Farrell Creed briskly walked through the juvenile detention center to Miss Trudy’s office. The halls were empty due to the rest of the boys in the block being sent on a trip. Trudy personally asked for him to remain which excited him as he liked the way Miss Trudy made him feel. She listened to him and understood his anger which was rare for most adults he had come into contact with. Then, of course, there was the affection she showed him. He was young and inexperienced in that regard before meeting her. Happiness was a rare emotion for him but it was what he felt when he was near her and when she touched him. When he opened the door to her office, she was wearing a white button-down shirt and a red skirt, which he said was his favorite. She smiled at him sweetly and he felt his heart flutter but tried to play it cool as he closed the door.

“Hi, Farrell, I’m sorry for keeping you from the trip,” she said with a soft voice, “Community service work isn’t gun but I know it’s one of the few times you get to leave.”

“It’s okay, as long as I’m with you,” he tried to make his voice deeper than it was.

“Our time here is almost over and I’m happy to say you’re almost out but that doesn’t mean we have to stop seeing each other.”

“Okay, good. And I haven’t told nobody like you asked,” he paused for a moment, “Well, actually… I kinda told my friend, Pete but he won’t say noth’n.”

“I trust you, Farrell. You’ve been a good boy.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” he bit his lip a little, “So, uh,… Why did you wanna see me?”

“You won’t have to worry about anything, soon.”

“Uh, I-I know.”

“I’ll take real good care of you,” her voice seemed to deepen slightly.

Creed brushed it off, “Yeah, you’ve always taken good care of me.”

“Such a good boy,” her voice dropped even lower, far lower than a feminine voice could go.

“Miss Trudy, are you okay?,” Farrell asked anxiously.

She continued to stare at him with an odd smile, “I’m perfectly fine,” her voice was a growl at this point, “Everything will be all right.”

“What’s wrong with your voice?”

“Nothing is wrong,” she didn’t blink and the smile never faded, “Everything is fine.”

With Miss Trudy’s last words, Creed caught a glimpse of jagged, gnarled teeth. He leapt to his feet, Pete’s warnings echoing in his mind, “Skinwalkers can only take on the form of a human they ate. They can’t stay in those forms forever, though, so they gotta find somebody else.” He knocked over the chair as he backed away, but Miss Trudy remained staring with the same perverse smile. “When they’re ready for a new body, apparently they’ll not be able to stay in the same shape or their voices will change or something.” Creed didn’t fully believe the stories but it was apparent it was all true. He was glad he humored Pete by keeping the hammer under his cot. “What’s the matter?,” Miss Trudy asked, her voice now lower than a human’s voice should go.

At that point, he managed to muster the courage to sprint out of the office. It would be days before he would reconcile that Miss Trudy was likely a Skinwalker the entire time. It would be years before he processed what he and Miss Trudy did behind closed doors and even then, it was not something he spoke of. At the time, he only thought about escape. As he ran through the empty halls, he heard an inhuman shriek echoing behind him. It was unlike any animal he had ever heard and worst of all, he was sure it was saying his name.

He turned a corner, nearly falling on his face in the process, then stopped and gathered his wits for a moment, realizing there was a stairwell nearby which could take him down one floor to the sleeping quarters. He turned and opened the door. “Hey, Creed!,” he heard a familiar voice shout and he was nearly relieved to see that Ogre had apparently snuck into his block, even if the intent was obviously malicious.

Creed stood with his back to the stairwell door while Ogre came toward him with a hand behind his back. He grimaced at Creed, exposing a row of missing teeth that had been knocked out months earlier. “Nowhew to go now,” Ogre said, his speech impeded by the missing teeth, “Got somfin for you, bish.” He dropped his hand, showing a butcher knife that he had apparently stolen from the kitchen. Creed didn’t warn him about what was coming. There was a part of him that hoped the monster would take Ogre instead of him. Even though Ogre and his crew assaulted Pete and tried to stab him, it would be something he would hate himself for. He backed away through the doorway and into the stairwell where he could clearly see Ogre’s nearly-toothless grin. Then a dark shadow passed by and he was gone. Through the doorway, Creed saw a spray of blood shoot along the floor and then the sound of something eating.

Creed jerked awake in his truck. He had fallen asleep which would normally be inviting in his current state but the nightmares were worse than sleep deprivation. He peered through the windshield and saw headlights moving down the country road toward the little farm. He recognized the VW Beetle as belonging to the young couple he met earlier: Dan and Ashley.

Dan parked the car and noticed the old barn nearby, “This place is creepy enough without monsters lurking in the darkness.”

Ashley checked her phone, “This was the place in the youtube video. I looked it up and there were weird cattle mutilations here. It’s the best place to start.”

“Well, let’s go find out.”

They left the car and turned on the flashlight apps on their phones, ready to take pictures and videos. They climbed over a beaten fence that was partially torn down and made their way up a hill. Ashley looked up toward a grove of trees and suddenly grabbed Dan’s arm with a whispered, “Look, it’s a deer”.

Dan looked in the direction and squinted in the darkness, “No, it’s a wolf, but… what the hell?”

As the figure moved away from the grove and stood at the top of the hill, its silhouette was clearer. The shape was a wolf but about five times larger than it should be. Additionally, there were twisted antlers protruding from its forehead. The figure turned its attention toward the pair, yellow eyes shining through the darkness. Ashley said nothing, but rather, took a picture, almost in shock as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

The creature was faster than expected. It was already at the bottom of the hill with the camera only catching a fuzzy blur. The couple froze as it stood before them, the moonlight catching only a glimpse of a furless, wolf-like face with jagged antlers.

“Get the hell out of here!,” Creed darted past them with his ashy knife at the ready. He plunged it at the Skinwalker who stepped back, only getting a gash across the chest. It swung a huge limb into Creed’s face, sending him into the air. The couple, meanwhile, raced back to their car. Once they reached the fence, they tried to hop it but some fencing caught Dan’s foot and he tripped. A moment later, powerful jaws tore into his shoulder as he lay face down in the dirt. He screamed in agony as the arm began to come off, spilling blood onto the ground. Creed came back again and plunged the knife into the creature’s back. It bucked him off and ran into the night, quickly disappearing into the shadows.

“Oh god! Oh god!,” Ashley was hysterical as Dan held on to what was left of his arm.

“We gotta stop the bleeding,” Creed took off his jacket and quickly began wrapping it around the wounded limb. He continued, “I got a med kit in my truck.”

“Let me help!”

The trio looked up and saw Alysa racing toward their location with cloth bandages containing the Iseda Zodiac. Curious as to how she got there but nonetheless relieved, Creed stood up as she began wrapping the bandages around Dan’s torn arm. “It’s gonna stop the blood but we gotta get him to the hospital,” she said as she continued to tie the bandages.

“Get him in my truck,” Creed said and they carefully carried him to the cab of the truck with Ashley seated beside him. Creed drove them out of the farm with Alysa following in her car. Once they got to the road, they headed to St. Sebastian Memorial Hospital.