I was in a grocery store, of all places. Funny enough, I was looking for scissors and a pack of razors. I had spent so much time on the road that maintaining my hair wasn't a concern. When I was living in the factory, I had basic necessities to keep my hygiene decent while I went out in public. Now I had no such need most of the time. I was a machine, constantly moving, always killing. I was being carried in a river of blood and death from one evil asshole to the next. Only now, I felt a reprieve. It was like I could breathe again. I was thinking clearly now, not in the fog of murder and rage.
The visions returned almost immediately as soon as I left Allen and Eloise that night. It had been another four months since I had stepped foot in St. Louis. I was a force of nature, a storm that destroyed anything in its path. When the visions showed me who was next, I was unleashed. Chaos and destruction stayed behind me.
Roughly ten months had passed since I saw Carter, Autumn, and Eleanor that night it all went to shit. It was hard when I thought about it too long. In the few moments I'd think about what it would be like to go back, I'd feel a glimpse of happiness. But I feared I'd be a stranger to them. They wouldn't know me anymore... not after all these months of killing. I felt a detachment that came with all of it, that was my new normal now that I lived in isolation again. I had to remember the numbness I taught myself in the first few years of this life. It was a way to shut things out and just focus on small goals in my present. Things like walking, breathing, and, in my current case, walking out of the store quietly. Ultimately, I didn't think it would matter anyway... wishing I could go back. I was fully expecting a vision to take over and send me back on the hunt any second now. None of this was what I wanted, but when the visions came... I had no choice. I had to obey... and I had to kill. My personal life took a back seat to the entity from the fields.
I grabbed my razors, the scissors, and a bag of candy at the register. Impulse buy, I know, but I deserved a little treat after all the "work" I'd been doing. I paid with the little bit of money I had come across in my travels. I never needed anything that often, so money wasn't a big concern for me. I paid the nice lady at the checkout, completely unaware of anything strange, and headed out the front door.
The massive glowing sign lit up the darkened parking lot around me. 'Aberdeen Grocery' was the name that hung across the sign. That was the town I was in; I had seen the name many times as I passed through the lightly populated area into town. I couldn't tell you for sure what state I was in. Somewhere north of Virginia… maybe.
I was halfway through the parking lot of the grocery store when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I could have sworn that thing was dead. For a second, I froze in the flickering light of the parking lot lamps. What if it was Carter… Autumn, or Eleanor? What if they were still trying to reach me? They had my number, but their calls faded over time.
I was too nervous to look at the screen when I pulled it out. Would I even answer if it were one of them? What would I even say? When I turned the cell phone so that I could see the display, I was let down. It was a number I didn't recognize.
"Fucking telemarketer!" I huffed, screening the call and sending it straight to voicemail. "How do they do that? No one has this number…" I pushed the cell phone back into my pocket. My imaginings gone in an instant.
I kept walking, making headway towards the railroad tracks where I'd follow until I met a train. About an hour later, I found a nice little place to sit while I cut my hair and shaved the stubble from my face. I had become quite a competent barber. I did pretty good work for it being pitch black in the middle of nowhere, with only the reflection from stagnant puddles of rainwater.
When I was just finishing up brushing the hair off of myself, my phone rang again.
"Seriously, what is going on?" I spoke to myself.
That thing stayed dead most of the time, and when it was charged, it never rang anymore. I felt like I was getting blown up, like when my brother used to send me stupid memes or funny things he found on the internet. I tossed my stuff on the ground and pulled my phone out again. I looked at the number and quickly realized it was the same number calling from before. I accepted the call and put the phone to my ear. I was about to lose my cool on someone about to sell me a timeshare.
"Hello?" I answered. "Who is this… how'd you get this number?" I bombarded the caller with questions.
"Hello…" the voice spoke quietly through the speaker.
"Who is this? What do you want?" I asked, annoyed.
"I was given this phone number… and told never to call it…" he said.
It hit me instantly. My heart thudded hard in my chest. My memories returned from that night in the woods, just outside Jane's house. It had been months, but I had only ever given my number out to one person like that. He was my last-ditch effort to still keep ties with the Chasse family while I was away on my "vision quest." His call worried me. I thought I put the fear of God in him that night, to never call unless someone was going to die. He hadn't called the number for months. But now… here he was.
"Allen?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's me. Look, I know you said never to call you, but something is happening? I think I need your help…" he sounded apologetic and unsure. I think he was already second-guessing the call. Maybe it was the fear in his voice.
"Who knows you called me? Did you tell them about me?" I asked, adrenaline shooting my pulse to the roof. I could feel the blood rushing through my face.
"No, I promise. No one knows about you. Eloise doesn't even know I'm calling," Allen assured.
"What is it? I told you, only call me if it's life or death…" I started pacing back and forth around my railroad barbershop.
"Look, I know what you said, but I think something is about to happen… I can just feel it. I can't explain it, but my family's preparing for a hunt, and something doesn't feel right. Eloise feels it too; it's hard to explain. Something bad is going to happen… I know it!" He breathed heavily like he was going through something. "They won't listen to me. I keep trying to talk them out of it, but they don't understand. They can't sense what I sense."
I could hear the stress in his words. This was his last rope; I could tell he didn't want to call me… he was scared.
"I'm not running halfway across the country for maybe's…" he actually cut me off.
