The Winter Creek Beast (4 page)

Chapter 6

The beast sat hunched behind a large group of bushes and watched the people join the one he had attacked a short time earlier. Blood seeped from between his fingers as he squeezed his wounded left shoulder. He’d been injured before by the weapons of man, but that was the first time he hadn’t made the person pay with their life.

A low rumble shook his chest as he tried to keep from vocalizing his pain and growing anger, choosing to flex his toes instead by digging them into the loose soil of the woods. Part of him had screamed it was dangerous to approach the structure, but something in his anger gave him courage to ignore his instincts. As had been the case in his previous hunting grounds, the forested area around Winter Creek was best suited for him. Within the confines of the trees and brush, none could see him until it was too late. There he was the hunter, but now he feared he would be the hunted.

His face twisted in rage at hearing another vehicle approach, but it wasn’t the sound of the engine that riled him. It was the sound of the baying hounds the man brought with him. There were three of them and the memory of others of their kind biting and attacking him caused a fear to rise within the beast’s heart. It was a primal surge of emotion he was helpless to fight against. Letting out a growl of frustration, he turned and raced into the woods.

As he leaped over fallen trees and sunken hollows, the pain in his shoulder was a fading memory as his body fought to expel the piece of offending metal and heal. Within another few minutes all that would remain would be a pitted scar. That wasn’t his concern. His mind focused on getting as far away from the hounds as he could. With a surge of power, he jumped across a dried river bed that cut a dozen feet into the ground, creating a snake-like cavern ten feet across. He knew he wouldn’t be safe there as the hounds would find a way across. They always did and so would their masters.

*****

Hearing the braying of Arnold Coltrane’s hounds as they approached was as much a welcome sound as a worrisome one for Jay. If they were making so much noise, then they already smelled the animal they were after. That wasn’t a good thing.

He’d long heard about animals ability to sense when a natural disaster was about to occur, but to hear them howling half a mile down the road filled him with a sense of urgency and paranoia. Who could say whether the creature had run off or not? He certainly felt like something was watching him when he arrived. He took a steadying breath and led the small hunting party onto Melvin’s porch to wait for Coltrane.

As if he thought twice about it, he looked around the corner of the house before heading to his car for his riot shotgun. Although he wasn’t a fan of semi-automatic weapons, it was better than the double barrel one he currently had on him. Besides, he fell in love with the shotgun as soon as he felt it in his hands. In theory, one could fire off all six rounds it held before the first casing hit the ground. He hoped he wouldn’t have to test that theory, but he wanted to be sure.

As soon as Tony spotted the shotgun he let out a whistle. “Whoo boy! Ain’t she a pretty thing.”

Jay tried not to smile at the look Melvin gave him. It was the one time he listened to the kid about upgrading their weapons and he didn’t want to be reminded he was old-fashioned. “Take it easy, it ain’t all that. You got yours?” He nodded towards Melvin, who shook his head.

“I locked it up back at the station before I came home. I thought this would be enough.” Melvin held up his service revolver and despite the events of the last half hour, he also had a smug I-told-you-so- look to go with his crazed expression.

Between the look from his deputy and knowing he should’ve kept his shotgun at the station as well, Jay let out a grunt. As far as he was concerned, since the Jeep doubled as his personal and professional vehicle, he had a right to keep it with him. Being on call twenty-four hours a day also meant running to the station would’ve been a pain in the ass he didn’t need. “Just make sure your sidearm is loaded. I don’t want you running out of ammo at the wrong time.”

While he spoke, Jay continued to watch the woods. He didn’t feel like anything was there anymore, but that didn’t mean jack shit. When Coltrane’s beaten and rusty Chevy pulled up next to his Jeep, Jay allowed himself to look away from the tree line.

“Somebody call fer my hounds?” Arnold Coltrane stepped out from the driver’s seat of his truck, grinning ear to ear. “Whatcha got fer me, Jay?”

Jay motioned to Melvin and Tony. “You two say it, fill him in.”

The pair’s description took less than five minutes and left Arnold’s grin frozen on his face. When they were finished all he could say was, “No shit?”

Melvin shook his head. “No shit.”

“You have any idea what we’re dealing with, Arnold?” Jay didn’t like the way his skin tingled at hearing the description of the animal that attacked Melvin, but he was sure someone that’s been in the woods as long as Coltrane would allay his fears.

Arnold took off his dirt-covered baseball hat and scratched at his head. His white hair moved about as if it had a mind of its own in the evening breeze. “I’d say bear, but…”

Jay felt something heavy sink in his stomach. “But?”

Please don’t say what I think you will
.

In answer, Arnold could only shrug. “Sounds like one of them damn bigfoots. But I ain’t never seen one so I’ll stick with a bear fer now.”

A bear wouldn’t set your hounds off like this
.

