trip outside the night before, he had woke up from a nightmare and saw the whole thing between her and Corgal. He let a tear drop as he turned and watched a wolf take her body.

          The wolves returned to their Master. He laughed as he saw the fall of Rea. He took of his coat and kissed his necklace. It was the one that let him control the wolves. He lyed down with his companions and wished his pack good night. One dog barked.
                           “Good night Toby."

          It was horrible, city life, I mean. The streets were always crowed with drivers who were ‘already late for work’ or pedestrians who nearly ‘got hit with that fool’s car.’ The apartments were crumby and riddled with debris. Stray cats and dogs were always getting into the food that sat on the window sill.


                Micha was happy when he came to this unforgiving scene

Description
It was horrible. City life, I mean. The streets were always crowded with shouting drivers who were ‘already thirty minutes late for work’ and fist shaking pedestrians who ‘nearly got hit by that fools car.’ The apartments were crummy and riddled with debris and stray cats and dogs were always getting into the food that sat on window sills.
          Micha was disturbed when he came to this unforgiving scene. The loud nights of gun shots, the long mornings of blaring car horns. This scene reminded him of the “Grinch.” The noise, noise, noise. Work days were hard for him. He was a councilor and his wife, Sherry, was a waitress. The people he counseled were by far the meanest saps he had ever had the benefit to talk to. Most of them were ax murderers.
          Micha and Sherry were tired of living in the streets of this horrible town. They both dreamed the same idea. They were living perfectly. In the wooded area, but a bunch of people lived there. It was near perfection. In the morning, they  realized their dream.
          Four months later, they finished. Having lost their jobs two weeks after they started, they thought it worthy. The “village” they erected had ten houses good enough to hold two families each. A small Christian/Catholic church and a good plantation. No markets or bakeries, just farms. Livestock had been added as a bonus and to attract inhabitants, brochures. The population maximum, was around ninety.

       It’s been a year since the town of Rea had been deserted.

  The livestock rustled and sounded with moo’s, cackles, baa’s and oinks. Micha emerged from his parade with a shovel over his shoulder. He had a piece of straw hanging out of his fuzzy mouth. The now farmer overlooked his better utopia he had erected only five months past. Only forty people live here and five had moved in the past. The children ran around playing tag or whatever game they had concocted.  Other farmers, livestock breeders and butchers were out doing their jobs. Micha smiled at this.
          Toby, one of the strange inhabitants, sat on his rocking chair, chewing his black gum and spat it out in a jug. He had no family except his brother, Eston, the one who dragged him here. Micha walked up to Toby and tried to start a friendly conversation. Toby sneered and spat. “Sorry, Micha,” Toby said under his hat. He didn’t even look up. “Don’t care about the weather or livestock. This is a utopia, correct? Well, then I don’t need to care.”
           Micha looked up. The burning sun beat on his face. He heard Toby laugh and step up from his chair. Slowly, he limped inside. Micha shook his head. Toby’s been like that ever since he got here. Micha thought that at least Eston would knock some sense into him, but Eston was also the village idiot.
           That night, Micha sat in his house by the window. Sherry came in with her robe on and ignored her husband who’s been watching Toby’s house since he came here. She knew his familiar speech like the back of her hand and mouthed the words with her lips and hand as he said them. “He’s up to something, I know it.” She sat in her bed and brushed her hair. Humming a soft lullaby she sang to her daughter long ago. Micha recognized the tune. “I miss her.” He said softly without looking at her. Referring to his daughter to whom the village was named for. He got up and lyed next to her. She shut off the lantern and got comfy.
          “Cancer is a killer.” She said.

