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Post by Eve Vardell on Aug 21, 2010 10:16:26 GMT -5
(That's fine, Sam. ) Eve was glad that someone suggested they start moving. She faltered, however, when they started moving toward the center of town. Werewolves would never be at the center of town. They liked to lurk near the edge, where they could pick off the weak, lonely members of the flock... She shivered, glancing over her shoulder for a sign of yellow eyes. In human form, she would easily be seen as the weak link in this "flock." An errant thought drifted through her mind - if only I could stay in control when I was the wolf. I'd be able to sniff out our enemy in a heartbeat... - and she grimaced, shaking it from her mind immediately. A few times, over the years, she had caught her thoughts heading in that dangerous direction. When she was hungry or cold, or had a long way to go down a dark road and didn't feel like dealing with the potential ick factor of hitchhiking, she would wonder, just for a second, if she should be looking for a way to control herself during her transformation, not to stop it happening, altogether. She would be able to run farther and faster than any human, she would have better senses, and would be a lot more useful in a fight... But that kind of thinking was tantamount to giving up. She didn't want to control how much of a freak she was. She wanted to be normal again. Suddenly, as if to mock her very hopes for normalcy, she heard a sudden noise in the distance. She glanced about, but none of the other seemed to have noticed it. It was an angry rumbling, faint but obvious. Was she the only one who could hear it? Was it because of her... 'condition'? Finally, Detective Stinton seemed to notice as well. He slowed down, and he glanced around, muttering "thunder." She flashed him an incredulous glance. "What do you mean, thunder?" Again distant, but obvious - a long and angry whinny amongst the pounding. "That's definitely horses, and its coming from back the way we came. Come on." Without waiting for the others to respond, she was off and running in the direction of the sound. What horses had to do with werewolves, she couldn't guess. But it had to mean something...
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Post by Kasen Rowe on Aug 21, 2010 14:45:57 GMT -5
Kasen had to admit he was a little surprised. One minute Dean and Stinson were trying to convince him and Sarah to leave, now they were having an exchange of knowledge? The 'detectives' probably realized that they weren't going to leave on their say so. So, what? Now they were going to team up?
Kasen glanced sidelong at Dean as they all began to head away.
No, they weren't a team. A team implied equals and considering what the 'detectives' had said, he and Sarah were more like baggage than equals. Baggage that might have information. Certainly Dean wasn't going to think of him as anything more than baggage, Kasen thought as he rubbed the place Dean had struck him. Normally a bruise would be well on its way to forming, but since it was so incredibly cold out, he might be spared the reminder of his own shameful actions...
He couldn't think about that now. He was on a case, an imminently dangerous one if Stinson and Dean were to be believed. He needed to concentrate on that and its connection to the cult. He'd deal with anything else later.
'Isn't that what you did last time?' he thought to himself grimly.
He shook his head. First things first.
"-Thunder."
Kasen tipped his head to the side, trying to hear what Stinson heard. And Sarah.
"What do you mean thunder?" she asked.
Now he heard it. The low rumbling.
"It's definitely horses and it's coming from back the way we came.
It was? Kasen strained his hearing as she spoke. He didn't know about horses, but there was something different about the sound. Sarah had shouted for them all to follow and without waiting for a response, she was off.
Kasen hesitated only a moment. Only long enough to register a feeling deep within his gut. Something that had been building since he'd first heard the sound for himself.
Dread.
Without looking to the other two, Kasen burst into motion, following the girl and the sound it seemed she could hear the best.
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Post by Eve Vardell on Aug 21, 2010 15:57:15 GMT -5
This close to the edge of town, there weren't streetlamps. Only the moonlight glistening across the snow allowed Eve to find her way. She knew the rest were following, she could hear their footsteps crunching behind. And she heard the footsteps up ahead. Hoofbeats. An angry whinny. And... there it was. A howl.
A wolf's howl.
She could picture what was happening perfectly. This was a small town, right beside farmland. She still remembered the night when she'd killed the horses... well... she remembered the morning after. The blood on her hands, her lips, and Molly Rourke standing above her, aiming a gun...