"Please… whoever you are, please help me. I keep telling them not to go through with it, but they won't listen. We have other family here… they're pushing everything forward too fast. It's happening tomorrow night… I need your help. Everyone is going to be there, and… if they don't stop, I don't think any of them will make it out alive."
I didn't believe his words; they didn't make sense. But I believed his fear. I could hear the panic in his voice. From all I knew about the life he lived with the pack in France, it would take something bad to have him shaken like this.
"Where are they going?" I asked quickly.
"Wait… you'll come?" he asked, uncertainly.
"Where?" I ordered, trying to maintain my own worries that started building.
"It's just outside the city. I don't know the exact address, but I can get it. I'll text it to you," he offered.
"I'm coming your way now! Text me everything you can find out," I spoke quickly and seriously as I bounded into a sprint. I left all my new stuff and my candy on the ground behind me as I ran. I felt a force pushing me faster. It was a drive I hadn't felt in a long time. I had to protect my friends.
"Allen," I spoke one last thing before I hung up the phone.
"Yeah," he answered attentively.
"Don't tell anyone what's coming!"
My body violently shifted from human to the larger monstrosity that could move much faster. My strides were so much greater in my alternate form. My clothes tore and slowly fell away from where they hung on my frame. The cloth rags were eventually ripped from my body as I passed through the wilderness in a dead sprint. I clutched the now small bag of mementos in my gruesome hand as I rushed towards St. Louis.
It would be nighttime for a few more hours, and I could run unhinged like this until the sun came up. Then I'd turn back human, get clothes, hop a train, or maybe steal a car or something. But I'd make it… I wouldn't let anything happen to them.
"Allen, I told you, I know where moving fast, but we have to do something. Three people have already gone missing near the cave. We have to stop it before it hurts anyone else," I tried to talk sense into my son.
"Dad… I know it sounds weird, but I'm telling you, I feel something. I can't shake it…" he urged. "Eloise feels it too," he added.
"Look, son, I know things have been different since you've been back, but it's just going to take some more time for you to adjust. I've spoken with Jane; she doesn't sense anything like what you are talking about." I walked across the front living room to the fireplace where my son was standing. I reached out and grabbed his shoulder, "I know this is faster than we usually move. You know your cousins… they do things a little differently than us. But we have to be there to help protect them, as well as civilians that might run into this thing."
Allen nodded hesitantly; his long blonde hair was tied back in a short ponytail. He had his cell phone out, staring at it with a clenched jaw. He almost looked like he'd crush it in his rigid grasp.
"If this thing is what we think it is, are you sure we can kill it?" he asked again.
"We'll have more than enough firepower to put it down. The bestiaries have a lot of accounts of the generations of Olitiau sightings. We're packing enough supplies to take down something bigger than even the largest one that was mentioned in the book. Just to be safe," I assured him. He truly seemed nervous about everything.
Just then, Autumn came up from the basement. "How much time until we leave?"
"An hour. Jane and Bran will be here in thirty minutes. We'll go through the plan one more time with everyone here, and then we'll head out. We should reach the cave entrance around midnight," I said, turning as I finished speaking.
Eleanor came in from the garage with Clara. They finished loading their weapons and gear into the back of the Suburban.
"This should be fun," Eleanor let out a quick deep breath, obviously trying to make light of the situation. "I've never killed an Olitiau before."
Clara snickered beside her as they walked into the living room with us.
Frank stumbled out of the kitchen with a sandwich in hand, meat spilling out of the bread, "Nope, not you. I got dibs on the kill shot." He stuffed almost half the sandwich in his mouth, mustard squeezed out of the sloppy build and fell all over the M4 that was hanging down his front.
"Geez, Frank, watch it. Your gunna jam your shit up with all that mustard and get yourself killed when your gun wont fire," I warned.
"Nah," Frank talked through his full mouth of food. "Mustard won't jam guns. I've got firsthand knowledge on that," he laughed it off.
Frank had been way more relaxed, thinking himself the family comedian these last few months. Now that he and Jane were back together full force, it seemed like nothing got to him anymore. It was annoying. I didn't want him to get himself killed.
"Why you look so on edge?" Frank asked Allen.
I looked back at my son, who was still staring at his phone.
"If you want Eloise to stay back before we get moving, I'd tell her now," I offered him. "If you think you need to stay with her, Allen, we have more than enough people to kill this thing…" I barely got out before Allen snapped out of his trance.
"No!" he barked. "I can't let you go by yourselves. I have to be there…"
"Allen," Eleanor walked over to our son, pulling him in for a light hug. "What's got into you?"
Autumn chimed in, "Allen, seriously, I know things are different now, but think about it. This isn't a humanoid creature; it wasn't ever human before. This is just a really big animal. It's not going to be able to outthink us. We've got the edge in this fight… don't worry," she tried to lay it all out for Allen. She knew, as did the rest of us, that things had been hard for Allen to adjust back to since returning with his curse. "Plus, you've got the best of both worlds. We were both raised and trained together. You're a hunter… and you have the power of a werewolf. This thing doesn't stand a chance."
Allen actually calmed a little, "Thanks, Auti."
Autumn hugged her brother, knowing he was still going through hard times with his transformations every month.
"Come on, Eloise is still trying to load all the extra magazines," Autumn laughed. "She insisted on doing it herself."
Allen laughed along with his sister, returning down into the basement to Eloise and our cousins.
In just a few more minutes, Jane and Bran had arrived. Frank let them in, and then we all joined up in the basement.