          The next morning, the church bells rang. The preacher made his weekly sermon about an ‘eye for an eye.’ “If we kill, we must be killed. If we hurt, we must be hurt ourselves.” That was his sermon every Sunday and people were just getting sick of it. Regina, the Pastor’s wife, sat next to Micha and Sherry. She kept an eye on the kids who were messing around in the back pew, talking silently and giggling. She had a strong belief about children who did nothing but lollygag, were the devils subordinates.  Corgal was staring at all the pretty girls in his pew, but mostly at Sherry.
          Corgal was a butcher and loved to flirt. He came to Rea during the sickening time of rush hour. He never came back and didn’t plan to. He was especially fond of this Utopia idea. Though he had his cons. He had no family but planned to have one soon.
          Micha looked at Corgal suspiciously. He was another one on Micha’s ‘he’s up to something’ list. He looked over to his wife and Sherry just sat there all serious like. Rev. Periwinkle raised the sign of the Cross and proclaimed Mass over. Everyone rose as the choir sang a soft hymn. Eston ran over to Micha. Which, what he said, was a bad idea.
          “Dude, Toby’ s up to something.” Eston swayed with all his might. He was indeed drunk and Micha didn’t have the time to realize it.
          “I knew it.” Quickly he ran out of the doors. Eston took another drink.
          Meanwhile, Sherry walked up to Corgal and swept a strand of hair over her ears. “Sorry I missed you last night.” Corgal said all smooth like. “Got a little carried…” Sherry grabbed his hand and led him into a closet in the back room.
          “That’s alright, husband couldn’t sleep anyway.” She grabbed his head and kissed him madly.
          “Toby!” Micha yelled. No answer. “TOBY!” No answer. “Dog-gone it!” He opened the door and there was Toby, sleeping like a baby in his rocking chair he moved inside. Micha made his way in and slammed the chair on it’s back and Toby awoken with a start.
          “Micha what the…”
          “I don’t know what your up to but I swear I’ll find out.” Micha pointed a finger at him. Toby got up and spat on the floor, too lazy to find his jug.
          “What in God’s name are you talking about?” He lowered his finger and said in a threatening voice.
          “If I catch you doing something to my home, I swear…” He slid his finger across his own neck slowly. Toby picked up his chair and swished him away.
          “I miss one day of church and automatically I’m the town culprit.” He sat down and rocked. Micha went home to get his gun ready.

                                 Toby smiled evilly.

        “C’mon Chester, stop being a chicken.” Tori, one of the children said three weeks later. Her, Chester and Candi walked to the rim of the barbed wire and dared each other to cross it. They were all thirteen years old, except Candi, who was seven.
          “I’m not a chicken. I’ll cross it.” Chester saw the forbidden fence in sight and ignored the sounds of the farm animals. “It’s over there. I stay over there for five minutes and you’ll give me your dad’s chicken.”
          Tori slapped his hand with five dollars. “You haven’t seen one of these in a while huh?” Chester looked at his hand like a huge spider bit it.
          “Where’d did you get this?” He said with surprise. Candi looked at it to. She stared in awe and surprise.
          “Kept it.” Tori said. She put her hands on her hips. “Are you going or are you gonna stare at it all day?” Chester slammed the bill in his pocket and looked at his little sister. Candi smiled at him. Chester walked to the fence and took pliers to the spiked wire. He crossed over and walked into the woods.
          “GOOD LUCK…” Tori covered Candi’s loud mouth and shushed her.
          The woods were all full of bare and naked trees. The leaves crunched under him and no animals moved or made a sound. Thus, something moved  little bit away. He quickly turned and looked at his watch. Thirty seconds. He swallowed and moved to the path. The dirt was loose and muddy from yesterday’s rain. The mud nearly swallowed his shoe and sucked in half his leg. In one spot, it did. He pulled and pulled but the only way out of the mud, was to take off his shoe. He couldn’t do that, that was the only pair of shoes he had left. He looked at his watch. Two minutes. He pulled and pulled. Strengh was not his strong suit. Then, suddenly, he saw something in the woods that made him rip his foot out of the mud and run like a madman to the fence.
          “What’s happening?” Candi said as Chester ran out of the forest. Tori knew that Chester isn’t this easily scared. Something was in there.
          “I don’t know.” Chester ran pass them with mud to his knees and no shoe on that foot. Then, they saw what scared him.
          The gray eyes looked into theirs hungrily. The ears were up and the gray fur stood on end. It bared it’s teeth and it’s tail wagged wildly. It was Rea’s most feared enemy, the wolf.
          The three kids ran back into the farming crowd crying and pleading. They called wolf and ran into their houses. Screams were heard as women ran from the corners of where the kids were. “The wire was cut! Someone cut the wire!” Chester heard this and slowly put away his pliers. No wolves appeared again that day. The hunters scouted the area and said the kids were imagining.
          Micha locked the doors that night and warned his wife not to go out for anything. Sherry agreed with crossed fingers. He kissed his wife goodnight and turned off the light. Sherry waited patiently for the “pain killers” to kick in.
          Success. Micha was sleeping in nearly ten minutes. Sherry threw on her coat and left to her other life. She walked out the door and there was Corgal, waiting. When she went up to him, she kissed him and before she could drag him off to another closed area, there was a loud cackle and a growl among her chickens. They looked at each other and went to investigate. It was dark and the only light was the moon, but it was full enough to see a small slight glimmer of eyes. The animal walked toward them with a slaughtered chicken in it’s mouth. Again, it bared it’s teeth and dropped it’s fowl. Sherry and Corgal backed away slightly and slowly. The wolf bent it’s head down and then, sprinted toward them. The two lovers ran for their lives. The wolf was on their heals and soon, Sherry was in Corgal’s house. The sudden slam of the door woke up Eston and Toby. They asked what happened and that’s when Sherry forgot that Corgal wasn’t here. The three ran out into the night and the wolf had already buried it’s bloody fangs into the back of the man named Corgal. Sherry screamed out bloody murder and the wolf saw Eston run out of the house with a shotgun. The wolf cocked back his head and sang into the night. Eston cocked his gun and Toby forced it out of his hands. “You twit!” Toby yelled. “You don’t even know how to use that thing.”
          “Yes I do.” Eston yanked the gun back. Toby bumped the gun as it fired and the stray bullet found it’s way to a sheep barn. Lights turned on as the shot rang out and the animals cried their specific cries. The wolf ran into the night.
          “See?” Toby said. Sherry ran back into the house before Micha woke up. He asked what was wrong and she replied:
          “That drunkard is firing off shots again. That’s alright, Toby’ll get him.” He fell for his wife’s story and went back to sleep.

