Sheep's Clothing

by Gary Lewis

  Vance took a step toward David, "She's right, man." He reached his hand out and waited until David hesitantly reached back. He grasped David's palm and gave him a hard pat on the shoulder with his other hand.

  "While we're here we can at least check the SD card on my camera," David said to Vance as they continued uphill toward the others, now circled around, talking at the fire.

  "Maybe y'all shouldn't," Janice spoke up. "It's awful dark out and you've obviously been drinking."

  "They'll be fine," Sarah said with a nonchalant brush of her hand. "Worst case scenario, we're down a loudmouth and an asshole."

  Janice shot a look of anger at Sarah. "You don't mean that."

  Sarah scowled. "Of course I don't mean it. I'm just saying."

  "Just saying what, exactly?" Janice asked.

  Vance tried to contain the smile that threatened to squeeze out from hiding as he turned to David who was already looking over at him. Of course. David always relied on Tony to get him out of tough spots and now there's only him. Vance rolled his eyes and spoke up. "Alright. Alright. Me and David are heading up to grab the camera. Can y'all avoid tearing each other to pieces while we're gone?" There was only silence in reply. "Oh. No pun intended, by the way," Vance said, turning to walk uphill to the large metal tower that loomed overhead while David followed close behind.

  "So, what's eating you?" Vance asked as they neared the steel bars that covered the bottom of the ladder.

  "What do you mean?" David asked.

  Vance peered across the corner of his eye toward David. He's definitely hiding something.

  "It's the way you," he paused and turned to look David in the face as David glanced aside. "The way you do that."

  Vance gripped the bars and lifted himself up to the ladder with a huff. "If it's about her," he spoke in between lifts on the way up. "Don't sweat it. Plenty more where she came from."

  Vance peeked between his feet every couple pulls to make sure a silent David was safely behind him until they finally reached the top. As Vance reached onto the platform above, he felt something sharp slide across the grated metal, just between his fingers.

  "Uh oh," he said. "This might not be good."

  "What is it?" David asked from just below his feet.

  "I'm not sure yet," he replied with a grunt as he lifted himself into the cold steel walkway to see bits of black metal and plastic scattered across. "I have some bad news."

  "Well?" David asked from the ladder.

  Vance reached down to give David a hand. "Come take a look."

  David ignored his offer and climbed straight through, brushing aside Vance's arm.

  David stood alongside Vance as they looked upon the mess. The scope and camera were busted and ripped apart. The lights from town twinkled in the distance as Vance tried to make sense of it in the dark. David picked up a busted black chunk out of the rubble to examine it while Vance looked at the tiny flickering dot of fire below.

  "It's trashed," David said, throwing it down onto the hard floor with a clank.

  "Tell me about it." Vance sighed and looked up at the white dots moving around the streets.

  "No. I mean, the SD card. It was ripped out on purpose."

  "Let me see," Vance said as he started to hold out his hand, but then saw David motion toward the pile of garbage beside them. "Oh. Well, nevermind."

  "Do you know how much I spent on that thing?" David asked. "The telescope? The digital camera? The timer?"

  "How much?" Vance asked.

  David sighed as he sunk to sit against the rail. "Forget it."

  A narrow wisp of cloud began to stretch its way across the half moon, glowing brightly above Pine Bluff. "Even the sounds from the woods don't reach us way up here," Vance said as he took in the cool night air.

  "But something sure can," David said.

  "Exactly," Vance said, lowering himself to sit alongside David as he pointed below at the tiny glow of the fire. "And now we know for sure that it's one of us."

  "Most likely," David said.

  The heavy warmth of cheap beer pulled at the sides of Vance's head. "Think we should get back down soon."

  "Sure," David said as they both raised to their feet. "Wait. If there's no trap, then what the hell was the cage for? And all the bear traps?"

  Vance stretched a grin as he tilted his head back. "The gauntlet."

  David’s face looked puzzled. “One of those medieval glove armor things?”

  Vance shook his head. “Not even what gauntlet means.”

