Misery County

Chapter 1 - Part 1

Eric's eyelids fought against him as he tried to open them. The same nightmare had plagued him again - the night that Aaron was killed by the werewolf. Night after night, he had relived this moment, and would probably continue to do so until the day he died. No amount of justice or retribution seemed to make it go away.

He gave a bleary-eyed glance through the gap between the curtains. There was a full moon outside, and although the soft, pale light was trying to soothe him and send him back to sleep, he knew he had a job to do. Getting up from the bed, he pulled his pistol out from under the pillow and slid it into the shoulder holster hanging from a nearby chair.

"Just you and me, old buddy," he said to the gun as he tossed the holster around himself. "And it's about time we get to work."

A nudge with his foot pulled aside the chair that was barricading the door, and with a gingerly turn of the doorknob, he was outside. He collected the fine silver chain that was wrapped on the outside of the doorknob and took a deep breath, looking at the motel complex around him. It was completely deserted, not that that was surprising to Eric. He'd known that people coming through these parts was rare. He'd also known that the manager liked it just like that - only one person or couple at a time. This night, Eric was his only customer, but unlike the others, he was fully prepared. Was the silver on the doorknob a bit much? Perhaps it was. After all, he had taken a far more active precaution not long after he checked in during the late afternoon, but he felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

The night air was still and the area lifeless as Eric walked to the front office. The door made a ringing sound as he walked through it, but there was no one at the desk, nor should there be. A very faint screeching was reverberating around the room. To be wholly honest with himself, Eric didn't think the sound would carry to out there, but as he had predicted, there was no one around to hear anyway.

Reflexively tapping under his shoulder to make sure his gun was still there, Eric walked through the hanging beads separating the front from the back office and made his way to a large metal door. How convenient it had been for him that the motel had a walk-in refrigerator. He shuddered when he thought about the dark and grisly deeds that had been performed in that room, but he supposed it was only suiting that it be used to finally end it all.

The screeching got exponentially louder as Eric opened up the door. The sight inside wasn't pretty. While the manager had seemed human when Eric bound him to the chair with silver chains, now his bestial side was showing... but not entirely.

"That looks painful," Eric drawled idly.

The manager's face was partway altered into the canine features that the full moon would bring out, but the silver prevented him from transforming fully. The rest of his body was no different. His ears were pointy but not fully grown, and the exposed skin on his arms and legs showed mangy-looking patches of fur between sprawling bald spots.

"What have you done to me?" the manager snarled.

"I take it you've never been the hunted, then? No, I don't suppose there are a lot of us around, though I am a bit surprised that none of your kind have shared their wisdom with you."

"You think we meet in a clubhouse or something?" the werewolf spat.

"Now that you put it that way, I guess it does sound a bit silly. Still, a werewolf that doesn't know about the effects of silver, well, what can I say, it's quite underwhelming."

"I'm only going to say this once." The manager's eyes were glowing with hatred. "Take these chains off me and let me go."

"You're really in no position to be making threats or demands. Honestly, you should appreciate your situation more."

The werewolf lunged forward in his chair, but that only exacerbated the effects of the silver on his skin. He recoiled and howled in pain.

"That's right. Heel. Good doggy."

"What do you want from me?" the manager roared.

"Your head on a pike, but I'll settle for some information instead if you're feeling particularly protective of your life today."

"Information? You want to know what I've been doing here?"

"I already know all about that. You think such a huge number of disappearances and 'animal attacks' in this area would go unnoticed? And always during the full moon, at that. You're sloppy. I don't know how the sheriffs haven't tried to nail you for it, but I don't really care. You're dealing with me now, and they're pimply hall monitors by comparison."

"So then what is it you want to know?"

"Missouri County - what's going on there?"

"Poverty, meth, alcoholism..."

Eric tossed the silver chain in his pocket over the wolf's face. "Wrong answer."