Sanctuary Read online

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  That night Benji did have strange dreams, but they weren’t of chess. He was running barefoot in the forest, following a figure that glowed like moonlight. It was a woman in a white dress with a ragged hem, revealing strong iridescent legs that bounded quickly away. Benji tried desperately to get close enough to see her face, but she remained ahead of him in the shadows of the trees. He could hear her weeping, but she kept running.

  As Benji followed, his brother came up beside him; somehow walking but still keeping pace with Benji’s quick strides. He was dark though, like a negative copy of Tyler. When Benji tried to look directly into his face it changed. The skin roiled and became a black wolf’s face with Tyler’s body. It growled and lunged at Benji in the darkness and he stumbled backward to get away from it, falling and losing the white figure in the process.

  Benji braced for an attack, but the Wolf-Tyler was gone and, he found himself huddled at the edge of a cliff. The bright woman was waiting a few paces away, her face turned to the sky. Benji stood up slowly, noticing for the first time that it wasn’t really dark; everything was just gray like a bad black and white movie. He approached the figure, overcome with need to see her face. He reached out to touch her shoulder but just before his fingertips brushed the sleeve of her dress she turned and faced him.

  It was his mother! She was here! She gave a curt shake of her head. No. It wasn’t Mom. It was Sarah. It was his sister before him on the cliff with tears leaving even brighter tracks down her face. She was crying in rivulets of moonlight. Her eyes were frightened and sad, but it just made Benji angry. Why was his sister here and not his mother? He didn’t care about Sarah! Where was Mom?! Sarah could not take her place! Enraged, he reached back without thinking to shove her over the cliff.

  A howl stopped him, mid-motion. He and the glowing Sarah faced the sound. Three wolves stepped out of the forest. Pacing across the shadowy landscape, one wolf was black, one was gray, and one was a dark red, the only color in this washed out world. Benji took a step back automatically, forgetting the cliff and stumbling backwards. Sarah grabbed him before he fell and pushed him to safety, but the wolves sprang forward in attack. In the midst of claws and teeth, Sarah was ripped away. Benji watched her fall clutching the snarling red wolf in a desperate embrace. She disappeared into the darkness, her light going out.

  The other two wolves had stopped to see her fall. The Black wolf looked up at Benji, before its fur disappeared, sucked into its skin, and it stood facing him like a human. It was Tyler again, except this Tyler had red eyes and black blood dripping from his mouth. This Tyler wasn’t human. The Not-Tyler bared fangs and growled. Benji stepped back, but it rushed him with inhuman speed, teeth snapping as if it was still a wolf.

  Benji woke breathing heavily. It was dark out, but regular dark, not gray. It was just a dream, a strange, stupid dream, he thought. Sleep was making his mind fuzzy. Benji untangled his covers and sat up. He didn’t see any glowing Sarahs or Wolf-Tylers. Just a dream, he thought, collapsing back into his pillows. He fell asleep again, shoving the nightmare away.

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  Chapter 10: Run