Hollow Man

She wanders to him. The Hollow Man tucked away in the woods. The serenade of his violin rides high on the wind, leading her onward. Her bare feet, white in the shadow, pad over rocks and bramble. She doesn't wince or whimper. Her eyes staring ahead, veiled by the warbling notes of the violin. Her movements move in time with the playing of the Hollow Man measured, heels just grazing over the grass for a moment.

She left her room to come to him, the girl whose family is sleeping through his beautiful music. They will find her absent at breakfast, and when they come up to her room to wake her, the only thing will be the unsettled blankets of her bed. The imprint of her head in a pillow healed completely. The mother will cry, the father will hunt, with his baying dogs and louder men who are looking for the girl and the Hollow Man.

But now, it is gravity, and the girl is pulled to him, and he is drawing her in with every swipe of his bow, for her, underneath the curled claw of the crescent.

The Hollow Man is propped against a boulder in his clearing in the woods. His left cheek pressed against the curvature of his instrument. Half of his face eclipsed by the moonlight, like the celestial bodies themselves. His one exposed eye is closed, his fingers tracing over the silvery strings as he plays for the girl who is walking through the woods.

Wolves trot on the outskirts of his realm. Hollow Man tenses. He pulls his hands away from his violin, he looks out at the woods. The silhouettes of the wolves’ waver behind the gaps of the packed trees. They bark and growl to each other, kicking up dead leaves and earth as they roam past. One breaks away from the pack, padding toward the clearing, its bared teeth shining in the dark, golden eyes burning at the Hollow Man.

The girl waits in the distance, her body wilted with no music. Faded eyes stare ahead. Leaves dust over her feet as the wind wanders past.

Her family will wonder what got into her. Why did she leave on such an important day like today. Did she not want love? Did she not like him after all? They will ask. They will just be questions for the past for vacant air. For the moments when they are alone, and she wanders into the woods of their mind. They will ask, why?

Hollow Man raises his bow, eyes on the wolf. It presses past the ring of packed trees, it's body low against the earth, hackles raised and eyes glowing at the Hollow Man.

"You will not interfere," says the Hollow Man, his bow braced against the body of his violin.

The wolf growls. The Hollow Man glares. The wolf snarls as the Hollow Man holds his bow. The wolf bolts toward Hollow Man, it's teeth shining and claws tearing the ground. Hollow Man presses the bow against the violin. He watches the wolf running toward him.

"I forbid it," he says through his teeth.

He jerks the bow up in one motion. A sharp note jolts through the air. The girl in the woods winces. The wolf whimpers, shaking his head.. His left ear is slashed into two sections. His eyes tore away into a pulp ingrained on his face, bone shines through his muzzle, glistening in the wash of blood flooding his fur and filling the air with iron. He whines and howls, shaking his head but his eyes, aren't opening. His ear is not moving. His body is burning. He shrinks down to the earth, whining and writhing, his muscles rolling under his fur as he attempts to breathe through the pain.

A member of the pack halts running with the group at the scent of fresh blood in the air. The group takes notice, slowing to a standstill. They sniff the air, their eyes scanning the wood for the wounded creature. A whine peaks. Their ears fold against their heads. They sniff each other. The vinegar of fear seeps from them. They turn to their Alpha, a white veteran of harsh winters and harsher summers, with scars curving along her body, stares ahead at the barred trees. Her ears peak toward the clearing. Her claws dig into the earth. She bares her teeth. She bolts up the slope toward the Hollow Man's territory, her pack trailing behind her. A streamline of broad bodies etched in moon bounding through the night, their eyes glowing throw the shadows, ruffs bristled as the briar, thundering with snarls across the forest floor.

The Hollow Man smirks, he braces his bow against the bridge of his violin. The wolf whimpers as it frantically tracks where it came from.

The girl wilts in the wood, her head bowed to her chest and arms limp. The wind tassels her white hair as it scurries past, pouncing from treetop to treetop, filling the air with the racket of bare branches clattering into one another. Her hair snaps at the air like a pale blaze, reaching at the gale and the pitch of the night to be uprooted and free.

Her feet shift on the mud in the chorus of the wind and the trees.

The Hollow Man senses the shift in his prey. She is starting to wake from the trance. He glares at the wolf with his one eye. The beast is now lying flat on the ground, his back to him, whining low to the forest.

"I've warned you wolves before, you will not interfere with me," says the Hollow Man. With a swift movement he grates the bow across the bridge that fills the air with music that claws at the skull. The wolf pitches in pain, his cry tearing out to the night, to the moon who watches over, to his pack who is racing toward him.

