Page 3 of Jacob Michaels Is Not Jacob Michaels

“Ernst,” I spoke through clenched teeth but did not turn my eyes away from the wolves, “go back in the house! Right now!”

The space of a single breath passed before Ernst had dashed forward, coming to stand before me, putting himself between me and wolves. Ernst was quick. There hadn’t been time to stop him from making himself a target.

“No!” He held a tiny hand up, palm out, towards the wolves. “Ya’ will leave the master alone!”

“ERNST!” I screamed at his insane display of bravado. “GET AWAY FROM TH—”

The three wolves all howled towards the sky again, then they were dashing towards him, teeth gnashing and red eyes glowing angrily. There was no other decision to make. Ernst vapor-locked at the sight of the wolves barreling down on him. I dashed forward and wrapped an arm around Ernst, enveloping him within my grasp as the wolves ran towards us at full speed. I held my other hand out at the wolves, as though this would stop them.

I want them to stop.

I don’t want to die.

I don’t want Ernst to be hurt.

“NO!” I screamed.

My vision flared as blistering fire erupted from my hand, flowing out in a violent wave towards the wolves. Ernst’s burrowed his face in my chest as the leader of the wolves ducked, barely avoiding the blast of fire. His counterparts were not so lucky. The wolf on his right was hit fully by the wall of flames, and the one on the left ducked a little too late, the wall of fire sliding across the side of him, singing off hair and melting skin underneath. I was breathing heavily, my hand still held out in front of myself, holding Ernst against me as the wolf leader snarled and growled but came no closer. The wolf who had taken the full force of the fire was whimpering and thrashing on the ground, and the other one was limping and yipping, putting itself behind the leader.

“Sir.” Ernst peeped.

“Shhhh, Ernst.” I silenced him, keeping my hand up.

Fire had just erupted from my hand.

I didn’t know how.

I didn’t care how.

Ernst and I were safe. For the moment. I didn’t want to drop my hand. The wolves needed to think that I knew what I had done, how I had done it, and that I was willing to do it again. They needed to believe that what I had done was very simple for me to do over and over again. Wolves that wanted to attack me didn’t need to know that I felt woozy but also energized. I felt…alive. The desire to burn all three wolves until they were nothing but ash in front of me filled me up, made my heart beat faster, but not from fear. I wanted to see them as scared of me as I had been of them.

I wanted pain.

Shaking my head clear of those thoughts, grimacing at the very idea of wanting to bring down pain and destruction, I glared at the lead wolf. He glared back, but he was slowly inching away as the other half-burnt wolf yipped and whimpered behind him. The wolf leader and I kept our eyes on each other as he backed up until he was alongside the fallen, crispy wolf before he finally bent down to break eye contact with me. He bit into the fallen wolf’s neck fur and started to drag the unconscious wolf towards the woods. Slowly, still keeping my eyes on the one-and-a-half wolves still on their feet, I rose from the ground as well, keeping Ernst firmly against me, and my other hand outstretched towards the wolves. As they backed off towards the woods, the leader dragging the unconscious wolf and the other limping and whimpering, I inched back towards the house.

Nearly stumbling, the heel of my foot found the steps up to Oma’s house, so I finally lowered my hand and turned. Racing up the steps, I slung the door open and delivered both Ernst and myself to the safety of the kitchen once again. Immediately, I slammed the door shut behind us and locked every lock on the door. I fell to my knees on the linoleum floor and released Ernst from my grasp, placing him to stand on the floor before me as I knelt there. Ernst stood there, staring at me with wide eyes as I laid my too large hands on his shoulders. My hands covered both of his shoulders and part of his neck. He was so small, and he had put himself between the wolves and me.

“What were you thinking, Ernst?” I shook my head, terrified of what could have happened. “You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“Me?” He scoffed, though he looked more worried than anything. “Ya’ almos’ got yourself killed, sir!”

I pulled one hand away from him to place it against my forehead, my eyes closing as I did my best to slow my heart.

“Are ya’ awright, sir?”

Taking a shaky breath, I did my best to nod as I squeezed Ernst’s shoulder gently with my other hand.

“I’m fine.”

That’s what I meant to say. Instead, I said it roughly twenty times, as though trying to convince myself that everything was just fine.

I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.

“Sir?” Ernst squeaked. “Ya’ are covered in mud, sir.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, my eyes shut tightly. “I know.”

“Le’s go get ya’ cleaned up, sir.”