Totally unnerved, he took a wary step back. Maybe those old coots at the general store weren’t so crazy after all. Hadn’t they told him tales of some sort of cat-woman living up here? At the time, he figured they were trying to jerk the Yankee’s chain. Now, he wasn’t so sure. He knew what he saw. He looked down again at the tracks: no human ones, just cat.
The she-cat had no idea why she let this hunter live. Maybe it was because she could sense his unease with the hunt. She may come back for him later; she hated all hunters. The men of her tribe turned her into what she had become. Cursed was a better word. She could vaguely remember her human name: Little Fawn. Now, she was known as Wampus Cat.
She silently followed the other two hunters. These two were the troublemakers. With her keen hearing, she could hear them putting down the one she spared. They would soon know her wrath, but first the hounds had to go. Her fun was not to be distracted.
She slipped around to purposely allow the hounds to catch her scent. It didn’t take long. Within seconds, their baying changed in sound, and they were after her. She wanted them found easily so the hunters would have an idea of what they were in for.
Art and Steve were making fun of Jeff. Art had Steve laughing so hard he had to hold his sides. Suddenly, Art put a hand up. The tone of the hounds had changed; they had picked up a new scent.
Steve shook his head in disgust. “Worthless mutts. They’re probably off chasing a rabbit.”
“No way, man. Molly and Jester are the best bear dogs in the state. Something’s wrong. Maybe they…” He never got to finish his sentence. First, one and then another high-pitched cries filled the air.
“My God! Something’s killing my dogs. Let’s go.” Art took off at a slow jog to find his precious pair.
Steve wasn’t so quick to go after him. He saw firsthand what those two dogs could do to a bear. This wasn’t looking good. Dogs can’t scream, but that’s exactly what it sounded like when the sudden silence came. He picked up speed to help his friend.
When he caught up with Art, he stopped dead. One look at what was left of the hounds had him heading to a bush to lose his supper. The poor animals had been torn apart. You couldn’t tell one from the other. Most of the pieces were too small to even know what they had been. Art was standing in shock, and his mind couldn’t wrap around what he was seeing.
Still wiping his mouth, Steve walked over. It was taking all he had to not start retching again. “Bro, we got to get the fuck out of here. Whatever did that wasn’t no bear.” He was trying his hardest not to look at the carnage on the ground.
Art seemed to snap out of it. “Hell, I’m leaving. We’re going to get whatever did this to my dogs.”
“Dude, be real. Whatever did this—did it in seconds. What makes you think we stand a chance? If anything, we should go find Jeff. Safety in numbers and all that.”
“We have guns. That asshole Jeff is probably lost. If he had kept up, this might not have happened. Look at the blood trail. They had to have gotten a few good licks in before…this.” Even he couldn’t stand to look at his slaughtered partners. He had raised them from pups and revenge was high on his list. “Let’s go. We’ll stay together until we get to where we can surround whatever it is.” They started off.
The Wampus held back a snicker. She knew the asshole in question was curled up under a bush, trying to make himself as small as possible. The one advantage to this curse was that she could move at unbelievable speeds. After she had finished off the dogs, she went and checked on the one they called “Jeff”. Now, let the fun begin.
The two men moved slowly. Neither had a clue that the blood they were trailing came from the hounds. A cloud had covered the moon and was making it hard for them. Steve kept looking towards the sky, wishing the cloud away. In his gut, he knew they were making a grave mistake. They should get the hell out of here. This was way too much for the two of them, and he gave a fleeting thought to Jeff. If the city boy were smart, he was locked in the truck. There was no way he didn’t hear the hounds die.
The cloud moved off the moon and once again they could see easily. They came to an area where the blood seemed to split into two paths and Art knelt to study the ground. “I knew one critter couldn’t have done that to my Molly and Jester. You take that path, and I’ll go after this one.”
Steve thought that was the dumbest thing he ever heard. “Why don’t we stay together and take them down one at a time?”
“No way. If one stops bleeding we’ll never find it. It has to be done this way. Don’t tell me you’ve gone chicken on me.”
“No. You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. We’ll do this your way.” As always, Steve thought.
The men separated, just as she knew they would. She gave a little purr in anticipation as to what was to come and decided to take the bossy one first. He plain got on her nerves and reminded her too much of one of the ones who had cursed her.
Art was studying the ground, not paying attention to his surroundings. He was in total tunnel vision mode. He’s making this too easy, she thought. It’s time to liven up the game a bit. She purposely stepped on a branch, causing it to snap. Art whirled around and brought up the rifle. A slight sheen of sweat covered his forehead. Another branch snapped and then another. It seemed that it was all around him.
“Who…who’s out there?” He turned in circles and tried to cover his back. For sheer enjoyment, she let out a low growl. She got a thrill when the smell of his urine rose in the air and decided to move a little closer, adding to her excitement. He started shooting randomly, and she jumped up to lay across a branch. He would soon empty the gun…not that it was any kind of defense against her.
Soon, he had spent all of his shells. Yawning, she decided to end him and go after the other one. With a nimble leap, she landed on the ground behind him. He spun, startled. She was twice the size of a regular cougar and her eyes glowed a strange amber-yellow color. She was grayer than the normal tawny color of the big cat.