She had to keep someone else from waking up to that. She didn't stop to think about what she would do when she found the wolf, what kind of danger she would be in. She just knew that she couldn't let this chance slip by. After all this time, if this really was someone like her... she had to find them, whoever they were.
She broke past the last line of buildings - a neon-lit motel and a bar - and into the forest that encircled it like a silent army. Not so silent tonight... except...
Her steps slowed, and past her own gasps for air, she listened. It had been so clear only moments before, but now the forest was quiet. The horses were gone, and so was the howling wolf. Was she too late? Had it killed its prey?
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Post by Sam Winchester on Aug 24, 2010 16:52:19 GMT -5
His brows went up as the girl spoke, so matter-of-factly, about it being horses she'd heard, and not thunder. That followed their theory, but Sam couldn't make out anything but a distant rumbling.
"Are you sure?" He started to ask, but before he'd gotten halfway through the question, she was already running, back toward what she said was the source of the sound. He shot Dean a glance, shrugged, and took off after her. She was fast, determined. A woman on a mission. Sam's legs were longer and he could have caught up with her, but he chose to hang back a few steps and let her lead.
She led them past the motel and into the trees, and Sam thought he could finally hear what she did. A distant whinny. And then, without warning, she slowed and started peering around curiously. Sam slowed to a stop behind her.
"What's going on?" He kept his voice hushed in case whatever she's zeroed in on was nearby, but as best he tried, Sam couldn't see anything through the shadowed trees. He couldn't hear anything, either. Even the distant horse had gone silent. "Did you find something?"
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Post by Dean Winchester on Aug 28, 2010 19:28:23 GMT -5
Dean followed hot on the heels of the other three. He'd heard the noise, but hadn't been able to identify it as thunder or horses or anything else. But the girl had heard something. There was something weird was going on and they needed to have all their bases covered so after seeing Sam take up a position behind the girl, Dean fell to the back of the group to cover the rear. He felt all his senses go on high alert as he searched the area. The foursome came to a halt in the trees outside the town's main buildings. Dean wished he had his shotgun. This seemed the perfect place for an ambush.
Everything was deadly quiet. He shivered, annoyed that snow had worked its way into his boots. There was no way they'd be catching anyone, let alone a horse, if they had to chase them through the snow drifts.
The trees were pretty dense here and despite the bright light of the full moon, he couldn't see all that far, but the girl was still looking around. He hoped they hadn't run all this way for nothing. Dean waited eagerly for the girl to answer Sam, but kept his eyes roaming around.
He squinted as he noted an indent in the snow off to their right. Curious, he took a few cautious steps through the snow to it and crouched down for a better look. It was a boot print. He realized, and it was fresh.
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Post by Kasen Rowe on Aug 31, 2010 11:25:23 GMT -5
Kasen came to a stop behind the taller man. His eyes darted around and he strained to hear, but all had gone eerily silent. He swallowed hard, gripping his journal more tightly, realizing it was his only weapon.
No, not his only weapon. He did have his pocket knife in his jeans. ...Like that was much better. A tiny knife or a hard covered journal...
He looked to Sarah, wondering if she could still hear or see something the rest of them could not. He was about to ask, when Stinson beat him to it. He strained so hard to hear her answer or to catch hint of some other telling sound that when he did hear something -the sound of footsteps in the snow- he started and spun around preparing for some mystery person to reveal himself. He was disappointed to see only Dean crouching beside some impression in the snow. He wanted to ask what he was doing, but the imposing silence had returned and he somehow felt he should not be the one to break it.
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Post by Eve Vardell on Sept 1, 2010 11:55:31 GMT -5
She spun around in frustration, peering through the trees in search of... anything. A sign, a hint that she hadn't just lost her mind and imagined everything.
"I don't..." No blood anywhere in the white snow. Normally that would be a good thing. It still kind of worried her that she could fathom a situation where she'd be hoping to find blood, but at least that would show her that she was on the right trail.
But the forest before her seemed to be completely empty.
"Maybe I was-" She cut off sharply, swiveling to the right and peering into the trees. There was... something. Not the neighing of a horse, not a wolf's howl. This sounded more like...
