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The jolt of something ramming into the side of the Jeep slammed my head against the door and sent me careening off the road. I slammed on the brakes, managing to bring the vehicle to a stop before I crashed into a tree. I’d hit my head hard enough to bleed, and my vision was spinning as I reached into the backseat, fumbling under the blanket until my fingers touched the cold, smooth barrel of my SPAS-12 shotgun.
Something told me the 9mm pistol wasn’t going to cut it for this.
I jumped out of the Jeep, leaving the headlights on so I’d have a little visibility in the dark. The radio was still playing, the slow sad strum of the blues sounding eerie in the darkness under the trees. I searched the shadows, resisting the urge to wipe at the blood slowly dripping down my face. There were too many noises in those trees. Everything creaked and groaned, the cicadas' song forming a chorus with the crickets and the hoot of an owl.
Maybe what had hit me had only been a deer. I’d been driving fast and not paying attention. Maybe…
The forest went utterly silent. Only the creaking of the trees remained. The wind shifted, and with it came the smell of death, pungent and sour on the cold air.
I readied the gun, as a hulking, misshapen form lurched toward me in the dark.
The Eld looked different everywhere I went. In Abelaum, they resembled bizarre mutated wolves. In New York, they were like massive bloated rats. Here...here they looked like goddamn crocodiles.
The creature stepped into the beams of my headlights, its large maw gaping open, lined with rotten teeth. The smell of it was overpowering, like meat left out in the sun in the heat of summer. Its body was long, covered in thick scales but hunched, as if it wanted to walk upright. Its front legs were too long — bare bones and scaly, moldy flesh. Its back legs were thick, muscular; the thing could probably jump faster than I could shoot.
I had to shoot first.
The shot went off, ringing in my ears, and the beast jumped at me just as I anticipated. It gave a deep, guttural snarl as it skidded past me, only barely missing me as I threw myself back. I fired again, the slug striking the monster in the shoulder. I’d waste all my ammo sinking bullets into the beast’s body; I needed to hit the head.
I ran, trying to get some distance between us. I thought I was running for the road, but I’d gotten turned around and found myself running deeper into the trees. The Eldbeast was right on my heels.
I brought my weapon up as I turned, but I didn’t have enough time to aim. I pulled the trigger, and the beast jolted as the bullet hit home, tearing a huge hole in its side and sending gore splattering. It slammed into me and pinned me to the ground as it roared, its jaws snapping inches from my face.
I had to use the gun to hold it back, pressing it against the monster’s throat as I tried to get my legs up to kick. I’d underestimated it; these Eld were bigger than the ones I’d encountered before. Its noxious breath wafted around my face, putrid gray saliva dripping from its long, black tongue. My arms were beginning to shake. I couldn’t keep this up. I just — I just had to —
I managed to get my leg up, and kicked my boot as hard as I could against its wounded side. It stumbled away, giving a high-pitched shriek so loud it pierced straight into my eardrums. I scrambled up, but the beast was already lunging for me again.
I fired.
4
The blast splintered the beast’s head apart. It went down and curled like a bug, twitching violently before it was still. I exhaled heavily, catching my breath as I watched its body dissolve in mud and worms. They all died the same, these beasts; everything but their skulls rotted away within seconds.
Facing them used to fill me with cold panic. It used to make my heart beat so hard it hurt. But I’d been fighting the Eld for years. I’d once thought they were unique to Abelaum, but no, the Eld were everywhere.
They were drawn to me like flies to honey, but they didn’t scare me anymore. There were worse monsters out there, far worse. Monsters like —
“You can hold your own. How cute.”
I whirled around, gun at the ready. I didn’t know what to expect, but I certainly hadn’t been expectinghim. That hot murderer from the bar. His clothes were even more blood-stained than before, and there was a dirty smirk on his face as he stepped out of the shadows — the “I’ll eat you alive and laugh while I do” type of dirty.
I frowned. “Of course I can. I had myself handled back at the bar too, if you hadn’t interrupted.”
He held up his hands innocently. Even his palms were tattooed, with elaborate pentagrams and strange runes. “I didn’t doubt you. I just wanted a little trouble for myself.”
I snorted, but I didn’t put the gun away. I knew better than that. “Well, you got it, didn’t you? You seem awfully calm for a man who just murdered someone. You do that often?”
He shrugged. “Not often enough to lose that fun, tingling feeling inside. You don’t look like you’re any stranger to killing either.”
I looked down at the mess of fragmented bone, mud, and worms that remained of the Eldbeast. The Eld weren’t common knowledge. The only people who knew they were real were those unfortunate enough to have encountered them. And if you encountered them, you rarely lived to talk about it.
I glanced back at him skeptically. “Are you familiar with these things?”
“I’ve seen them around,” he said. “You know, if you take one of those skulls in to be examined, they’ll tell you it’s just a regular old crocodile?”
I nodded. In desperation, I’d collected the skull of an Eld I’d once killed, and taken it to a local veterinarian to be examined. If I could prove the monsters existed, then maybe people would start believing me about everything else too. But I had no such luck. The vet told me it was nothing more than a highly decomposed wolf skull.
“You look like you could use a smoke.” He held out a slim, hand-rolled joint, but he was smart not to take a step toward me. I really needed the high. My alcohol buzz had worn off, and my mind was racing. This guy was a weirdo, and I didn’t understand how the hell he’d ended up out here in the woods. But he’d technically saved me back there at the bar, even if I’d never admit it. I didn’t see any weapons on him, at least not at a glance, and just one shot from my SPAS would rip him apart. I guess there was no harm in sharing a smoke with him.
