12.

I ran.

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, paying little to no attention to the swelling of my ankles as my feet pounded on the uneven ground. Perhaps a couple of low branches had snagged at my cuffs as I threw my arms out, swiping at them to clear a path in my panic; the front of one of my shoes colliding with a thick tree root at some point; but the pain paled in comparison to the sheer terror that gripped me.

I liked to believe I couldn't remember what I saw. That it all happened in a blur, so suddenly that it was easy to brush off as a figment of my imagination like it was in books... but this was not the case.

I remembered. Every miniscule detail of the past minute felt burned into my mind like a brand, still fresh and returning to me with the likeness of one. If I imagined what I saw that night was terrifying, the nightmarish revisit I had just experienced shed a much grimmer light on the creature than I could have ever imagined.

Whatever air was in my lungs had suddenly been expelled as if by a vacuum; my eyes widening, pupils dilating at the animal that now appeared, lingering barely a meter away from where I stood.

The animal was still. Frighteningly still. Its eyes bore into my own with a calculating, unblinking intensity to them that dawned dread upon me. For a wolf, it was too large, too tall; certainly, three or four times my size. Its fur was so thick, I was certain it could have survived winters infinitely harsher than the ones we experienced in Gwangsu. This couldn't have been right.

My disbelief, however, was quickly dispelled the moment I noticed it raise a single paw; a powerful, dangerous appendage that struck cold fear in me. I instantly recalled the night I felt its weight against my throat; something sickly stirring at the pit of my stomach at even the thought of how I had almost died of suffocation.

It rose on its hind legs and stalked forward; the creature's eyes not once leaving my own. Heart pounding rapidly, head spinning, adrenalin and terror wreaking havoc on my senses, I could only manage a shaky step back; the relentless quivering of my limbs carrying me no more than that before failing. I dropped to the ground; pain shooting up my rear and lower back; and felt the fear rise again like a wave as the wolf slowly and soundlessly closed the gap between us.

Tears threatened to invade my vision again. My lungs betrayed me; the air coming in in such short breaths, I felt as if I was tied down to shallow waters, taking in sips of liquid instead of air.

The predator was now inches away from me when I scrambled in desperation. I brought my knees up against my chest; the loud thumping of my heart the only thing I could hear. I knew my chances at escape were futile when my back suddenly collided with the base of a tree; the trunk halting me in my tracks to put distance between us. And more alarmingly, leaving me wide open for attack.

To my dreadful expectations, the wolf closed in on the opportunity. It had closed the gap between us entirely now; its eyes still unblinking, terrifying despite the brilliant colour; and I could only watch as its presence swallowed me whole like an ocean.

It leaned forward and instinctively, I held whatever I could of the shallow breaths my panic allowed; the thought of my death once again a dreadful reality to relive. It was unlike the nightmares I experienced; the dread and the chills that came with it too vivid to shake off. I could only conjure the horrific ways I could go. Too afraid to look away from its jaws, it quickly occurred to me it could have perhaps come to deal last month's finishing blow. That it would at any instant now strike me with its massive paw and crush the little air left in me out.

The thought prompted another cold wave of fear; the thought of death returning, playing over and over menacingly... and yet the more I waited in fearful anticipation of the strike, it never came.

The wolf continued to stare. The proximity was stifling and had reduced me to a nausea so intense I felt bile threaten to rise at the back of my throat. My composure; or whatever little of it was left; was wearing thin.

But the wolf regarded me with a look unreadable; its stark ivory eyes trained on my own that now welled unshed tears at the thought of my end. It came closer, completely dispelling any traces of proximity that remained between us, and without thought or reason or care, a whimper spilt from my lips.

Unexpectedly, the sound seemingly prompted the beast to move away. Frightened by the sudden movement, I shoved my back against the tree as far as I could, fighting not to crumple right then and there. The wolf moved left; its body stalking a semi-circle around me, however its eyes were still intent on my form. I watched as it disappeared behind me; the soft crackle of the forest floor the only thing I fought to concentrate on beside my racing heart. And after what seemed like a long, gruelling hour of waiting for it to leave, the only word that came to me was 'run'.

It was a risky move. One that could have undoubtedly wound me in a situation I couldn't escape from. Yet as I sprinted through the forest in the direction a little way off from whence I came, the fact that I was still on my feet meant I succeeded... or that it simply let me go.

There was no explanation for the last of my thoughts. Not with my heart beating in my throat and my shins burning as I felt my elbow collide with a tree in passing, grazing the skin, leaving behind what I could only imagine was a raw impression under my sleeve. The pain was sudden and excruciating, but I couldn't bring myself