Loup-Garou: The Beast of Harmony Falls (The Ian McDermott, Ph.D., Paranormal Investigator Series Book 1)

by David Reuben Aslin

  The next couple of hours passed by like minutes to Ian. Lots of small talk. More drinks. Ian had been shocked that Marsha hadn’t asked another question about the investigation. Instead, she had kept conversation light and fun until the clock reported it to be 11:45 p.m.

  “Ian, would you like to follow me back to my motel? Well, it’s more like a cabin really. I could make us some drinks, and we could listen to some music or watch some TV. Whatever you desire!”

  Without hesitation or any consideration of what Sheriff Bud or anyone might think, Ian smiled a huge Cheshire Cat-like grin and replied, “Sure!” After he paid the tab and left a reasonable tip, they collected their things and left for the side bar door.

  Ian staggered with Marsha to her car. The moon was bright, nearly full. It was there, leaning against her Mercedes, that they dove into each other’s arms and shared a lengthy, passionate kiss. Both out of breath, they laughed. Marsha spoke up first. “Okay now, don’t you get lost. Be right behind me. We’re going to the Firlane Resort just up the road a bit.”

  Ian laughed as he thought, Wait, that’s where I’m staying. Just in the crappy RV part in my even crappier trailer. Ha! Small world. Well, small town anyway.

  Chapter 14

  Monster

  They made their way through all of the falls’ spray and over to the cave entrance.

  Jeremy grabbed Katie’s hand with his left, and with his right, he gently pressed his index finger to her lips. He then whispered, “Katie, no doubt they’ve moved the bodies out of here by now. Least, I sure as shit hope so. But I’m warning you, it stinks in there something terrible!”

  As they began to enter the cave, there was an ever-increasing, horrific stench that to Katie smelled like that of rancid, rotting meat. She began to gag from the smell.

  “Oh God, Jeremy, forget this. I’m not going in there; it smells worse than shit!”

  A very relieved Jeremy nodded his head in agreement with her. They turned around and began their egress from the cavern as fast as they had entered. It was then that they heard the first of a series of bellowing howls; they sounded as though they were coming from far away but were rapidly becoming louder and louder. Katie and Jeremy were terror-stricken. They stood momentarily frozen from fear as they looked with terrified eyes at each other. Katie was the first to break their silence as she let out a scream that Jeremy immediately tried to muffle with his hand. An instant later, they began to run as fast as they dared in the moonlight. Jeremy’s flashlight beam bounced wildly as they ran towards the dirt parking lot, towards Jeremy’s bike. The howling was getting louder and louder as it seemed to be rapidly closing in on them.

  Katie was crying almost hysterically as she ran faster than she’d ever run before. Jeremy too was scared beyond rational thought, but he still managed to yell at her as they ran along the lake bank, “Run, Katie. Keep running as fast as … we’re almost to the bike. Keep going fast as you can!”

  They continued running. All the while, tree branches slapped at them, stinging sharply as they struck their faces. Huckleberry bushes and tall lion-grass seemed to grab at their ankles and knees like hands rising up, intent on tripping and dragging them down. They could hear branches snapping and the panting, snarling, and growling of whatever beast or beasts was running them down.

  In their desperate flight, panic-stricken thoughts of the hikers that had come to this area before them swirled in both their minds. Terror-driven thoughts that this could be it for them flashed in Jeremy’s burning head. Desperation equal to their fatigue was rapidly setting in on both of them. But just as it began seeming all would be lost, they both spotted the clearing. Just ahead of that was the bike, their only hope for salvation.

  At the sight of it, Jeremy kicked into some higher gear that he didn’t even know he possessed. He passed up Katie like she was almost going backward. Jeremy knew their only chance was for him to get to his bike, get it started, grab his girl, and get the hell out of there as fast as possible, hopefully outrunning whatever it was that nearly had them.

  After crossing the parking lot with Katie maybe thirty feet behind him, he leapt onto the bike and started it up. He revved the motor, dropped the clutch, and spun his wheels, throwing dirt and gravel as he sped ahead towards Katie and the beast or beasts beyond. As he raced towards her, he saw clearly for the first time what was chasing them, but he could not believe his eyes. Only around sixty feet behind Katie was a monster, and it was closing on her fast!

