Gav awoke with a cry. She flew forward on her bed, sitting up in the darkness. Just another nightmare. She let out a shaky breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
The dreams had been happening for months now and they seemed to be getting more frequent. There was no pattern to them, as far as Gavina could tell, only that there was a hunt, and hunger, and…don’t think about it. She shuddered as images of grutesque animals carcesses flashed through her mind.
She swallowed back the bile building in her throat and climbed out of her bed, stumbling in the darkness towards the bathroom down the hall. While it seemed as if the sun had yet to rise, the child could hear the birds beginning to chirp. It could only be 5 AM at the earliest she presumed.
Gavina tried to push the dream to the back of her mind but something seemed wrong. She could feel dread building in the pit of her stomach but she struggled to ignore it. There was something off about this latest one but she couldn’t put her finger on why…
She shook her head and went about her morning ritual, hopping in the shower for a quick scrub. She finished up in the restroom, throwing on her clothes without paying attention. Gav grabbed her mask and crept downstairs, afraid of waking her sister.
It wasn’t the first time she had left early so she scribbled a note for her father and ran out the door. She needed to get out of the house and try to forget about the feeling of dread that seemed to get stronger as time went by.
Gwen had awoken hours ago to a searing pain that seemed to be originating from every inch of her body and the droning of a heart monitor. Her own heart monitor. According to the nurse she’d met upon first returning to consciousness, Gwen was lucky to even have a heartbeat still.
The woman described the situation as she replaced the various dressings on Gwen’s body. Apparently, she had gone missing from the ranger station the preceding night, and after a search party was sent out, she was found... Attacked. Incapacitated. Mauled.
She could hardly recollect anything from that night, aside from the rough impression of pure terror, but that wasn’t really helping anyone. What she could remember was leaving the station for one of the last rounds of her shift, and then... finding a trail. A trail of animal remains.
Ah, yes. She at least recalled something of pertinence.
For the past several weeks, the station had been receiving report after report of civilians finding the savaged remains of animals near their yards or in the woods. Sometimes it was the carcass of a wild animal-- like deer, foxes, and bobcats. But on other, undeniably worse occasions, it was a beloved family pet. It went without saying that Gwen and her coworkers had a bit a of pressure on them to find and eliminate the source of the problem.
It just so happened that Gwen was lucky enough to be the first human to encounter the scourge of the month. Now if only she could remember just what that scourge was.
----
“No, mom, you don’t have to come see me. It’s not that bad, I promise.” Gwen winced as she shifted in the hospital bed. A gush of fresh blood could be seen seeping through the gauze on her arm. God. Her nurse was going to kill her, if she didn’t inadvertently do it herself. “Uh, yeah, I made Dottie my emergency contact. ...No, we’re not still dating. ...Jeez mom, chill out. It’s nothing against you. Look- just- I have to make some other calls. Tell dad and Harls I love them, I’ll get backtoyoulaterBYE-”
Gwen hung up with a sigh of relief. With family down, she only had work, friends, and her scouting troop to relay information to. The latter she needed to get to fast, considering they had a meeting in less than two hours. Jesus, she hoped Dan would be willing to fill in for her today.
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