The Dead Dear

Even going to the woods was no good, Nina heard someone calling her, but there was no one there. She's been going to the same place in the woods every night for more than a week. But every time was there, she had no new clues. Nina only heard these voices calling for her, but it always disappeared once she was there. She was wasting her time, wasting her breath on something that would never happen. These few days have been very strange ever since she was with Léon in the woods, there was just this strange feeling when she was there.

It was early in the morning and Nina was in the principal office together with Léon as Principal Gaugin was complaining to both of them. They both sat on the chair opposite Principal Gaugin while she sitting on a big wooden chair with puffy red leather on the seat and back. A big dark wooden desk, filled with books and pens. "Are the two of you even studying?" Principal Gaugin asked frustrated.

"Kind of," Nina answered. Not to mention that they went into the woods for absolutely no reason and wasted a lot of valuable time in there. And instead of studying, Nina just went into the woods herself to look for some answers without someone being near her.

"In fact, your grates are even dropping." She said and she raised her eyebrow at her before she turned to Léon and shouted at him, "Mister Montand, I gave you a job to do, don't go back on your word!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. We are doing our best!" Léon said.

"I hope so, otherwise I would give the job to someone else." She glared at the both of them, not believing a word of what they were saying or if they were even trying.

"Yes ma'am," Léon answered once again.

They weren't trying; Nina told him that she wanted to see if she could remember anything on her own and he let her because he wanted Nina to get her memories back. And that was what Nina had been doing in the woods all those times. But the first time she saw something; she ran away once she found out that Léon was the little boy from ten years ago and then she was avoiding him for a week because he wanted to help her find her past. And well, the last time they went in the woods. So, it was safe to say they haven't even studied once and it's been a month since Nina got to school there and started studying with Léon. She dismissed them with an angry look in her eyes while they both went to their class.

It was already evening, school had ended and every girl in the orphanage had already gone to bed. Nina was sleeping in her bed when she suddenly opened her eyes. There was a light coming inside her room in between the curtains. Nina got out of bed and walked to the window; her ripped curtains were slowly wafting around with the wind that was coming inside. When she opened the curtains, her pupils changed in shape. The round shape changed into a long sharp diamond. The full moon was shining bright in the sky while a cloud passed by. Nina's head felt dizzy when her hands grabbed the frame of the window and her long nails dug into the wood and threw them open. The window flew open so fast and hard that they bumped into the closet and the bottom of the window broke as the glass pieces fell on the floor. Nina stepped into one of the glass pieces and didn't feel any pain and put one of her feet on the edge of the window. The other foot had a glass piece inside where a little blood was escaping from. Nina slowly put both feet on the edge, pushing the glass deeper into her skin. A breeze went through her hair and Nina jumped down from the window. Feeling her two bare feet on the ground, leaving a bloody trail from her window to the bushes that were standing underneath the window to the grass where Nina was standing. She looked at the moon, only wearing a thin cream-colored nightgown. Short sleeves and four buttons at the front with the first button open.

The moon reflected in her bloodthirsty eyes, hungry for more. She ran into the woods while

her nightgown was ripping open. Her feet became bigger, her hands were touching the ground, ripping the grass out. The skin of her lower back ripped open as a tail slowly appeared. Her ears were growing pointier, white hair was growing from her ears to her face. Before Nina even reached the threes, her whole body was covered in snow-white fur. The moon lit up the fur like diamonds were stuck in between them. Sharp, long hairs that were longer than the other hairs. Her big paws left marks behind at the beginning of the woods. The glass piece fell on the ground when she completely vanished in the woods. Nina was completely mesmerized by the full moon while running so fast that it almost looked like a white light that was flashing by. A white light with two red shining eyes. An angel or a demon, you may have seen appear. But no angel killed and destroyed whatever landed on its path.

The next morning has arrived. The phones in the police station kept on making noise over and over and over again for the same thing. People said that they heard strange things last night. One young officer in his thirties laid the phone down. He had a brown beard from one week old and went with his hand over his chin before he stood up from his desk and walked towards the office of the Chief. A brown door with a glass window, the words Chief Alain Delon in black were letters written down on the glass. He opened the door and walked inside. Chief Delon was sitting at his desk, doing some paperwork when he looked up at Officer Gabin. "Chief, I got a call from someone in the village."

"What is it?" Chief Delon glanced up from the tower of papers that were lying before him.

"There is a dead deer on Mr. Moreau's property." Officer Gabin said.

Chief Delon stood up from his desk and panicked, "What did he do? I know his house is in front of the woods."

"I don't know, he said that he didn't shoot it."

"That's strange." Chief Delon opened his drawer to take out a gun and put it in his holder. They both left the building and drove to Mr. Moreau's house. It was a short drive and not that far from the station and only a few minutes they arrived. Mr. Moreau owned a small charming house with old brown bricks and lanterns next to the front door. Wooden panels next to every window. The windows were small with a diamond pattern. Mr. Moreau was already waiting for them outside when he started calling for them from his garden.

