Mr. Mori was growing frustrated. The old man muttered to himself. He kept stroking his wispy beard and frowning as he looked over his shoulder at me. The sun was just beginning to set, fading gold piercing through the leaves of the oak trees. We would need flashlights soon, but none of us showed any sign of turning back.

  “Don’t take your eyes off the wolf,” I said as Mori turned to look at me again.

  “Quite right. But it seems we do not need the wolf after all, if you are to be our guide. I do not feel the presence of the hunger which calls you from the woods.”

  “It’s worse than ever,” I admitted. “It feels like being eaten from the inside out. I hate it. But not as much as I hate not knowing what it is.”

  I looked back at Lei, Ramsey, and Arnold, all lagging behind. Lei stood between them, the boys heads’ bent low in hushed exchange. I wished I could be back there with them. That I wasn’t so different. I turned back to Mr. Mori, who was scowling again.

  “You don’t think I’m making it up, do you?” I asked.

  Mori’s face relaxed into a smile. He stopped to let me catch up with him, then drew his arm around my shoulders. The security and warmth of his presence was unexpectedly welcome.

  “You will understand if you are able to live for years beside the Old Ones in peace. Their thoughts slip so easily into our own. Their ways are clever, their plans are long, their end most inscrutable. I do not think you are their puppet, but I do not know for certain. I do not think I am their puppet either, but they have spared me many times. Perhaps I am the one doing their bidding tonight. Those who are like us cannot be too wary.”

  I didn’t answer him. It was all I could do to keep the hunger under control. The wolf was getting clearer as the night fell. Its flowing mist sparkled silver and led the way through the trees.

  “You must understand that I am very sensitive to the Old Ones, however,” Mori continued. “From a lifetime of study, and visiting the sacred places of the world. But never have I felt the hunger you describe, or heard it told in my own father’s stories. It may be that you have become aware of something inside your own mind, and are not sensing something in the forest.”

  “Then where is the wolf taking us?”

  At least, that’s what I tried to say. But I sounded more like: “Wrrrroooruss?”

  The words caught in my throat, and rose out like a low growling snarl. I felt my lip curl. I wanted to bite something. I pushed away from Mr. Mori and removed the temptation the best I could.

  “It may be I am no use here. In which case, it would not be safe to bring such children where I cannot protect them,” Mr. Mori continued calmly, appearing to understand me perfectly well.

  “We trust you, grandfather,” Lei said. She’d separated herself from the others to cautiously approach. “And we trust you too, Martin. We know you aren’t making this up. We can see the transformation in you.”

  I stopped. I didn’t look at her. I just hung my head. I didn’t trust myself to speak, or tempt myself to violence. I caught Arnold passing me out of the corner of my eye. Even if he couldn’t see it, he was braver than I. What right did I have to be afraid, when I was the only one not walking blind?

  Now Arnold stopped too. He shook his shaggy brown head in disbelief.

  “I think I feel something too. Maybe not the hunger, but something out there is upset.”

  He was right. It was the wolf. The spirit creature turned around without turning its body. Quite spectacularly, the mist of its head flowed back toward its tail, and vica versa. Eddies and spirals of mist clashed into chaos before condensing and forming again on the other side. The wolf faced us now, and seemed almost like another creature entirely. Our peaceful guide was replaced by a vicious growling beast. Its white fur bristled into angry clouds, nearly doubling in size.

  “Easy now, we said we will follow you.” Mr. Mori spoke calmly. He spread his arms wide to enlarge himself. “Come, dear wolf. Why are you agitated so?”

  The wolf snapped at the air, fangs of sparkling lightning through the thunderclouds. Everyone took a step back. Even Ramsey, who said he couldn’t see the thing at all.

  I took a step toward the wolf instead. Then another, placing each foot was a monumental effort of will. The wolf crouched lower on powerful haunches. Another step — Mr. Mori reached out to stop me. Another step — the wolf ready to spring.

  Mr. Mori’s hand never touched me. He pulled himself back and let me pass. I went all the way up to the wolf, and reached my hand out to it. The wolf sniffed my hand. Some of the mist washed over me. It felt like electricity tingling every nerve in my hand. Hot and cold, pressure and release, pain and pleasure, all at once, and then gone. The wolf turned away from me to look into the darkening woods. It continued to snarl.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “It won’t hurt me,” I said. Real words, but it took effort. “It’s snarling at the hunger.”

  The wolf’s head slowly turned. It was tracking something in motion. Something invisible, even to me. But I could feel its presence as it stalked closer.

  “The invisible hunger is here,” I said. “Watch where the wolf is looking.”

  Right on cue. A rotten tree branch on the ground rolled over. It was about ten feet away from any of us. Exactly where the wolf was staring, snarling, bristling. And seemingly from that empty spot of night the hunger seemed to flow. I took an involuntary step toward it. It pulled at me like gravity. Like drinking salt water to be quenched, I drank in the hunger and felt it grow.

  This time Mr. Mori did grab me. He put his arm around me and turned me away from where the empty place the wolf stared. I was powerless to resist and allowed myself to be led back toward the others. No one spoke, but we could hear the cracking of twigs as the invisible hunger stalked closer. It seemed to have too many legs, or maybe there was a whole host of them. From the compression of leaves, the footprints must be massive. As it approached, the wolf craned its neck upward. The wolf crouched lower and shrank back. It was looking almost vertically up now. If I drew an imaginary line from the wolf’s stare. The invisible hunger must be nearly the size of an elephant.