"Is that a horn?" She could almost mistake it for the wind moaning. Low and mournful, coming from somewhere in the trees that was too far to see from this distance. A single note, somehow conveying danger and freedom, it tugged on something deep within her, that made her want to search it out, find it. Inside her, the wolf shifted restlessly.
Eve shook her head, realizing that she'd taken several unconscious steps toward the source of the sound. Something about it seemed to be pulling at the wolf within her, like some supernatural dog whistle. Clearing her throat, she turned back toward the rest of the group, hoping that they heard the sound as well.
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Post by Dean Winchester on Sept 2, 2010 20:42:17 GMT -5
The footprint hadn't crusted over or melted. That meant it hadn't been around through the day nor had it been around long enough for the on again off again wind to blow the dusty snow into it. He stood again and spotted several more prints. Following them just a few steps, he came to a spot where the owner of the prints had begun to pace. The tracks intersected and mingled until the became impossible to tell just how many times the guy -for the prints seemed too large for your average woman- had walked his track.
It could be nothing. It could be that these were just the tracks of some towns-person who'd gone for a walk. Maybe it was just a coincidence that they'd come out here, to the spot where they'd lost the strange thunder sound in the dead of winter. Either way, that person might still be out here. Perhaps they saw something or heard something.
Wanting to follow further Dean began to move off when Rowe's girl said something odd. Something about... a horn.
The Winchester went suddenly rigid when he realized that he heard it too. It was distant but still recognizable. A horn. One that might be used to summon a hunt. His eyes darted back to his brother.
"He's broken pattern," he said, striding back to the group. He looked around trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from even as he reached into his jacket and slid his handgun free. "Well, sounds like you were right. Erl's on the move."
He looked back to Sam. They'd never figured out how to stop the sunnovabitch. If it was coming for them, they were pretty screwed...
Though he absolutely hated running away, "We might have to fall back here, guys."
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Post by Kasen Rowe on Sept 7, 2010 23:42:26 GMT -5
Kasen heard it too. A horn. Not like the brass horns he was used to, but a deep, flat, moaning howl that reverberated through the trees. It was still far off, but it had quite an effect. He expected the concern he'd been feeling to intensify, but was surprised to find he was actually excited.
He's broken pattern, Dean had said. So this sound was connected to their search. And Dean and Stinson's search was Kasen's search. Easily Kasen could imagine this deep strong sound being a summons. The cult was here. It had to be!
He scowled when Dean suggested leaving.
"Why? It's a horn. That means there's somebody out there. We should investigate," he countered. Kasen too began to move off then, following the way Sarah had started when the sound of thunder began again. The kind of low rumbling you could feel in your bones before you could swear to actually hearing it, but it was getting louder and Kasen had the strange feeling that whatever they'd chased out into the woods was now coming back for another pass.
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Post by Eve Vardell on Sept 17, 2010 18:37:55 GMT -5
She exhaled a quiet sigh of relief when she heard the others comment on the horn. There was something about it... something that made her wonder if it wasn't ringing through the air at all, but just resonating inside of her. It called to the wolf, and so it frightened her.
"I think he's right," she murmured, voice soft and unsure. "We should get out of here, Kasen..." But then she heard it again - the hoofbeats. She'd been wrong; this wasn't just one horse. This was dozens.
"Hide!"
Her eyes darted about, even as she shouted warning, and spotted a patch of bushes not too far off, nestled in the shade of a giant oak. She darted toward it. Though she couldn't explain why, she could not allow whoever had sounded that horn to see her. The wolf was snarling inside of her; it seemed more awake than she'd ever felt it before while in human form.
She dove forward, scrambling under the branches, soaking her sweater in snow in the process. If whoever was coming looked too carefully, they would see her footprints disappearing into the bushes, but judging by the speed of the hoofbeats, she doubted they would see much of anything before they went past. ...That is, as long as the others had the good sense to hide as well. She twisted about in the snow, trying to see whether Kasen and the two "officers" had gotten out of sight.
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Post by Kasen Rowe on Sept 23, 2010 19:49:08 GMT -5
Kasen's eyes widened as he recognized the sound that was quickly bearing down on them. Sarah was right. He hadn't been able to discern it before, but he could now. Hoofbeats. Lots of hoofbeats. Through the soles of his boots Kasen could feel the ground tremble as the thunderous creatures approached. For a moment he was frozen. Then he saw Sarah dive for cover and it finally occurred to him to do the same. He dove behind the nearest tree, sliding down to the cold frozen ground and pressing his back against the bark to wait...