Jay shook his head and looked to the animals. “Before you arrived, they were hollering like the devil was after them. What happened to calm them?”

Arnold looked over his shoulder at his three hounds in their cage on the back of his pickup truck then back before shrugging again. “No idea. They’ve been doing that off an’ on fer a few weeks now.” He pulled his hat off and scratched his head again. “Give me half a minute and I’ll get em set to go if you need ‘em, Jay.”

Jay’s eyes lowered to study a point on the ground. The creature was on the run. If they moved now they could have it before anyone else got hurt. But it wasn’t a bear. That much he was certain of. He struggled between going after it or waiting for another time. Until he had time to think about it, he was sure they needed to give chase, but the thought of it waiting for them gave him pause.

What did they have? A pair of shotguns, a couple of revolvers, Arnold’s thirty-oh-six, and a couple of hounds. Not exactly what he wanted to go traipsing into the woods with to chase some unknown animal. He looked at the three men that were putting their trust in him before looking towards the hounds. The latter remained as quiet as they’d ever been except for the occasional whimper to be let out. His decision wasn’t an easy one, but he didn’t see any other way.

“Normally I’d say wait until the morning, but the trail’s still hot. We’ll give it ten minutes. If we don’t find nothing by then, we’ll call it a night.”

Everyone nodded their agreement whether they agreed or not. In a way, Tony and Arnold were deputized as soon as they arrived, but there was more to it than that.

Arnold wasted no time in getting his hounds leashed and ready to search the edge of the woods and the group was off.

It took the hounds less than a few seconds to find the scent of the animal and start braying again. As much as Jay wished they’d remain quiet, they gave him a sense of strength and courage. The others fed off the hounds’ energy as well and surged into the woods as fast as they could, Even Melvin, who more closely resembled a cadaver than a police officer a few minutes before, was filled with a desire and thrill of the hunt.

It took him a moment to regain his control, but Jay forced them to slow their pace. If they rushed in the animal would keep running and they may never find it before the hounds were too tired to continue. Worse yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling they were running into a trap of some sort.

Listening to Jay, the group slowed their pace and spread into a skirmish line with no more than three feet between one another. The woods were a dangerous enough place to go traipsing through at night, but when hunting something as dangerous as their prey, it could prove deadly if they became separated.

A couple of times it seemed as though they lost the trail, but where the hounds had to look for a scent, the animal had left signs of its passing by way of broken branches, crushed shrubbery, and a few imprints that could only be footprints. The gap between the trail where the dogs had to pause was an area Jay imagined someone large enough would jump. It made enough sense to cause a shiver to run up his spine. At the edge of the dried river bed, Jay brought them to a stop at seeing a clear footprint in the soft dirt. “What do you make of this?”

Both Arnold and Tony shook their heads after seeing the mark.

“Jesus H Christ. Sorry boys, I don’t mean to curse, but this is somethin’ I ain’t never tracked before.” Arnold stood still except for his arms as they jerked with the hounds trying to pull him along.

“You or me, brother. This ain’t nothing to make light of.” Tony’s earlier enthusiasm began to fade a few minutes before but after seeing the river bed they had to cross it completely disappeared. “I don’t think we’ll catch it tonight. Maybe if we had more men…”

Jay nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. There’s nothing keeping it from doubling back on us or being in the next county by now. Let’s head back and start again tomorrow. You all right, Melvin?”

Melvin stood off to the side while the others studied the tracks. He’d never been one to enjoy hunting or even the woods. Sure he liked to see them, which was why he rented his house where he did, but things were becoming too weird for him to deal with. It took him a moment to realize Jay said something to him. “Yeah. Sounds like it’d be best.” His eyes never left the line of trees across from their side of the riverbed. While he didn’t think anything was watching them, he couldn’t help but see the creature’s face everywhere he looked.

“Alright then, let’s get back and figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow.” The group turned away from the riverbed and began to make their way back along the path they came. It took some effort on his part, but Arnold managed to heel the hounds and they followed reluctantly. It was the first time they hadn’t treed their prey and it didn’t sit well with them.

Chapter 7

For most of the night Jay did little more than stare at the ceiling above his bed and think about his decision to call off the hunt for the animal. As sure as he was about his decision, doubts continued to gnaw away at him. What if someone else was killed? What if they never found it? What if? What if? What if? No matter where he tried to turn his thoughts they always found their way back to a “What if?” scenario. The only thing he was certain of was he needed to see his grandfather again.

After making sure Melvin was okay staying with Tony and Arnold was compensated for his trouble, he couldn’t stop himself from staring into the woods and feeling the bundle of hair in his breast pocket. It got to the point that he drove with his right hand in his pants pocket so it wouldn’t keep doing that. The hair had an unnatural draw to him, as did the animal.

