Rica and Eddie helped the woozy Lupita into the house. They carried her to a secure bedroom lined with crosses and pure silver on the door and windows.

“Hey, sleep in here for a while,” said Rica placing Lupita on the bed against the room wall. Rica stepped away from Lupita to inspect the bedroom security. She gripped the two inch thick steel bars in the window, they didn’t move.

“Wow! There’s no getting in or out of here. Who built this house?” she asked Eddie.

“It’s a fortified stash house. The cartels bought these off trail properties to hide money, drugs, and people away from prying eyes.”

Rica scanned the dark woods outside the barred window, “We’re certainly in the sticks.”

“Yeah, the perfect place to bury a body, eh!” grunted Eddie.

Rica sensed Eddie’s fatigue, his wound slowed him. “How’s your shoulder?” she asked.

“Hurts like hell and I can’t move it, but I can still fight.”

“Fight? We’re not fighting anyone, we just have to wait here till morning when the Lopez crew come and get this girl, right?” she asked, showing her adolescence.

Eddie lit a cigarette and grinned before answering, “Rica, my boss knew you’d get his daughter to this house and into that room, and that’s what he wanted. But whether you live after that is not his concern.”

She didn’t grasp his meaning, “Wait, I know what you explained to me in the car about these... ‘wolf men’, and I promise you I believe you...but Eddie, we drove over a hundred miles to get here...so even if those things-”

“You stupid little girl,” Lupita yelled, cutting Rica off. “What’s a hundred miles to Rafa? He can feel my soul, and he’ll come for me here and tear your head off!” she growled, her eyes shifting back and forth from brown to yellow.

“Lupita, shut up!” yelled Eddie, gesturing for Rica to exit the room while he locked Lupita inside with a silver laced deadbolt. Nothing would get in or out of that room.

“Silver, it’s god’s metal,” said Eddie, pointing at the lacing on the door of Lupita’s room. From a hallway drawer he pulled out a flat box with silver ornaments, crosses and one silver dagger.

“Here, wear a cross,” he handed Rica a cross necklace, “And this dagger is costume, but it’s all in how you use it,” he said cracking a smile, showing her a mock stabbing motion.

Not done, Eddie pulled one round from his forty-five revolver and displayed the bullet head.

“See that, it’s silver, I got six of them!”

Rica knew his silver bullets wouldn’t penetrate much past the skin of any animal. However, her question remained.

“Do you think those things are coming here?” she asked.

“Yes, they are, it’s what they do,” he reloaded the bullet. “And what Lupita said about that thing following her heart...was true.”

Holstering his gun, he continued, “And also, um...I’m sorry I doubted you back there… I mean, you being what? How old are you? Twelve?”

“Eleven,” she corrected.

“Eleven? Jesus Christ! Well, after I saw what you did to those things...I thought maybe my boss wasn’t just sending me on a one way mission to get my limbs torn off rescuing his sick puppy daughter.”

“Yeah, that bitch is crazy!” Rica blurted out.

“Haha, yeah Lupita’s a fucking whack job,” he chuckled, holding his shoulder.

Jokes aside, Rica now understood they’d be under siege. Not expecting a fire fight she only brought her M24 rifle, her 9mm semi, and not enough ammo. She holstered her gun and checked her rifle, prepping her mind for the fight ahead.

“Eddie.”

“Yes?”

“They’re gonna surround the house, probe it. Find the weakest window, and they will get in. So right now we need to-”

“It’s too late, they’re outside now,” said Eddie, staring at the front door.

“What?” she yelped as the house rumbled the house rumbled from a piercing howl from Lupita’s room. The howl shook more than the house.

“Gulp! T-They’re just trying to scare us!” said Rica, her rifle trembling in her hands.

“Scare us? You mean kill us!” said Eddie, running to check the rear.

Another howl, this time from outside. Rica ran to the front window and scanned the dark yard. One...creature..stood on the hood of Eddie’s car, kicked the front windshield in and ripped out the steering wheel.

“Holy jeez, they’re strong,” Rica muttered, and the house rumbled again.

“Three little piggies in a house in the woods, hm hm hm hm!” boomed a voice through the house vents.

“It’s the leader, he’s on the side of the house!” yelled Rica.

“Hmm...I hear you little girl piggy...you thought you killed me? Hm? You didn’t. I will admit you surprised me...all of us. But we’re better now, and we will huff and puff-”

“And blow it out your ear Rafa, you four legged fuck! Come on, we’re ready for you!” shouted an angry Eddie, itching for a fight.

“Hm hm hm,” chuckled Rafa, “Eddie...I recognized your scent, and I will kill you first...but the little girl, I’ll kill slowly!”