Introductions were for Bran. He had never met our cousins, nor had they met him. They knew he was with the Talbot pack, but Bran wasn't family. Nevertheless, they were welcoming enough for the time being.
My cousins who had been around for a while now were Zeke, Arthur, and Kayla. Kayla was Zeke's daughter, and just as trained and deadly as Autumn. They were the same age, growing up around each other for many years of their young lives, before our cousins moved off from St. Louis years back.
Zeke and Arthur's side of the family was different than our own. We watched and planned far more than our familial counterparts. Zeke was the son of my father's brother. They were much more aggressive than us. Frank, Clara, and I were taught differently by our father. Zeke and Arthur's father taught them to be the way they were. This is one of the main reasons they had moved off. Zeke and Arthur were the only two left, along with Kayla. Their hunting style was more attack than anything else, but they had gotten better over the years.
They arrived in town after Allen returned to us. They knew something had also happened to El, so when Allen returned, they had to come see us. They'd been staying in the guest side of the house for a few weeks now. It was nice to have them with us, even if they were pushing this hunt forward a little faster than I'd like. But I had to admit, with so many of us on a hunt, I was pushing things faster, too. No one seemed worried that we were moving a little faster on something than we usually would, except for Allen and Eloise, of course. I don't know what that was about.
We all talked about the plan down in the basement. We had maps that Frank's buddy down at City Hall got us. They were old geological survey maps of Cliff Cave. This cave was a sprawling system beneath the southern part of St. Louis. We used these maps to plan our attack and go over positions and tactics. All of my family, except for Allen, would be boots on the ground in our typical formation. The only difference was that we'd have no close-range fighters. Frank, Clara, and Arthur would stay back with the rest of us. Jane, Bran, Eloise, and Allen would be our runners. They were fast enough to go out on foot and light the fires at the other known entrances, and then make it back to the rest of us. We were going to smoke this thing out and push it to meet us all on our chosen fighting ground.
Wayland and I went out to the barred-off cave entrance the day before to get a game plan. Wayland came up with the plan himself, strategically thinking of the best way to come out on top in any fight we were in. He wasn't raised in this like the rest of us, only joining up when he met my sister, but sometimes I swear… Wayland was made for this life.
An Olitiau was a giant bat-like creature that dwelt in caves all over the world at one time. Our family had never run into one in our generation, but relatives had in the past. We had more than enough on it within our bestiaries. Silver was out, but fire was in. We always used silver, so not bringing it as the main weakness to have as our prey's poison was very different from how we usually worked. We had incendiary rounds with us, not many, but a few clips full that a couple of us could put into that thing once we found it within the cave. Some accounts had this thing with a wingspan around ten to twelve feet and teeth around two to four inches long. This thing was a beast… literally.
Three people had gone missing over the last few weeks. All of them vanished within a hundred-yard radius from various entrances to a cave system. A fourth was attacked by something one night while he was doing some "recreational activities" and said it was a flying demon. Luckily, the young man escaped and called the police, but no one believed him. He was high on drugs when he gave his statement, but we took it seriously. He said as soon as he broke the tree line, it retreated into the cave, like it knew not to be seen.
It took talking with Martin and exploring the area during daylight hours to come to our conclusion. We were certain it was an Olitiau. Evidence around the area pointed right to it; high tree branches all around the cave system were snapped from something heavy, droppings in certain areas of the local forest, and animal carcasses, half-eaten, decomposed, around the woods. These were all signs the bestiary warned about.
Once we spoke at length about the plan, we all piled into our vehicles and headed out. We only had about a half-hour drive to Cliff Cave down south of the city. That's where this thing had roosted. Cliff Cave stretched underground for quite a way. Some of the tunnels were very small, and we didn't think we'd need to pay attention to those. If this thing was as big as we thought it was, it would have nowhere to go except straight for us.
Once in location and our gear equipped, the plan was in motion.
"You guys take off. Light your fires, and then haul ass back here. We'll need everyone just in case we have to leave quickly. The fires might draw outside attention. We need to kill this thing quickly, burn it, and get the hell out of here," I said to everyone. It was a small army out in those woods near an entrance close to the Mississippi River.
I looked around at everyone, knowing we'd all be okay. I was sure that this plan would work, and Allen would have worried for nothing. Allen, Eloise, Jane, and Bran all took off in their own directions as they made their way to light their fires. Arthur, Zeke, Kayla, Frank, Clara, Wayland, Eleanor, and Autumn all stood with me down in the mouth of the cave. We had the numbers.
A stench was wafting out from the depths. Rotting flesh was the only thing I could compare it to; most likely from the poor hikers who walked the trails too late in the evening. I imagined how many bones lie on the cave floor beneath that thing, wherever it calls home in the blackness of those rocky caverns.
We set up in the cave entrance, spreading out portable spotlights to illuminate the cave mouth as much as possible. Once everything was in place, we all dispersed ourselves out to have multiple lines of fire over whatever came running to escape the smothering smoke. Within minutes, all the werewolves checked in. The fires were lit, and now it was just a waiting game.
Everyone was back as a single unit, strategically placed to light this fucker up with everything we had. As we waited, tucked behind rocks and debris that littered the cave mouth, I looked to Allen. He looked nervous, still obviously feeling something within himself. I watched him pull out his phone twice and check something, like he was waiting for someone to call.
"Allen," I whispered, knowing his enhanced ears could hear me.
