Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Twenty Three

     "I'm not sure. Should we check it out?" He looked at Link, and Link shook his head adamantly.

     "Absolutely not. Let's just take the detour and get the hell away from here." Link's voice rose in panic. 

     "Awww, come on man! Burbank never sees this much action!" 

     Link threw his arm out and slammed it into Rhett's chest. Rhett coughed and shot an accusing glare at his friend. "Listen to me. You don't want to go out there, alright?"

      Rhett raised his eyebrows even further. "Is this your spidey senses tingling?" 

     Link's face fell to a complete blank expression. He blinked a few times, and leaned toward Rhett cautiously. "You think this is a joke? I have a very bad feeling about this, do you understand? Very bad. We're not going anywhere!"

     Rhett chuckled and threw his hands up in surrender. "It's gonna be alright. It's not like we're going anywhere. Look, there's no crossing guard telling us where to go." He unbuckled himself and flung the door open. The door smacked into the legs of an older man that was wandering over to the spectacle.

     "Hey, watch it!" The older man growled before continuing on. Rhett looked at Link real quick before he stepped out of the car. He stood by the door and he could see through the gaps of people that there was something lying in the middle of the road.

     "Link, come check this out!" Rhett gripped the door with excitement and anticipation.

     Link shook his head again. His chest rose and fell with unsteady breaths. "No." His eyes darted back and forth as he kept telling himself no. 

     Rhett ventured slowly toward the crowd, being fortunate enough to be a human giraffe so he could see what was going on from the back of the large crowd. Murmurs of what was lying on the ground filled the air as the busiest street of Burbank seemed to grind to a screeching halt. He felt his hackles raise, and his stomach dropped to his feet.

     A sheer black miniature horse lay on its side, and it didn't appear to be moving. Rhett's eyes scanned the area to see a dented car, and his immediate thought was that somebody had hit it. Then his eyes fell back on the miniature horse as an officer and a vet flipped it over onto its other side. He gasped and took a step back. The fur on the greater part of its abdomen had been matted with dried blood, as it appeared it had been branded with an intricate snake-like texture. Rhett turned his head to the side to tune his ears to what the officer and the vet were saying through the murmur.

     "As strange as this is, this wasn't the cause of death. Look at the throat. It appears a predator tore it clean out. That's a common behavior of wolves." The vet used a swiping motion with his fingers scrunched to imitate claws. Rhett's eyes widened and he stumbled backward, and he turned on his heel and sprinted toward the car. He threw himself in the car the best he could without knocking his head and slammed the door shut. The whole car rocked and Link slowly turned his head to look at Rhett.

     "You—  you were right man. I didn't want to see that." Rhett's eyes were wide as saucers and he gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. His breaths were forced in and out of his lungs as they burned with the fire of fear that sizzled through him. "It's Terra. She's freaking at it again." He slammed his fist into the steering wheel.

     Link jumped, and looked at Rhett with wide eyes as he shrunk away from him. "What— what was it?" 

     "You don't want to know." Rhett's voice was dark as he stared hard at the steering wheel. "You really don't want to know, but you were so right. We have got to stop her. First a deer, now this... without a doubt it's going to be a human next!" 

     Link looked around the vehicle, then his eyes fell on the crowd. It seemed to grow larger by the minute, and there just weren't enough police officers to ward them off. It had to have been something large, something that had no choice but to grip Link's curiosity right by the gullet. He threw his door open and bolted out of the car.

     Rhett's eyes widened and he opened his door, ducking his body out. "Link, wait!" Link was already too far out of earshot as he wove his way through the crowd. Rhett groaned and completely stepped out of the vehicle, and he slammed the door shut before he sprinted over to the crowd. He was stopped by an officer with a hand to the chest, and Rhett threw his arms out.

     "You can't pass sir. I'm gonna have to ask you to please remain in your vehicle until we can redirect traffic." 

     "You don't understand, my friend just went running in there and he's really fragile right now. If he sees this— god if he sees this he's going to lose his freaking mind! Please just let me grab him and we won't be any trouble." Rhett raked his fingers through his hair.

     "I'm sorry sir, but you can't—" 

     Rhett didn't let the man finish as he shoved past him and ducked in between a couple of people. He heard the officer shout in protest but he didn't care. He needed to find Link before Link found the real problem. As he spun through the blur of people and his sights landed on his friend crouched in front of the dead animal, his heart lurched into his throat. He slowly approached Link and knelt to the ground beside him. He placed a consoling hand on his back. "Hey Link. Hey." 

     Link couldn't even hear him as he stared at the horse with his mouth completely open, his eyes barely focused on the dead animal. He felt like somehow, he was being targeted. "Terra is not going to get away with this. You hear me Rhett, she's not going to get away with this!" Link's shouts carried through the crowd and stirred their murmurs to a dead silence. "She's not going to get away with this."