Johnny’s heart took a hit at the possibility. “Did you see it?”
“See what?”
Johnny shaded his eyes again as the sheriff brought the light back to his face. “What is it I was supposed to see?”
“The white wolf. The Beast of Brenton Woods.”
“Seen it all right, same as you from what I hear. You and your sister the ones that found the Clukey boy?”
“Please, sheriff, we’re losing time. “
The sheriff stepped forward and poked the end of his rifle into Johnny’s chest. On reflex, Johnny swiped the gun to the side and kicked Sheriff Decker in the balls. The flashlight fell, followed by the sheriff, groaning as he collapsed to his knees.
Johnny couldn’t believe he’d done it, but Wendy’s life could very well depend on his actions. He kicked the flashlight off into the dark before turning tail to run.
The first blast sounding from behind him came from a different weapon than the rifle. Most likely the sheriff’s service pistol. Johnny weaved through trees, navigating as best he could in the night. Two more shots rang out. One bullet struck a tree as he passed, sending chips of bark into the side of his face.
“You can’t run from me, son,” the sheriff hollered. “There’s worse monsters than me out tonight.”
Johnny pushed on, ignoring the sheriff’s rantings. He ran and continued to run long after he was certain he was out of the psycho cop’s range. He wouldn’t have much time. He’d told the sheriff he was heading to the Point. He’d have to deal with it when the time came.
He hadn’t gotten very far when he heard his sister’s shrill cry cut through the night.
His flesh went cold. As he turned in the direction of the scream, Johnny prayed he wouldn’t be too late.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Someone approached. From within the crude cage, she steeled herself for her captor’s return, but as he came closer, the grunting and the panting caused her skin to crawl. The cave flooded with an overwhelming, musky scent. She covered her nose remaining quiet and still. As the thing closed in, a large shadow was cast from the torch at the cave’s bend. It was coming.
Wendy recalled the man’s broken face. The way the bones beneath his dirty flesh seemed out of place. The scars. She touched the wet lump on the back of her head where he had struck her with the gnarled walking stick. She’d woken up as he carried her into the mouth of the cave and passed out again when her head hit the unforgiving floor. The last thing she saw was him lighting the torch. And something that he said, “Tonight, my love, is all ours…” His confession followed her down into the dark.
Wendy’s eyes shot wide as the white wolf rounded the corner. Her back caught jagged stones, her flesh rent, not that she felt anything other than terror as she slid to the cool ground behind the wooden bars of her cage.
Its heavy breathing, and the way it sniffed the air as it came closer, made her want to sink into the ground.
The monster grabbed the cage door and flung it free. The door smashed and scattered as it hit the cave wall. Then it was upon her. Grabbing her, it lifted her to her feet, its nails tearing the flesh of her hips as it tore her shorts free. As it turned her to face the wall and she felt its engorged member force its way inside her, Wendy screamed. With a keening cry of unbelievable horror, and soul crushing disdain and defilement, Wendy clenched her eyes tight and tried to will herself away.
Tears flooded her cheeks as the monster stabbed its massive member into her, as it grunted and panted, its putrid breath bouncing off the wall, saliva pouring from its mouth and running down her neck. The side of her face grinding into the stone wall, she could taste blood. As the creature exploded inside her, clenching its nails further into her hips, a small cry escaped her trembling lips.
The beast pulled free, catching her in its arms and lowering her to the floor. Crouched at her side, it stroked her hair in an almost tender gesture. Wendy was lost in a fog, her mind wandering through uncharted territories, seeking safe passage, in search for a quiet place where nothing would ever find her or touch her again. Her entire body trembled, as her fingers found the cool earth and dug into the soil, grasping at something real…
The beast shot to its feet, and sniffed the air. She opened her eyes to see it place a giant rock where the cage door had been, and then it was gone.