He looked up quickly, connecting eyes with me.
"Focus," I pointed towards the cave.
Allen thrust his phone back into his pocket quickly, regaining his aim on the dark hole in front of us.
Slowly, a rattling of small stones sounded in the area inside the cave. Movement was vibrating the walls of the cavern.
"Here it comes," Zeke said confidently over our earpieces.
A high-pitched screech came from the dark tunnel, accompanied by heavy footsteps and scratching that clawed against the stone walls.
"It's here," Jane said only seconds before it appeared in the beams of the spotlights.
It had black spikes coming out of its spine. Its body was brown and leathery, with massive wings. The blood flowing through its veins gave the tight transparent wings a dark crimson hue. It screeched again once it came into the blinding spotlights. It didn't like the light, stumbling back towards the way it had come. The earsplitting noise blared through our earpieces, stunning us. I didn't expect that.
"Team 1!" I yelled through the monster's shrill cries.
Zeke, Arthur, Clara, and Wayland pumped it full of normal lead bullets. There, silenced M4s chirping in a semi-automatic pattern, echoing down the tunnels within the caves. The hot lead shredded the creature, ripping its wings to pieces like they were made of toilet paper.
The creature roared a booming, deeper cry. This was different than its first scream. This was from pain. It fell back on its spines, but only momentarily. It flipped back over and thrust upwards with its long upper arms that also held the outer edge of its wings. It looked like it tried to flap and get airborne, but it fell back to the stone below.
"Team 2!" I yelled next after the first team had finished their burst of fire.
Autumn, Eleanor, and I unleashed on the grounded devil. Our rounds traced through the air, burning with every bullet that penetrated this thing's skin. The incendiary rounds were glowing red hot within the beast's body, cooking it from the inside.
It lurched forward at us, trying to take one last swing before its fiery death. A nasty snarl ripped from its maw, followed by thick oozing drool. It didn't get close, falling short of us by ten feet or so. It lay still as the final bullets ripped into it.
Me and the rest of Team 2 finished pumping our clips of incendiary rounds into it before stopping. Once the silenced gunfire ended, we all stood in silence as the creature melted from within.
"Well, that was," the sound of Frank's gun choked my words.
Frank shot one round right into the thing's skull, "Kill shot!"
"Frank, stop fucking around," Zeke yelled at my brother. "Your gun isn't even silenced. You're going to draw too much attention."
One of the few times I actually agreed with my cousin.
I just shook my head at my older brother. "Go get the gas," I barked the order at him.
"Jeez, I was just kidding," Frank huffed as he walked back to the cars.
Allen and Eloise came up to stand beside me.
"See, Allen. Nothing to worry about. It's over," I assured him again. He still looked thrown.
Allen shook his head, "I still feel something… I can't explain it." He looked at Elosie.
Eloise only nodded. She felt it still, too.
Frank and Bran stood in the mouth of the cave, dousing the monster in gasoline while our cousins collected all of the spotlights from the cave entrance. All we had to do was light the trail of gas and get out of Dodge.
"Bran," Frank called out to his new buddy as he walked over to Jane, "you want to do the honors?"
"Hell yeah," Bran said excitedly. Bran had helped us out a few times now, and he seemed to like hunting down other monsters with us. I think he felt a different kind of camaraderie with us that he didn't in the pack.
"Frank," I heard Jane talking to my brother over her radio.
"What's up?" he replied.
"Something's wrong…" she said with a growing tone of unease.
"What?" Allen and Eloise simultaneously barked at her.
I felt a chill across my skin, already moving towards Jane.
"What is it?" I asked.
"You feel it now, too?" Allen asked.
"It's…" She closed her eyes, focusing on something. "It's not what you described. This is something else." Jane looked around feverishly in every direction in the dark woods. She sniffed a couple of quick samples of the ambient humid air.
I heard something flapping above me that almost made me shit myself. I looked up sharply, expecting to see the bat-like creature in the air. Thankfully, it was just a black bird.
"Holy shit," Arthur spoke one of the few times of the day.
Everyone looked over to him, and he was staring straight up. We all mirrored his pose, looking above our area. Black birds, crows maybe, were littered throughout the branches above us. They were just sitting there… watching.
"What the fuck is this?" Zeke said out loud.
"Dad… this is weird," Kayla said.
"Yeah, I can agree with that," Autumn seconded.
"Something is definitely wrong, Carter," Jane spoke directly to me. "There's something here… not the bat… It's something else!"
Bran, who was still focused on his task with the gasoline, was out of the loop. He was still in the mouth of the cave, just finished covering the beast's carcass with accelerant. He formed a nice flammable trail a few yards away from the body where he stood with his lighter. The flame of his lighter was the only thing that alerted me to his presence.
"Bran!" Jane yelled across the distance to her second in command. It was pure, unadulterated panic.
It was too late; he lit the trail of gas, and it lit up the Olitiau's body. That's when I saw it. The larger fire lit up the cave again, and we were all witnesses to what Jane saw with her beastly eyes.
The fire roared upwards, lighting the cave to show a form behind Bran. Instantly, a screeching roar tore through the woods around us, stunning Bran at point-blank range. Behind Bran stood another Olitiau. Only, it was massive. No one saw it, no one heard it… It got the jump on us. The one we killed wasn't the only one, nor was it the threat. The first was a baby in comparison… this was the mother.