She gave Art ten feet before she pounced on him. With one swipe of her enormous paw, she tore out a section of his stomach. His scream echoed through the mountain. With saliva dripping from her teeth, his throat was next. Now, the only noise coming from him was a gurgling sound. He was drowning in his own blood as she ripped his heart out and swallowed it in one bite. The man lay still at her feet. She’d come back to put him in her cache later. There was another one out there.
Steve froze in his tracks when he heard the shots and Art’s scream; it sounded almost inhuman. Screw revenge for the hounds. He was getting his ass out of here. Jeff’s too, if he could find him. He wasn’t going to look too hard, but he hoped Art had left the keys in the truck, like he normally did. He headed back up toward the ridge and the road where they had parked.
He knew he was moving too fast to be carrying a loaded gun, but there was no way was he going to take the time to unload it. He heard something crash in the brush behind him. Daring to look back, he stumbled over a log and went sprawling. He felt a pop in his knee and his rifle sailed into the underbrush…fifteen feet away.
Dragging himself to his feet, he knew his knee was going to slow him down. He had to get to the gun. Everything had gone eerily quiet in the night, and no normal night sounds could be heard. It was almost like the night was holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen next. He reached his rifle. If nothing else, he could use it as a crutch. He could feel the swelling in his knee stretching his jeans.
Suddenly, the monstrous She-Cat stepped into the clearing. She almost looked as if she were smiling. He gave a shudder and shouldered the weapon, shaking so bad he was afraid he’s miss even at close range. With a little prayer, he pulled the trigger again and again. When the smoke cleared, the cat was sitting there, cleaning blood from its paw. He was afraid he knew to whom it belonged.
She stopped washing and stood up, smirking at him. He could swear she smirked. She took a step toward him. He tried to step back, but his knee gave out and down he w
ent. All he could do was throw the rifle at her. She studied him the way you would a bug under a microscope. Then, she pounced.
She played with him much like how a house cat does a mouse. She bit him, tossed him in the air and bit again. His screams were intense as she slashed his stomach and pulled out his intestines. He watched in horror as she batted them around like string. Now, he was praying for her to end it. He had no screams left. The only sounds he made were little whimpers as his mind shut itself down to a place where no one would ever reach him. When she took the lethal bite out of him, he was mercifully unaware.
The night was coming to a close. She still had to cache her two toys from the night and get herself to her den, but she had one last thing to take care of first.
Jeff had managed to find the truck. He was sitting with his head between his knees, leaning on it. He had heard Art and Steve die; he shook too hard to stand. When she stepped out of the woods, he looked up. She was naked and beautiful with jet-black hair and long-lidded tawny eyes. Never mind she was built.
She stood there and stared at him. “I really don’t know why I spared you. Maybe to keep my memory from fading.” She shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m leaving you a parting gift. It’s one no one else has ever seen.” She let out a loud growl and changed into the Wampus Cat right before his eyes.
Jeff slumped over in a dead faint.
She walked up, licked his cheek and vanished into the night.
The next morning, the Sheriff watched the poor kid get loaded into an ambulance. He shook his head. The boy would never be right again. Staring into the woods, he wondered what had happened that night.
Possessing Bailey
By Jenna Pizzi
The night air was warm and moist with humidity while the slight breeze offered little relief to the sultry July evening. Four friends were huddled over the small campfire in Rayne’s backyard. Each girl held an object in her hands.
“By the light of the moon, by the flame of the fire, I call upon darkness to fulfill my desire.”
Bailey let out a nervous giggle. Rayne looked up from the fire and shot her a harsh look.
“Bailey, shut up. You are gonna ruin it.”
“Maybe we should stop. I’m kinda freaking out,” Bailey said as she glanced around at the dark woods that surrounded them. “We shouldn’t be doing this. I heard that really bad things could happen if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“We’re just having some fun, Bailey. God, liven up, will you?” Lindsay snapped at her. She looked back at Rayne and smiled. “What should we do now?”
“Well, now each one of us has to throw our personal belongings into the fire as an offering and then it is done. We will open the portal between life and death and be able to communicate with the other side.”
“I kind of agree with Bailey on this one,” Molly said as she rubbed her arms to keep the chill away.
“If you guys don’t like it, then leave. No one is keeping you here against your will. We all agreed that we were going to do this. What is the worst that could happen?” Rayne snapped at them. She waited to see if her friends were staying or leaving. When she was satisfied that they were staying, she stepped forward and pulled out a photo of her family. “Families aren’t always what they seem. A picture is just a picture. It’s an illusion of what people want the world to see. I hope that one day I’ll get justice for what my father has done.” She threw the photo into the fire and stood back, watching as the flames consumed the photo. It curled until there was nothing left but a speck of ash.
Lindsay stepped forward next. She held a violin string in her hand. “Music is my greatest passion. Without it, I am nothing. I hope I will always be able to play, so I offer my greatest pleasure.” She tossed the string into the fire. The flames burst up as if responding to her request.
Molly stepped forward and looked around at her closest friends. She’d do anything for them. She fingered the handmade braided bracelet in her palm and remembered the day they made them. All four of them had matching ones that represented their friendship.