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Post by Sam Winchester on Sept 24, 2010 21:44:23 GMT -5
The two reporters didn't waste any time hiding. Well, at least they seemed to have some sense of self preservation. Dean spared a glance to Dean as he heard the hoofbeats pounding closer. They had to get under cover too, and fast.
"Keep your eyes closed," he snapped out tersely, wondering even as he spoke if it would do any good. This wasn't good. They didn't know enough. They didn't know which legends were real, which were fake. Would looking at the Hunt really be enough to trap them forever? ...Or were they already condemned from the second they heard the hoofbeats?
Well, either way, Sam wasn't going to go down easily. He tightened his grip on the gun at his waist, and then did the only sensible thing - he ducked for cover, squeezed his eyes shut, and waited.
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Post by Dean Winchester on Sept 24, 2010 22:14:23 GMT -5
Hiding. Great thing to do in the white snow from a 'hunt'. But what choice did they have, really?
Before following Sam, Dean waited another long moment. He sucked in a long cold breath of winter air and was surprised at the feeling in his chest. He was excited. He knew he shouldn't be. He knew he should be afraid and on edge and thinking desperately of a way to get his brother, himself, and the two civilians out of this in one piece, but he wasn't. For one whole long second Dean just stood still and absorbed the adrenaline rush, staring out into the dark treeline where he thought the sound was coming from. Then he adjusted the grip on his gun and began to make for cover when the Hunt arrived.
Dean couldn't describe exactly what burst through the trees before him. He also couldn't explain why he hadn't realized just how close it was, but suddenly... boom. Dean stood frozen as a macabre of humanoid and animal-like shadow figures charged towards him. They screamed and cried with pain, terror, fury, and excitement, and though Dean tried to close his eyes or make for the nearest piece of cover, he could do neither. Against his will his eyes were force-ably drawn away from the ominous figures streaming past him to a large dark shadow. It rode on what was probably a horse, but for some reason Dean couldn't really comprehend that or anything but the blazing eyes of the shadow that perched high above him.
Dean swallowed hard as the creature moved closer, strangely silent compared to its entourage, and reached out a single beckoning hand...
And then he was gone.
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Post by Sam Winchester on Sept 24, 2010 22:28:25 GMT -5
Sam gritted his teeth and kept his eyes squeezed shut as he heard the Hunt thunder past. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do. Sam was a fighter - maybe not on the level Dean was, but he wasn't used to being helpless either. To close his eyes and hide as a supernatural army pounded through the forest around him...
But that was the only way to survive. He could only hope that the two civilians had heard his warning, or had been scared enough to cover their eyes on their own. He wouldn't care to guess what might happen to those unlucky enough to be captured.
Finally, after what felt like a couple seconds past eternity, the thundering earth quieted. The Hunt had passed on by. Sam kept his eyes closed, counting silently to ten before finally squinting them open.
There were no hoofprints in the snow. Any question they'd had about whether this was a supernatural threat... well it went and vanished right there. He sighed as he pushed himself out of his hiding spot, stepping back out into the clearing.
"Well, that could've gone better. But at least now we're sure what we're looking for." He paused, and frowned at the uncharacteristic silence from Dean. Normally he'd be shooting out into the open as fast as possible, looking for clues and trying to cover up the fact that he was hiding.
"Dean?" He paused again, and then spun in a quick circle, eyes scouring the shadows and the white snow. No way... no way, he wasn't that stupid... "Dean, come on... you have to still be here. Dean!"
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Post by Kasen Rowe on Sept 24, 2010 22:49:06 GMT -5
It was right before the hoofbeats became a deafening thunder that Kasen heard Stinson shout out a warning to keep their eyes closed.
Keep them closed? How could he possibly do that? He needed to know what was coming. He needed to see the truth... But then he remembered Dean and their last encounter. Despite Kasen's obsession with a supernaturally driven cult, it still wasn't ingrained in him to think 'supernaturally'. But Dean had been a natural. And if Stinson was with Dean, then he probably knew what he was talking about. So Kasen did what every fiber of him said would get him caught or killed or otherwise harmed. He closed his eyes.