  Jeremy ran through his gears with the skill of a professional dirt-bike racer as he sped towards Katie. He screeched to an abrupt side-drift stop as he grabbed her and pulled her onto his bike. There was no time to retrieve the helmets that had fallen when Jeremy had taken off. He power slid a fast one-eighty degree spin, tossing dirt and gravel. Two-cycle engine exhaust bellowed from his tailpipe as he revved his loud, high-pitched, rapping motor. Jeremy popped his clutch, grabbed first gear, and they began their speeding dash.

  They were doing around thirty by the time they hit the main road. Jeremy could see faint headlights coming towards them a ways up the road. The sight of them was somehow comforting to him—a little taste of civilization. Just then, Jeremy started jittering almost uncontrollably regarding what he’d seen or thought he’d seen back at the lake. He drew in a deep breath as they began to pick up speed. Katie’s loud crying had turned to mainly shivers and shakes as she clung onto Jeremy with all her might. They both began to realize they’d made it, and they began to catch their breaths. At the very moment they realized they’d outrun the thing that had almost gotten them, it sprang out onto the road just in front of them from the thick trees on the roadside. Jeremy swerved his bike as hard as he could to avoid running straight into the beast, but he swerved too hard and too fast. The riders toppled end over end into the tall grass and muddy, shallow creek that ran alongside the road. The bike flipped and skidded down the road, rapidly transitioning into a mass of twisted metal.

  Chapter 15

  Delilah - Part III

  Ian laid on his back, looking up at the ceiling and counting tiles. With his ever-increasing sobriety came the ever-increasing realization of where he was and what he’d done. He was in bed with the enemy in the truest sense of the phrase. Ian began planning his escape. Just as he had skewed enough courage to begin his stealthiest moves to exit the bed without waking her, she spoke.

  “Ian, you’re not sleeping?”

  “No, I—I’m kind of antsy. I probably should leave so you can get some sleep.”

  Marsha seized the opportunity. “Well, since neither of us are in the mood for sleep, I have just a couple questions that I want to ask. You don’t mind, do you? I mean, now that we’ve so little to hide from one another.” Marsha giggled more for effect than levity. She had opened with a strong hand, one that was deliberately intended to make it difficult for Ian to pass, fold, or otherwise avoid.

  “Uh … Sure, I mean I guess. Marsha, what’s on your mind?”

  “Well, Ian, I’ve already been informed that you were there when the sheriff and his deputy discovered the bodies up near Little Merwin. And I know that the bodies were severally mangled, perhaps victims of some large predator animal. What I don’t know is this: Were they actually killed by some animal or pack of animals, or did they die of something like exposure and later were, well, scavenged on by animals or whatever?”

  Ian abruptly sat up in bed and sat on its edge. He reached towards his feet and grabbed his underwear and pants that were lying piled on top of one another where he’d carelessly flung them. Ian quickly put his shorts and pants on while shaking his head.

  “Well, Marsha, now those are good questions. Ones that I’m really in no position to comment on. And even if I was able to comment on them, I really wouldn’t have any definitive information for you. Now, I trust that anything that has transpired between us is going to be held completely confidential. Off the record, right?”

  “Of course, Ian. We are consenting adults!” Marsha gig
gled and rolled her eyes.

  Rather than allow her to blackmail him with threats of exposing their rendezvous to the sheriff, which would undoubtedly exclude him from any further collaborative efforts regarding the investigation and get him run out of town, Ian figured the only way anything would be held in confidence with this beautiful yet potentially very dangerous woman would be for him to give her just a little information. Not much, just enough to keep her at bay and wanting more but under his terms.

  “Marsha, really, I don’t know much. I was up at the caves with the local law as you know, and I was there with Sheriff Deputy Charlie Redtail when the bodies of those two unfortunate hikers were found. But neither myself nor Deputy Redtail performed any investigation of the bodies other than casual observation. It did look like the bodies had been mauled, but when and how, I have no idea!”

