Alysa knew Pete Bone Splitter had been in juvenile detention with Creed and once she began to think about the strange jar in Creed’s office, she surmised Pete might have some information. Learning about Creed’s past with the Skinwalkers might give her insight as to what would happen next. She realized she was likely cursing herself by talking about it but she was willing to take that risk. Creed put himself in danger to protect her when her mother was killed and she was willing to do the same. When she entered Pete’s Medicine, she saw him sitting behind the front counter with baggy eyes, similar to Creed’s.

“Alysa?,” he perked up a bit when he saw her, “Just so you know, we’re about to close.”

“I wanna know about juvie,” she said assuredly.

“Damn,” Pete sighed and sat back, rubbing his tired eyes.

“You can leave out whatever you need to but Creed and some other folks might be in danger and I wanna know how I can help him.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Pete’s tone was serious.

“I’m an Iseda priestess, or at least a trainee. This shit is part of the job. Just tell me what happened to Creed. I know he beat up a teacher and got sent to juvie and you were there with him, so I wanna know what happened next.”

“Okay, fine,” Pete leaned on the counter, “First, I’ll tell you how I got to juvie. Someone sprayed painted a pig on a cop car and when the officers saw it, I happened to be in the area, getting groceries for my family. I was the right shade of brown so I took the fall. Here’s the thing about juvenille detention: it’s a lot like prison where the white guys hung out with white guys, black guys hung out with black guys and the Latinos were with the Latinos. I was the only Native boy there which made me a potential target already. The only other guy in my block who kept to himself was Creed who never said much but since he was big, no one messed with him. I think a lot of the guys thought he was autistic or whatnot because he enrolled in shop class and mostly just built bird feeders and stuff all the time. He liked taking small, individual pieces and building something out of them. Guess that’s why he has a knack for solving mysteries. So anyway, after maybe the first week I was there, I had a nightmare.”

“This was a nightmare about the… thing we ain’t supposed to talk about?”

“Yeah,” Pete nodded, “Times like this, the shit seems like it just happened and it’s the reason why I can’t sleep. When I was little, I went camping with my brothers and cousins,” he fearfully closed his eyes and struggled to recount the memory that was still obviously fresh despite the passage of time, “We heard sounds outside our tents and we knew they were circling us but no one dared to look outside. They left eventually and I’m nit sure why but the sounds we heard that night…,” he shook it off, “A few Native American tribes have had history with these things. They’re mostly in Navajo tradition but the Shawnee know about them too. That’s my tribe.”

“So you ran into some of these things one night but no nightmares or anything until later?”

“Yeah. I probably went about six years without thinking too much about that night, then I ended up in juvie. That’s when I had my first nightmare, woke up screaming in my cot. In a place like that, it’s not good to look like a little bitch. One of the other boys was like, ‘Shut up, pussy’ and that led to some other bullshit but at the time I had other problems. I knew something was close by and that’s why I had the dream. That was how the legend went and I knew I was cursed.”

“What do you do about it?”

“The best way to kill one of those things is to attack it with a weapon dipped in white ash. White ash usually comes from burning tobacco with magnesium or nitrates or something,” he shrugged a bit, “That or you can produce it by burning certain types of cannabis or incense.”

Alysa realized that was what she saw in Creed’s office but said nothing.

“There was one kid from another block named Ogre… I dunno know why he had that name but that’s what they called him… he had a weed guy. When we had time outdoors, he’d go out to the fence; his guy would toss the weed over and Ogre would sell it. I knew where he stashed it and everything. And like I said, I would need white ash.”

Alysa’s eyes widened, “Did you steal that kid’s weed?”

“It was all I could think of to do. I was certain a… thing was there and it would come get me eventually. I had to hope the weed was clean and pure enough to produce white ash. I was desperate,” Pete hesitated for a moment, “I was also a little stupid and I guess someone noticed me walking around with a bulging jacket. I managed to hide it before Ogre and his buddies found me and dragged me into a bathroom. They kicked the absolute shit out of me and started saying racist shit about peace pipes and stuff. They wanted me to tell them where I hid their weed but I wasn’t gonna. I was more afraid of the monsters than of those guys but at the same time, they could’ve done some serious damage. Guess who walked into the bathroom around that time?”

“Creed?”

“Yep. He just showed up to take a piss and didn’t even know what was going on. He once told me he just wanted to mind his own business and leave it be. He didn’t want to get involved but he couldn’t stand to see some kid get his ass beat by about five other guys who were all bigger than him.”

“That’s definitely Creed.”

“Yeah, so, Ogre had a straight razor he was gonna use on me so it’s dumb luck that Creed changed his mind. I remember laying there in a pool of my own blood with Creed getting their attention. I forget now what he said but Ogre called him a retard and told him to leave. Creed grabbed his wrist so he wouldn’t get stabbed and then just slammed his face into the sink. Busted out most of his front teeth too. I remember Ogre holding his mouth with blood dripping from his hands and him yelling, ‘Muffa fuggah!’. Him and his friends left and Creed helped me up. That’s how we met.”

“Okay, but go back to the Skinwal-,” Alysa began but when Pete shot her an angry look, she decided not to say it out loud, “Tell me about the monsters or whatever they are.”

“Eventually, I told Creed about it. I even said the English name which was stupid as hell but we were kids. I thought having a friend would keep me safe,” he became sad, “As it turns out, I cursed him by talking about it.”

“Did he believe you?”