          The next morning, after Corgal’s funeral, there was an emergency town meeting held at the church. Everyone came, including the children. Everyone, except Toby. Though, the only one who noticed, but didn’t bother to say, was Micha.
          The meeting was about how they were to rid of the wolves. By morning, a whole chicken shed was massacred and four sheep were gone missing. Many people voted on night watches and more people decided on better fences. No one knew it was Chester that cut the fence except the girls that were with him. They knew it was all their fault. The meeting lasted for three hours.
          That night was another town meeting to set schedules for the night watch. Toby didn’t show up again or all that day for the matter. This time, it was heard of.
          “Toby is either dead, or he’s the one controlling them.” Micha said. Rev. Periwinkle suggested the sighting of Toby in the woods. So it was confirmed that Toby was indeed, dead. Though, Micha didn’t believe him. He thought Toby was behind this somehow. He made his point in the “congress” and they laughed at him. They couldn’t believe that Toby (or anyone) could control wolves.
          Meanwhile, a whole pack of ten or fifteen wolves surrounded the Church. The Master awaited and smiled. His eyes flashed. That was the signal. Inside the church, Regina was about to blame one of the ten children, but the windows crashed open and big gray blurs jumped through. They bared their teeth, and their fur stood up. The tails wagged in nearly unison. They came closer and everyone started screaming. They headed for the door and found out, it was locked. Micha grabbed his wife and ran to the back room and locked it before a wolf pounced in there. Everyone else was beating down a bunch of doors and getting killed by a wolf or two. Some grabbed their kids (or what was left of them) and jumped though windows. Periwinkle found his wife in the mouth of another wolf and he watched the pandemonium. Then, he turned to another wolf and spread his arms.
          Everyone who did escape ran into their houses and grabbed their guns. They shot as many wolves as possible but their were too many. So the wolves ran the whole town of Rea (around twenty people after the massacre) fled. Candi, was the only child survivor, but suffered horrible mental illness for the rest of her life.
          Micha unlocked the door and what he saw, made him scream. There were bodies all over the place, but no wolves. Blood smeared in everywhere. Micha and Sherry stepped out of the church to more bodies of humans and animals. Including wolves. Though, in the distance, a howl called through the night. They packed their bags and Micha left without turning back. He didn’t notice that his wife was killed from right behind him. He didn’t care anymore. While her little trip outside the night before, he had woke up from a nightmare and saw the whole thing between her and Corgal. He let a tear drop as he turned and watched a wolf take her body.

          The wolves returned to their Master. He laughed as he saw the fall of Rea. He took of his coat and kissed his necklace. It was the one that let him control the wolves. He lyed down with his companions and wished his pack good night. One dog barked.
                           “Good night Toby."

          It was horrible, city life, I mean. The streets were always crowed with drivers who were ‘already late for work’ or pedestrians who nearly ‘got hit with that fool’s car.’ The apartments were crumby and riddled with debris. Stray cats and dogs were always getting into the food that sat on the window sill.


                Micha was happy when he came to this unforgiving scene