First Hunt

A nightclub singer is tracked and chased by the hunger's tracking beast.

 

First Hunt

 

 

In town, the wind picked up as well. Brandy stepped into the night air and took a deep breath. She was one of the last the leave the club. She performed to a packed house that night and he vocals hit new heights as she brought them to her feet for two callbacks. Max, the owner offered her a ride home. 

“Thanks Max. I’ll be okay. You know my place ain’t that far.”

“Keep your cell on and your eyes open. Couple kids died out by that crater tonight. I don’t like it.”

“You worry too much Max. I’ll be fine.”

As Brandy distanced herself from the nightclub, the wind grew stronger. She thought she heard a low-pitched growling sound behind her, but the wind could play tricks on your hearing, especially on a night like tonight. A trashcan blew over and Brandy jumped, adrenalin pumping and fear rising in her veins. 

It could smell the adrenalin fueled fear course through her veins. That triggered it’s instinct to follow, chase and corner the prey. It’s rudimentary vocal chords still had trouble adjusting to the thinness of Earth’s nitrogen based atmosphere and at best it could growl, make some sounds, but the atmosphere messed up it’s speech pattern in strange ways. It took off after the prey, knowing little of the characteristics of the thing it chased. This was a game to the beast, and it loved to play the game.

The trees began to sound as though they were applauding a stage play, and Brandy was the star of this bad Broadway horror. Her walk gradually increased to a gentle but steady trot. The darkness seemed to thicken the further she got away from the club. To enhance her vision she quickly opened her eyes as wide as she could. 

Suddenly from behind her in the distance came an indistinct noise, this sounded like a huge animal clearing its throat. Did it actually say something? Swiftly whipping her head side-to-side, front to back in hopes that she would not see anything; yet anxiously she looked for what she thought she heard in the vastness behind her. At this point three of her five senses became more acute. For some reason everything that the darkness had to offer she heard; and saw movement from objects that were not even there. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up causing her to feel as though something was breathing right down her back. Then she heard some heavy animal like panting mixed with a subtle growling like breathing behind her. 

Stumbling but not falling, she dropped her cellular phone, but kept moving. By this time, she was running top speed, and unfortunately, the smacking of the soles of her shoes was not the only sound that she heard pounding the pavement. Someone or something was chasing her and closing very fast. About ten feet away, she saw a door and made her break for it. The only thing she could do was hope and pray that if she made it that far the door would be open. As she reached for the door she felt something swipe for her missing by inches.   She knew she escaped but she was not sure how she made it through that door. 

She did not remember how she opened the door and got into the building without getting a scratch on her from this animal. She did not waste anytime wondering how or why. She just thought to her self thank God the door was open and had a lock on it from the inside, but she wasn’t sure if there was another way into this garage or whatever it was that gave her temporary protection from this creature.  

This windowless garage had less light than the outside had to offer, but at least for now it separated her from what ever it was that made a strong effort to get a hold of her. Whatever it was, made continues attempts, as it banged against the door shaking it almost off the hinges. She franticly began to search her pockets and purse for her cell phone, then realized it lay somewhere on the pavement outside. She placed her head in her hands and started to cry. The beast, or whatever it was, startled her by crashing against the walls of the poorly constructed garage. The walls swayed with each ferocious attack as the building threatened to give way and expose her to the danger she had just escaped.

            She forced herself to get back in control. She was stronger than this. She was not a helpless little female and she searched for something to protect herself, just in case the creature managed to these protective walls in. She stumbled over everything inside the small garage as she searched. She didn’t care how much noise she made. 

She noticed there was a deafening silence on the other side of her safe haven that caused her to become extremely uncomfortable. The creature stopped its attack on the walls, leaving a very uncomfortable, eerie silence in the place of the very loud growling attacks.  She graced the surface of the wall, but had no idea that the creature was on her every move, by way of its excellent sense of smell; and it was not her perfume that caught its attention in the first place, but the blood that pumped through her veins fuelled with adrenaline and seasoned with fear.  

            She found a small hole in the wall and tried to look through it, but something blocked the hole. She found her eye facing the eye of the beast.   That something was the beast, which moved to take a swing at the wall just as she placed her eye at the same hole that it was sniffing the sent of her fear and blood. She fell back on her behind and moaned a little in agony knowing she was trapped. She was very thankful to be alive, but somewhat scared to death and confused about her next move. 

She felt her strength fade, but the fear of certain death kept her moving until she stumbled over a large trunk. Her eyes now accustomed to the darkness, she opened the trunk and dumped it contents, flinging them around the floor. The trunk was just large enough for her to hide inside but once she closed the top to the trunk, she found out that she was claustrophobic. Fighting between her newfound phobias and bypassing the chance for more protection, left her between a creature and a small space. The small space won and this newfound phobia quickly became a fraction of her fear of the beast. To calm her nerves and ease her fear she searched the shack to ensure that there was no easy way into her place of safety. Once she was satisfied, she reluctantly laid down into the floor chest, closed the lid. She lay down as much as she could closed her eyes and began to pray.  

The creature knew she did not leave the tiny building and attacked the walls again, with renewed zeal. The door finally gave way and it crashed into the tiny space. To its eyes, the girl exploded into masses of clothing tossed about the garage floor. It could smell her fear of it on every bit of clothing and debris in the small space. 

It was confused. Its prey did not leave, it could smell her fear everywhere, even on the bits of clothing on the floor, but also on the trunk in the center of the building. 

“RuuuHHH? Rwhere Rgow?” 

It thrashed around a bit more to be sure the prey was nowhere to be seen. To the beast, she was indeed gone, exploded by her intense fear. It grabbed a small bit of clothing in its teeth, crashed through another wall and left. Lack of familiarity with humans left the wrong impression, much to her advantage. 

The beast returned to its master, head low with the knowledge its prey escaped or died. It laid the bit of clothing at its master’s feet. 

“Roorry” it whined and laid on the ground. It was disappointed, but his master rubbed him between the horns. All was okay. He did his best and he would hunt another day. They still had much to learn. After all, this was the first night of his hunt, and it appeared the hunting would be good on this chunk of water and rock.

Reviews

[poddar kushal]

i like this and iam not satisfied in piecemeals .so i shall rather buy the book once it is published.