Alone, Wendy turned onto her side, her hands between her knees. She was bleeding from its attack, she needed help, but she couldn’t force herself to do more than shake and cry. Every muscle in her body felt as though it’d been melted.
She heard the white wolf let loose a howl somewhere beyond the cave.
Someone was coming for her.
Johnny.
…..
Kathy heard Johnny Higgins yelling out his sister’s name somewhere up ahead.
“Come on, Lloyd,” she said. Her legs burned, her lungs were begging for her to slow down, but she could only imagine how awful Lloyd must feel. To his credit, he was only a few paces behind her, huffing and puffing, but without complaint.
Johnny was somewhere off to their right. There was a pass below the Point, so that’s the way she decided to go.
It wasn’t until Lloyd cried out and thumped to the ground that she allowed herself to stop.
The moonlight shone upon them as they were just hitting the small field before the part of the creek that set at the bottom of the Point. Lloyd lay sprawled out on the ground holding his face. Blood leaked from between his fingers. Sheriff Decker stood over him, aiming a rifle toward her.
“Ah, ah, ah…lay that one down and slowly toss that Glock next to it,” he said.
Kathy dropped the shotgun, and did as Decker directed, taking her sidearm and laying it down, as well. She could see the twisted look on his face. There was the hint of a smile at the corners of his lips, but his jaw was wired tight. The seriousness in his eyes was unmistakable.
“Whatever this is, sheriff, we can figure it out. Don’t do anything that could threaten that badge you’re so proud of.”
Although he always claimed being sheriff was just the next logical step in his career, she knew better. He wanted this position. In this county. He’d sought it out and ran down this dream of being the big boss of this small town. She’d never pushed the issue too hard, but knew from what little he shared that it had been his father’s post when Decker was a kid. Now, she was thinking there was more to it. What that was, she had no idea.
“Watch that pretty mouth of yours, Kath. I ain’t in the mood for no sweet talk. Hard enough for me as it is to point this here rifle at you.”
“There’s a monster out here, sheriff,” she said.
“The beast is mine to deal with.”
“So, you know about it?”
Part of her was pissed the fuck off. No way he could know about this thing and not tell anybody. Still, there was another space inside that wasn’t surprised in the least.
Holding the rifle in her direction, Decker drew anther cigarillo from his shirt and lit it.
“If I answer that, I’m afraid the consequences for you would be more than I could bear.”
“Meaning…you’d what? Have to shoot me?”
He gave her a nod.
Lloyd got to his feet leaving his gun where it fell after he got hit. He shuffled over to Kathy’s side.
Higgins calls for his sister continued.
“You willing to let that girl die?” she said.
“Sometimes, a man has got to carry the cross for the betterment of his people.” He drew another mouthful of smoke.
“So, you’re the hero of this story,” she said.
Decker stepped forward and brought a knee into Kathy’s stomach.
“Dennis, what the hell?” Lloyd whined, turning to help Kathy up.
“Shut your fucking mouth, Lloyd, and leave that woman be. She’s a tough girl. Aren’t ya, Kath?”
She fought to catch her breath and stood when she felt okay to do so.
“It’s okay, L
loyd. I was asking for it talking to our sheriff like that.”
She could feel Decker’s smirk behind the nice-smelling cigar. She’d never wanted to wipe the glee from someone’s face so badly in her life. She couldn’t wrap her head around this entire clusterfuck situation. What was Decker’s play here? Could he be the beast? No, although he was showing a side of himself she never knew existed. She didn’t believe he was anything but a bastard.
He’d said if he spilled the beans, her and Lloyd were as good as dead, but what was to keep them from telling everyone what he was doing now? No, they were already dead in his eyes. She needed to get Johnny help. Come hell or high water, she had to make a move before he did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The trees whipped hot slashes across his cheeks, but he pushed on. Stumbling through the dark shadows, he raced when he found patches of moonlight to illuminate the way. His knees and shins were bruised from crashing into low lying branches, and tripping over roots and rocks. The temperature was a season high, he vaguely recalled the weatherman mentioning mid-nineties for tomorrow with the temps going up into the night. Sweat dripped into his eyes, as the old saying around here in the summer went, it ain’t the heat that gets ya, it’s the humidity.