It all happened so fast, no one could react. Bran was reeling from his sensitivity to the powerful calls of the Olitiau. He was knocked to the ground, unable to take his hands off his ears.
"Bran! Get out of there!" Frank yelled as he lunged forward to get to him.
Everyone else was reaching for weapons again, trying to just do something. It was no use.
The behemoth reached down in a flash, crushing its massive claws into Bran's chest, lifting him high into the air. Its claws were almost two feet long, and they stabbed straight through Bran's chest… all the way through.
Bran screamed as he hung in the air within the beast's grasp.
"Bran!" Jane cried in a rare moment of weakness that she never showed.
The fire was spreading. The creature knocked over one of the cans of gas, spilling all across the hard rocky surface of the cave mouth. Flames lapped it up, spreading out all across the entrance. Bran was cut off from our reach. Frank was the closest, but the flames spread too quickly; they grew too tall. Frank shielded his arms in front of his face as he tried to get to his friend.
"Bran!" Frank yelled. "Bran, just hang on."
"PLEASE! HELP ME!" Bran's cries were shrill and earsplitting. He was struggling for his life.
Then the monster lifted Bran's impaled body to its fanged maw and bit into his torso. A guttural, screaming cry echoed out from Bran as the creature began to eat him, right before our eyes. Blood spurted out from his body, and I could see it running down from him into the flames below. When the bat pulled away, it had flesh, meat, and intestines attached to its bite. It pulled away, separating Bran from some of his vital organs. The screams were haunting.
None of us could do anything. We couldn't even shoot at the beast for fear of killing Bran ourselves. That's when I realized… we weren't going to save him, and someone needed to show him the only mercy we could. Werewolves could heal from a lot… but not from this. He was being torn apart in moments. He would suffer the whole time until he was fully eaten alive, or dying in the process. His healing would make his death slower… letting him watch as the bat ate parts of him while we could do nothing to stop it. The flames were too big… we couldn't do shit!
The Olitiau roared again as it held Bran, almost like it was toying with us. Was it that smart? How could it be… It was just a beast, wasn't it?
Blood was pouring out of Bran's ears now from the sheer pitch and frequency in his direct vicinity. His torso was shredded… he started to slow and wasn't moving as much. He was suffering until the very end. He was suffering…
I raised my rifle, I put a bead right on Bran's forehead, then I hesitated. What if there was another way… what if…
"PLEASE…Please…" Bran was begging now. "Help me…" His voice was defeated, knowing what he was asking for.
I refocused my sights, put them on his forehead, and clenched my teeth, "I'm sorry."
I pulled the trigger. The silenced pop was nothing compared to the noise and chaos of the raging fire, but it was powerful enough to stop everything for a second. Even the creature huffed and puffed in a different manner than it had before. It knew its prey was dead.
"BRAN, NO!" Jane cried as she stumbled forward to her close friend. But he was gone.
Frank pulled her back away from the flames, "No, Jane! We have to go!"
"Everyone… shoot that fucking thing!" I ordered the rest of them.
We were all armed again, and in one instant, we were about to send flaming hot lead into this bat and send it straight back to hell where it belonged.
Clicks. All I heard around me were the clicks of empty guns. The weapons in our hands misfired… every… single… one of them. Ten of us were aiming down on that thing, and all ten guns locked up, jammed, or misfired.
"What the fuck?" Zeke yelped. "What's happening?"
We all fumbled around with our weapons quickly, trying to regain our firepower.
The beast stepped loudly through the flames, making its way towards us. It cast Bran's lifeless body down into the raging inferno beneath its feet.
"Back to the cars!" I yelled. "NOW!"
Everyone was running. No one understood what had happened. Was this what Allen and Eloise had sensed? Stop thinking, Carter… just run.
I looked at everyone as we ran over the hill to the cars on the other side. I made sure that no one was left behind. I could see the outline of the massive beast still standing near the entrance of the cave, just outside of the flames. Maybe it stopped. What was it doing?
I focused my vision, trying to make out what it was doing. It looked like it was kneeling down to a… to a man. There was someone down there with that fucking thing. The beast was letting out quieter, more bearable screeches down by the cave. The person was facing away from me, and all I could see was their back. But then, they turned around and looked right at me. Glowing green eyes stared at me in the darkness. It was looking right at me as I stared down from the top of the hill. The Olitiau stood back up from its knelt position, like it was listening to whoever that was. The green eyes looked back at the towering bat and pointed up the hill, through the trees, right at me. The beast screeched louder, thudding steps forward as it obeyed. We had to keep running.
We ran so fast down the other side of the hill that a few of us almost ate it on the way down. Thank the Lord we didn't.
We were there; all of us panting, scraped, trembling from the exertion, but we'd made it to the clearing where we'd stashed the cars. They waited just ahead, nestled between the trees on the carpet of dry leaves. For a heartbeat, hope surged through the panic. We were going to escape.
Then the forest floor erupted.
With a violent whoosh, flames tore out of the earth like claws. Fire lanced upward from the leafy ground in a sudden, unnatural explosion, scorching through fallen branches and curling dead leaves into ash before our eyes. It didn't creep in from a distance. It didn't catch from a spark. It manifested as if the forest itself had decided to turn against my family.
The heat slammed into our faces, forcing us back. Trees behind the inferno groaned, their bark blackening, the smoke thickening as the flames twisted higher, dancing like living things. The leaves underfoot crackled and hissed, consumed instantly wherever the fire touched.