  “Okay, Ian, I buy that. But how in the heck did you get from the caves up to Little Merwin Lake without going past me? Did you guys somehow double back to another vehicle that you called for and were picked up down at the main road or something?”

  Ian thought about what Marsha had just said. He figured that he’d better be very careful not to begin a lie that would only serve to open the window for many more questions with no possible answers. He decided to tell the truth but to be very to the point and offer no more than the basics.

  “The sheriff, Deputy Redtail, and I responded to an anonymous tip, one that got us up there in the first place. Deputy Redtail and I headed into the main cavern to investigate while the sheriff searched aboveground all around the parking lot. Hey, you’re sure this is completely off the record, right?”

  Marsha nodded and crossed her heart as she smiled an innocent smile.

  It was her uncharacteristically innocent smile that made Ian even more nervous to speak than he’d been previously, but all the booze he’d had earlier that evening made his lips a bit loose nonetheless.

  “All right. Anyway, the deputy and I, we headed into the larger of the two caves, the ones the locals call the Ape Caves, to search around. The cave we entered was supposed to go for a couple miles or so and then come to a dead end. But due to that earthquake that happened some days ago, the cave wall gave way at its end. It now opens up. The once cave is now a tunnel. It has a second opening to the outside world up at Little Merwin straight behind Harmony Falls. So that’s how we ended up there … at the falls. That’s why you never saw us come back to the parking lot from the cave. It was inside the cave near the new opening that we discovered the bodies. After finding the bodies, we called the sheriff, and that’s about it!”

  Suddenly, Ian, even in his alcohol-hazed and heavily-fatigued condition, realized he’d said way too much. Ah, Christ! If she goes up there poking around … I just gave her the exact location of the Indian artifacts.

  Marsha sat there, propped up in bed, and contemplated all that Ian had said as he put the rest of his clothes on. He leaned over and kissed Marsha more out of expectation than for any other reason.

  “Well, I’ve got to get going. I’ve got to meet up with the local law again first thing in the morning. Uh, hey, I had a great time. Uh, well I’m gonna get going.”

  Marsha didn’t say another word. She just smiled a shallow smile as she stared blankly past him.

  Ian could nearly feel the wheels turning within her head. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and filled him with dread.

  Chapter 16

  Semi-Savior

  He’d begun applying his air-brakes to slow down after spotting what looked like twisted metal strewn across the road. Captured in his headlights and shimmering in the moonlight was the clear and apparent fragmental remains of what was once a motorcycle.

  Not a split second later, something very large and very hairy had sprung from the forest right in front of his truck.

  WHAM-BAM!

  “Jesus holy jumped-up palomino! What the hell did I hit? Christ on a crutch. Must have been a bear!” he said aloud, then smirked and thought, Less it was one of them Big Foots! Man alive, wouldn’t that be something?

  He continued bearing down on his brakes while down-shifting as fast as he could. Finally, with one last big blast of air, he managed to stop his big rig without jackknifing it.

  He reached behind his head and grabbed his rifle from its rack. He climbed down from his rig and looked all around for what he assumed must have been a trophy-sized road kill.

  He checked the front of his rig. Sure enough, there was blood and some fur lodged into the grill from the hit. But there was no beast in sight. Just then, he heard moans from the side of the road that sounded not like that of a beast but rather from someone human.

  “Hey, help. We need some help over here!”

  The trucker ran towards the cry. It was then that he saw two teenagers lying about ten feet apart from one another on their backs in the shallows of a mud-enriched creek bed.

  Immediately, he put two and two together. He called out as he raced as fast as he could towards them, “Hey, you two okay? Should I fetch my first aid kit?”

  The truck driver was close enough to the kids to tell that one was a boy and the other a girl, who began screaming. The boy held onto his knee with both hands and was rocking side to side in pain.

  “Mister … Oh man, thank God. Check on my girlfriend. And hurry! She might be really hurt!” The young man sounded almost hysterical to the trucker. “Mister, hurry! We got to get the hell out of here! There’s some kind of monster that jumped us. Mister, if we don’t get out of here and quick, it’s gonna kill us all!”

