Prey In The Dark
Chapter the 2nd: What goes around…
The pictures were strewn haphazardly across the ancient metal desk. Someone in the building probably remembered what the original color of the paint had been, but no one could think of who that might be. Moonlight struggled through the dirt and grime encrusting the narrow windows set high in the wall, a pale and wan glow in the dark room. Erin pushed back the errant strand of hair that insisted on escaping her severe bun and rubbed her tired eyes. Harsh white light from the gooseneck lamp on the far corner of the desk glared back at her from the glossy surfaces of the pictures. Black and white newspaper file photos mixed with fuzzy, color Polaroids and the occasional professional-grade picture. She slowly shuffled them around on the desktop like a gypsy fortune-teller, not really looking at them, almost feeling her way to some kind of pattern amidst the scattered images. Lost in thought, she didn’t notice the long-fingered hand extend from the shadows to land heavily across her shoulder.
She managed not to scream, but the photographs flew wildly over the top of the desk, some whipping out of the circle of light and disappearing in the darkness as she reached for a gun that wasn’t there.
“Erin, go home already.”
“For the love of God, Terry Paul! Don’t DO that!” She reached up irritably and slapped his hand away.
“Partner mine, you aren’t going to find anything in the next hour you haven’t found in the previous six” her partner said, bending over to pick up some of the scattered pictures. “Not that you’re likely to get much sleep after staring at this lot. “You have a helluva taste in bedtime stories” he said, fanning several of them and grimacing slightly at the mutilated bodies mixed with wildlife photography of wolf kills and close-ups of different breeds of wolves. “You have a phobia about technology or what? The digital archives are a hell of a lot easier to search and organize.”
“I’m just old-fashioned that way” she said scooping the pictures into a small pile and sorting them by size.
“I’ll say. I don’t think I’ve ever been down here. I don’t think anyone has been down here since maybe Tommy Edison.”
“Smartass” she replied without heat. “Sometimes the old ways are best.”
“Some time after the industrial revolution would be nice.”
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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.
The Sweet Seduction of Madness
Prologue:
Sarah Mary leaned forward to pat her horse gently on the neck as they watched the enormous orange ball of the setting sun slip farther and farther below the horizon. A cool breeze rippled down the mountainside, stirring her long black hair about her shoulders. Her black horse pawed the ground as if impatient to be moving once more.
“Yes my friend, we will go soon enough,” she said to her familiar companion, but still she sat quietly as dusk crept across the land and the first tentative stars pierced the vault of the sky. Sighing, she finally urged her mount onto the slight path leading down the mountain. She shouldn’t have taken the time to come up here, she knew, but she had desperately needed a break from the constant grind of the research laboratory. She loved the work, had only dared imagine she would be given an opportunity like this when she graduated from P&ITT, but the safety precautions and unceasing vigilance required while she was working was exhausting. More than one lab assistant had been relieved when the lab cameras or the silent observers standing patient guard detected any hint of irregularity or lack of concentration. She tugged the wide-brimmed hat she wore lower in front as her mount picked up speed headed down the mountain. Grinning, Sarah gave the horse his head and a trot turned into a gallop as they raced the darkness back to the corral.
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Hiding From The Moon
Breathing hard he tore through the woods, in and out he cycled cool moist night air. Light from the silver glow of the full moon belched out upon the woodlands. Free. He felt free, felt as if he had not been alive in years. Strength and power surged through him, rushing through his veins as he let loose and ran though the underbrush, snatches of branches and brambles nipping at him, taking tufts of hair as he passed. He didn’t care about leaving traces, he was free.
Stopping at a stream he knelt and drank, long slow draws from the cold water, water that fed the earth, fed him. I am the night, I am the earth, I am the power he thought, all the power in the universe. He had forgotten just how good it felt to run, feeling his powerful muscles move him along. Feeling his lungs exercise and work for a change. He pushed his body hard, only to have it respond by wanting more. It felt good, so he ran. Read the rest of this entry »