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“Hello,” I said again as I put it at my ear.
“Gordo.”
I sat up in the bed. I knew that voice, but it was—“Pappas?”
“It… it hurts.” He sounded as if he were speaking through a mouthful of fangs.
I was wide-awake. “Wh
at does? What are you talking about?”
“There’s… something. In me. And I can’t….” His words choked off on a growl. Then, “I didn’t think… it would be me. It’s fraying. All the little threads. They’ll break. I know they’ll break. I’ve seen it before.”
I climbed out of bed. I found jeans on the floor and pulled them on. “Where are you?”
He laughed. It sounded more wolf than man. “She knows. I’m sorry, but she knows. More. Than you. More. Than I could say. When did they get me? When did they…?”
“Pappas!” I barked into the phone. “Where the fuck are you?”
The phone beeped in my ear. The call had been disconnected.
“Motherfucker,” I muttered. I grabbed a shirt from the edge of my bed and pulled it over my head.
I was out the door only a moment later.
SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES were at the Shady Oak Inn, the little motel at the edge of town. A cruiser was parked in front, lights spinning. I recognized one of the deputies. Something… Jones. He’d brought his bike into the garage with a faulty clutch. I’d knocked a few bucks off the bill, given it was easier to kiss a cop’s ass then beg for leniency later.
He and another deputy I didn’t know were standing with Will, the old guy who owned the motel, who was waving his hands around like he was doing an impression of some kind of Lovecraftian nightmare. I pulled up beside them, rolling down my window.
“—and then it growled at me,” Will was saying, sounding slightly hysterical. “I didn’t see it, but I heard it. It was big, okay? It sounded big.”
“Big, huh?” Jones asked. He wasn’t believing a goddamn word Will was saying. I didn’t blame him. Not really. Will was drunk more than he was sober. It was well-known. Price of living in a small town. Everyone knew everyone else’s business.
Most of the time.
“All right?” I asked, going for nonchalance and landing near it.
Jones turned to look at me. “Gordo? What’re you doing out this late?”
I shrugged. “Paperwork. Never ends when you own a business. Ain’t that right, Will?”
He nodded frantically. “Oh yeah. Just mountains of it. I was doing the same thing when I heard it.”
He was more than likely deep in a bottle of Wild Turkey. “Heard it?”
Jones looked like he was barely restraining an eye roll. “Will here says there was some kind of animal in one of his rooms.”
“Tore it to shreds!” Will cried. “Table overturned! Bed ruined. Gotta be a mountain lion or something. Big fucker too. I heard it, Gordo. I did. And I went to check it out, okay? Because goddamn if I was going to let another squatter come in and wreck my motel. I had a flashlight and everything. And I heard it.”
I bet he did. “Heard what?”
His eyes were bulging, his face red. “This… this growl. It sounded like something big, okay? I swear.”
“Probably just a couple of kids looking to get their rocks off,” Jones said. “Will, you had anything to drink tonight?”
“No.” Then, “Well, maybe just a couple of fingers. You know how it is.”
“Uh-huh.”
