by Gary Lewis
Just as her mouth opened, David dug his phone from his pocket and started texting. Sarah pressed her lips as she imagined the words that even she wouldn't say. Poor, fragile, delicate Janice. Everyone always has to make sure she's okay. She might have lost her father last year, but at least she had parents.
"So, what's Janice up to?" Sarah asked.
"If you must know," David said in matter-of-factly tone. "It's Tony." He lowered his phone and turned his head to face her eyes. "There's something we saw yesterday."
She held onto her expression of annoyance, crossing her arms as he began.
"I was driving Tony home a few hours before we met up at the cliffs..." David sat up as he explained the gory scene of mutilated cattle that littered the farms just outside the reaches of town.
"So, you think whatever did that…" she said.
"Is the same thing that killed Brad," he finished.
Sarah's cloudy mood began to brighten with a glimmering ray of amusement. "So, what do we have around here that would do something like that?"
She watched David stare blankly into the direction of the old book that rested on the end table. "I don't know. I'm really not sure." His words only added momentum to the mystery that tugged at her thoughts. Sarah watched his hand brush slowly against his chin before rubbing his droopy, sleep deficient eyes. He finally looked at her and said, "But I think I should figure it out."
"Oh no you don't," she said, raising her eyebrows with enthusiasm. "You don't get to go play detective by yourself." Sarah yanked David's keys from his hand. "Or better yet, you're coming with me, sleepy ass."
"Hang on. I didn't actually mean I should go find the damn thing." David's words continued from behind as he predictably followed her to his car and slumped into the passenger seat.
###
The twisting road finally gave way to long straightaways, passing between open fields as Sarah drove through the countryside in search of answers. "Which farm did you and Tony see all that at?" she asked, shoving David awake as she sped down the empty backroads.
"You'll know it when you see it," David said, resting his head back against the car door.
Finally, she caught sight of a field littered with broken fencing and debris. Yellow tape replaced missing barbed wire like the scene of a crime. Slowing the tires into the rocky dirt on the side of the road, Sarah pulled over as far as she could without dropping into the ditch. "Wake up," she said, shoving him from his slumber. "We're looking for clues."
She grabbed a crumpled, white grocery bag from his backseat and stepped out onto the unleveled pavement. Sarah walked slowly and observantly toward the maroon-colored streak that had cooked its way into the hot asphalt. It led across the street to what was once a huge pool of blood stained into the road. It was evidence of a gory scene that had once took its place. "So, it happened here?" She asked in a fixed gaze.
"No,” he said before dashing up the embankment. “Up here, Sarah."
The open field became visible as she climbed the hill. It told a story. Garbage littered the still blood-stained grass, soaked by the carnage it had recently seen. Nothing was grazing in this section of pasture, now devoid of life.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Sarah said with a tilt of her head, raising the yellow bands of tape over her head and ducking across.
"You do realize we're trespassing, right, Sarah?"
"I forgot my give-a-shit at home," she said, continuing onward.
She swept her feet slowly, side to side as she walked, sifting through the wet grass with her shoes. Crumpled grocery store bag in hand, she carefully picked up litter as she examined every irrelevant artifact like an investigator hot on the trail of the next Jack the Ripper.
"Most of this is probably from the cleanup crew," David said with a long, annoying yawn. "It wasn't all here yesterday."
Sarah crossed her arms in frustration with David's lack of enthusiasm. "How much of it?"
"Well, it's really hard to tell. You had to have seen it when the cows were here… everywhere."
"What do you mean everywhere?" she asked, one hand firmly on her hip. "I thought you said there were only ten or so of them."
"I mean cows were everywhere. It was like someone threw them in a wood chipper and sprayed them across this whole swath." David swung his arm across the path of the gore zone.
Their conversation was cut short by the choking of a loud, diesel engine. A heavily dented, old, blue pickup slowed down and puttered into silence beside David's car. The slam of a door followed. "Hey! David!” a voice shouted from the road. “Is that you out there?"
Sarah's brain suddenly juggled half a dozen plausible excuses while she quickly twisted the top of her makeshift evidence bag. A tall, lanky figure began to rise from the other side of the embankment. Finally, with a sigh of relief, she saw that it was Danny. The face of David's longtime friend reminded her of the short time they were together. If together is even what you call it.
"My bad. I didn't mean to interrupt," Danny said, shoving his long, unkept, brown hair out of his face. "When did y'all hook back up?"
David's eyes finally opened wide as he threw his palms forward. "No, no, no. You got the wrong idea. We're trying to figure out what killed all the cattle yesterday."
"You heard what happened to Brad last night?" Danny asked as Sarah rolled her eyes to the untimely, absent-minded inappropriateness that Danny was known for.
"Yeah,” Sarah said. “That's obviously why we're trying to find the mountain lion.”
"Mountain lion?" David and Danny both asked.
"Well,” she said. “What the hell else could it be?"
"Betcha it was Vance.” Danny said, pounding his fist into his other hand. “Heard he gave Brad quite the beat down."
Sarah wanted to speak up in Vance's defense, but realized that Danny might have a point. I don’t think he’d do that, but I’ll be damned if I call it wrong.