  David raised his eyebrows. “Yes it does.”

  ###

  After an arduous journey, fighting gravity all the way down, Vance eventually made his way back to the now blazing fire where he counted everyone safe. On the opposite side of the fire, David strolled over to sit with Janice at the far end of Terry’s large, rotten log. Terry sat further over from them.

  To Vance’s left, Sarah sat alone on a large rock, eyes focused into the fire. She leaned forward, one arm across her knees and the other resting her hand against the front of her small chin. Vance saw her forehead flex to press her eyebrows deep into whatever painful world existed far within those glowing embers that shined in her blue eyes.

  "It's been here," David said to the others as he explained how his camera and scope were busted into pieces and strewn about the top of the tower.

  "So, what did we miss?" Janice asked.

  "Missed out on Davie," Terry said, covering a momentary laugh behind his hand as Sarah rolled her eyes.

  "Turns out, Vance was the first one to see it and it sounds like he got a better look at the thing than anyone else," Sarah said.

  "I bet he did," David said as everyone looked in Vance's direction.

  Vance's jaw tensed cold across the showering sparks of fiery ash that flew upward between them. I've given him one chance after another. Watched him take my girl... Sits here in front of everyone with her... Now he has the balls to put me on the spot right here. He watched the fire begin to settle as the blackened coals shrunk into white ash.

  Terry finally spoke up. "Vance had to burn their family's barn or his father would beat him. It's not his fault."

  The waving flames of the fire died down, but Vance felt them flaring up within him. He knew that Terry was just trying to defend him, but hated the way it sounded. "I can deal with Dad," he said. "It's my problem, not yours."

  Janice began to speak. "All Terry meant was that-"

  "That poor little me was going to get beat up, I know." Vance nodded his head back.

  "Is that your excuse for burning down the old rec center too?" David asked.

  His words lit a stick of dynamite in Vance's chest and now it was only a matter of time. Vance turned to look across the fire and saw Janice still wearing her innocent look of surprise. "Didn't have anything to add to that one, did you?"

  Janice's eyes grew wide as she glanced around to the others. Sarah squinted a quizzical look to Janice on the other side of the fire as David rose to his feet.

  "Leave her alone," David said loudly.

  "Ooh," Vance said, wriggling his thick fingers in the air. "Where's my white knight to save me," he continued in a meek, girly tone.

  David pointed his finger from the other side of the flaming fire pit at Vance. "How about why you didn't talk about that fire? At the meeting, you know?" Everyone remained quiet. "Was it because they were going to cut you from the team was your reason? Or maybe you didn't want to bring it up because people died trying to put it out."

  Sarah raised her eyebrows toward David. "Brad's dad died in that fire." Her eyes slowly returned to Vance's direction.

  Vance stood and huffed the air. He paced side to side, trying to cool off. No. David had his chance and this time he went too far. He should know better. Vance drew his gun from behind and everyone's eyes lit wide from their makeshift seats. As he walked toward the group, David stood still and Vance stepped over to Sarah. She looked up at him without a single word. Her eyes seeme
d flooded with fear.

  "Here," Vance said, handing her the handle end of his revolver as her pale, thin fingers slid across the cold steel and he awaited her firm grip before letting go. "Hang onto this."

  He approached David slowly, stopping just a few feet in front of him. "I think you've been afraid of the big bad wolf a little too long and forgot what I'm capable of," Vance said. He firmly shoved his index finger into David's chest hard enough to stumble him off balance. With a flash, David's fist made perfect contact with the side of Vance's jaw and voices erupted into chaos as he staggered back, stomping into the fire. Glowing ash flew up across Vance's body as he balled his fist and turned, ready to hook David wide, right in the torso. But as he saw Janice pulling at David's other arm and Terry begging David to apologize, he relaxed his arm and stepped away from the fire, brushing himself off. He looked over at a trembling Sarah. The shiny metal revolver reflected the camp fire in her hand as she aimed it straight up to the sky.

