The Goats Knew

Late Night at the Fear Cafe

"It came here looking for me." Scott repeated. He spoke softly, like he was talking to himself.

"Scott, you have to tell me what's going on." Emily tried hard to get Scott's attention. "You're really scaring me."

Finally Scott seemed to break out of the spell and recognize that Emily was there.

"Ok. Look, I know this seems crazy," Scott said, sounding more calm than he felt. "I don't think what's been killing people out there is human. You read the story..."

"Yes Scott, I read the story, but you're not telling me you believe it's true. Are you?"

"I don't know Emily. I know what I saw in the woods yesterday. It wasn't human and it wasn't anything I'd seen before. I'm telling you it looked like a spider. A huge spider, but Christ, how could it know that I saw it, know where to come looking for me?"

She was losing him again.

"Scott, look at me!" she commanded. Scott obeyed. "You can't believe that. It must have been something else. Things like that just aren't real."

"How do you know they're not real, Em?" Scott was not to be swayed. "Because we've been told they're not real? I know what I saw, damn it! And I know it came looking for me. I'm telling you Emily, this thing is real and it's after me."

Emily quietly considered this for a moment. Giant spiders, magic spears. It was all right out of a nightmare. But then the whole story was like a nightmare wasn't it? She knew Scott wasn't making up the disappearances, but the rest just seemed so... unbelievable. Scott seemed to believe it though. There was definitely something unusual going on. Could he be so riddled with guilt that he's hallucinating? She supposed anything was possible. Anything real.

"Do you think you could show me where it happened?" As crazy as it sounded, she wanted to better understand what had happened to her cousin. If there was any possibility that she was alive, she felt compelled to do whatever she could to help.

"After everything I told you, you want to go out there?" Scott couldn't believe what he was hearing. "No. No I can't show you. It's too dangerous."

But his mind was reeling. He'd shot the thing. Six times. Sure it wasn't dead, but it must have been hurt pretty bad. Bad enough that the goats had no problem sending it back into the forest when it came looking for him. They had done some real damage too. The amount of blood he had cleaned off the goats was much more than he'd found after shooting it.

Maybe it wasn't so dangerous after all. It could already be dead. Wouldn't Moran shit a brick if he found a giant, dead spider and proved all of this had nothing to do with his family?

Emily sat quietly, watching as all the options rolled around in Scott's head. Finally, she'd waited long enough.

"We would be careful. You know it's out there. We'll just have to watch for it." She didn't actually believe the spider story, but she knew that something, or someone dangerous was out there.

"We'd need a weapon." Scott was actually considering her request. "My dad's rifle is out of the question. No doubt he's changed the code on the safe by now."

"My brother hunts. I could probably get his deer rifle." Emily sounded down-right cheery. "I know where he keeps the ammo too."

"If I'm careful, I'm sure I can get my crossbow out of the house without Dad seeing." Scott had obviously warmed up to the idea of taking Emily on the hunt.

"Wait, do you know how to shoot?" The look on his face said he didn't think so.

"Of course I do. You think I'd let Dad take Eddie hunting and leave me home? I am older than him, you know."