The Hollow Man looks over the wolf, bleeding on the earth. Two gashes curve over his back, exposing the torn pulleys of muscle. The wolf whimpers, exhales blood bubbling around his nose.

"I hope my music brings you some peace," says the Hollow Man, props up against his boulder once again. He rolls his bow across the bridge, pressing his fingertips into the strings to make beautiful symphonic that lift and crescendo onto the wood. The woman roots back into her trance, walking in time with the four-count of his playing.

Alpha prowls to the edge of the Hollow Man's clearing and lays. Her comrades press against her as they settle beside her. Ahead of them is the limp body of their comrade lying in a pool of blood while the Hollow Man plays his song.

Alpha growls and nudges the shoulder of the wolf to her left. He blinks at her. She nods to the arc of the barred trees. He whines, then leads the members on the left around the clearing until she can look across to see him lying parallel to her. She nudges the she-wolf on the right, and she follows suit, leaving Alpha alone, glaring at the Hollow Man.

The man hums as the song lifts higher and higher, a waltz that swings in the gale. He rocks on his heels, eyes closed, longing to dance with the woman who is coming to attend his private concert in the clearing.

The woman pads through the briar, unrevoked by the thorns caught in her heels, her eyes staring ahead at the crown of trees that stands before her on top of a hill. She lifts up the skirt of her dress, now tattered like parchment paper, and braces as she treads up the hill, pebbles skittering under her weight, pushing her back to the base of the mount. The violin calls out to her, warbling on the winds, cooing her to come closer. The woman got on all fours, climbing up the rocky slope, the edges of the stones slicing into her palms. She pushes on, hooking her fingers around roots to heave her body.

Alpha's ears prick at the clatter of stones tumbling. She turns to see a woman climbing up the hill. Her dress was torn and her eyes blank. She stares at Alpha, but no fear etches into her face.

Alpha growls at the woman. She doesn't flinch. Her hands are full of stones as she attempts to inch closer to the clearing, the music swelling in the air. Alpha bares her teeth at the woman, but she doesn't care. Her mind is underwater, deaf to the world and the creatures that are warning her that this is a place you shouldn't wander.

Alpha growls, she pivots to see the Hollow Man in the clearing, his eyes closed as he plays on, his arm swaying as he laces his bow over the strings. Her pack shifts behind the man, their eyes on their leader. Alpha presses her body close to the earth. Where she feels the tremors of the woman coming and the echoes of the stones fall down the hill. She glares at the Hollow Man, her lips pulled back in a snarl. She breaks through the trees and enters the clearing, crouching beside her comrade. He whimpers at her scent and raises his head to press his nose into her side. His blood staining her pure fur.

She growls louder at the Hollow Man, who is slowing down his playing. His one eye opens and lands on her. He raises the bow over the body. A smirk curves on his face.

The woman halts on the hill. Four-legged and etched in the moonlight. The stones shift under her stance.

The Hollow Man chuckles at the Alpha. She snarls at him. Her claws digging into the earth.

Her packmates stare at her with round eyes behind the trees.

"I can put you down too, dog," says the Hollow Man.

Alpha snarls, her teeth shining in the moonlight. Her ruff bristled and ears pulled toward the woman on the hill side of the slope, where she was waiting on all fours with pebbles teething her palms.

"So be it," says the Hollow Man.

He throws down his arm to strike the violin. A chord pitches. Alpha reels back as the air slices at her neck, the open air burns her fresh flesh. Another wolf springs from the shadow and latches onto his right arm. A crunch of bone breaking into bone enters the air as the dark wolf scrapes his teeth against marrow. The Hollow Man reels in pain, screaming out to the night sky, his voice pitched like a snapped cord. The she-wolf clamps her maw around the Hollow Man’s shoulder. He falls to the earth, the pack erupts from the night and rip into the Hollow Man, who screams to the night and the sky and the moon who are quiet. His arms reach out toward the sky, tattered skin and ribbons of blood washed flesh. The pack members face washed red from the sprays of the Hollow Man who is fading away on the forest floor.

Alpha stands before the deconstruction of the Hollow Man. Her head is raised as her eyes look down on him. One eye stares up at her. His jaw exposed jaw clattering as he mouths screams.

She throws her head back and howls, her voice careening up to the sky.

