Experiment in Terror 05.5 Old Blood Read Free Page A

anything, more than all the belts, more than the feeling of drowning in that ice cold lake.
    So I never mentioned it to my parents again but that did me no good. I should have known they’d investigate where the sinful idea came from and when they found out I’d be listening to the radio I was banned from going to Stäva’s. They didn’t care enough to ban me from seeing him in particular, just that I couldn’t listen to the radio. My ears couldn’t be polluted by foreign ideas. They even had a talk with his parents and to keep peace as neighbors, they agreed. What was it to Stäva’s parents anyway? They didn’t care if I couldn’t listen to the radio. One less child crowding their house.
    It didn’t break me, however. I merely became more resolved in my determination that I would be an actress one day. I’d find a way, somehow.
    But since I wasn’t allowed to spend too much time in Stäva’s home anymore, we were left to our own devices in the great outdoors. Playing in the hay and harassing goats became tiresome by the time I was nine, so we started going on after school jaunts into the woods.
    There was a part of me that was a little chicken over the tall trees and dark paths and I was forever on the lookout for a man with no face. He didn’t show up. But something else did. Something much more horrific.
    It was a cool, grey day in early fall. The leaves had just gone from crisp red to the color of soggy wood as they clung helplessly to the branches.
    Stäva was walking ahead of me as he did, leaves crunching beneath him. He was two years older and only lately did he start to grow into his age. He often walked ahead, pretending he was a woodland hunter, or perhaps a wily prince, and kept me behind him. I didn’t mind the protection, even if it was from an 11-year old.
    I also didn’t mind when he stopped on our walk at one point and took my hand in his. It was the first time I remember feeling the difference between us. He was a boy and I was a girl and that little thrill shot up my arm, the same feelings I imagined when I had listened to the more romantic parts of the radio shows.
    I suppose I was so awed by the simple gesture of hand holding that I didn’t hear the howl first. Suddenly Stäva’s grasp tightened on mine and his bright eyes searched the greying woods.
    “ What is it?” I asked, not used to seeing panic on his face.
    “ Did you hear that?”
    I tensed up and listened.
    I heard it. A howl, like a wolf or a wild dog. It came from our left and seemed to fill the trees like a blanket.
    I looked back at him with frightened eyes.
    “ We should head back,” he said.
    I nodded but just as we turned on the path I heard a child’s cry mixed in with the canine’s.
    I stopped and pulled hard on Stäva’s hand as he tried to keep walking.
    “ Listen!” I whispered hoarsely.
    “ We can’t be out here with wolves!” he yelled back, struggling to keep his voice down. All Swedish children were likely to have been told tales of vicious wolves in the wild woods. I had heard mine from my mother. But the human sounds made this story different.
    “ There’s a girl out there!” I told him as I heard another whimper coming from the same direction. I wasn’t actually sure if it was a girl or not, but they were young like us and needed our help.
    “ I don’t hear anything, come on,” Stäva said pulling at me again.
    “ No!” I yelled and ripped my hand out of his sweaty grip. “Listen again, you can hear it.”
    The wolf howled first. Then fierce, drooling growls swarmed us. And finally, the child’s cry.
    “ Daddy” I could hear the child yell.
    But Stäva was immune.
    “ I don’t hear anyone but wolves. We have to get out of here.”
    “ You go!” I said and then I turned around and took off at a gallop into the darkening trees, toward the horrendous sound of snapping jaws.
    I was aware of Stäva yelling behind me and perhaps for a bit he may have given chase. I certainly don’t