We stood frozen, helpless, staring at the cars just beyond the blaze. They were metal shapes wreathed in heat-haze and unreachable now.
"Watch out!" Zeke yelled back to everyone as he was the closest to becoming a pile of cinders. He threw his arms out to catch his daughter from barreling into the wall of flames after picking up too much speed from coming down the hill.
Then there was a voice in the woods. It was laughing… It sounded like it was coming from every direction out in those woods.
"Dad… what do we do?" Autumn asked quickly from behind me as I looked back up the hill.
"This is it!" Allen shuddered beside Eloise.
"I feel it," Eloise agreed. Allen grabbed her tightly and kissed her right in front of the flames that blocked our vehicles.
"I'm sorry… I should have called sooner. I thought he'd make it…" Allen apologized feverishly to Eloise.
"What…" Eloise was confused.
The laughter continued. I didn't need to see them because I knew it was the voice of the green eye thing on the other side of the hill. They had powers… like the Wicklows. It was another gypsy… or something else. Something worse.
"Oh shit, here it comes!" Clara turned back, looking up the hill we had just run down.
The winged beast smashed between trees as it fought its way to us. The fire behind it was spreading from the mouth of the cave. The flames were coming with the creature. Coming to consume us alongside the beast.
Warbling snarls and screeches broke the plain of the hilltop as the thing's head came into view. It was stepping up the last few yards to the top of the hill. It had us… We were done.
Then, the laughing started to fade, and was replaced by another sound that seemed to be everywhere in the surrounding forest. A horde of intermittent cawing repeated all around us from the tree branches. I looked around, up, across, and in every direction. I saw the crows from before. Only now there were even more. They watched on… waiting for something.
I heard a whisper in the shadows of the woods. It was the laughing voice, only he wasn't laughing anymore, "No!" It faded away, and I never heard it again.
Just then, the Olitiau stumbled forward, falling over on the hilltop. It fell completely to the ground, vibrating with a thud throughout the area. Its upper wing arms reached out to lift its massive frame. It looked to us at the bottom of the hill, still trapped by flames. It roared at us again, but was interrupted.
Suddenly, it was yanked backwards violently. Vicious grunts and snarls lashed out over the hill with every yank of the Olitiau's body. It looked like something had hold of its leg, pulling it back down the hill. A painful cry barked and squealed from its fanged face as it clawed against the hill, trying to get away from whatever had hold of it. Another noise roared out from the other side of the hill. This was different. I felt my whole body shake from the reverberation of the deep growl. It wasn't just sound, it was like the atmosphere took on a different tone… something powerful and threatening.
I could feel the heat on my back fading as the demonic bat fought against something else. I turned to see the flames between us, and the cars were barely at ground level. Whatever had been happening was over.
I shot my eyes around to everyone behind me. I connected eyes with Eleanor, Frank, and Zeke.
"What's happening?" Zeke choked out through the chaos.
"GET IN!" I screamed at everyone in the woods.
Once everyone realized the barrier of flames was gone, we all loaded inside every vehicle we'd brought to Cliff Cave. I put my seatbelt on as fast as possible, only out of habit, and started the Suburban. That's when I noticed Allen and Eloise still outside, watching. They both looked frozen in fear, even though the Olitiau was not coming for us anymore; something had gripped them tightly. The fire was still creeping out from the cave mouth, glowing over the edge of the hill. The fire was growing louder with each passing minute, and the roar of cracks and pops consumed almost all the noise in the area. Except for the roars from beyond the hill. The fire would decimate the area.
"Allen! Eloise, get in the truck!" Jane yelled from Frank's truck.
Allen and Eloise were both stepping backwards now, still eyeing the hilltop where the surges of guttural rips and snarls were still coming from. I could still hear them, even from inside the Suburban.
They got in with Frank and Jane. Everyone was safe. Everyone… except Bran.
"Dad!" Autumn yelled from the backseat as I pulled out quickly. "Look!"
"Oh my…" Eleanor breathed heavily as she looked out the window to the hilltop. "What's happening…" She had her hand on her chest, barely able to speak through whatever was going on.
I looked up, and the fires had reached the top of the hill, raging and burning the trees throughout the Cliff Cave forest. The trees were only skeletons of what they once were, skinny trunks engulfed in flames. But, within the flame at the top… we all saw something. It only looked like a shadow within the fire, but I saw it moving. It was the outline of something… someone. A person was there in the inferno. I didn't think it was the same green-eyed thing from before. This was someone else. It moved slowly through the flames, watching our every move as we raced away from the location. The bat was nowhere visible in the flames anymore… only the shadow within the blaze.
It was silent in the house, except for the sound of Jane's tears. Bran's death had torn her up. It hit all of us, but none harder than Jane. He was her second in command for years. They had been friends for even longer. He was an outsider looking for help all those years ago, and Jane's father took him in. Jane had just lost family…
Frank stayed right beside her, letting her cry all over him. He didn't say anything, he just stayed there with her.
Arthur and Zeke came back to the living room after getting cleaned up on the guest side of the house.
"What was that?" Zeke asked me as he sat down on the couch across from me.
I shook my head, trying to speak quietly so Jane could still mourn her friend, "I don't know. That thing I saw… with the green eyes, it had powers. That's the only explanation for what happened out there. It looked like it was controlling the Olitiau somehow."
"If it was controlling that thing, then why did it kill it?" Wayland struggled to understand.