Her pack mates peel away from the Hollow Man to sing with her; a chorus of canines celebrating a successful hunt. The Hollow Man, washed with red and covered in tattered skin, grasps the earth with his sinewy hands. Blood bubbles around his ribboned mouth as he drags himself forward. The pack turns their head to him. Their eyes round from the shift of their prey. Alpha growls, her mates bow their heads in submission. Alpha pads forward, her shadow casts over his body. Hollow Man lifts his head. Two cavities stare at the Alpha.

“Do it then,” the Hollow Man mumbles over spit and blood.

Alpha lets all of her packmates eyes rest on her. She raises her head. She lets them see the crescent of red that has stained her throat. She lets them watch her look down on a monster. She lets them relax in their stances. She lets them growl and bark as they wait in silence that is just as filter of the clearing as the scent of iron.

Alpha lunges for his throat, driving her teeth against his vocal chords. He coughs and presses his palms against her face. The song of the Hollow Man, a warble of shade. Her pack howls to the night. The bone tipped fingers of Hollow Man curve over Alpha’s brow. She feels the pressure of him pressing down on her skull.

She twists her neck and feels weight as Hollow Man goes silent. She spits out his throat, watching his body drop onto the earth.

Hollow Man, is now just as what he always was, hollow, and he will turn from hollowness to an echo of empty ribs and caverntous eye sockets as he dissolves from the wood. The pack sniffs the carcass, Alpha barks at them. The submit, withdrawing from the body.

“Ah!”

Alpha turns to see the woman collapsed at the edge of the clearing near the now silent wolf.. Her heels are bleeding from the briars and stones driven into them during her trek. The woman stares at the back with round eyes, small sounds break through the air as she claws at her feet, plucking the debri furiously.

Alpha pads toward the girl. Her head low as she moves closer. The girl’s body shakes as her shadow canvasses her, tears fall down her cheeks. She looks over her shoulder at Alpha.

The human is young, she has started to shift into adulthood, her muddied cheekbones breaking through her round face, her eyes brilliant with horror at an outside world. She looks down at her fallen member, his body finally resting from his pain.

Alpha looks at the girl. She stares ahead at the other side of the clearing, her fingernails curved around the thorns in her feet. Her body rigid. The vinegar of fear is seeping from her skin, she picks her nails against the sharpened edges that grind against her bones. Salt peppers the air. Alpha perks up at the tears running over her face.

Alpha presses her node against the girl’s cheek, her body wilts under the touch, she bows her head to submit, her shoulders shaking as she whimpers. Alpha whines into the girls ear and licks her cheek. The girl turns to the wolf. Alpha holds her gaze for a moment.

The she wolf turns to her pack, who are staring at them, their eyes shifting from one to the other like the wind through the tress. Alpha looks past them, noting the edges of the horizon starting to brighten with the return of the Sun. Her ears swiveled this way and that as the birds began to stir from their roosts.

Alpha turns to the girl and nudges her shoulder. The girl studies her for a moment. Her eyebrows unwind and a small smile curve on her face.

“I think I understand,” she says.

Alpha snorts and weaves herself so that the girl may use her back to push herself up. The dark she wolfs pads from the pack and braces the girl on the other side. She studies the other wolf, tears troll down her cheek. She spreads her hands across their backs. The wolves tense their muscles.

“Thank you,” the girl says.

“Ah!”

Alpha whimpers as the girl’s hand grips her fur. She could feel the weight of the girl press against her spine, how her arm shook. How her fingers twisted into her fur.

“Please, lord, please,” the girl said between her teeth.

Alpha looked ahea d at her pack, a white male wolf broke away from the group to stand beside his leader, then a black male on the other side, another took up the rear, then another,until,

She stopped shaking, The girl’s hand cradled Alpha’s back.

“Thank you, sweet creatures, thank you so much,” the girl said.

The pack and the girl pivoted inch by inch to leave the clearing they had entered from.

“Wait,” the girl said.

The pack halted. Alpha looked up at her. The girl was looking down on the dead member of the pack. So still. The wind combing through its matted pelt.

“Thank you, dear wolf, you deserve peace,” she said.

Alpha craned her neck to look on the wolf. How silent he was, his eyes closed and mouth paerted as if he was howling for them.

“Okay, I am ready,” said the girl.

The pack shifted around her like muscles with every move she made. They waded down the stone slope, pressed against her legs until they were on solid ground. Sunlight was now bleaching the balding trunks of sycamores and pines golden. The air was full of birdsong. Creatures like squirrels now bounded through the canopy uninterrupted by the instruments of man. As the troop ventured onward, the bony wintered branches rattled louder and louder as if cheering for girl.

