A grey wolf.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Corey turned around and saw a pair of bright yellow eyes. A pair of bright yellow eyes that bored into him and caught him like a deer in headlights.

‘Why are you here?’ the man asked. Corey gasped.

‘That’s just the estate agent,’ said a voice Corey recognized. The man with the yellow eyes turned his head away and Corey breathed more freely. With the eyes off him, Corey noticed that the man looked no more than thirty, except his thick hair was steel grey.

‘But why he’s here, I don’t know,’ continued Harald.

‘Just get rid of him,’ snarled the man and strode off. Corey wiped a bead of sweat from his freckled temple.

‘Herr Wolffram likes his privacy,’ said Harald.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Corey, ‘I … I’m sorry.’ He looked from Mr Wolffram’s retreating back to Harald.

‘He’s getting married tomorrow,’ said Harald, ‘a very private service, I suggest you don’t attend. Also, I suggest you never turn up here again, understand?’ Harald raised his eyebrows.

Corey nodded.

However, on his way home he could not forget how much that cellar had looked like a prison cell.

It became dark at six o’clock. Corey parked his car about half a mile up the road from the gate and climbed over the fence, losing only a small piece of his sleeve on the way. A full moon made the tree shadows crisp and black. He stayed in the shadows on his way up to the house where the lights were only on in one room on the ground floor. There were no extra cars parked outside. If this was a wedding it was indeed a very private one. He sneaked up to the cellar windows. A dim light shone from them as well. Behind the bars on the naked mattress, he saw a young woman. Her long brown curls draped over her shaking shoulders. Whether the shaking was from cold or sobs he could not tell, but he suddenly felt a hard angry knot tighten in his stomach. Should he try to contact her? Let her know that help was on the way? No, he could not risk alerting Mr Wolffram or Harald. With warning they might get away with it.

Corey dug his mobile phone out of his pocket and a hand reached out and took his wrist in a fierce grip.

‘Ah!’ said Corey at the sudden pain.

‘Drop the phone,’ said Harald.

‘You’ll pay for this,’ said Corey.

‘Pay for what?’ said Harald, ‘I assure you, neither Herr Wolffram nor I have done anything wrong. Now drop the phone.’

‘No,’ said Corey, ‘I’ll help that poor girl no matter what.’

‘Nothing you can do can help her now,’ said Harald.

‘You’re sick!’

‘Oh, am I?’ Harald twisted Corey’s arm behind his back, forced him to his knees and took his mobile phone, ‘Watch.’

Behind the bars the young woman was shaking violently.

‘Is she having some sort of attack?’ asked Corey.

‘She is turning for the first time,’ said Harald.

The woman was gripped by a series of convulsions. She clawed at her skin leaving long bloody lines. Corey saw something protruding from between her teeth. After a while he recognized it as a wolf snout. There was an audible crunch and rip as her face split apart and then a brown wolf shook bits of flesh and bone from its fur. The wolf snapped. It fell on the mattress tearing it to shreds so that the stuffing flew left and right, sticking to the blood on the floor and what was still left in the wolf’s fur. Then the wolf ran around the room, snapped at its own tail, barked and at last slumped onto the floor amongst the sorry remains of the mattress. For a short while the wolf just lay there on the floor panting. Then a grey wolf entered the room. It took a few steps towards the brown wolf, paused, took a few steps more. When it came close to the brown wolf, the grey one gave the other’s muzzle a careful lick. The brown wolf raised its head slightly and the grey one licked some more of the blood from its mate’s fur.

‘I’ll keep your phone,’ said Harald, ‘I promise you, it will be properly disposed of. By the time you can reach another phone from here, I’ll have tidied up the room and the newlyweds will be off into the forest. I suggest you hurry back to your car in case they attack you when they get out. Good night to you.’ Harald let go and walked up to the front door.

When Corey was back in his car gripping the wheel with trembling hands, he heard a long spine chilling howl. He never returned to the mansion.