"Over here," Mr. Moreau yelled. Chief Delon and Officer Gabin both looked at the gate from his garden which was slightly open. As they walked inside the garden, they saw Mr. Moreau waving at them from the back of his garden.

"Chief Delon, Officer Gabin, I'm so glad you could come." Mr. Moreau walked closer to them and gave them a friendly handshake. Mr. Moreau saw Officer Gabin grow up and Chief Delon was a dear friend of his.

"What happened?" Chief Delon asked.

"I was sleeping in my bed and then all of a sudden I heard a noise; it sounded like some animal. My wife was terrified and asked me to take a look. I'd never heard noises like that before, it sounded like a fight and it was so close to our house. I took my gun just in case but when I took a look, I couldn't believe what I saw. There was a dead deer in my yard."

"Where is it?" Officer Gabin asked.

Mr. Moreau pointed to the back of his garden. "Just a little further from my fence," he said. They walked to the back of the garden where Mr. Moreau claims he saw a deer. When they stepped closer to the fence, they found a fence that was half destroyed. The green wires were broken and bent inwards towards the garden. It looked like the fight happened next to the fence and almost ended in Mr. Moreau's garden. The steel bar that held up the wires was barely holding on, almost about to fall on the ground. But the deer that they found was not something they would have expected, Mr. Moreau was right, it was quite unbelievable. The horns of the deer were still stuck to the wires with blood dripping down. There were also some pieces of skin hanging on the wires and also a trail of bones. As Chief Delon and Officer Gabin followed the trail, they found more and more and more bones next to the fence. The remaining head of the deer with skin and bones still attached to it, forms the body of the deer. Remaining of what the other creature didn't want. A brutal fight when the deer didn't have any chance of survival. It was not a hunt for food, but more for fun. The grass was drenched in blood, leaves were covered as well, and left a trail behind that lay deep within the woods. Chief Delon and Officer Gabin followed the trail and by surprise, they had to walk quite far to find where it all started. At the beginning of the fight where the deer could have never escaped from it, the deer was doomed from the moment the creature locked his eyes on him. It's getting closer to the village!" A little panic appeared in Officer Gabin's voice. "Do you think it's the same animal from all the other attacks?" He asked.

"Could be. We should go in the woods with some dogs to find the animal." Chief Delon answered and sat down to take a good look at the blood drops. His dark blond, gray hair waved in the wind when he looked back to where the fence was from Mr. Moreau's garden. But the deer wasn't the only one in danger when they could all see that that creature did know the way to the village and that Mr. Moreau was lucky that he didn't run into it. It still was a coincidence that the creature found the village, but now it knew where to be if it got hungry again. They both went back to the backyard, Mr. Moreau was still waiting there, looking at his fence and how he could fix it. "Well, did you find it, I told you it look bad." Mr. Moreau said.

"Yes, and thank you for calling us. Now be careful, okay, you know what is out there so make sure to stay away from it." Officer Gabin put his hand on Mr. Moreau's shoulder.

"Don't worry," he answered. "Next time I'm prepared," he laughed and pointed to his hunting gun on his back.

"Don't do anything stupid!" Officer Gabin said with worry in his voice. And laid his hand on Mr. Moreau's gun for a moment before he walked back to the car with Chief Delon. Mr. Moreau just smiled back at him, giving away a bad feeling that Officer Gabin couldn't shake off. But Mr. Moreau wasn't that stupid so he let it go, he must be worrying too much for no reason, there was no way that Mr. Moreau would go back into the woods to try and find it. He did see what it looked like and he knew deep down that he didn't want to cross paths with that kind of creature. They headed straight to the police station to gather a few more men and some dogs. Two cars arrived at the edge of the woods. The doors flew open and two officers got out, opening the trunk and two German shepherds jumped out. Chief Delon let the dogs smell the horn of the deer, that was all they could find that hopefully had some smell of the creature on it. The dogs put their noses in the air and ran towards the woods with Officer Aréola barely holding on to the leach. He stumbled over the first branch he passed but recovered his step fast and went with his fingers through his cruelly brown hair. Officer Favre laughed at him when he walked past him with his dog, his black boots leaving a trail while Officer Gabin and Chief Delon followed behind them. They kept running, deeper and deeper in the woods, reaching the river and back to the village. It seemed like the furthest that the creature ever went was by the river but the trail always went back to the village. It didn't make any sense because then that meant that the creature had already been walking around in the village. They stood there staring at the houses in the village, not believing that this was happening.

"Why would we always go back to the village?" Officer Aréola asked.

"It means that the animal has been walking around in the village already! We have to warn the people!" Officer Gabin yelled.

"Don't make the people panic for no reason. Besides, if that animal was already in the village, people would have seen it a long time ago." Chief Delon smirked at Officer Gabin.

"Are you going to wait until someone gets killed, the animal is already in the village!"

The words were out of Officer Gabin's mouth before he could stop himself.

"Don't worry, it will never get that far." Chief Delon said with a lot of confidence. Almost like he knew that the creature would never be that stupid to walk around where humans were that could also make sure that the creature got caught. Or does he already know that it wasn't a dangerous animal, I wouldn't be so sure about that when you look back at how that deer ended up?