The Dog In Sheep's Clothing

Chapter Four: The Hinter Becomes The Hunted

The woods became a lightshow of red and blue as a search party for Officer Jones was prepared, eventually the lights were turned off in order to keep the situation under wraps, not wanting to cause the whole town to go into a state of panic. Bane sniffed the air as he sat by his owner's feet, seeming calm but then again, trying to read a dog's emotion by their fluffy face was twice as hard if you tried to do it with a human that was wearing both a pair of sunglasses and a mask. Sarah took in a deep breath, the fresh, clean air now smelled foul and cursed, now that she knew a thing such as that, something that could commit such violent acts could've been living near her for ages and not knowing her made her even more uneasy.

Her only clarity was the fact that now she knew, if it had even attempted to step close to the barn at some point, Bane would have torn it to shreds in order to keep his barn safe, to keep her safe. One day, she knew not today, not this week, not for a long time, but one day she would be able to repay his everlasting loyalty, for the blood that he has spilled, both of a beast and his own. The search party had gone somewhat, but not too much, farther into the woods. They had been following a hiking trail when Bane let out a deep bark, he stood in front of a tree that had been tainted by bloody, deep claw marks.

"Good boy," said the detective who bent down to pet the dog, voice coming out of a coo that was dropped in sweet honey. Sarah blinked, and by the looks on the others face, this was not the usual behavior of the infamous detective of the town. Detective Moth noticed the amount of stares they had received and stumbled slightly as they stood back up quickly, their face covered in a slight shade of red. They cleared their throat before barking out, "Alright, what are all of all you idiots looking at? Come on, we came out here to save a fellow officers, not coo at a stupid dog." Said 'stupid' dog let out a huff before trotting back up to Sarah. A few officers grumbled about Detective Moth being a hypocrite but continued on with their search, the sounds of the forest night filling in the silence.

The group walked further and further, their flashlights lighting up the pathway of claw scratched trees. A k-9 unit had also been deployed for the search, their handlers stumbled to keep up with their dogs as they followed Bane's lead who had run up in front of the group at some point, obviously smelling something, hopefully Officer Jones. The dogs came to a screeching halt as Bane did so, sniffing the air for a few long moments before letting out a spine-chilling growl. "Someone, or something is close." Sarah said, the other officers nodded and turned to Detective Moth, "Alright, have your weapons ready." And the officers did as they said, taking out their guns, Sarah pulled up her own shotgun that she brought along just in case.

The group looked around rapidly as something rustled the leaves of the trees that surrounded them. "It's here, stay close to each other." the detective had ordered, everyone formed a circle, some officers facing inward and some facing outwards. Bane's ears perked up, and so did the other dogs, the other dogs began to pace, seeming to be somewhat impatient.

Sarah paused for a moment to think, she looked at Bane who stood in front of the other dogs. He caught her looking at him, and returned the stare with a glint of something that looked untamed, but also protective. Sarah took in a deep breath, earning confused looks from the officers around her, "Bane," he stared at her, eyes widening. "Hunt." The great pyrenees let out a loud bark, claws digging into the dirt before running off, and to their surprise, except Sarah's, the other dogs ran off as well. "Shit, Cooper come b-" one of the officers had stepped out of line as they shouted for their dog to come back, only to pause when the detective put an arm in front of them and peeked over at Sarah with a questioning look.

"He's a smart dog, he knows how to lead a pack. Chances of what they're doing is either running after the monster or finding Officer Jones." Cooper's handler looked unsure, but eventually backed down. Only a few more seconds later was a screech let out in the distance, followed by angry growls. "Cooper!" his handler had said, a relieved look on his face that turned into one of surprise, "Officer Jones! Over here!" And that caused everyone to turn around and look where he was looking and there they were; Officer Jones limping with Cooper, holding onto the handle of his harness. Officer Jones looked worse for wear, scratches covering his body, vest torn to shreds, but luckily he didn't have it as worse as the other victims, all of his internal organs remaining internal. A few of them broke the circle and took the injured officer by the shoulders and brought him back inside the circle, where other officers closed off the circle once again.

"H-holy shit she was-" "Right. I was right." Officer Tom Jones looked over to the person who cut him off, and it was a very unimpressed looking Sarah Wolf. "Yeah...what even is that thing?" He asked aloud, his fellow officers shrugged. A hollar that sounded similar to a fork scratching against a metal plate stopped everyone's questions, turning to look where the sound came from. Cooper's handler ran from his position in the circle, his dog had run off and his panic took over his mind, "Martinez! Get back here, you're gonna get yourself killed!" The detective barked at the officer, who simply shook his head and yelled back, "Hell no! My dog is out there risking his life against something I should be fighting, I ain't gonna lose him like this!" He only took a few more steps before something blocked his path, "Hey! Get out of my w-...."

He gulped, looking up stood a beast that practically radiated the most foul stench he had ever smelled in his life, "H-holy shit-" The officer scrambled back, his fellow officer raising there guns with fingers ready on the trigger only to watch with astonishment as Cooper launched himself from some bushes nearby, the rottweiler latched onto its neck, Sarah's vision flashed back to the moment where Bane had done the same, her fate had landed in her companion's paws, now Officer Martinez's life had fallen into Cooper's paws. Officer Martinez seemed to snap out of it, the officer watched as in seconds the beast had thrown Cooper onto the ground, raising it's clawed hand only to bring it down to swipe at the dog, stopping as a bullet shot through its head. Cooper barked, rushing back over to his handler, standing in front of him, teeth bared and eyes feral.

The monster grunted, touching its head with its hand, pulling it back to reveal that the bullet wound had already healed, the group watched in terror as the beast turned back to look at them, opening its jaw, a long pointy tongue licking its thin lips hungerly. Sarah walked up to the front, Officer Martinez and Cooper rushing past her as they went back to the others. She stood still as soon as she was sure the others were behind her, the other dogs had come back as well, a few scratches here and there on their furry bodies but otherwise unharmed. The officers waited anxiously to see who would move first, still ready to fire their weapons if things got out of hand. She cocked her shotgun, staring right into the eyes of the beast that caused so much bloodshed in her town, in her own home. It stared right back, seeming curious about this human that it had terrorized, the fact it no longer let out a single stench of fear made it all the more antsy.

"Get Officer Jones to safety, everyone needs to get on clearer grounds in case one of you gets hurt again." Sarah said, "But what about you? You nearly got killed last time." came from an officer in the back. "I can handle this-" "No you can't, don't do this to yourself Sarah." She kept her eyes on the beast, but took a moment to look back at the detective who held a dark look on their face. "Do you trust me detective?" "Yes but-" "Then continue to show that trust by getting the fuck out of here." Detective Moth hesitated before finally listening and the group pulled back, however two remained, Officer Martinez and Cooper. "Look, I've seen from the pictures of what this thing did, and what it could've done to my partner. It started a fight with us and I'm not gonna back away now."

Sarah took in the tone of his voice, the determination, the fear he had shown earlier was suddenly gone, and she knew why.

One person knows that there's nothing you can do when your dog gets protective of you, wherever there's something around that it considers a threat. Sarah knows this, but Sarah also knows there's very little you can do to repay this act of loyalty from your companion. So when something is around that she considers a threat, she knows what she can do, she's also sure that Officer Martinez is thinking the same thing. And that is the fact that the very thing that hurt their dogs is standing right in front of them, your mind comes to one option, it gets the urge to do one thing. Kill it.