Cold Eyes Watching - CCC #291 - Chapter 7

Continuation...


Photo credit: Arno & Louise Wildlife / Foter / CC BY-NC

Jill fell into a plush recliner by the unlit fireplace. The coffee had been replaced with root beer while she listened to more of her father's story. She felt proud of his negative response to the king's awful request. He stopped talking and listened hard. Something banged and scraped against the outside walls. Jill sat upright, remembering the thing from her window. 

"It's probably nothing," Tom said. "They tend to attack under cover of night but I'll walk the perimeter just in case. Stay here." He pocketed a revolver, lowered the defenses and left the room. 

Jill kept still listening for any sounds from the outside. Soon steps echoed down the hall. Jill stood with relief but what stood in the doorway stopped her cold. It laughed. 

"Hehe, I find you, whelp. I get reward! Hehe, won't hurt you, promise." It walked with an odd gait, as if unaccustomed to walking upright. Jill backed into the fireplace, her hand reaching back for any kind of weapon. Her fingers tightened around the poker. The creature shuffled forward, it's humanlike body, draped with an otherworldly tunic and leggings. Its feet were bare, humanlike, except for its long nails that clicked like claws on the hardwood. The dark eyes gleamed with joy causing its lips to pull back from his muzzle in a grotesque smile. The gray hairy face and pointed ears were dotted with black and a ridge of hair stood on it's neck and continued down its back. 

"Stay back! My father will kill you!" she said. 

"Hehehe, father not help you. I set a trap! Hehe!" it laughed as it moved closer. "Take you now to Wolf King. Get reward!" He reached for her as blue sparks flew off his claws.   Jill swung the poker across its chest. It fell back a few spaces. The laughing faded. He snarled, seething malice and rubbed the scrape across his chest. 

Jill raised her poker again, this time to stab when she saw a flash of brown fur lunged from the doorway. The wolf and hyena fell across the room, teeth tearing, claws scratching. The sounds mingled in a horror symphony. The hyena tossed the wolf across the room and shifted to his animal form. Jill's heart sank when she saw its massive size compared to her father, who seemed in agony and unfocused. The hyena attacked him again, biting the wolf's shoulders, neck and drawing blood fast. He drew back and shifted to his half human form, leaning over his wounded prey. 

"You like trap, wolf? They said use scorpion poison but not too much, hehe, hehe. Wolf King will give big reward for you! But first, I take whelp." 

Jill stabbed the hyena just as it turned toward her. She pushed the poker as far as she could into its belly before she released it. The hyena fell the ground writhing madly on the floor, it's claws slick with blood and unable to dislodge the poker from its body. Howls of pain soon gave way to silence. Jill ran to her father, who lay bleeding and panting heavily, his mouth frothing. 

"Daddy!" 

"I'll be alright but we need help," he said, his eyelids drooping.


CCC#291

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