Prey

At 2 am, we emerged from the woods. Exhausted from trudging through snow and tripping over fallen timber, we sat down and admired the snow-swept plain before us, crystalline beneath a full moon. From terror or pride, neither of us could admit we were lost. As I glimpsed a dim light in the distance, the wolves howled. On instinct, I scrambled to my feet and ran. You followed and just as I heard the ice give way with a splintering crack and felt the freezing water take me, I looked back; the wolves gathered around the hole where you’d disappeared.