It was still night, but they were looking at the front of the cabin now. All was dark and silent, but the door to the cabin stood ajar. The glowing figure of the fae slipped from tree to tree and then silently made its way into the cabin. There was almost a full minute of nothing, and then a bright light shone from within.
As the light faded, a creature stepped out of the cabin. It was similar in shape and size to Cookie, similarly lacking in eyes and ears, but it had deep black fur and teeth it revealed with a snarl. The scene faded as it dashed off into the woods.
Five men walked through the woods at night, a few of their faces familiar from the cabin attack. The clothes of the man who had had the knife were splattered with blood, and a furry, black tail was draped around his neck.
"Why'd you keep that thing, anyway?" one of the other men asked, shooting the tail a disgusted look.
"Proof," the knife man said.
"What about the other one?"
"No one needs to know about him. Anyone asks, it was just the shifter."
"We could have brought him back with us," one of the other men said.
"Nah," the knife man said. "Don't worry about it."
The creature leapt out of the darkness, latching itself onto the knife man's back and biting into the back of his neck. As he dropped to the ground, the other men drew guns, but they seemed confused. One man lifted his gun, spun around, and shot another in the head. As the creature swiftly disposed of two more men, the last, the man who had said they could have brought Kit back with them, ran off into the woods.
The creature ripped the knife man's shirt open and tore into his belly. He wasn't quite dead, choking sobs escaping his mouth as the creature began to devour his intestines.
The scene faded.
What followed was a series of snapshots of the creature stalking and killing its prey, or sometimes compelling them to turn their weapons on one another. One after another the bodies dropped until the scene resolved on the creature stalking through the undergrowth towards an open tent.
The creature stopped at the entrance, the people inside turned away and unaware of the monster hunting them. A woman with dark, curly hair helped a little boy of no more than four button his shirt. Next to them, a baby slept in a bassinet.
It was the little boy who turned first, eyes widening and body freezing when he saw the creature. The woman turned to follow his gaze and screamed, grabbing her baby from the bassinet and hugging it against her chest as she pushed the little boy behind her. The baby started crying. The creature didn't move.
The sound of a single gunshot pierced the night and the scene cut out abruptly.
All Fanner could see was shifting murk, and then there was a splash and the scene pulled back as Cookie hauled herself out of the swamp water. The man who had escaped the creature on that first night stood on the bank, and she approached and unceremoniously regurgitated mud at his feet. He was holding a knife, but Cookie didn't seem to care.
"I waited for you," the man said. His voice had a slight quiver to it. "The fae, they—they showed me this spot. I think they kept me safe, because everyone knows it's dangerous here. Been here three days and nobody came looking."
Cookie sat still for a moment, head drooped as though exhausted, and then she started shoving fistfuls of the mud she'd just thrown up back into her mouth.
"I didn't think there'd be time for talking," the man said. "They pulled your teeth out before I could get to you, but I brought this knife. I thought, you know. You have hands, or you can make me use it on myself. I saw you do it that night. What you made those men do."
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Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓
Fantasy[Sequel to Frayed Ties] Fanner has spent his entire life being an unwanted failure of a Companion, so even if training to become a healer means a life of isolation and pain it isn't so bad because at least it's something he's good at. At least he's...