"I don't think it did. I think that was something else. You heard the voice, right?" I asked them all. "It wasn't laughing anymore. It sounded angry at the end. It said, 'No!'"
We all thought hard, trying to make sense of what happened. Eleanor sat right beside me, her hand still placed over her upper chest. She was feeling something; maybe it was how closely we got away. We were only seconds from death. I think it brought up old memories… from Phineas' venom.
I looked at Allen and Eloise, who were sitting separately from the rest of us. Allen looked like he was talking quietly to her, trying to explain something. She was shaking her head in disbelief. I called out to him.
"Allen," I said to him. He looked over at me, and I motioned to them. "I'm sorry we didn't listen. I should have listened to you."
Allen shook his head, "It's okay, Dad. I didn't know what was going to happen." Allen looked back at Eloise. "I think I know what I was feeling… both of us."
"What was it?" Autumn asked from beside the couch.
"It wasn't the bat, but the voice out there. It brought out something in me, and Eloise. I don't know why, or who they were, but for some reason we both felt something that reminded us of the pack, from France. It's… hard to explain," he admitted.
"What about those birds?" Arthur asked the group. "What was that about? And what about what was on the other side, there at the end? It was like something was coming after the bat. It was killing it."
Kayla nodded with a blank stare, "What could do that? That monster was huge, but whatever was over there manhandled that thing. I could hear its screams dying out, and I could hear the other thing… like grunting and roaring as it killed it…"
I kept shaking my head, unsure of what to make of it. I needed Bartley to get here. I called him as soon as we got home. I needed his expertise on what had happened. Maybe he could help us understand what that green-eyed thing was, and how it controlled the flames, and our weapons.
Eleanor was staring as blankly as Kayla, lost in some thought about it all. Her hand was still lightly on her chest. I rubbed the back of her neck, trying to soothe her a little.
A light chirp from a cell phone sounded out in the mostly quiet living room. It was so distinct that it made everyone look up.
Allen had that cell phone out again, but Eloise was pushing it down, trying to make him put it away. She was shaking her head in fear, uncertain about something.
"What did you do?" she asked fanatically. "You didn't…" She looked taken aback.
The look on both their faces told a strange story. Something had them shaking in fear. They both looked mortified as they gazed upon the bright screen and the words it displayed. It was like they were right back in those woods near the mouth of the cave.
"What is it?" Jane asked them both as we all watched the tension build between my son and his companion.
Allen and Eloise both calmed quickly, trying to brush it off like it wasn't anything.
"Nothing, just a misunderstanding…" Allen tried, but didn't convince anyone. It was hard to watch.
Eloise stared at the floor, struggling to regain her composure. She was very quiet most of the time; she had been since she arrived here with Allen. But I could tell, ever since she got here, that there was something they were hiding. Allen was better at keeping the clues of their secrecy under wraps, but it was present on them now. They couldn't deny it any longer.
Jane could sense something off about them, more so than usual. She could smell their fear, and she wanted to know why. I think we all did, especially in this moment, after everything that happened. She shot up out of her seat beside Frank and powered over to them. "What is it?" she ordered, looking down at Allen's phone.
Whatever it was had them both equally as worried and anxious as the situation we had just gotten out of. But what could be so bad?
"Nothing, Jane…" Allen barely got out.
Jane's eyes turned yellowish orange, and a strange sound came out in her voice with every word, "Tell me what it is! Right now!"
Something was happening between the three werewolves. At Jane's words, Allen and Eloise cringed backward in the living room, physically affected by the words she spoke to them.
Allen struggled to remain silent, while Eloise cracked almost instantly to whatever supernatural coercion Jane was performing on them.
"We're not supposed to talk about it…" She tried to stop talking.
"What? Talk about what?" her voice still as deep and warped as before. Jane continued, "You will tell me!"
"I called someone!" Allen admitted after physically trying to keep his mouth shut. Whatever Jane was doing worked quickly, and as soon as Allen said the words, his will was broken.
"Who did you call?" Jane asked in a more natural voice. Her eyes returned to look human again.
"I don't know…" Allen said.
I thought Jane was about to urge him in that strange manner again, but she believed him. "Who texted you?"
Eloise spoke next, I think she was trying to take some of the blame also. "We never knew his name." She shuddered slightly, "It was the one who killed our pack. He told us never to talk or tell anyone about him."
Allen and Eloise didn't talk much about what ultimately happened over there with their pack. They spoke only briefly about it when they first got here, obviously affected by everything they went through, so we didn't push them. It seemed to us that whatever happened was just the thing they needed to escape that life. We tried to give them space, hoping they'd let us in eventually and tell us what really happened over there. I had a theory that they killed them all together. Maybe while the others slept or something. They were both keeping a secret about it together, and they never let anyone in, not when it came to this.
Everyone realized this was what we had been waiting for from Allen and Eloise for a long time. It was the truth of what happened that night of the full moon. When their whole pack died. But how was it tied to what happened here to us at the cave?
"The thing I've been feeling," Allen said, looking at Eloise. "The thing we've both been feeling. We can't explain it, but it feels like what I remember about being cursed. We've been talking the last couple of days, and we just couldn't shake the feeling. It was so familiar, like I was back there… in that ritual."
"It's true," Eloise agreed. Whatever else was there… that voice… the laughing…" She struggled with the memory.