David spoke up with a sweep of his hand. "Vance can be a prick, but I doubt he would do something like that.” He lowered his hand to point at the field. “And surely not this."
Sarah studied David's certainty. It was strange coming from him. It wasn't just the fact that he took up for Vance. It was the sureness and confidence in his voice.
"I always thought you made a great couple," Danny said, steering the subject into even more turbulent waters than Sarah cared to navigate.
"I was with Brad,” she said with a sideways look in David's direction. “And everyone knows David is in love with Janice." If only David could keep his stupid friends in line.
From the corner of her eye, David rubbed his head as she continued collecting debris and garbage from between the blood and dew-soaked grass.
"We have one more place to go," she said, squeezing the plastic, white grocery bag closed and walking in the direction of the car as David followed.
"Later, dude," Danny said, turning with a lazy wave that fell into the air. They parted ways with him, setting out without so much as a glance back.
###
Burning the gravel road, the midday summer sun beat down on them as they arrived at the cliffs. Sarah pressed her lips together in annoyance to David's loud snoring from the passenger seat where he slumped in near coma. "I should let you bake," Sarah said, checking the gas gauge before deciding to leave the car and air conditioner running for him. "I'll be back."
Sarah wandered, searching the ground, already feeling beads of sweat form on her forehead as she cautiously lurked toward the trailhead. Spread haphazardly across the soft dirt, multiple boot prints imprinted upon one another in every direction. Together, they were an impression of the frantic commotion that recently took place. Dragging through them all, the wheel prints of what was certainly a stretcher led to large tire marks that must've belonged to an ambulance.
"They went in here," she said, continuing toward the overhanging trees that reached to conceal whatever sinister scene laid beyond. Wondering if her uneasy feelings were conjured fro
m her knowledge of what had taken place or instinctual, she pressed forward, shrugging off her fears.
Uncertainty filled her steps as she crept through the closed trail, getting closer to the creek where they had gathered just the day before. Pulling out the small, white grocery bag, still filled with evidence from the field, she began to crouch down, picking up every piece of litter that she came across.
Rushing water sounded from just ahead as the midday heat was replaced by a refreshing coolness under the forest canopy that sheltered her from the harsh summer sun. But the usual chirping of birds was replaced with an uncanny silence, creating a perceptual vacuum that seemed to draw her further in.
The distant blare of a horn snapped Sarah out of her trance. "What is it now?" she said. She slapped her thigh and traveled back toward the car. Her pace quickened with her breath as terrible possibilities raced through her mind. Was it really smart to leave him asleep in the car? Sleeping where something just ripped apart her boyfriend the night before. How could I be so stupid? The trickle of the creek water was fading, replaced by the beat of her shoes and heart as she jogged uphill toward the trailhead and David’s car.
David's distant voice sounded from the now visible red car as she huffed to catch her breath. "Of course," Sarah said to herself with a scowl. "He's just fine."
She twisted the grocery bag filled with random litter from both scenes and tossed it across the backseat as she climbed into the now frigid interior of his car. "Find anything interesting?" David asked, his groggy eyes not fully making contact with hers.
"Not really," she said as she turned the car around and began the drive down the gravel road, bumping and bouncing to every pothole she tried to avoid. "Sorry. This damn road."
"It's okay. I need to get a realignment anyway," he said as he leaned his seat back with closed eyes.
David's phone buzzed, jolting him awake as he turned to pull it from his pocket. After a brief look, he turned to her. "It's Jan. They found pieces of her dog in the field behind her house," he said with concern in his voice.
"And just why is she texting you about it instead of Vance?"
"What does it matter?" David snapped back at her.
"Wait!” she said. “Isn't that field connected to the one where all those cows were slaughtered?"
"You know, I bet it is,” he said while his head leaned lazily against the shoulder strap of the seatbelt. “Since that road runs sort of parallel to hers. I think there's some woods in between though."
"Do you have a map and a pen?" Sarah asked, taking an abrupt turn onto Central Avenue in the direction of David's house as the two of them continued on their investigative venture.
"A nap and a bed? Sounds great," he said, mumbling from the depths of his sleep deprivation.
Sarah squinted at him. Why is he so tired, anyway?
###
The chattering of gossip and rumors filled the afternoon air in Pine Bluff, bringing the small, boring town to life with news of current events that spread quickly into the night as the moon rose high, shining brightly from above.
A quiet, deserted road nestled between the forests just outside of town gave rise to the sound of a puttering engine as Danny's blue pickup stalled in the dark. The screeching of his failed starter resounded over and over through the trees. "Dammit!" he said, beating his steering wheel in futility. He stepped onto the smooth, newly paved street; a narrow path of civility that stretched between miles of wild forest that squeezed from both sides.
His hood creaked with a loud squeal as he raised it just enough to reach the carburetor. A loud howl startled Danny. He jumped with fright and banged his head against the hood. As it continued to roar through the forest, he could feel the sound vibrate through his body, each sound getting louder than the last. Then it quickly subsided and all became quiet. Too quiet, he thought.
