Prey In The Dark

Prologue:

She ran, heart pounding in her chest, each panting lungful of air a tearing rasp down her raw throat, even in the humid summer air. She ran through the trees behind the parking lot, the full moon giving her just enough light to miss some of the larger branches that threatened her as she rushed between the darker masses of tree trunks. Her dress was torn in a hundred places from the smaller branches that whipped her as she fled and her bare feet left spots of blood behind her. Her high-heeled shoes had been lost in the first frantic moments of flight across the inky blacktop of the common parking lot between the nearly deserted dormitories as they quickly flanked her, cutting her off from the safety of the dorms, forcing her into the woods.

She cried out, a small, frightened yelp, as she heard her pursuers close behind her. She made a desperate turn away from the sound of something crashing through the underbrush on her right. For just a second her long auburn hair whipped across her face, the sweat-soaked strands clinging to her dry lips as they blinded her for a bare moment. She misjudged the distance to a huge tree as she turned and twisted her ankle on the thick roots that stretched outward from it.

She hit the ground in an awkward sprawl, barely getting her arms beneath her in time to save her face from slamming into the moist earth. Desperately gulping down air she managed to get to one knee before they were upon her. She couldn’t even find breath to scream as their claws ripped bloody gashes across her upper arm and shoulder and she fell heavily. She writhed in pain, but was able to twist to the side far enough that the next set of claws gouged into dirt rather than soft flesh. She used her good arm to scrabble to her feet once more only to be driven forward by a heavy body slamming into her from behind. She hit the tree with stunning force, the rough bark tearing the skin on her face and chest. The impact forced the air from her laboring lungs and she slid bonelessly down the tree trunk. She rolled over just as the rest of the pack reached her, rushing through the pools of moonlight that filtered through the branches above. She managed a whimper as their hungry eyes met hers, the blood dripping down her cheeks and arms, and then they were upon her.

Chapter the 1st: On The Prowl

“Please don’t screw up the crime scene any more than you already have while you’re ogling my butt” the redhead said without looking as she straightened up, already peeling off the skin-tight, thin plastic gloves she wore. The two campus security officers jerked guiltily behind her. “For the love of God, what were you two doing when they were teaching site integrity? Never mind, I can imagine” she finished angrily. “I realize we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, but you could at least watch CSI or something and catch a clue! Look at this mess” she said, pointing an accusing finger at the muddy loam churned up around the bloody body of the dead woman. “There are at least four different shoe sizes that tromped anything useful into mush between the time of death and the time you finally called it in. There’s damn little I can do with this now.” She stalked away, raising the plastic yellow tape to lean underneath it.

“Look here, you” started the heavier of the two, a slow red flush rising up from the top of his uniform blouse, taking a step toward her from where she had exiled them when she arrived. He stopped suddenly as she stepped swiftly up to him, angry fire sparking in her hazel eyes.

“Look here what, you Don Knotts knockoff? I find splatter porn pics of this on the Internet and a whole platoon of the backwoods redneck asshole buddies you let in here won’t be enough to dig you out of the hole I bury you in! Understand?” She stiff-armed the only slightly taller spluttering man out of her way and strode back to her car.

“Little harsh on the locals, don’t you think?” said the black-haired detective leaning against the side of the campus cruiser she had pulled in beside. “Not like they’re used to this kind of thing, Erin.” He struck a match and held it in a cupped hand against the end of the cigarette between his lips.

“Hell no! I’ll show you harsh one day. That was just a friendly warning. Those two will have half the campus terrified of werewolves or some other damfool bullshit story before we can even get back to the lab.”

“So you don’t think they’re going to go along with the feral dog story then?”

“Oh Christ no. We’re in the middle of hunting country. They may not know DNA from dynamite, but they know damn well those gashes and bite marks didn’t come from anything the size of a dog. And even ferals, unless they’re rabid, don’t routinely attack humans. No, they’ll start with wolves and then it’ll be werewolves. This whole generation was weaned on Jason and Freddy and unkillable monsters.”

She jerked the car door open, but stood there looking back at the two campus “cops” arguing with each other. The lanky detective pushed himself off the campus cruiser and closed the trunk on the non-nondescript black sedan. He walked around to the open door on the passenger side and slid into the seat. She dropped in beside him and slammed the door shut, twisting the key in the ignition and bringing the engine to life with a roar.

“No, Terry,” she said almost to herself, still watching through the windshield, “they wouldn’t have called us in at all except for the special bulletin that went over the wire to immediately report anything similar to the other two attacks.”

A curl of smoke threaded its way from the corner of her partner’s mouth as he leaned back and closed his eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. Three attacks, each of them during a full moon, each victim chased down and partially dismembered.”

“Ripped apart you mean. Every one of them young and female and a student in the local university. No boyfriends or jilted lovers or something convenient. Oh yeah, they’ll file an official report that says what we told ‘em to say, but the wifi generation will have the werewolf story spread across the whole campus before the news twits splash it across hell and half of Georgia.”

“There’s a difference?” her asked laconically.

“Damn yankee.” She dropped the gear into reverse, the tires squealing on the asphalt of the parking lot as the car shot backward. “Werewolves my pretty pink ass” she said tiredly as she turned the car and sped out onto the access road.

“Nothing there for me” grinned her partner without opening his eyes.

“And don’t you forget it either” came the expected rejoinder, but more quietly than usual.

“Too bony for my tastes anyway” he said, cracking open one eye to glance at her. For a second it was if she hadn’t heard him at all, then she whipped her head around to glare at him. “Don’t let this get too close, Erin” he said before she could say anything.

Her lips tightened into a straight line but she made no reply as she whipped the car through the tight curve of the entrance ramp onto the state highway.

Author: D. D. Wolf | Category: D. D. Wolf, Horror | Comments(0) August 2010