Hunted by demons

The Caber

Somewhere on a woodland dirt road in Nebraska, an old rustic roadhouse stands, a sign above the door marks it as the Crooked Caber. In the gravel parking lot outside sits a rusty 71 dodge challenger and a purple 63 VW bus. Inside the building are sticky tables, an old, worn pool table, and a bar. In the window all the neon signs are turned off except for one that advertises muddy apple mead, telling hunters that they are free to enter despite the closed sign on the door. Behind the bar, cleaning a glass, stands a man with graying, dark hair, tan skin, a five o'clock shadow, and a large nose. He's wearing a dirty, white tank top, jean shorts, hiker boots, and a red plaid shirt tied around his waist. Out the window he sees a red 65 cadillac deville make it's way up the long driveway. Two men awkwardly exit the car and make their way to the doors. A thin, tall man holds the door open for his incredibly short friend. The tall man has dark brown hair, a finely trimmed beard, and blue eyes. He wears a red t-shirt and a black cargo jacket over it. He has a cut on his forehead with some blood leaking out of it, a black eye, a busted lip, and his stance shows the soreness in his legs and shoulder. The short man, only coming up to his friend's waist, has orange hair and a bushy beard. He wears a tan, plaid shirt and black biker gloves. His eyebrow has a cut on it, and he hold his clearly broken nose, which is matting his moustache with blood. The man behind the bar nonchalantly says in a thick scottish accent,

"Hey fellas." Without batting an eye at their state. The tall man laughs tiredly and replies,

"Hey, Ravs." He goes to the corner near the door and picks up a chair made specifically for a man of his friends stature, and brings it to a table with a normal chair across from it. The two sit down and Ravs shouts over his shoulder,

"Zoey! Fionna! You got some patients!" And continues cleaning the glass. "So what did you two do to get in such a sorry state?" He asks. The tall man shrugs, wincing at his shoulder, and says,

"We just finished a hunt with a rougarou."

"A rougarou?" Ravs asks inquisitively. The short man chuckles, sounding strange due to his broken nose,

"Yeah, we tracked the bugger to an old cabin in Nowhere, Wisconsin, and as soon as we get there it books it into the woods. So I hop on Lewis's back and we chase the damn thing like that! When we caught up with it it beat the hell out of us and kicked me square in the face before we could light it!" Ravs laughs.

"You guys chased it down on piggy back!" He asks.

"Well, look," Lewis starts. "I didn't want to fight the thing solo and Simon isn't exactly gonna keep up with it, I had to improvise!"

"We'd both be lying if we said it was the first time." Simon mutters.

"Or the last." Lewis adds. Before they can continue the story, two girls walk out from the back room. One has pale skin with freckles, short red hair with a green streak, and a black prosthetic arm replacing her right arm at the shoulder. She wears a light purple t shirt with a pink heart on the chest. Behind her is a tan woman with curly brown hair. She has a rainbow bandana holding the hair out of her eyes, green pants, and tattoos on her biceps. The red haired girl gasps at the sight of Simon and Lewis.

"You guys! What happened to you! I hate seeing you all bloody like that!" She quickly rushes to Simon's side.

"Occupational hazard I'm afraid, Zoey." Lewis says. Zoey glares in response, but nowhere near menacingly.

"I've got the first aid kit." Fiona says, pulling the kit out from under the bar. They clean the blood off of their faces, give Simon a splint for his nose, and stitch a few of the deeper cuts. Ravs pours the two of them some whiskey and the five of them chat. Not long after that, a battered, green, 74 toyota corona drives up the dirt path and parks next to Lewis's car. A man climbs out of the car, quickly walks to the roadhouse, and pushes through the doors. He has an old trucker hat sitting on long black hair, a light green plaid shirt with a forest green jacket over it, and cheap glasses. Zoey lights up when she sees him and shouts,

"Nilesy!" She runs to him and gives him a big hug which he gladly accepts.

"Heya Zoey!" He says in a scottish accent. When she lets go he looks over to Simon and Lewis and asks,

"What happened to you guys?"

"Rougarou." Lewis answered simply. Nilesy nods and sits at the bar. He smiles and shakes Ravs' hand over the counter.

"Long time no see!" He laughs.

"Fancy a drink?" Ravs offers.

"God yes." Nilesy replies. Ravs pours him some whiskey and he takes a big swig of it.

"You alright, Nilesy?" Fiona asks.

"No I'm not!" He replies, exasperatedly. "I was digging up some lore for Zylus when I get this creepy text," he shows them the haunting few words that they had received. Crooked caber, sundown tomorrow, life or death. "And I have no clue who sent it!" He continues.

"You didn't have the number in your database?" Fiona asks.

"No! It's untraceable, I couldn't tell if it was from my mum! I doubt it was though." He takes another swig of whiskey. "I didn't know if it was from a friend or a stranger, this could've been a trap for all I knew! But I came anyways, and I had to load Lyndon into my car because he would have been miserable at home, but he hates cars as well! It was a nightmare!" He rambles.

"Christ mate, you need to get out more." Simon jokes.

"I can't do it! The hunting life just isn't for me! I'll help all I want from home but I can't deal with the danger and the monsters and the people trying to kill you because you looked at them funny!" He complains. Lewis laughs and says,

"I think the only one I know that's likely to do that is Ridge." The room goes quiet for a moment at the mention of the mysterious and violent man's name. They sit and drink in silence, waiting for the next arrival.