After bodies begin to pile up, Hank and Wu suspect there is a serial killer in Portland. Meanwhile, the reemergence of Black Claw causes Nick to panic as he and Adalind prepare for their upcoming wedding. As Nick digs into all of the records he can...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The sun would be up in a few minutes, not that its light would make much of a difference under the thick canopy of the forest. The sound of Jacob Banks's "Unholy War" echoed between the trees as it played from the stereo of a nearby pickup.
A few feet from the truck was a man's body, still warm, still oozing blood from its jagged wounds into the damp soil of the forest floor. Claws had gouged pathways across the man's body, shredding the skin as well as clothes covering it. The man's jeans were torn to pieces, but luckily for the greedy, searching hands that examined the body, the pockets were intact and still holding the man's wallet full of cash.
The hands fished the wallet from the dead man's pocket, and the dark figure crouching over the body rose to their feet. The figure then made their way toward the truck, stepping over a second body similar to the first, only this one was still gasping for air.
This not-yet-dead man gagged on his own blood as he fought to reach his cell phone. It was lying on the ground two inches from his outstretched arm, and if he could just reach it, maybe he could call for help. It was difficult to move due to his extensive injuries; he, too, had been ripped to shreds by the claws of a non-animal and additionally wore extensive bitemarks originating from the same creature. The phone was only once inch away now...
Half an inch...
His fingers grazed the corner of the screen...
The figure had watched the man's futile struggles with amusement and could see the hope in the dying man's eyes as he finally grabbed ahold of his phone.
The figure ripped it from his fingers, throwing it as far into the woods as they could. The man saw his only chance of survival disappear into the foliage and began to choke with miserable sobs in addition to the blood filling his lungs. He knew he was going to die.
The figure dug the dying man's wallet from his pocket, started walking toward the truck again, and climbed in. They sighed impatiently and changed the song to one that better fit their mood: "Choke" by I Don't Know How But They Found Me. The truck drove away quickly as the music played, and the two bodies began decaying in the woods.
*************
It had been a month since Nick and Trubel escaped their captors and returned home. Even with the short passage of time, it was only a week away from Nick and Adalind's wedding. The near-constant catastrophes emphasized there was truly no time to waste before getting married; they knew they were ready to spend the rest of their lives together however long, or short, that would be...
Nick and Adalind fussed over wedding invitations, guest lists, seating arrangements, the venue, and with the help of their friends, were almost finished arranging the occasion. Hank, Wu, and Monroe were all especially enthusiastic after realizing they were competing against one another for the title of best man. Of course, Nick never meant for it to become a competition. He wanted the trio to be his best men since they all played important roles in his life that couldn't be compared: Monroe helped him into the world of fairytales, Hank was his brave and loyal partner, and Wu was his devoted friend and brilliant coworker. Yet the constituents of the trio, to Nick's immense dread, were pretty adamant about being reduced to "The Man" rather than one of three.