His sister’s cries became ghosts in the distance. He only hoped her silence didn’t mean the worst.
He was about to yell to her again when the sound of something coming down through the trees above froze him.
The massive shape landed less than five feet in front of him with a monstrous thud. Johnny sucked in a breath as the beast let out a foul roar into his face. Raising his arms to block any strike the thing might throw, Johnny remembered Bryan’s taser in his pocket.
The beast stepped toward him, closing the distance as he pulled the device free. The white wolf raised its arms. The scare tactic provided the perfect opening. He hit the button on the device and watched in awe as the two evil prongs launched into the monster’s stomach. The hyper clicks from the electric current traveling into the thing before him seemed as loud as a rock concert in the relative silence surrounding them. The beast let loose a strange whine/yelp as it bent over and dropped to its knees.
When it raised its ugly mouth of teeth to him, he knew it wouldn’t stay down for long. The expression was equal parts pain and rage. He had no choice. He side-stepped the white hulk, got on the other side of it, dropped the device, and ran toward the place he thought he’d find Wendy. There was a cave just beyond this part of the pass. It was the only spot he could think of up here that could hide a beast or screaming woman.
The beast howled, causing his stomach to do flips. Not only had he hurt the fucking thing. Now, he’d royally pissed it off.
He could see the mouth of the cave as he climbed the ledge just off the path.
“Wendy!” he yelled.
“Johnny?” her voice, quiet and weak, came from within the mouth of the natural structure.
He stepped to the top of the ledge, stood, and felt a searing pain across the back of his heels. He couldn’t hold himself up or stop himself from dropping over backwards. He caught sight of the white wolf swapping places with him as he saw the night sky racing away from him. His back hit the ledge he’d just climbed and began tumbling head over feet all the way back down to the path. He crashed to the compact ground and felt several things inside him snap. The goddamn monster had slashed both of his Achilles, and now he was certain he’d broken his left leg and at least a few of his ribs.
He’d failed her. His sister was going to die at the hands of this thing and it was all his fault. He made a feeble attempt to get to his feet, but couldn’t get up on more than his elbow before his body betrayed him.
His face in the dirt, he pounded a fist into the ground and screamed out his sister’s name until his lungs wanted to burn out of his chest.
…..
The woman wasn’t going anywhere, and now neither was her kin. With the closest threat eliminated, the beast turned its attention to the gun-wielding lawman. His death would not be swift. No, the white wolf remembered him. Remembered his blood. Remembered what it had taken from him. His only friend. This one’s death would be slow, painful, and full moon willing, one that would stretch out until the crack of dawn.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“You might as well lay it out for us, sheriff, we both know you’re going to kill us and blame it on whatever the hell is out there,” Kathy said.
Decker laughed as he stamped out the cigarillo. “Damn, Kath, it’s a shame I gotta put a bullet in that big ol’ brain of yours. You would have made a terrific number two.”
“You want to start with Rutherford?” she asked.
“Kenny was an asshole. He was a waste of fucking flesh, but the cocksucker could keep a secret. Drag it right down into the grave you could say.”
“Sheriff? Did you…did you kill Kenny?” Lloyd said.
“Kenny? Hell no. I just said the fucker could hold his secrets. He would have been right here at my side this very minute if I told him to. No, I’m afraid our friend out here got to Kenny first. I do believe Kenny’s little whore escaped his fate by way of Kenny’s Glock though.” He smiled at this. “One of those little blessings, you know?”
‘You’re saying Kenny shot and killed Beth Albies?” Lloyd sounded stunned.