"Think you're tough shit, huh?" Danny said. He grabbed an old wooden baseball bat from the mess scattered in his truck bed. With a sweep of his hand, he brushed his long hair out of his face and walked toward the woods. Danny gave a few practice swings of his bat before he rested it over his shoulder and slowed his pace, staring through the darkness between the large twisted trees that wrapped around one another.
After a few moments spent squinting through the blackened depths of tree trunks and shrubbery, he slowly began to walk back to the truck.
Cracking branches snapped Danny to attention. The brush rustled heavily to something large lurking slowly through.
"Alright, motherfucker," he said, struggling to control his breath to the adrenaline rushing through his heart. He took one cautious step at a time, walking up the side of the ditch to the edge of the forest. A pause filled his feet for a moment. With a deep breath, he snuck between the tightly bound conifers, entering the natural barred gates to a dark world of seclusion crowded by trees. Blinded by the night, he tried to locate the source of the sound as he peered deeply into the darkness of the woods.
Eyes opened in the blackness in front of him, eyes and teeth. As it lunged at him, he swung his bat with everything he had. A snarling bite cracked his bat mid-swing and shook it loose from his grip. Claws instantly swiped through his belly. Danny turned to run. Long teeth clamped deep into his shoulder, violently shaking his body back and forth. With a heave, he was flung to the road where he tumbled on impact across the hard pavement. He struggled to roll onto his belly just in front of his pickup.
After sliding his hands through the pool of blood forming around him, Danny tried to gather the strength to crawl back to his truck. Crackling, guttural snarls came from the forest as it crept out from its cover. A large, hairy beast stood upright as tall as a man, showing its white teeth from a long, blood dripping snout. Dark brown fur covered its body. It glared with furious yellow eyes and tilted its nose downward, raising its long ears and fixing a predatory gaze upon him.
Danny fumbled with his phone as he slipped his thumb across the blood covered screen. But no matter how fast he swiped, the blood was seeping down his arm onto the device faster than he could wipe it from the glass surface.
With all his effort, he slapped one arm onto the road and pulled himself a few inches toward his truck. He could feel the growling get louder from behind as he desperately tried to beat it to his open door. The sound of the creature's slow steps splat in the blood, gaining on him as he had just a couple feet to go. The snarling air brushed along the skin on the back of his neck while he pulled himself inside the cab and slammed the heavy door. The familiar safety of his truck could at least offer a peaceful shelter for him to die, he thought. Blood continued to flow onto the brown leather seats as he curled into fetal position and cried.
Glass exploded through the cab. A dark, hairy arm busted through the window, reaching to snatch him from his sanctuary. Danny scurried to the other side, kicking and screaming. He watched as the monster shoved its head through the window, letting out an ear busting roar. It stared at him with ferocious, bright yellow eyes, baring drool-dripping fangs before pulling its head back out into the darkness.
With a tremendous tug at the door, the truck shook. It rocked back and forth as Danny's shouts could be heard for over a mile away. But not a soul would ever hear them as they traveled through the night until they stopped. The shadows of Pine Bluff had once again become soaked in blood, stained with the death of one of its own while its residents slept soundly through the night.
Chapter 3
The sun crept slowly over the horizon, illuminating the skies of Pine Bluff with a crimson hue that penetrated glass windows to invade offices, living rooms and stores. Business ran as usual in town, but the eerie glow spread like the blood that had been spilled, breaching the souls of the inhabitants to cast light on the fears that they shared.
#Janice#
Janice rejected the plead of her mattress and pillows to remain sunk into their comfort. As she rolled over to sit up and planted her bare feet into the carpet, she looked across to the half open closet. Images
of today's wardrobe weren't conjuring into her thoughts.
After struggling to pick out a simple, light blue V-neck shirt and comfortable black pants, a loud knock came from downstairs.
She looked down from the top step and the carport door became visible across the dining area. Vance's outline behind the thin curtains gave her a burst of enthusiasm. Her feet pounded down the stairs and she gave the door a rapid swing before throwing her arms around him.
"You finally got my messages," she said.
"Babe,” he said, pulling away. “Did you hear what happened?"
"My Peetie died. Of course I know. I'm the one who told you."
"When did that happen?" Vance asked with a pause before continuing. "Danny was killed last night. They're saying it was a homicide, but nobody really knows what's going on."
Janice's eyes filled with sadness as she stared at him for a moment. He didn’t even read my messages.
"Babe, are you listening?" he asked.
"Of course I am," she said. "I just can't believe this is happening."
"No idea what's going on," Vance said. "But Tony said to meet him and the others over at Sarah's today. Seems they have something figured out."
"But what could they know?" she asked.
"Don’t know...” he said. “But David is going to be there too."
She sighed and looked up at him. "David is a good friend. You have to stop worrying about that."
"Oh, I'm not worried,” he said, head tilted back toward his truck. “Just saying."
"Let me get ready," she said, returning upstairs to her room while Vance waited outside.
###
The short trip to Sarah's house was prolonged by Vance's drawn-out conversations about himself. "You know, I'm benching two-twenty now. Guess what my squat is." He continued on about getting ready for the upcoming senior year football season and everything he was proud of himself about. She wondered if he was ever this proud of her.