The What

7

"AHA" Chase shouted triumphantly, up to his shoulders in her truck's tool box. He held up two pairs of work gloves like a trophy. "Put these on." He threw a pair at her and proceeded to put the other on his own hands.

"What are these for?" She asked, doing as he asked.

"I thought you were just going to do as I say."

"Well I am." Waggling her gloved fingers at him to prove her acquiescence, "However, I did not say no questions asked."

"Fair." He huffed, "If I'm right, that is a Secuester. It's basically the action of a fairy ring in an organism."

"So fairies are real too?" Pulling her hair high on the top of her head, she twisted it into a bun and rolled up her sleeves. "Wish I knew that in sixth grade."

She jumped as Chase rolled her sleeves back down and she was temporarily lost in his golden eyes, until he somberly spoke, "You don't want it to touch your skin."

"Ok." Her voice was small.

He grabbed a few of the towing cables out of her tool box and a tire iron. Gravel crunched under his boots as he took a few slow, cautious steps towards the body. With a flick of his wrist, he motioned her closer to him and crouched onto his haunches, resembling a lion stalking his prey, tension apparent in his shoulders. 

Mimicking his stance behind him she whispered, "What're we doing?"

"Shhhhhhhh." A long finger came to her lips and she resisted the strong urge to lick it. "It's probably a trap, they don't sleep and you didn't hit it so there's very little chance that it's unconscious and I won't be able to tell if it's dead until I get really close."

"Have you even considered the possibility that it's my father?"

"I have. And if it is, we will deal with that accordingly. Here." He handed her the tire iron, "If it wakes up, I want you to hit it with this." He cut her off before she could protest, "not hard enough to kill it, just enough to knock it out, just in case. Even if it is your father, he could not be completely him and we don't wanna risk it." He wiped at some sweat beading on his forehead with the back of a gloved hand. "I'm gonna tie it up and we're gonna throw it in the back of your truck and take it back to the cabin, where we can figure out what it is in a safe environment."

She let out a gust of breath. "Ok. Alright. Ok... Ok. Let's do it."

Taking careful steps in an attempt to keep the gravel crunch as minimal as possible, she took her position by the body's head. It looked exactly like her father. Same strong chin and straight nose, the creases by his eyes to indicate 40 years of laughter. He was pale, almost the pale color of a corpse... she shook herself and focused on Chase's movements. He'd just finished tying up the legs and was now positioning himself by the torso, glancing at her to check her resolve before reaching down to slip the tow cable around the chest.

With a flick of the thing's fingers, it's eyes flew open to reveal the pale, opalescent eyes of the dead or blind, a sudden spasm shooting through its body. She gasped as a screech tore its way out of the thing's mouth and brought the tire iron down onto its forehead, the screech cutting off into a gurgle. The iron shook slightly in her hands, suspended above the head of the creature as she tried to slow her breathing. 

A pair of hands entered her line of vision, one taking the iron away from her and the other applying pressure on her chin to force her to look at Chase. "That was good." He told her softly, "You did good, it's not your father and it's not dead. You did very good."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Ok. To the truck?"

"The truck. I'll get the head."