The Dog In Sheep's Clothing

Chapter Two: The Hunter Strikes

She stepped outside, walking towards the blood pool. She looked left and right multiple times at a rapid pace, she reached the red spot with a shaky breath, the strong scent of copper filling her nose. "Okay then...this isn't a dream." One second she's staring at the red grass, the next second she's being pinned to the ground and the stench of death is being blown onto her face. "What the-" a snarl cut her off, she stared at the beast above her with petrified eyes, her heart pounding, her lungs couldn't catch up with the breaths she let out as they became shorter and shorter as the more her brain realized she was trapped underneath this monster.

The creature let out a monstrous cry as it went down to bite her, to give her the same fate as the one who she witnessed being feasted upon earlier. She let her eyes slip, her shotgun had slipped out of her grip when the monster had tackled her, she let herself come to her fate. Then she let her eyes shoot open as a familiar bark rang out through the tense night sky and suddenly the heavy weight of the beast was gone. She scrambled to stand up, grabbing her shotgun as she stood. She looked over where she heard the sounds of struggling coming from.

"Bane?!" she cried out with a loud exclamation. And there Bane was, growling like a feral animal as he used his large canine teeth into the monster's shoulder. She turned off the shotgun's safety and hovered her finger over the trigger, trying to get an open aim on the target that her dog was practically mauling apart. "Fuck...Bane, move boy!" she called out and immediately the dog stopped its attack, running right back to her side, teeth still bared as it turned back to face the beast. The beast seemed barely affected despite its shoulder being torn off almost completely as it stood up. She gulped slightly but quickly pressed her finger down, the trigger letting a shot ring out as the pellet shot out.

The thing let out an ear-scraping screech as the bullet tore into its deer skull, blood spurting like a firehose for a short moment before it stopped, she blinked before she looked at its shoulder, making a double-take as she did so. "How the fuck? Its shoulder was just torn apart. What even?-" the shoulder in case, was healed somehow, blood still stained it but the evidence of it ever being bitten had been completely erased. She let out a shaky sigh and closed her eyes, "Well then, I guess this really is the end for me." she started to lower her shotgun, the beast moved closer, but stopped with hesitation.

She let out a sound of confusion before a loud snarl rang out again, not coming from the thing this time. She looked down with wide eyes, in front of her legs stood Bane, teeth bared out with long strands of drool dripping out of his maw, his eyes feral. He stepped forward towards the monster that let out a sound akin to a frustrated whine, looking at her with hungry eyes for a moment longer, then letting out a huff as it ran off into the woods far away. She stared at it as it ran off, mouth slightly agape and she dropped her shotgun, bending her knees as she ran her hands through Bane's fur coat.

"You okay big guy?" she asked the dog, checking for anything bites, scratches, or even the smallest of scrapes that the beast could've given to him, but found nothing. She let out a sigh of relief, then picked up her shotgun and walked into the house, closing the door behind them as well as sitting a chair underneath the door. She pulled out her phone and pulled out a card that had a number on it from one of the kitchen drawers. She dialed the number into her phone and brought it up to her ear, each ring making her more and more impatient. "Come on come on...pick up the phone." she muttered out loud, then jumped slightly as the voice of the person she was calling picked up the phone with a croaky, "Hello?"

"Hey...detective...what was it- ah right, detective Moth? How soon can you come over?...there's been another incident." and a few moments of silence passed. "6 a.m., no earlier-" "Okay! Sounds good!-'' ''Wait what exactly happened?-" she hung up the phone before the detective could finish asking their question. She sighed and put her shotgun on the table, turning to look at her savior who was staring right back at her innocently, despite the blood that covered his mouth and front legs. "This is gonna drive me crazy...looks like I won't be getting any more sleep tonight." She walked further into the kitchen and began making herself a cup of caffeinated tea to help her through this horrific night.

She sat at the kitchen table with her shotgun only a few inches from arm's reach, taking slow sips to hopefully make the tea last longer, but only helped her in only making three more cups of tea till it hit 6 a.m. she waited by the front door, bouncing her leg up and down anxiously. She ran out the door as soon as she saw the detective's car pull up, Bane right in tow. Detective Moth blinked tiredly, obviously still not used to being woken up in the middle of the night for something like this. "Alright, so another pool of blood? And all of your barn animals are there, safe and untouched?" she nodded quickly and grabbed the detective's arm and dragged them to the back, causing them to stumble slightly as they quickened to keep up with her pace.

"Okay so it-...was...over here." The detective cut themself off as they processed the scene in front of them. They stared at the pool of blood, as well as the headless human body that laid upon it, the sounds of other police cars pulling up brought them back into the present. "Wow-I-okay then...this...d-" "It wasn't human." Sarah said. "What do you mean it wasn't human? Course it wasn't i-it was probably a wolf-" detective Moth said. "It was some sort of beast, it had this deer skull that covered its face, and it survived a bullet to the head-" she stopped, taking in the completely bewildered look on the detective's face.

"Uh...how much sleep did-" "I'm not seeing things! I swear I saw it with my own eyes." Moth blinked before turning to look back at the bloody scene, whatever was left of the victim's body was being put into a body bag. Sarah blinked as a sudden bright flash appeared with a loud click, and turned to stare at the man who was just doing his job and taking photos of the crime scene. The detective stared at her with an uneasiness as the man looked up, eventually a small drop of sweat dropping on his face as he took in the depth of the stare Sarah gave him.

"Right...so uh...anything else you can tell me about this 'beast?'" The detective asked. A scoff cut off Sarah's train of thought, "Really? You're gonna believe this chick? She's probably just delusional." The detective rolled their eyes, "Shut it Tom, this is my case, not yours." Tom merely rolled his eyes and walked off. "Don't mind him, he's just upset I got a promotion from solving our last case, he's just a jerk in general y'know?" Sarah blinked, but nodded as she processed the detective's words. "Anyways, where did the thing run off to after Bane, I'm assuming, scared it off?" Sarah pointed a finger towards the woods that were further down the acre of land. "Well...great, looks like we're gonna have to call up a patrol team around here."

"Yeah...guess so." She said, barely coming out as comprehensible as it became a tired mumble. Detective Moth looked thoughtful as they thought for a moment before talking again, "How about you go get some rest, I don't like how this thing keeps hanging around your place so I'll place some officers around, okay?" Sarah gave them a small nod before heading back into her house, Bane trotting right behind her, and made sure every way in the house was either closed or locked, closing the curtains of the windows making the house darker with each one being covered. She sighed and tossed herself in the bed, moving over as Bane climbed up. She waited for him to lay down beside her before burying her face in his fluffy mane.

"I don't care how vicious you were back there...you looked so feral when you after it...for me," she paused, taking in a shaky breath before continuing, looking straight at Bane, eyes slightly glazed with an emotion unreadable. "Thank you...for being my protector." she said with a hiccup in her throat, pausing when Bane put a paw on the arm that she was using to scratch his neck, he seemed to stare into her soul, as if he was trying to communicate through his eyes, but no a single word rang out in her mind, no matter how much she wanted to hear what her brave companion had to say. She grimaced to herself before letting her eyes drift shut, letting sleep take over her.

Tom rolled his eyes, taking a step into the woods with nothing but his gun as company.