The Pack

Chapter 4: Cold to the Touch

Dianna rushes to treat Dakota's wounds before the shaman return. She says she knows how to treat skin walkers and werewolves but doesn't know about the new creature. Dianna has just enough time to tell Dakota that the shaman will have a book listing all the creatures they've encountered.

Mr. Preston returns to the tea shop with Lockwood. He greets Dianna and says he thought she had retired. Dianna says she thought the werewolves operated by a code, only converting the dying, suggesting that she knows they are doing so no longer. The Shaman want to know what killed one of their comrades. Dianna explains the wounds saying the rope on her neck was to paralyze while the deep gashes on his chest and abdomen were the cause of death.

According to Dianna, the rope effected the spine by way of a paralytic toxin potent enough to disable all motor functions. She says the killing wounds were caused by knives that dug in and slashed upward, eviscerating the lungs and slicing through the bone of the rib cage with ease. Dianna tells her son that she's never seen anything like it but she knows it's fast, remarkably strong and has the ability to render its victims helpless in seconds. She says they should be very afraid because in the natural world predators with adaptations use them to catch and eat their prey and, in the case of the dead shaman, the creature didn't eat meaning whatever killed her only wanted to kill her. She believes that killing may be its only purpose.

At the Service Center, a mechanic has Eli's car up on a hydraulic lift and is standing underneath working on the vehicle. Eli argues that he is being overcharged and the unnamed mechanic threatens to charge him even more. Eli retreats to the waiting room but there is a powdered substance on the door handle. In the waiting area he sees a picture of the mechanic in a SDCI Warriors basketball uniform. Eli then takes out his phone to text someone when his hands begin to freeze up. It is clear that his body won't do what his brain is telling it to do and he drops the phone.

Through the waiting room window Eli can make out the transparent Creature walking down the side of his car which is still high in the air on the hydraulic lift. He tries to shout a warning but can't achieve much volume. He watches as the creature injects a needle into the mechanic on the back of the neck. Eli tries to move but falls to the floor paralyzed. The mechanic also falls to the garage floor, and after the creature slices through the hydraulic line, Eli's car begins to slowly descend on top him. Eli manages to dial 911 but can do nothing else except watch as the mechanic cries for help and then is crushed to death. The creature comes up to the glass door of the waiting area and smiles at him.

At 8:55 PM RJ gets into his car, he breathes fog on to the window and "9 PM" becomes visible on the window. He looks down at the clock and when he looks back up Luca is standing outside the car. Luca wants to talk.

At the same time Dakota is waiting in the woods for RJ. She looks at her phone and the time is 09:00 pm.

Back at RJ's, Luca reaches in his jacket pocket and a leather bound book drops to the ground. RJ retrieves it and he says he would be lost without it. He then launches into a speech about how RJ must trust his family, and how he is nothing more then a spirit now. He defends his actions and says RJ reminds him of him. He predicts that RJ will be placed in a situation where he will have to question the trust of even his closest friends and that the trust you never question is family, aka the shaman. Luca then asks if they can trust him. Luca is unhappy with his quiet "yeah" response and shouts at him to speak with conviction "Yes or No" to which RJ responds "Yes."

At the garage, Eli lies to RJ's father, Detective Thompson about what happened to the mechanic saying he walked in and found him under the car. The detective presses him asking if Eli saw someone do it and if he is afraid that they will retaliate against him if he tells. Eli lies again saying he didn't see anything at all. The detective says they're impounding the car as evidence and Eli asks him to make sure they wash the mechanic off it before they return it to him.