Kathy wasn’t surprised. Despicable people were the same with or without a badge. She kept creeping, centimeter by centimeter toward her pistol. Decker hadn’t noticed yet, unless he just didn’t care. He seemed cocksure about everything else. Probably didn’t think she stood a chance of getting to her gun before he would lay her to rest. He was probably right, but she wasn’t going to just stand here to wait and die. She was banking on the fact that he didn’t expect her to have the balls to follow through with the plan.
“I wasn’t there, Lloyd, but yeah, he put that girl down. And like I said, in hindsight, she got the humane way out. Kenny was gashed to hell and torn apart by the nasty fucker. Beth was otherwise untouched and in one piece. Her family will still be able to look at her and say their good-byes. Kenny, not that he has anyone that gives a shit about him, may as well be plopped into a blender and poured into his grave, but don’t have no fear, Lloyd.” He patted his rifle. “I got just the remedy that’s gonna cure that big, bad beast.”
“Sorry, sheriff, hate to burst your hard-on, but I shot the shit out of that thing and it just kept moving. Unless you’ve got, I don’t know, silver bullets, you ain’t taking that thing down alone.”
He winked, and said, “Bingo.”
And with that, quicker than she was ready for, Sheriff Decker drew his pistol and planted a slug in Lloyd’s guts. Lloyd cried out and dropped to his knees holding his stomach. The sheriff fired the kill shot into the top of his skull.
Shock held Kathy in place. She hadn’t hyperventilated since junior high. That had been over her friends dragging Brad Tillerson over to her picnic table at a school camping trip to Stone Environmental School in sixth grade. Despite the fact that she’d told them she wasn’t ready to talk to Brad just yet, they went ahead and told him she liked him and brought him over. She reacted by throwing her lunch on the ground and running the opposite way until she was caught from behind just outside the cafeteria doors by Michelle Lerrette. Kathy couldn’t breath as she spun on Michelle and lashed out, cutting her across the eye with her long fingernails. Michelle had to go to the hospital to have a procedure on her eye. She never forgave Kathy. By the time a camp counselor got a hold of her, she’d made a complete spectacle of herself in front of most of her class. She was mortified. She begged her parents to let her go to Jefferson, but they refused. She remembered that feeling of total panic as Michelle grabbed her shirt. She never thought she was going to be able to breathe again.
She felt like that now staring at Lloyd’s dead body.
“What do you say, Kath? Wanna take a walk in the moonlight with me? Or do you just want me to do you right here and now? Your call, deputy.”
She waited until he struck a match to make her move.
She’d taken two years of mixed-martial arts when she was at the academy. She needed an edge on the boys. It didn’t always pan out perfect for her, but she caught plenty of those muscle bound, hot shots off-guard and earned each and every one them’s respect. Lucky for her, Decker didn’t weigh much more than a buck sixty, a buck seventy at most. She went for a takedown her teacher called, “The Reap.” She lunged up, throwing her right leg behind his left knee while putting everything she had into the double flat-palm strike into his chest. He flew off his feet, his arms flailing out, as he landed flat on his back with a loud oomph.
Her momentum had her off balance, but she landed on top of her weapons. Scooping up the shotgun, she pumped the hand grip, chambering the shell, snatched up his rifle, tossed it beyond Lloyd’s body, and stepped back to remain out of the viper’s striking range. He was groaning, letting out a slight chuckle when he could manage.
As he caught his breath, she said, “You go for that pistol, I’ll squeeze this trigger and splatter your insides to the soil. Slowly, reach down and undo your belt. And do it slow.”
“Well, holy shit, Kath. You keep on stepping it up. Damn, I did not see that one coming.”
He ran his hands through his cropped hair, and laughed.
“I ought to just kill you for what you’ve done, but then that would make me too much like you. I’d never get another goodnight’s sleep.”
“Don’t act like I did this because I had a fucking choice,” he said.
“You made plenty of choices, sheriff. One right here a few minutes ago when you shot one of the kindest, sweetest men I’ve ever known for nothing.”
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