When finally everything became silent, Kasen still stayed down. He only dared move when he heard Stinson do so. He came out from around the tree and was surprised to see the snow unmarred by whatever had past them by.
"Dean?"
Kasen noted Stinson looking about wildly.
"-you have to still be here. Dean!"
"He couldn't have gone far..." But Kasen knew Dean couldn't have just run off if Stinson was so worried. Immediately Kasen found himself looking for Sarah, feeling suddenly protective of the girl.
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Post by Eve Vardell on Sept 25, 2010 12:48:05 GMT -5
Eve saw Kasen duck for cover and the other two start to move as well. Just in time, too. The pounding was all around them, now. It really was like thunder... except that Eve had never been afraid of storms. She scrunched herself into the smallest ball possible, wishing she'd kept on the baby blue sweater. It would've blended into the snow much better than this dark green one. But that was a stray thought, fluttering through her consciousness almost too fast too take note of. The rest of her mind was in panic-overload. She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling fearful tears slip past her lids and chill her cheeks, as the hoofbeats pounded around her.
Three years on the run, on her own, and she'd never felt anything like this. Despite being fully conscious, the wolf was snarling to come out. She felt her mouth forming into a growl before she could catch herself, and pressed her lips shut. Her eyes stayed determinedly closed as well. She was afraid what might happen if the wolf got a glimpse of whatever rode past with those horses. She heard a howl again - kinsman... no! - and her muscles tensed as if to spring into motion after it. It took all of Eve's effort to stay still; not to dart out of the bushes and join the procession, but she managed it... barely.
And finally the hoofbeats faded away.
She stayed still for nearly a minute after the last creature passed, slowly untensing and blinking her eyes open. She reached up to wipe her terrified tears from her frozen cheeks. It wasn't until she heard Stinson's panicked shouts that she forced herself to actually push herself out of the bush.
People had gone missing? She caught sight of Stinson, spinning and looking about frantically, and Kasen standing a short way off. But the other man, Dean, the one that Stinson was calling to, wasn't anywhere in sight. She dragged herself to her feet, crossing her arms over her soaked and frigid chest.
"What was that?" She murmured softly, casting an instinctive glance up at the full moon overhead. It beamed back at her gleefully. Scowling, turning her attention back to Stinson, she snapped, "Do you know what that was? Because it sure wasn't-" she cut herself off before the word "werewolves" slipped off her tongue. She cast a glance at Kasen, who she knew had been expecting some connection to that cult of his. Finally, she bit out, lamely, "normal."
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Post by Kasen Rowe on Sept 25, 2010 17:07:43 GMT -5
Kasen gave a little internal sigh of relief when Sarah appeared. She seemed frazzled but unharmed. At her question, he scoffed.
"Normal is putting it lightly. I mean look!" He stabbed a finger accusingly towards the snow. "We all heard it hooves and horns and... I don't even know what else- and it came right by, right by, and there's not a print to show for it. Nothing!"
Again he had to wonder what the cult had to do with phantom horns and hooves. That really didn't seem like their style... Not that he was clear on their style exactly.
Kasen stared at the snow, looking off in the direction he thought the sound had gone, but still couldn't see any sign that life had past that way. In fact, there wasn't any sign that any life had past that way at all since the last snow fall. Kasen frowned.
"Dean didn't go off after whatever that was, did he," he replied with a quiet recognition.
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Post by Sam Winchester on Sept 30, 2010 12:56:51 GMT -5
There was no doubt; Dean was gone. Despite Sam's warnings, he must have kept his eyes open, must have looked at the Hunt.
And now there was no telling where they'd taken him.
His instinct was to race after them, but race where? There were no tracks to follow, and the sound of the hoofbeats was gone. They were a supernatural Hunt, chances were they could disappear or change like ghosts.
With a force of effort, he shoved his gun back into his waistband and turned to face the civilians. His expression was hard, his voice sharp and even. Dean had disappeared, and that left him in charge of these two. He had to focus, couldn't show how much he was panicking inside.