  "It's alright." Vance waved his palms slowly out in front of his chest. "It's alright." He repeated louder and slower until everyone settled down. David still stood there, staring Vance in the face.

  Vance rubbed the side of his jaw and spit into the fire. "A little harder than I thought," he said. He turned to the dark clearing below. "Going to borrow your light," he said, reaching to the stump to grab David's flashlight.

  "Wait," Sarah shouted while he walked further into the woods.

  Guess she means the gun. "Hang onto it," he said. "I'll get it another day." As he walked further into the night, the shadows swallowed him far from the voices that he left behind. From time to time and owl would sound loudly and Vance would hoot back in a slur as the euphoric darkness guided him back to his truck and the moon traveled across the sky.

  Chapter 14

  #Sarah#

  Sarah awoke, pressed against a surface much harder than the sofa back at home. She squinted at the blurry, bright sky as she rolled over tangled within her orange sleeping bag. Her leg hurt as it pushed down against the hard revolver that she laid on the ground the night before. It was then that she remembered she had promised to stay awake and keep watch until dawn.

  "Shit," she said aloud as she looked where David and Janice had been sleeping. "David!" she shouted. "Jan!" She hopped up to dash to their side of the fire pit. Their sleeping bags had disappeared from the ground where they once occupied, now torn with disturbed dirt. Drag marks slid in the direction of the woods just downhill. The once well stoked fire was left in shambles, a steady, thin wisp of white smoke streamed from a couple pitch black chunks of wood. Crushed beer cans littered the fire pit, scuffled soil cast dust upon the logs and the surrounding grass pressed down into heavy paths in all directions.

  Sarah raced to retrieve the pistol from her spot as she noticed Terry's red sleeping bag hanging haphazardly in a tree from broken branches about five feet above the ground at the edge of the clearing. "Oh no." Her fingers covered her lips. "How could I let this happen?" She paced frantically back and forth, holding the sides of her forehead, the cold steel handle of Vance's gun pressed against her face as she wiped her tears. Sarah tried to collect herself, afraid to look toward the tree. “Terry!” she shouted behind her. The chirping of birds and the buzz of locusts were her only answer, but not even the most peaceful sounds of nature could tame the wild hysteria that shook apart everything that held her together.

  After several long breaths and a moment to familiarize herself with the revolver, she turned off the safety and slowly walked toward Terry's sleeping bag hanging like a ragdoll from the tree. "Please don't be in there." Sarah walked along the path, grass pushed firmly down all the way there. "Please don't let me find your body." Her heart skipped a beat when she saw one of Terry's boots laying on its side in the grass. "I'm not ready for this." Stepping over a broken sapling bent along the path, Sarah cuffed her hand above her eyes and gazed up at the tree. "How?" she asked. "Terry! Are you up there? Please say something!"

  "Should I ask what you're doing?" From behind, the voice jolted her off the ground as she turned to see Terry picking up his boot, already carrying the other one.

  "What the hell, Terry?" Sarah shouted at him.

  "I had to take a leak, then I heard you shouting and saw you by the woods, so I came to see what you were doing."

  "I thought you were dead. Where's Jan and David?"

  "Sorry about that," Terry said, reaching for her shoulder as she swiped his hand away and pushed her eyebrows together. "Janice and David left a couple hours ago. I thought I'd let you sleep in."

  "That's it?" Sarah asked. "What about this?" she thumbed toward the hanging red fabric.

  "Oh, that," Terry scratched his head and laughed. "It got damp from the dew. They said if I hung it up in the sun a few hours, it won't smell like a wet dog and it might be a few pounds lighter." Terry raised his boots in his hand. "Kinda dropped a few things along the way I guess."

  Sarah let out a roar of frustration. "One more thing," she said. "Take this damn thing before I shoot your ass with it."

  "Oh, no,” Terry said with a wiggle of his fingers. “I don't believe in guns."

  "Well, they're real," she said, carefully shifting the safety back in place as she figured out how to eject the cylinder and unload the bullets from it.