“I din’t think so, but me and him enjoyed Ogre’s weed together,” he laughed a bit, “I collected all the white ash I could get and put it in a bag. Since Creed was in shop class, I asked him if he could snatch a hammer so we could dip it in the ash and make a weapon out of it. He gave me the hammer but I think at first, he was just humoring me. Winghaven is filled with weird shit but sometimes, people just don’t want to face facts. He kept it under the springs of his mattress.”

“But he used the hammer eventually?”

Pete smiled a bit as if recalling something, “You know, there was a counselor in our block named Miss Trudy. She was this tall white lady with blonde hair. We all liked her. I had a different counselor but Creed had her. I was so jealous.”

Alysa was frustrated as it wasn’t the story she was expecting and wondered if she had been wasting time.

“Creed said she was really nice and sweet to him. She told him that he had every right to be angry at the teacher he beat up and she helped to get him over his anger issues. Then, one day, out of the blue, Creed told me about how she kissed him. I thought he was lying, of course.”

Alysa frowned. It was an inappropriate story and, if it were true, she was disgusted by the idea of an adult taking advantage of a minor. Especially one in a position like the counselor’s.

“After about a month or two, he told me they started doing other stuff. I think that might’ve been his first time,” Pete continued.

Alysa was deeply offended and was about to ask Pete to stop but the look on his face made her realize he was giving her the information she asked for.

“See, these things can take the shape of the people they’ve devoured,” Pete’s voice was almost a whisper, “I’m not sure what the real Miss Trudy was like but I’m sure I never met the poor woman. We were sent on a field trip when it happened, which basically meant we had to go work in a garbage dump or something. Miss Trudy asked Creed to stay behind and, of course, he thought he was gonna get lucky again,” he swallowed, “It showed its true form and came at him. Creed was, I dunno, 15 or 16 and mostly alone in that block. Miss Trudy chased him all over and I think she got a security guard or maybe even one of the other boys who was left behind for whatever reason. The details are a little murky and obviously Creed doesn’t say much about it. I do know that he killed it, though. The feds came after it was over since this was before the IMD and everything. They covered up a lot of what went down. Creed killed it with the hammer, I know that much. They had him in holding but when they saw the security tapes, they released him and kinda made sure everyone shut up about it.”

Alysa was speechless.

“That’s as far as I care to discuss this. I advise you not to stick your nose too far into it unless you want to have to deal with those things, too… which you don’t.”

“You gave Creed a weapon yesterday, didn’t you?,” Alysa said, finally indicating the strange jar in his office,

“Yes, I did,” Pete reached under his counter and produced a similar jar filled with white ash and a dagger inside, “Got one of my own just in case. You might consider doing the same.”

“Thanks,” Alysa began to leave, “But I have my own way of doing things.”

Creed sat in his truck on the side of the road, not far from an old farm. He spent a good part of the day searching for tracks in the woods and other areas in which Skinwalkers had been sighted. While in animal forms, Skinwalkers would often leave what appeared to be typical animal tracks but there would always be something slightly off about them (too wide, too long, bipedal tracks for animals that normally had four legs, etc.) and sometimes the animal tracks would turn into human footprints. Creed didn’t find any tracks but he did find mutilated animals which was a potential clue.

Years ago, he was hired to investigate cattle mutilations on that same farm. That was the first time he encountered a Skinwalker as an adult. In the days leading up to the encounter, the awful feelings and memories from his childhood were fresh in his mind and he found it difficult to sleep. He was hired to investigate the cattle mutilations but there was a sinking feeling about this particular case and since he was well aware of the lore, he went to the Suburbs to invoke the wisdom of Briathos, the angel. As usual, Gary’s wife and kids did not approve, especially with Creed being in the disheveled state he was in.

“You are cursed by monstrosities that prey on humanity,” Briathos explained, “Do not trust your senses. Your salvation lies in friendship.”

He heeded Briathos’ words and contacted Pete since they had a shared experience and the two men admitted they were both suffering from nightmares concerning their childhoods. Before going to the farm, Pete had Creed dip his bullets in white ash. When he arrived at the farm, it was already nighttime and it was eerily quiet. He searched the premises for an hour until he heard the voice of what he believed to be the farmer who owned the property asking for help. He raced to the location behind the barn and found the farmer standing quietly a few yards away with a strange stare. Creed was reminded of Briathos’ other warning to not trust his senses and pulled back on the hammer of his gun. The farmer lunged forward, his run resembling that of a creature who wasn’t sure if a human was meant to run on all four limbs or not; his arms slapped at the ground in a windmill motion while his legs propelled him forward. Despite the awkward and disjointed movements, the creature cleared the distance in a second and pounced on top of Creed before shifting into another form. In the darkness, Creed couldn’t see much save for snapping jaws and he quickly began unloading the entire clip into its gut. Once the clip was empty, the heavy beast rolled off onto its side and began dissolving into a putrid tar-like mess. Creed ran away from the area, just as he ran through the empty halls of the detention center as a teen. That night, he got wildly drunk and broke Brett’s nose at Stagger Lee’s. In the coming days, local police and even an IMD agent interrogated him but he refused to say anything.

Now, he was back at the same farm which had since been abandoned after the previous owner had been declared missing. The rumors, of course, were still persistent which would pique the interests of certain people. With the memories coming back, he was sure a Skinwalker had returned to the area and the young couple would likely come to the farm. He had his weapon at the ready. All that was left was the waiting.