  The truck driver began considering that an injured animal like a bear might be even more dangerous now that it was hurt. He looked around while closely holding his rifle and made his way over to the girl. She seemed to be in relatively good shape. He helped her to her feet, and together, they went over to get the boy.

  “Mister, thank God you came along! I think I sort of twisted my knee or something. But I think I can get up with some help. I’m pretty sure I can walk.”

  The trucker helped the boy to his feet, and with the girl they made their way back to the truck as fast as the boy’s limp would allow.

  It was just as they were climbing into the truck that the three heard the loudest, most horrifying sound they’d ever heard in their lives: a blood-curdling howling that sounded close. Again, the girl began crying hysterically. The trucker managed, though with some difficulty, to get his fully-loaded, double-trailer logging truck turned around in the road. Then he accelerated, up-shifting through the gears as the three sped away in the opposite direction. The trucker knew the only medical facility in the area was back in Harmony Falls. He then shook his head as he once again spotted the bike pieces strewn across the road. He was totally amazed the kids hadn’t been more seriously injured than they appeared from their accident. But he’d been around long enough to know appearances could be deceiving.

  “You two are Goddamn lucky you were slung from the road into that shallow creek. Not much for rocks down there, just mostly soft mud. Your bike wasn’t so lucky. Goddamn lucky is all I can say ‘bout that! My name’s Mike Rousseau. My friends call me Big Mike. I’m the best damn log trucker on the road if I do say so myself.”

  Big Mike began to laugh in hopes his levity would help soothe the girl. She had begun calming as they drew further and further away from the source of the howling and because of the trucker’s kind face. It was somehow appropriately fitting for him as it was substantially hidden behind a more than full salt-and-pepper beard, which gave him one of those trustworthy Santa looks.

  “Say, what’s you two kids’ names, and where’d you say you were from?”

  “Uh, I’m Jeremy, sir, and this is my girlfriend, Katie. We live up the road a bit in Harmony Falls.”

  Jeremy looked over at Katie and took her hand in his. “Katie, you okay?”

  Katie tried desperately to suppress her sobbing. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine. How ‘bout you? You hurt your knee bad?
It looks to be bleeding pretty bad through them torn-up jeans.”

  “Nah, I’ll be fine. It’s actually starting to not hurt so much.”

  The trucker interrupted Jeremy, “Well, you two try and relax. I’ll have you back in Harmony Falls in just minutes. I think maybe we should get you to that medical clinic ran by Ole Doc Matthews. Have you both checked out to be safe.”

  Jeremy gasped from pain and spoke up. “Mister, I mean Big Mike. You don’t look familiar to me. You’re not from Harmony Falls, are you?”

  “Once upon a time I was. Grew up there. Moved to Woodland ‘bout twenty years ago, but I’m still up and down this here road least a couple times a week. Still lots of logging up this way. Hell, Ole Doc Matthews, he fixed me up more than once when I was ‘bout your age. Used to raise a bit of hell back in the day.”

  Big Mike laughed. Jeremy managed a half laugh, mostly out of manners.

  Katie was no longer crying. She sat there, staring blankly ahead until she too finally spoke. “I don’t care if it sounds crazy! It was a monster! It jumped us. Made Jeremy crash the bike. It almost got us! I tell ya, it’s a monster!”

  Big Mike tried to keep his voice very calm. “Well, look here, little missy, I believe ya! Mind you, I didn’t get much of a look at it, but I know ya saw something. I know, ‘cause I’m pretty sure I hit it with my truck and hit it good! Anyhow, that monster … Well, it is, or more likely it was, a bear. Too big to have been anything else I can figure. It was a trophy-size animal, a real monster, just like you say! 'Cept, I’ll admit, I never seen or heard of any bear that size ‘round these parts, I give ya that. Anyhow, after I smacked it and good, I’m guessing it crawled off and died. Those howls were from it bellowing in pain afore it keeled over.”