That was something he hadn’t noticed before, but after he arrived at Melvin’s he felt himself drawn to the woods and what he felt was watching him. But why? What made him so special? Not that he felt special, more tormented than anything else. The lone constant seemed to be his grandfather. Somehow, Jacob knew about the creature and how to fight it. The last part drew a curse from Jay. The last thing he needed was to be drawn into one of his grandfather’s good versus evil tales. Legends were just that, but then why did he feel vindicated when Arnold mentioned the animal being a bigfoot?

By the time the early morning sun rose in the sky and its light pierced the curtains in his bedroom Jay had made up his mind. If he was going to be some hero from a tall tale, the least he could do was find out why he was the poor soul suckered into this game. What was the worst that could happen? He was crazy? He could live with that. At least that way everything would make sense.

It didn’t take him long to get dressed and get on the road. During his drive, his mind went through a thousand different things he wanted to ask or say, but the one thing that bothered him above all else was, why did he want to follow the path he was being guided towards?

Ten minutes later, Jay’s Jeep slid to a halt in a rainstorm of stones and dust in front of his grandfather’s home. The last time he was there, Edith called him on the radio to prod him into seeing the old man. This time, he was out of his car and halfway to the front door before he realized what he was doing.

He’d felt intimidated by his grandfather throughout his entire life, but things were different now. People were in danger, the same people he was sworn to protect.

“Winter Creek is your tribe now, and you will have the strength to do what you must when the time is right.”

His grandfather’s words echoed in his mind as his hand paused above the door.

How
?

Shaking off the question, he knocked three times before opening the door and stepping inside.

Like the last time, the darkness of the interior caused him to pause, but he was prepared for it and didn’t stop until he was kneeling next to his grandfather’s chair. After a night full of him thinking of what to say, all he could do was utter a single word, “Why?”

Jacob remained unmoving in his chair, leaving his milky cataract-covered eyes gazing towards the dancing flames in the hearth. “There has always been one of us to carry on the tradition. Each of us is faced with something we fear before taking over as guardian.” He turned to face his grandson. “This is your test. Only in the strength of your heart can the power of our people live on.”

Jay opened his mouth to argue, but he couldn’t find the words. Nothing Jacob said made sense to him, yet somehow he knew it to be true. “I… I don’t understand.”

Jacob’s smile was warm and comforting as it played across his face. “Neither did I, but we must walk our paths alone. You are the beginning of the new way, the guardian of our people. Remember our past and draw strength from it.”

Jay remained kneeling next to the old man as he turned to gaze unseeing back at the fire. Their conversation was over as quick as that and Jay still didn’t have the answers he needed. Perhaps his grandfather was right. No one could help him on his path. Accepting it as the truth and without any way to deny it, Jay knew where his path was leading. With a nod, he patted his grandfather’s arm and thanked him before turning and leaving the old man at peace in his home.

Once outside, Jay looked towards the heavens and found himself asking for guidance and the strength to do what was needed. It was the first time he could remember asking the Great Spirit for help since he was young, but he felt confident he wasn’t as alone as his grandfather had implied. With a renewed determination, he climbed into his Jeep and pulled back onto the road. Where he needed to go didn’t feel as far away as he had feared.

*****

The beast lifted its head from its kill and stared into the sky. Following the events of the previous night, a strange calmness had come over him as he hid in the mountainous area to the west of the small town. His injuries had healed before he reached the safety of the old mines dotting the surface of the mountain, but he still held a vigil throughout the night. Experience had taught him that the hounds wouldn’t give up until they found him and the men would be with them.

The hounds weren’t more than an annoyance, but the men brought weapons that caused pain. Over the years, the beast had learned to be wary of the men carrying the loud weapons. As hard as it tried, he couldn’t remember what they were called as it was erased from his memory along with everything else that was human. Everything except a few images and habits he refused to let go of. Had he still been a man, the beast may have wanted to befriend the men. There were others like him he encountered that were protective of the creatures. Such a thought never occurred to him as he only wanted to kill and destroy others when he saw them. It was his way.

During his vigil, a large buck crossed in front of the cave he chose to hide in. The animal never stood a chance. The warm meat and blood felt good as the beast consumed it to quench its bloodlust. As before, the rage faded as did the pain it often brought with it. It was then he sensed the approach of another. It was the same creature that drew near to it the previous night and it brought a rumble from deep within its being.

He used to know a name for what that creature was, but all it knew was man wasn’t the proper term. There was more to the familiar feeling than that. Like the others that came before, the beast would defend itself and destroy the dangerous creature. As if controlled by something else, the beast let out a deafening roar that shook the ground around it.

Hiding was what the beast did when it didn’t want to be found. Now that there was a dangerous enemy coming for it, there was no point not to let its presence be known.