Bite Me

Under the Moonlight

The moon was bright and full.

Snow gleamed under the moonlight. An overturned truck and several bodies were lit as well. The scene of chaos was silent and eerie. Almost beautiful despite the blood.

The rumble of an engine broke the silence.

The snowmobile rumbled up to the scene, screeching to a stop before turning off. A woman hopped off, pushing up her googles and clicking on a flashlight to get a better look. Her face twisted in displeasure as she looked the scene over. Strangely, there was nothing that could've caused the crash. Yes, the road here was a little narrow, but the military-standard truck hadn't crashed because of that. The front of it was twisted as if had slammed into something.

Or someone had jumped out in front of it.

She turned away from the front and the lack of hitting thing to poke her head into the back of the truck. "Cecily!" Melody called, even though she knew she would get no response. Her niece was only six months old, so all she could really do was cry. Besides, there was no sign of a small bundle anywhere among the bodies, even though Sam had told her that this squad had been the one to take her.

He had also told her to wait, that she was a geneticist and not a soldier, but fuck that.

Melody had lost her husband three years ago when there had been no other choice but to kill what little remained of him. She had just been told that her sister was dead.

There was no way she was losing the last bit of family she had left.

So what had happened here?

Melody turned her eyes to the nearest corpse, kneeling down to get a better look. Gripping the front of his bulletproof vest, she tugged it down, revealing deep claw marks. If she had to bet, the rest of the bodies were like that.

Beside the body, there were tracks, not including the imprints her snow boots left. Two different kinds. One was wolf-like and there were several of them. The other was only one, human bare feet with bird-like wing trails following.

Melody dropped the body and stood, the flashlight following the tracks. When they hit the forest edge, the second disappeared but the first continued onto what looked like a deer trail. So that was the way Cecily's kidnappers had gone.

In the back of her mind, there was a high, childish, giggle. Are you scared, Mommy?

"No," she lied out loud. She didn't have time to be scared.

The snowmobile wouldn't fit on the trail.

So Melody, ignoring the gleeful You liar, took off on foot.

The setting moon lit her way.

Melody Johnson's bad day more or less started...she didn't know when.

Maybe it was this morning when she left to go run errands. Summer, her sister, had promised she could handle Cecily on her own. Plus, Melody had always wanted to visit Europe- not in the boonies of wherever they were, but it was still Europe. She very much doubted the first but knew she was right on the second.

And then when she got home, much later than she had planned, she found someone had slaughtered everyone in her apartment building, Captain Sam Booth explaining that a squad had managed to get Cecily out but they had lost contact, and, oh yeah. Her sister was dead. Melody being out was the only reason she was still alive.

That was when she went for the snowmobile.

Maybe it was three years ago, back... there. When she had decided the most reasonable thing to do when she got contact from her husband and her sister who had been missing for three years was to go alone. When her husband was nothing more than his skin, something else looked at her with his eyes as he howled at her to kill him. And Melody had followed the cry, tears streaming down her face.

Which had led to said voice in the back of her head deciding that since Melody was the only one who could hear her, of course she wanted to hear her versions of the most annoying songs on the planet. Before Melody learned that she would be distracted by cartoons and enjoyed the feeling of control that came with helping her cook.

Maybe it was the six years before that. When she had said I do to Clayton, a surgeon who worked with Summer, who told her she was a nanny for a rich family even though she was trained to be a geneticist as well. They both told her that the kid of the family had health issues. And she had believed it, even as others doubted and whispered, pointing out that neither one of them had any evidence pointing to that claim.

Melody hadn't believed those whispers. Summer and Clayton had long known each other before she and he had, if they were going to do anything, they would've just done it.

Then they had dropped off the face of the earth for three years and, well...

In any case, that led to now.

The deer trail was silent except for the crunch of snow under her feet. Melody kept to that silence, hand on her belt where her gun was just in case. She kept her breathing slow and even, just in case something was around. (Should she be worried about how easily she controls her breathing? Not the time.) The tracks had faded with the falling snow, but she determinedly followed the narrow path.

Finally, the deer trail grew a little wider.

Melody wished it hadn't.

Animals, strung up, hung in the trees. For a moment, she froze, remembering the sick wreath of heads on the fence- She mentally slapped herself. Not the time. Push it back, place it in a drawer, and let your therapist yell at you for doing that next appointment.

Melody moved to take a step forward. A crunch made her freeze.

Something was there.

Another crunch sealed it.

Only a few feet away.

She stood there, frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do. By the sounds of the crunching, paired with what she recognized as the snap of bone, it was eating. Meaning it hadn't noticed her yet. If she didn't draw attention to herself, maybe it would finish eating and leave without a fight.

Before she could make a decision, the crunching and snapping stopped. The crunch of snow followed as whatever it was loped off. Melody craned her head.

There. For a brief flash. Grey fur.

Was that a wolf?

Soon enough, the snow crunching was gone. Melody carefully moved forward, trying her best to keep the snow under her feet quiet. Soon enough, she found the half-eaten crow. The blood splattered everywhere smelled fresh. And, walking to and anyway, was the same wolf-like tracks as what led her here.

She was heading in the right direction.

A distant howl forced her to turn her eyes away. Melody returned to walking down the path, determination lighting through her veins, but fear joined it. Above, the moon sank.

When the trees finally cleared and Melody stepped onto what looked like a dirt road, dawn was lighting the sky. She came to a stop and stared. Spread out below was a small village, cupped by two large snowy mountains. Two massive buildings overlooked it- one a massive castle, the other the remains of what looked like a cathedral. Off in the distance something was chugging out smoke.

The village below wasn't.

She swallowed back the lump.

Cecily was down there. She knew it.

Unaware of eyes following her, Melody headed down into the village.