Molly walked up to the fire and held the bracelet over it. “I give my bracelet as an offering. I hope we always remain as close as we are right now.” She tossed the bracelet into the fire, and it hissed at her. She jumped out of the way just as the flames lashed out.
Bailey hesitated. She didn’t have anything to offer, and she didn’t believe in magick.
“Well?” Rayne snapped at Bailey. “What do you offer to bind our circle?”
“I don’t believe in any of this, Rayne. This is stupid. I want to go home.”
“Don’t be such a chicken, Bailey; we’re having fun. This is just a game. Throw something in so we can continue.”
Bailey looked at her other friends. They all seemed to be having fun. She stepped forward and pulled off the butterfly clip that she wore in her hair. “Ouch,” she responded as it tore a few strands from her scalp. She tossed it into the fire and listened as metal and plastic sizzled, melting into a puddle of black tar.
“That’s it. It’s time to see if it worked.” Rayne walked over to her tent and pulled out a Ouija board. She waved her friends over, and they formed a circle on the ground.
“Are we really going to do this?” Bailey asked.
“Bailey, you are really starting to drag me down. We’re just trying to have a little fun. Would you lighten up, for Christ’s sake?”
Rayne set the board down in between them and looked around at her friends. “The idea to this is to tap into our energy and communicate with the other side. Each one of us needs to place the first two fingers of each hand lightly on the planchette. Our energy will connect and allow the spirits, if any, to communicate through the board. Since we have offered our personal belongings, we’ve opened up the gateway between the worlds.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Lindsay asked.
“I’ve been doing things like this since I was younger. Now, let’s begin.”
The girls placed their fingers on the planchette and waited for Rayne’s instructions. “Spirits, we open to thee. We call upon you to speak with us.”
The planchette slowly moved in a figure eight motion across the board. After a few moments, Rayne said, “We each gave an offering of ourselves to open the portal and allow you in. I call upon you to come to us. Are you here with us now?” The planchette continued moving in a figure eight. “I ask you again, is there anyone here with us now?”
The planchette slid across the board and hovered over the word “yes”. The girls looked at one another. “Who did that? Rayne, did you do that?”
“No, I didn’t do that. Now, will you shut up so that we can continue?”
They moved the planchette back to the middle of the board. “Are you evil?” Rayne asked.
Molly gasped. “Why would you ask that? What if it is?” she whined.
“Don’t be so stupid, Molly. This is only a damn game. Now, let’s continue,” Rayne snapped at them.
The planchette was on its second time around the board when it veered off and hovered over the “yes” once again.
Molly and Bailey pulled their hands away.
“I’m done!” Molly exclaimed. “I don’t want to do this anymore.
Lindsay and Rayne still had their fingers on the planchette. It continued to move by itself.
Lindsay looked over at Rayne. “Are you moving it?”
“No,” Rayne said as she watched it slide across the board.
“Who are you? What is your name?”
The planchette stopped on A, Z, A, and Z. Then, it moved to E, slowly making its way to the letter L.
“AZAZEL, is that your name?”
The planchette moved again. This time is stopped on the word “yes”. Rayne looked at Lindsay questioningly, and Lindsay shook her head. “Don’t look at me! Is that an actual name? It sounds made up.”
“You need to stop this. Now!” Bailey cried out. “This is wrong. We are messing wi
th things that shouldn’t be messed with. You guys are going to regret this.”
The planchette began moving again. Rayne and Lindsay looked down at the board and watched. It stopped over the letter D. Then, it moved to the letter E, followed by A, T, and lastly, it landed on H.
Lindsay pulled her hand away. “Rayne, you suck. Why would you try to scare us like this?”
“I didn’t do it. I swear to you that I am not moving it.”
The board instantly flipped off the ground and into the fire. It flared as if it came to life and Rayne backed away from the flames before she got burned. Lindsay fell away from the fire and landed on her backside.
“Bailey?” Molly called out. “Where did you go?”
Rayne and Lindsay looked over at Molly. “Where is Bailey?”
“Good question. She was standing next to me a minute ago,” Molly responded.
“The sissy probably went running home.” Rayne laughed. “So much for communicating with the other side. I guess we’re done.”
“I told you we shouldn’t mess around with this stuff. We probably pissed off some evil entity.” Molly snapped at Rayne.
“Grow up, Molly. It’s not real,” Lindsay said.
“Then where is Bailey?”
“Right now, she is most likely going to sleep in her own bed. That doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. I’ll be inside. If you guys want to crash here, you can.”
Rayne got up and threw a bucket of sand into the fire. The hot embers slowly extinguished until they turned smoky. Rayne walked towards the back door to her house.
Lindsay took one look at Molly, grabbed her sleeping bag and followed Rayne.
Molly hesitantly picked up her sleeping bag and saw Bailey’s was still there. She didn’t like the feeling that crept over her and felt that they had just unleashed something unnatural. She followed her two friends inside the house.
* * *
Rayne was lying on her bed listening to her iPod, when her father came storming into her room.
Dark Light Book Three (Dark Light Anthology) Page 2