Death in Autumn- Part 7

Maggie Saundler crawled down the street, pulling herself along by her hands, scratching her stiff knees against the gravelly concrete. Tears streamed down her paralysed face, her glasses had fallen off when she'd tumbled off her wheelchair after her family- her father, step-mother and two brothers- had run home because a growling noise from the forest had stirred their panic. Her disability wore her down physically but her determination never wavered. But after ten minutes of desperation, she collapsed, her arms sprawled out in front of her. Her vision was blurred and her speech remained silent. Her legs were paralysed and stationery, unlike her heart and her breathing which became fast and erratic as she heard footsteps behind her. She tried to speak but only a slurred moan came out, "Mwuh!"
She was answered by a growl and felt the immense heat coming off something huge behind her. It sniffed at her clothes and she felt it taste her skin before it pinned her down with two muscled paws and snarled.
Then she heard a faint laugh from somewhere in the forest, she twisted her head to try and make it out but they had already gone, as if they'd ever been there in the first place.
The huge thing above her snarled again and then lunged at her flesh with its powerful, toothed jaws, when it was suddenly stopped by gleaming bright lights. They powered through the creature and it leapt off her, with a reluctant growl, and away into the forest, becoming hidden within the mess of trees. Maggie's eyes softly closed, uncontrollably, as she briefly saw a figure standing above her.