"When I felt that, I knew that something bad was going to happen. No one would listen to me. I kept trying to talk you all out of it." Allen looked at Jane, "Even you. But nobody listened. I didn't know what else to do. So I…" Allen looked back down at his phone. "I called someone."
"He was the one who killed the pack. He got us out that night," Eloise stared emptily at the wall as she remembered things about that night.
"So, how did you escape, Allen? Why did it let you both go and kill everyone else?" Wayland asked, still trying to figure out the details.
Eloise and Allen looked at each other cautiously. Eloise nodded her head slightly in agreement. They truly looked scared of something.
"We didn't do anything," Allen answered, still unsure if he was making the right choice in telling us all this secret.
"How did you get away, sweetie?" Eleanor asked.
"It's okay, Allen." I tried to assure him that it would be okay, breaking my silence. Honestly, I was trying not to talk. I felt like a piece of shit father. I should have listened to my son. I should have been more sensitive to the things going on around me than just pushing forward to the hunt because Zeke wanted to.
"We don't know what or who he was. He never told us his name… but he knew things," Allen spoke slowly.
"What happened?" Autumn asked him to explain.
"I was drinking at this bar one night before the full moon, to prepare for the transformation. We always did that, me and a few others. I was sitting by myself when this guy just walked up and sat at my table. He started talking to me, asking me what I would do if I could get away from the pack. I didn't know him. I'd never seen him before… but he acted like he knew me," Allen explained. "He told me he could get me out of there, and I could go home. I was scared. I just thought it was some hunter that found the pack and thought they could kill them. But our pack was strong, and I thought he'd get me in trouble with the alpha, Darry."
"Why did you think he was a hunter?" I asked.
"He showed me his silver blade," Allen responded. "He told me to just sit back, and he'd do the rest. The next night, he showed up at where we had set up our camp. He came down in that valley… alone. I don't know how he tracked us. He gave everyone a chance to leave peacefully before he started, if they wanted to. Eloise and I chained ourselves up to some trees before the transformation started to take hold, but we were the only ones. Then… he killed them all."
"How?" Jane asked eagerly. "He killed your whole pack?" She still couldn't believe it.
"Yes," Allen told Jane. "I'm not sure exactly what he did after we started to turn, but before we chained ourselves up, he killed a woman in our pack with his silver blade. He threw it so fast that I couldn't even see it before it killed her. He killed a werewolf, on a full moon, with a knife, without even moving from his place."
"Everything else was a blur, as Allen and I had already begun the change, but there was a big fight. I remember seeing all of the werewolves, fully transformed, swarming something. Yet, when we woke the next morning, they were all dead. The man was the only one alive. He was wearing different clothes, but it was him," Eloise retold the flashes of images as she recalled them.
I felt like I had deja vu for a second, but I couldn't place it.
"That's more than I remember," Allen said. "Eloise has been a werewolf longer than me, so she keeps more of her mind than I do when we transform. I don't have as much control as her, yet."
"Why did he let you leave?" Clara asked.
"It was like he knew me. He told me that you all would want me back, no matter what I was," Allen said. "Looks like he was right. He had a ride on a plane already figured out for us. We were stowaways, but it got us here. Once we were back in the country, we hopped on and off trains back to St. Louis. Then he walked us to your house," Allen told Jane. "He was right there with us, in the trees. He told me to trust you. He said that you were all tied in together more now than you ever were."
"That's when he gave us a number. He told us never to call it for anything other than life or death situations. That's when he told us not to ever mention him. That's why we've kept it a secret all this time. He was… He was very convincing that it would not be good to oppose him," Eloise nervously explained.
"He knew us?" Eleanor asked, getting up quickly from the couch.
"You don't remember him from anything before you were turned? Maybe you'd seen him with the family somewhere? Another hunter we'd worked with in the past, maybe?" Clara tried to give him ideas.
We were all trying to make heads or tails of their story, but it was not what any of us expected. Who was it? How did they know who we all were? It was a hunter since he had the silver blade. Yet, Allen said he took on his whole pack and killed them all by himself. No hunter could have done that alone. It would have had to have been something else, another creature. Still, no supernatural creature can hold a silver blade, let alone take on a whole pack of fully transformed werewolves on the night of the full moon. Except…
"What did he look like?" I barked at Allen, taking everyone by surprise.
Eleanor looked at me as I stood beside her now, realizing I was connecting similar dots to her.
"Um… he was big, strong-looking under his clothes. He wore a hood a lot of the time, so we didn't see his full face a lot."
"Dad… you don't think…" Autumn started to understand.
"I don't know for sure… but it has to be."
"What is it?" Allen asked nervously. He gritted his teeth as the truth unfolded before us all.
I looked around at all of my family who circled Allen and Eloise. Everyone except Zeke, Arthur, and Kayla were all in the same thought process. We were all nodding to each other in agreement. It had to be him. But… how did he do it? How did he know Allen was alive? How did he find him… how did he get to France? Nothing made sense.
"A lot happened while you were gone. We haven't told you this yet, but I guess we have a secret of our own we need to share with you." I looked at my cousins. "With all of you. There's a lot more to the story than we originally told you about what happened with Eleanor."
Zeke and company looked a little uneasy about the fact that we hadn't been fully honest with them, especially since they could see how serious it was for us through our words and reaction during this line of questioning.
"Now, let me tell you a story," Eleanor began.
Allen and Eloise took a seat, as did our cousins. We started to tell them the story of every encounter we had with our lost friend, Sam.