Crashing glass followed Rafa’s words. From outside the...wolfmen...tossed a garbage can at the steel bars in the kitchen window. Another crash, this time they threw Eddie’s steering wheel at the window, and bent the bars.

Rica darted into the kitchen with Eddie. He stood back from the window pointing his forty-five, waiting for something to climb in.

“If they come through here!” he vowed, shaking with adrenaline.

“No, b-be cool, it’s a trap,” stuttered Rica, glaring at the damaged window bars, scared to death.

“Awoooooo!...pretty little girl, I can hear your heartbeat! Hm hm hm hm,” taunted Rafa’s voice. Another crash shook the house, the bathroom window.

“They’re in the house!” yelled Rica, gripping her rifle tight and moving toward the front of the house, and the crash, before..

“Ah…” Rica gaped at the imposing sight. The creature, eight feet long from nose to tail with monstrous chest and shoulders, rushed the rifle girl at full speed. Rica froze in his yellow eyes, ready to die….until she blinked, and fired.

Fwap!

Her rifle shot entered the creature’s mouth exiting and blowing out his ear. He howled in pain but never stopped rushing. Rica rechambered a round as the creature slashed at her hand, slapping her rifle across the room.

“Shit!” she cried, reaching in her back holster for 9mm, pistol. But Eddie beat her to it.

“Fuck you, die!” hollered Eddie, firing his forty-five in the monster’s face.

Eddie shot the monster twice before a second claw slashed his firing hand, then smacked him, hurtling him across the kitchen. He landed hard on his back.

“Eddie?” Rica shouted.

“Rica..run!” gasped Eddie, struck down by the second wolf, the one arm.

“Not an option” she screamed, then aimed her 9 mm and emptied a ten round clip in the one armed monster’s face and chest.

The one arm reeled back howling in pain, but he never dropped. Rica ran toward her rifle while reloading her pistol when. Pop! Pop! Eddie fired two rounds and struck the third wolf, Rafa, who charged at Rica.

Rica recovered her rifle, spun and thrust it into Rafa’s gut, infuriating him. Rafa howled and slashed down at Rica, who blocked with her rifle. But Rafa’s overhand blow slammed the preteen assassin to the floor, knocking her senseless.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Ow..wha..” her eyes opened, and the one arm and Rafa pounced down on her, as she lay on her back.

‘No, not to you...I’m a goddamn Rifle Girl..I won’t lose to you... here in this house…’

Before the beasts landed, Rica flipped her rifle up, and fired, Fwap!

The large caliber round struck the one arm’s jaw, destroying it. The one arm roared and fell back near death. But the shot missed Rafa, who quickly slashed Rica’s side, hurling her into the kitchen near Eddie.

Adrenaline flowing Rica lifted herself and fell back down staring at a hurt Rafa wolf, who kept his distance, “Why..doesn’t he attack?”

“He’s hurt! the bullets..Rica the silver!” said Eddie, pointing his gun toward the stumbling Rafa.

“Ow..you’re right!” said Rica grabbing her hip and viewing a deep three scratch wound. She glanced at the wolf Rafa who tended to the first wolf that ran in the room. The first wolf lay dead from Eddie’s two shots.

Rafa howled over his companion, too far away for Eddie to take a shot. Worse, When Eddie fell from being hurled in the kitchen, he broke his back and couldn’t feel his left leg. Rica didn't fare better.

“Owwww.., I think I have a concussion..ow,” said Rica, her pupils dilating. In the fight with Rafa Rica lost her rifle again. It lay twelve feet away, next to the recovering one arm wolf, who’d soon stand up again.

“Rica, snap out of it, Rafa’s coming back..Rica?”

“It’s ok, Eddie I got him, i just gotta take one more hit...it’s gonna hurt,” she mumbled, lifting herself off the ground and recovering her dropped 9mm. The Rafa wolf growled, then spoke in a labored voice.

“You and that dead man Eddie, you think your silver cap gun can kill me?”

Rica called his bluff, “Yes, I do. So come closer and let Eddie shoot you!”

“Hm hm hm, feisty little girl...Had I met you in a past life I’d make you mine..”

“Nope, never happen. In any life I’d skin you and make you a rug, heh heh!” Rica taunted, pointing her gun at the wolf.

“Hmm? But it seems I will be skinning you, child. Hm hm hm!”

“‘Hm hm’ is that all you do is snicker like a girl? Man, I can’t even make you a pet!” she barked.

The Rafa wolf, paced

“Rica, the silver bullets hurt him. He’s buying time, waiting for that one armed wolf to recover.

Rica glanced over at the one arm. He lay on the floor recouping, his jaw almost healed. The calm before another attack.

