Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (dark books to read TXT) 📗

bits of soil and stray pebbles of gravel weren't unlike the mess of brush and branches turned this way and that. It was story written into nature, describing everything that happened there. Unfortunately, it was a language that she was completely illiterate in.

"Figure anything out yet?" David asked, still hanging back.

"If we had ahunter with us, we could probably track this thing pretty quick," she said, finding an opening in his defenses. "Oh, but wait.” She tilted her head and glanced her eyes widely to the sky. “That's right. We can't, because the only one of us that actually knows how to do that is at odds with you over Janice."

David didn't say a word, but she knew he got her point.

"No. I can't make anything out over here," she said. "Which way do you think it went after you left?"

"How the hell should I know?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Thought you were the expert, here."

"You know what?" she said loudly, folding her arms. "You're right. Let me just get out my damn werewolf handbook and we can CSI this back together." Sarah's annoyance was beginning to match his as the summer sun cooked away at their patience.

"You sure that's a good idea?" David's now distant voice sounded behind her as her steps brought her a little further. She only intended to step a little beyond the yellow tape still urging adventure seekers to turn back to the world from which they came. But with every step, she was compelled to venture further down the shaded trail. There was always something else just ahead. Another broken stick, old footprint, or patch of disturbed dirt, another potential clue that turned out to be nothing.

"Wait up." David's voice preceded the sound of his jog as he began to catch up. A distant noise trickled closer to them as they approached the familiar gathering place. The creek still looked the same as it did the other day. Even the beer cans and cigarette butts still littered the rocks.

"You check over that way." Sarah pointed toward the large tree that David had once sat against. "And I'll look around the creek." She began to stride toward the muddy slope that led down to a flowing gush of crystal-clear water.

"What exactly am I looking for?" he asked as he wandered aimlessly around a pile of giant rocks above a muddy path that rose high from the other side of creek.

She shrugged. "Anything that looks like it might have been-"

"Sarah. Hurry!” David said, waving her over. “Check this out."

She trekked carefully up the damp, slippery mud near the stream, noticing every disturbance in the soil as it shifted from order into chaos. Bare footprints led up from the creek, mashing the wet clay apart. Though they were only partial and their size was unclear, they were definitely human toes. Sarah followed them further as they became broader and more defined.

"No,” David said. “Up here!"

Sarah squatted in the mud, transfixed on the tracks. "No. I think you should come down here and see this." Her eyes slowly followed the muddy prints up the hill. "They turn into giant paws."

As she rose to her feet, she pulled her phone from her pocket and focused the camera on the ground to find the right angle. "Shit." Her annoyance blurted at the low battery icon just before the screen went black. "I charged this damn thing all night."

"Probably messed it up when you knocked it over," David mumbled from the top of the hill, still looking around his feet.

"Oh of course. It was my fault." She stood to press her fist against her hip and glared up at him. "Had nothing to you with you banging at my door this morning."

David looked away as he stepped carefully around, continuing his search. "It wasn't morning."

The forest seemed much darker than when they arrived and the midday heat subsided into a cool breeze. It picked up into an occasional gust that whistled between the tightly packed trees, now beginning to slightly sway back and forth. A slow, deep rumble finished with a sharp crackle above the canopy of the trees. The sound of leaves, now rustling together, rushed Sarah's ears from all sides.

"We better hurry before it rains," Sarah said, marching back down the slippery mud toward the other side of the creek. Her foot banged into something, sending her into a stumbling slide. She barely caught herself before coming to an arm balancing stop just beside the unsearched end of the stream.

Imprinted into the damp, reddish brown earth, large animal tracks became long streaks of claw that stretched from where they dug deeply into the earth. "They stop here?" she asked as she ran up to meet David where boot prints had smeared across the damp ground into an obvious scuffle that spread around about a fifteen-foot area of recently broken branches and ripped clothing.

"I told you it was here last night." he said, squatting to examine the ground.

"No.” Sarah lowered her eyes. “This was from Brad's jacket. Don't you remember?"

His eyes slowly rose to her face. "It might not be his, Sarah."

"Yeah. I mean, it's not like I would know Brad's jacket or anything." She rolled her eyes and turned her face away as the wind picked up, sweeping her blonde hair to blow into the wind.

Sarah wondered why David would try so hard to convince her of what he saw. Why is he pretending that he doesn't recognize Brad's jacket?

Another crackle of thunder cut through her thoughts and gave way to a pattering sound on the treetops above. "We better go," he said, marching back toward the trail as she stepped faster to catch up.

Before she realized, they were racing through pouring rain, back toward the red metal shelter that they drove in on, still parked at the approaching trailhead.

Just as they shut the doors, the floodgates opened to a torrent of rain. "Let's hurry before the road gets bad," David said as he started the engine. The previously dry crackle of gravel under