#solo 5

Effie always liked her evening jogs, even when there was snow on the ground. But she also wasn’t too fond of going anywhere near Dark Score Lake after the last time she had been there—memories of swimming and shocking people and killing fish weren’t pleasant. And, if anything, the reminders of the horrible pageant that caused the ugly scars on her legs and the ugly memories weren’t desired. But once around the lake should do it, flyers for a lost dog would be distributed in the next couple of days… She really hoped Loker was okay. At this point she was starting to lose hope—they were known for hurting animals, and Loker was an old dog and she didn’t know how much stress he could even take. The two had grown closer than she had originally realized and having him gone left an awfully empty hole in her apartment.

Glancing at her phone, she stuffed her headphones in her ears and tied her hair back—thank goodness it was growing out again. Hair falling into her eyes had been a real issue, especially when trying to put teeny metal clips into her hair that could cause some… bad business with other electronics. But she let some light music fill her ears—Her phone had whatever Eva liked to listen to downloaded on it. Effie was never a music person so Eva kept trying to fix it by sending her music which she begrudgingly downloaded to her phone. Right now it sounded like that band… Dreaming Dragons? Imagine Lizards? Something like that.

Effie set out on her way in a light run. She wouldn’t get a new dog if Loker wasn’t found. Having a pet already was dangerous and probably even a little selfish of her. Honey, the family’s golden retriever they’d had when Effie was young, was fine. Honey had her siblings to take care of her and love her and to pet her properly, but Loker only had her. Even if he didn’t like to be touched, she was sure when he did ask to be petted he didn’t like the feeling of the rubber gloves; the fact that he had to have his own big doggy bed beside hers instead of sleeping up in her bed made it worse. She was glad however, that he missed her little encounter with that creature from the other night. Effie frowned as she turned a corner, her mind being brought back to the more pressing situation.

A voicemail depicting her wife and child. Christmas morning with her wife and child. A visit to a restaurant…. Effie didn’t understand why she kept having these sort of visions of something like this. It really hurt to see herself like that- happy. With a family. There was no use in denying to herself that that’s what she wanted. She could address the feeling of jealousy that she felt when she stared at Ella and Lin and their little boy. Ellie and Christina too, though she was pretty sure they both were at a point in their relationship where they just didn’t want children. She wasn’t stupid, and she knew it was normal for her to want stuff like that. As the song changed to something strange,  Effie reminded herself of the risks. And the risk always outweighed the need for something like that. She wouldn’t be responsible for someone else’s death.

Effie frowned, trying to push that out of her head as she ran faster, trying to focus on the music. Imagine Lizards really seemed to be experimenting with barking, this was a weird song. Polaroids and a deep bark from—Wait.

Stupid.

Effie skidded to a stop and whipped around. And lumbering after her was a giant, fat basset hound. His baring teeth and barking didn’t seem to die as she ripped her headphones out and he tumbled over his long ears.

“Loker!”

In a perfect movie moment, the two would have run together and embraced, but fact of the matter was was that dogs still made Effie very nervous and she couldn’t help backing up very quickly in a little backwards trot as Loker barreled to her.

“Loker- heel! Sit! Stay! Loker no!”

And—

Too late.

The dog gave a purely majestic leap through the air and slammed into her knees, causing her to yelp, fall, and slip on a small patch of ice while he scrambled to his feet gain.

Thank god she was wearing thick clothing.

She landed on her back, and Effie couldn’t help but let out a loud laugh, surprising herself as she propped herself up on her elbows as Loker started to circle her repeatedly, howling and barking all the way. His dog collar was still on and he looked like he hadn’t even been touched—how in the hell did she end up being so lucky.

“Loker! I can’t believe it! You’re okay!” Effie had started laughing so hard there were tears coming out of her eyes. The dog didn’t seem to pay any mind to that as he ran around, seemingly excited to see his owner. Of course, she was certain once they got back to the house it would go back to the way things were. She would watch television and he would growl at her every time she would move away or she would go down to her workshop and he would let out a dramatic sigh and follow her while he laid down in the corner.

She would be happy with that, she thought.

Taking a quick look around incase Azul decided to show her ugly face, Effie scrambled too her feet. “Come on Loker, let’s go home. It’s too cold out here.” Loker looked up at her, let out an old dog huff, and started trotting in the direction of her car. What a smart dog. Effie grinned slightly and started jogging after him. She didn’t even have to put him on a leash.

It didn’t take them long to reach the car. Effie unlocked her passengers side first and helped Loker get his butt in the actual car. She would feed him his dinner and then order out to celebrate. She should probably text Regan too… And finally answer Reed. But as Effie was about to unlock the driver’s side when she slipped once again on ice, and smashed the back of her head on the ground.

She was running again. It was dark, but it smelled like spring. The strong aroma of a campfire scorched her snout and she could practically taste it. Two people? A couple maybe? She could sense Paige somewhere in front of her. She was always the faster runner, but that was okay. They rounded the the campsite and saw the unsuspecting couple. They were arguing about paint colors— her nose wrinkled and she glanced at Paige, who was just visible beside the tree. Her two tails were swaying and she was practically quivering in anticipation. Paige glanced back at her, and she couldn’t help but admire the markings around her eyes and how it complemented her fur.

But Paige wasn’t feeling as lovey as she was, and she struck first. Ephie let out a bark that was almost a laugh as she followed. She saw Paige take the man, and Ephie leapt for the woman, ignoring horrified screeching as Ephie sunk her teeth into her throat to shut her up. Humans were so aggravating sometimes. Her claws sunk into her chest as she ripped at her throat, spitting any excess meat she didn’t want— it was such a shame that human hearts tasted so good. Paige said she was picky, but she swore nothing else tasted that good, except maybe the liver. But it smelled like these two had been drinking— no thanks. Ephie snarled and went to rip the rib cage open. But she took quick pause to look over at her wife, grinning as she saw her messily ravaging the man’s insides. She always went straight for dinner, didn’t even stop to see if the man was dead yet. And she would have a hell of a time washing without cussing suspicion. Ephie snorted in amusement and went back to her own meal. Her teeth sunk into flesh again. She should save Derek a piece of liver, probably—

Effie hadn’t realized she was screaming until she heard Loker whining and howling above her. She was on the ground, her eyes wide, and her head was pounding. Her scream stopped short and she hurriedly tried to scramble, tried to get in her car, tried to do anything. But her knees were weak and she was shaking, making it harder to stand on the ice and just as Effie managed to open her car door, she vomited on the pavement. What was that? That wasn’t what a Huxian looked like. That was… That was a monster. That was a giant two legged fox monster.

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