  As they cleaned and packed up, Sarah looked back at the fire tower. It wasn't long after she got adopted that she met Vance and Tony. Then after Tony and David's parents got together David and Janice came into the picture. Even though they didn't share her first cigarette with her or first beer, they distracted her from the years of abuse and after years of bouncing from one terrible family to another, she found a place she could call home. It was at this fire tower, at Moss Lake, the high school, it was at the Sunset Diner and the cliffs. Pine Bluff had become her home among family. But now an important part of that felt further away than ever before and the past no longer disappeared.

  "What's wrong, Sarah?" Terry asked, pack fastened onto his back as he trekked downhill.

  "It's nothing." Sarah sighed as she followed him down. "Ghosts of the past."

  "I can tell your soul is troubled, Sarah," Terry said. "Nobody is beyond forgiveness and I'm always here if you need to talk about it."

  Normally she wouldn't hear of it, but today it sounded comforting. "Thanks, Terry."

  The two pressed on through the thick trees, finally arriving at the trail. "Maybe we won't get chased away this time," Sarah laughed.

  "I wonder if Vance is alright." Terry said as they turned the bend to see only Sarah's car still parked.

  "Nothing can keep him down for very long," she said.

  "David's pretty resilient too," Terry said. "He's got an energetic spirit. I didn't think he could do that to Vance, but I wish he hadn't."

  Sarah rolled her eyes at him. "David brought all that on himself."

  ###

  As Sarah drove Terry down the bumpy road, she turned the music down to think.

  "You think silver kills it?" she asked.

  "Who knows?" Terry adjusted his glasses. "If you'd asked me a couple weeks ago, I would have said there's got to be some other explanation."

  He was right, she thought to herself. It wasn't long ago that this was the stuff of myth, the magical stories and fantasy world of movies and books. Only emerging to stalk the nightmares of curious children. But the line that separated real from unreal began to blur long ago and now it had reached a climax with a hungry werewolf roaming around the forests of Pine Bluff. It lurked along the edges of town in the dark of night, even venturing into the streets and industrial areas as it widened its hunting ground to expand through town. Nobody was safe, she thought to herself while forests of concrete, asphalt and brick replaced the woods and they entered the wilderness of man along the road into town.

  "Do you think we'll all die?" Sarah asked, gripping the steering wheel tighter as she drove, her car hurling itself further down the road of inevitability.

&nbs
p; "I think, for that answer, we have to consider the killer’s motivation."

  "Werewolf," she said with a half-smile as she turned to face him. "Might as well get comfortable with it."

  "It's demonic, whatever it is," Terry said. "So, I'm against it." He rubbed his chin for a moment, staring at her dashboard. "It's kind of tough because sometimes the killings seem specifically targeted and sometimes they're just a sporadic spree of random terror. It could be that we're just making connections that aren't there. Or it could be that some of the attacks had a personal motive, but the others had a different kind of motivation."

  Sarah glanced across at him as she drove. "It does seem to be targeting people in our circle of friends most of the time, right?" she asked. "And destroyed the cameras, knew things that we've only discussed together. It can't be a coincidence."

  Terry leaned a turn in her direction before scooting his glasses up. "What does your heart tell you?" His inquisitive stare remained unbroken. "Who, Sarah?"

  The light ahead on Central Avenue and First Street turned red and Sarah gradually slowed to a stop before staring through the line of passing cars in front of her. My heart? She forcefully squeezed her eyes shut and a wave of regretful pain boiled from her chest into her throat, watering her eyelashes. It wouldn't be any different than David calling out Vance right now. Sarah opened her saturated eyes and looked at him. "We can't rely on that. Our feelings against and for one another are its perfect cover."

  Terry nodded in agreement as the light turned green. "I understand." He looked out the window to the side and then the front. "But if you did go with it, who would you say?"

  "Look," Sarah said. "Tony knew everyone better than they knew themselves. He was an expert at how people feel about each other."

  Terry tilted his head to the side as his eyebrows tensed. "But that wasn't the first name that occurred to you was it?"