“I had heard about him before,” the girl said as the forest thinned.

Alpha looked to the girl. Her eyes stared ahead at the forest. Her face was dappled by the patchwork of the canopy, her lips pulled back into a frown.

“Mother always said to lock your door at night, for he will take you, and then you’ll be gone forever,” she said. Her voice was quiet. A robin alarm sounded through the trees as the girl and her entourage of wolves now padded out of the groves of trees. The girl exhaled as her feet now landed upon soft pine needles. Alpha felt her fingers relax against her shoulders, where they had reined her in during the trek. In the distance, they could now see a stretch of rolling green fields with the rooftops of a village peaking around the curves of hills.

“We had lost so many women, my sisters, aunts, I am the only-,”

The pack halted. Alpha whimpered as the girl’s hip slammed against her ribcage.

“I am sorry,” the girl said. Alpha rubbed her head against the girl, the scent of man rose in the wind. Alpha peeled away and sniffed the air. Her packmates raised their heads as well, ingesting the mulled odors of gunpowder and plants and fear and drink. In the fields, Alpha saw packs of men petering through the tall grass, voices rose and fell, screaming for a Frere Vail.

The girl’s hands twisted into Alpha’s fur. She was staring at the men, her eyes rimmed with tears.

Alpha barked and led the pack onward. Step after step however, a member would peel away from the formation. First the elders that had sworn they would never go near humans, then their kin, then the young ones, until it wad Alpha and the girl on the edge of the beasts world.

Alpha led the girl down the grassy lip of the wood, toward the closest group of men. The girl held on by the scruff, her weigh racketing into her side as they measured down the decline.

“It’s them, dear friend, it’s them,” the girl said under her breath.

A burly man leading the closest group halted in his tracks. Alpha met his gaze. His eyes widened, and his mouth grew wider. He raised his hand and pointed at the girl. Alpha lowed a growl. She bristled under her hands. Two men came to the firsts side. They gawked at them too.

“It is alright, my friend, come on,” the girl whispered.

Alpha relaxed, inching toward the three. She felt them studying her with their sharp eyes, their pale hands gripping harder things that were drenched in fear.

“Don’t touch the wolf, Jan, she is a friend,” the girl muttered. She leaned against Alpha. The shewolf stood beside the girl. The men came closer, glancing at one another as they did. The burly one came forward first.

“She is covered in blood,” he said. He offered a broad hand to Frere, his beady gaze sewn onto Alpha’s stained pelt. Alpha tensed as her weight left her side. The girl leaned against the man called Jan, her hands balling up on his chest as if she would rein in the man too. They met each other’s eyes. Jan furrowed his thick brow at Frere, whose eyes were watering once again.

“Hollow Man, Jan, it was him,” Frere said. Her lip shivered. Jan noted how tattered her dress was, the rips ending at her hips.

Jan tensed. His hands encompassed Frere’s.

“Are you sure?”

Frere nodded. Tears trailed down her neck. The two men beside Jan glanced at one another. Alpha turned her head as another pack of men walked up their hill toward them.

“Louis, Killian, she escaped the -,”

“He’s dead, Jan,” Frere said.

Jan looked at the girl. He furrowed his eyebrows at her. His thumbs brushed over her hands, then paused as the other men flanked him. He bit his lip. Alpha scented fear from hum. Jan bit his lip. The new group eyed Alpha then Jan and Frere holding hands before them.

“The wolves – they killed him, I saw the body, the white wolf, she commited the final blow,”

Alpha met each mans eye. They would not meet her gaze.

Jan looked down at Alpha. There were tears in the man’s eyes. He bit his lip.

“You’re pack, the kin of your kind will not be harmed by the likes of me, wolf,” Jan said with a bow of his head. The men dropped to their knees in front of Alpha. The she-wolf backed up, looking over the men. They stared down at the rippling grass, allowing the beast to gaze and not fear death. Frere smiled down at Alpha. She dropped to her knees before the wolf. Alpha padded to her, and rubbed her face against her cheek. Frere chuckled in her ear, placing her hands against her cheeks to look into her eyes.

“May you live long enough to see me have a baby girl, and not be afraid that she be called to the woods,”

Alpha parted, running through the grass with the wind that roared in her ears, with the Sun and eyes on her back as she disappeared, evaporating like snow in the woods, where the Hollow Man is no longer known.