  “There is nothing there.” Mr. Mori waved his walking stick through the air before him. He swept it in slow rhythmic arcs like he was reaping a field of wheat. Each stroke brought him a little closer to the invisible hunger.

  The wolf backed into Mr. Mori without looking at him. It was protecting him, standing between him and the hunger.

  “Out of my way, I want to see!” Mr. Mori swatted at the wolf with his walking stick.

  The wolf ignored this and launched itself into the open air. It bit the air and seemed to latch onto something solid. It shook its head from side to side, a roaring growl in its throat. Mr. Mori stumbled back in surprise.

  All at once the invisible thing seemed to vanish. The wolf collapsed through the air to smash into the ground. The mist of its body exploded on impact, billowing out in a great wave before reforming the wolf’s shape. It stopped growling at once, and started spinning in wild confusion. It turned so fast it became a whirlwind.

  “It’s gone?” Mr. Mori asked. “Or was it never there?”

  That’s when the psychic attack began. At first I thought it was from Mr. Mori — it felt like when I was back in his garden. I tried to calm my mind and focus on my breathing. The attack came with such fury though, such unrelenting force. It overwhelmed my meager attention and scattered my mind into a thousand disconnected thoughts. Except for the one which unified them all, the hunger which hollowed out my soul.

  It wasn’t Mr. Mori attacking me this time. It was the real deal. Mr. Mori was defending too. His eyes were closed, his face twitching for the effort. We all were under invisible assault. Lei had her hands clapped over her ears. She was singing out a rhyme. Arnold was just running in circles, swatting his arms madly at imagined foes. Ramsey stood completely still, his head downcast. And these thoughts too led back to my hunger, and my hatred. In that moment I hoped the attack would break them all so they would know what I was going through. So they would know how strong I was for enduring it this long.

  They shouldn’t be here at all. They wouldn’t be going through this if it wasn’t for me. I hated myself for that, even if it wasn’t really me who was thinking it. I felt so empty, like I wasn’t even in my body anymore. It was like the moments I projected out of my body after I took the medication. I felt like I was looking at myself from somewhere else. And that any moment my body might get up and walk away, or attack someone, or any manner of evil thing which I would be powerless to stop.

  All at once the attack was gone. I gasped for air. Mr. Mori groaned and stamped his feet. Arnold dropped lack a heavy sack. Lei started shrieking before cutting herself quiet, hands clapped over her mouth now.

  The wolf straightened itself and shook itself as though drying. The peaceful presence hadn’t returned though. It was still snarling, and suddenly lunged again. This time hurtling straight at Mr. Mori. He brandished his walking stick resolutely for half a moment, before changing his mind and diving to the side. The wolf hurtled passed him. Next I thought it was coming for me, but I took cover as well and it ran on by. Straight for Ramsey, who was looking in the completely wrong direction.

  “Ramsey get out of the way! Even if you can’t see it, trust me and move!”

  Ramsey turned slowly. He stared right at the wolf. The beast stopped in its tracks, skidding and sliding along the bed of leaves. The wolf fell into a low crouch instead, only a few feet away from Ramsey. It began to growl again. Barking and snarling and snapping at Ramsey, who didn’t even flinch. In fact, he was smiling.

  “Oh don’t worry, I can see it now. The wolf is more afraid of me than I am of it.”

  Ramsey’s voice sounded different. His words were slow and measured. The inflection rolled with suppressed laughter. I turned my phone’s flashlight on him. Even in the bright light, his eyes were almost black.

  “Down boy!” Ramsey commanded. The wolf collapsed to the ground. “Roll over!” And it did so promptly, white belly in the air. Ramsey grinned wider.

  “You aren’t Ramsey,” I said. The hunger was more subdued now, but I could still feel it coming from where my friend used to be.

  “Yo Ramsey! Ramsey what’s up? Are you okay?” Arnold lifted himself onto his elbows.

  “Grandfather! Do something!” Lei insisted.

  Ramsey’s face contorted in anger. “Do not do anything, Mori!” he shouted. “Do not speak. Do not move. Do not go farther into the woods. Do not shine your prying eyes here. The Old Ones forbid it.”

  The wolf meanwhile had rolled back onto his four legs and was creeping away.

  “Let go of the boy!” Mori commanded sternly.

  “If you promise to not come back to these woods,” the hunger said through Ramsey’s stolen voice.

  Mr. Mori hesitated. He looked at each of us in turn, then back to Ramsey. He nodded.

  Ramsey smiled again. “Then we have a deal.” He gasped and collapsed to the ground, much as Arnold had a moment before.

  Arnold was on his feet in a moment. He rushed over to his friend and helped him sit up. Ramsey rubbed his eyes, then clutched at his throat. His hand dropped away, trembling. I moved forward to shine my flashlight on his face. His eyes were browner again. The hunger was completely gone.

  “We have a deal,” Mr. Mori repeated. “Quickly now. Let us keep our word and hurry home.”