“Eddie, I gotta get my rifle,” said Rica pulling the silver costume dagger out of her pocket. Not sharp nor strong, but silver. She limped up and faced the one arm across the floor. The one arm recovered to his three legs and growled at Rica.

“Soooo, You want your rifle little girl? Then come to me, and take it,” the one arm baited.

Both wolves kept a semi circle around Rica and Eddie, staying clear of Eddie’s shot range. Rica gauged the distance of her rifle, gripped her 9mm, and took a deep breath.

“Eddie.”

“Yeah?”

“.....Please don’t miss!”

“I won’t.”

With nothing left in her tank Rica ran at the one arm and fired four shots at him. He reeled back dodging two of the shots.

She fired two more shots forcing him away from her rifle. At this distance her non-silver bullets pushed him back enough to reach her bayoneted weapon.

“Nya!” she yelled in proud contempt, spinning to face the backed up one arm, who grinned at her with his wolf snout. His eyes locked behind her.

‘What’s he looking at? Oh no!,’ Rica spun again and Rafa appeared. He waited for her to separate from Eddie and stabbed his claw at her rifle, slamming it and Rica to the wall. But before he struck again, Rica did something odd. She screamed his name.

“Rafaaaaa!”

For reasons unknown to anyone but him, the Rafa wolf stopped his attack for a moment, and glared in the eyes of the preteen Rica Reyes. A moment in time Eddie needed to aim true, and not miss. He fired a silver bullet and the round smashed Rafa’s skull, knocking him off of Rica.

“Rafa? Raaah!” growled the leaping one arm flying at Rica’s face. She sidestepped to his missing limb, and using his jump momentum, she jammed the silver dagger through his throat and brain. The one arm landed on Rica, his force and weight so massive it hammered her to the floor.

Rica lay on her back with the giant dead wolf on top of her. “Oww….Eddie!..Everything hurts,” Rica whimpered. And Eddie responded with a scream, and a shot.

“Raaah! I killed you! I killed you you motherfucker, cough! cough!”

“Eddie what happened?..I can’t see you!” she yelled staring in the one arm’s dead yellow eyes.

“Cough, aww man, Rafa got up, cough...but I killed him..cough!”

“Eh? Eddie?”

With zero strength Rica pulled herself out from under the dead one arm to help Eddie. Now on her feet she gasped at the scene before her.

Rafa the wolf lay dead on the floor, his head burst like a melon from a gunshot between his eyes. And next to the wolf lay Eddie, bleeding out, clawed open from face to gut. Rica limped over to him.

“Eddie, oh man..he got you good, hunh?” she tried to smile, she tried to help.

“Yeah man, the first shots were too far away, that's why he got back up and rushed me again. But that last one...that fucked him up! heh heh cough, cough” Eddie’s eyes sunk as he coughed blood.

“Eddie, just sit up, maybe…”

“Nah..it hurts…Hey, that was a smart move you shouting Rafa’s name...I ….” his eyes rolled back.

“Eddie! keep talking to me!” Rica tapped his face keeping his gaze on her.

“Cough, cough..right, you shouted..and Raffa stopped...heh heh….” Eddie smiled and stared into Rica's sad eyes, “ Wow..What a fucked up little girl you are! Ha ha cough, cough” he laughed, caressing Rica’s black hair with his bloody hand, and then he stopped breathing.

“Eddie? …...Eddie?” Nothing. Rica closed his eyes and prayed for him.

“Bendición Eddie, and thank you.”

From the locked room Lupita screamed obscenities at the world, music to Rica’s ears. Lupita’s rant masked a loud phone ring. Curious, Rica limped over the dead wolf bodies to the source of the ringing. A big boxy phone inside a closet blaring like a school bell, an encrypted line. Rica answered.

“Hello?...Oh..Yeah, she’s here…..Eddie?...no, he didn’t make it...right, right...you do that.”

When she hung up a second phone rang. This time her mobile in her bag in the side room. She limped over to retrieve and answer it.

“Hello?..Eh?  Nyaaaaaaaaa! I’m safe!” she whined to the caller, “Yesh, the mark is an idiot, but she’s safe too...I’m just waiting for them to pick her up and pay me.”

As Rica spoke she checked her bloody side wound then faced the bodies in the kitchen, that is...

“Holy..no no no, no fucking way!” Rica gripped her phone and dropped to her knees, trembling.

She gazed out into the kitchen and main room and saw one thing, Eddie’s corpse. The three wolf bodies...were gone.

From the locked room Lupita, now human, banged on the door continuing her profanity laced tirade at Rica while the caller on the line frantically yelled Rica’s name asking her, ‘What happened?’

and Rica answered,

“..The strangest thing..”