Wendy and Her Lost Boys -- The Lost Boys 1987

Chapter 03: An Interesting End To Our First Date

– David –

I motion for the other boys to follow me as we swing our legs over our motorcycles and start them up. With the last thought circling my mind on repeat, we pull out of the lot, hoping to find some answers in our new nightly routine; patrolling Santa Carla's borders with the idea of catching the town's new killers in the act.

Over the last two months, the boys and I have gotten a pretty good idea of the different mixture of scents flooding the murder sites. We had been the ones to stumble upon the first four victims, having followed the smell of carnage and drying blood. What we found that night, well, let's just say it made the little bonfire party we took Michael to look like children playing at war; the backdrop of a stage behind them, thick red paint and shimmering red confetti in place of gore.

The scene we found in the woods two and a half months ago was astonishing in its brutality. We were mere children in the face of absolute carnage. This went beyond killing for survival, as we did, and ventured into the territory of killing for sport. There was a savage glee to be found in the bite marks left on the severed limbs, one we found chilled us to the bone.

Santa Carla was our home, had been since we were reborn in 1906, and we weren't about to let these would-be killers taint the name of our town. The following news coverage in the aftermath of the discovered bodies brought fear and a lack of new tourists. They were threatening our food supply. Naturally, if left unchecked, they would become an even larger problem in our lives.

The boys and I don't know what creature of the night this scent belongs to. It's unlike anything we've smelled before and certainly like nothing any of us have had the misfortune of encountering. In our near century together, we have come across a few other creatures, mainly harmless ones looking for a fun time. Well, harmless to us at least, incubi and succubi do tend to follow a similar feeding pattern, after all. Despite our limited knowledge of other creatures, we have never once followed a scent quite like this; earthy and pungent, like the heavy cloying scent of rain soaking through earth and burning leaves.

The forest felt cold and diseased tonight, in the same way it had the last few months. As if it, and the creatures within, had been holding their breath in light of the grizzly murders.

Thinking over the events that led us back to this hollow, I hold my hand up, signaling to the other boys to stop their bikes. Once I have their attention, I find myself saying, "You boys smelled it too, didn't you?"

The boys opposite me nod as I continue, moving through the underbrush. I don't bother waiting for them to follow. Knowing all too well that they could not lose my trail, able to find me by scent alone.

We trapeze lightly through the forest, letting our senses guide us to the hollow where the last murders took place. My leather trench coat caught in the breeze as the wind changed directions. The scent of blood carried on the breeze. The bodies and evidence of the kills had been removed in the weeks prior, but the stench of death could not be hidden from us.

Where there should have been police tape indicating an ongoing investigation, there was nothing. Droplets of dried blood and viscera still dotted choice spots on the undergrowth and splattered against the bark of nearby trees.

We were closer to the site than I had thought and stumbled into it moments later as I tried to explain the odd feeling I had about Wendy's choice of date.

Waiting until the other three boys had adjusted to the new environment, death surrounding us, I bit out, "There was fear in Ellie's eyes when I moved closer to her, warning her to not hurt our Wendy-bird." I paused making eye contact with each of them in turn, "In that moment her scent changed. It might have been the adrenaline. I can't be certain. But there was a familiar note in the scent."