"You guys are still here; that's good. But now that you've seen what we're facing, you should probably hear the truth about what's going on. My name is Sam Winchester. My brother, Dean, and I, are Hunters. We track down supernatural monsters and try our best to put a stop to them. What we're facing here is called the Wild Hunt. A group of spirits and monsters that roam through the countryside, and anyone who dares to gaze at them is snatched up, taken captive, and..." He trailed off. And what, he didn't know for sure. Was Dean a prisoner? Had he been recruited somehow into the Hunt? Or had they just... no. If they'd wanted to kill him they would've left his body, wouldn't they?
He swallowed hard, breaking eye contact with the civilians and trying not to picture Dean's body off in the forest somewhere, carried along by the Hunt until he died and was dropped off, abandoned in the snow. It wasn't so long ago that Sam had stood over Dean in that hospital room, watching him flatline, even less time since he'd stood before his father's burning corpse. Dean was not dead. He wouldn't allow it.
Clearing his throat, he turned back to the pair and added evenly.
"Now, Dean has been taken by the Hunt, and I'm going to find him. You two would probably be safer if you got back in your car and left town."
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Post by Dean Winchester on Oct 3, 2010 19:36:33 GMT -5
Dean couldn't really consider himself conscious. He wasn't awake enough to realize that he wasn't really awake. He floated in a half dream like state through a darkness that wasn't just that of night. He considered briefly how nice the cradling darkness was. He felt a comforting lack of the emotions that had lately been tearing him apart from the inside; sadness, guilt, anger, all of them were subdued in this world of sleepless sleep.
"Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?"
What?
The sound of a voice, though he couldn't understand what it had said, where it had said it, or what type of person had spoken, sparked a curiosity that had Dean struggling just a little for consciousness.
Who's there? Dean asked without voice. He couldn't speak, though for the moment he wasn't overly concerned.
"Du den Erlkönig nicht?"
Look, I don't speak... whatever that is.
Slowly Dean became aware of wisps in the dark, swirling like mist or smoke in the wind. From some he heard unsuppressed sobs, from others he heard screams, and from still others he heard whoops of blood thirsty rage. All of them chilled him to the bone and very suddenly the darkness lost its comfort.
Unfortunately just wanting to wake up wasn't enough...
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Post by Molly Rourke on Oct 8, 2010 13:04:04 GMT -5
She had been awake for a long time, now. Staring up at the sky, the unnaturally dark sky, and seeing nothing but shadows and hints of moonlight.
She couldn't remember having fallen asleep. She'd been driving, chasing the trail of that wolf, and then... what? A car accident? No, it had been more like a storm. There had been thunder pounding all around her, thunder and chaos and... and then Him. She flinched, squeezing her eyes shut, and His face glowed there behind her eyelids, like a monster living inside her own mind. She would never forget that face.
Taking a deep breath, she forced her eyes open and shoved herself to her feet, or tried to, anyway. She wasn't tied down, but she felt heavy. As if the darkness in the air itself was weighing her down, keeping her prisoner. She managed to raise wobbily to a sitting position and that was it.
First thing, check for injuries. Arms, legs, head, chest. Everything seemed intact.
Second thing: weapons. Knife on the waist, in the boot. Her shotgun wasn't there, obviously, because her shotgun had been in her back seat, and wherever she was, she clearly wasn't in her car anymore. But whoever had captured her hadn't bothered to take her weapons. That either meant they weren't very bright... or they didn't consider knives a threat. She imagined His face again, and shivered. Molly wasn't prone to shivering, even on a cold Dakota night, but when she pictured his face... well, she didn't doubt that that creature had looked at her puny shards of metal and laughed.
Third: Check your surroundings. There was Darkness all around her (Darkness with a capital D. It felt different than the usual darkness. It felt sentient, alive) but she could still make out bits and pieces. She could hear voices in the distance, snarling some kind of gibberish, but she could also see people, just a few, lying unconscious on the ground like she had been. The closest was a man in maybe his late 20's with short, dark hair. Shifting slowly toward him, she reached out a hand and shook his shoulder.
"Hey, wake up." She needed information. She'd come for a wolf, but she'd clearly gotten mixed up in something much bigger.
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