KATE

chapter 5

Part 5: The Beast Awakens

The Pursuers POV:

The forest had gone unnaturally quiet.

We’d been following the blood trail for what felt like hours, the beam of my flashlight slicing through the dark. But no matter how far we went, the sense of wrongness hanging in the air only got heavier. The others felt it too. No one said anything, but the way their shoulders hunched and their guns twitched told me enough.

“Where are the dogs?” someone whispered behind me, his voice tight.

“They wouldn’t come this far,” the handler muttered. His grip on the leash was useless, the dog having refused to move past the river. “Something’s spooking them.”

Spooking them. Right.

I tightened my grip on my rifle and swept the light over the trees. The blood trail was fresh, smeared across leaves and pooling in the dirt, but there was no sign of movement. No sound of footsteps.

“She’s close,” Scarface barked, his voice gruff and sharp. He always spoke like he was trying to convince himself more than the rest of us. “Stay focused. We bring them back alive—or dead.”

I wanted to ask what he thought was going to happen when we found them. But before I could open my mouth, a branch snapped in the distance.

We froze.

The sound wasn’t loud, but in the stillness, it echoed like a gunshot. My heart jumped to my throat as I swung my flashlight toward the source, the beam trembling.

“What was that?” someone muttered.

The dogs had gone silent, and even the river seemed to have dulled. My pulse thundered in my ears as I strained to hear anything—footsteps, a voice, even the wind—but the forest didn’t make a sound.

Then it came.

A growl, low and deep, rumbling like distant thunder.

It didn’t sound like anything I’d ever heard. Not a dog, not a bear, not any kind of predator I could name. It was too big, too full, like the forest itself was growling at us.

“What the hell was that?” another voice hissed.

Scarface raised his rifle, his expression hardening. “An animal. Probably a wolf.”

I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “That’s no wolf.”

The growl came again, this time closer.

I turned in a slow circle, sweeping my flashlight over the trees. The shadows seemed deeper now, like they were moving, curling around us. My palms were slick with sweat, and I adjusted my grip on the gun, trying not to let it shake.

The growl turned into a snarl.

Before I could react, something moved in the corner of my eye.

A blur of black fur lunged out of the trees, faster than anything I’d ever seen. It slammed into one of the guys beside me, knocking him off his feet. His flashlight went flying, the beam spinning wildly as it hit the ground.

I didn’t even have time to scream before the thing dragged him into the shadows.

“Shoot it!” Scarface bellowed, raising his rifle.

The night exploded with gunfire, muzzle flashes lighting up the trees. But it didn’t matter where we aimed. The thing—whatever it was—was gone.

“What is that?” someone shouted, his voice cracking.

No one answered.

The thing struck again, tearing through the circle we’d formed, taking another man down in a blur of claws and teeth. Blood sprayed across the ground, the metallic smell choking the air.

“Stay together!” Scarface ordered, his voice trembling now.

We tried. God, we tried. But it didn’t matter. The thing was faster than us, smarter than us. It circled us like it was playing, darting in and out of the shadows.

Another scream. Another body hit the ground.

Then the growl came again, louder and deeper, reverberating through my chest. My flashlight flickered as I swung it toward the sound, and for a split second, I saw it.

Eyes.

Two glowing, golden eyes staring back at me from the darkness.

They weren’t just animal eyes. They were something else—something alive, something aware. They looked at me like they saw straight through me, like they knew every thought running through my head.

And then they were gone, swallowed by the shadows.

I stumbled back, my gun slipping from my hands. My legs moved before I realized what I was doing, carrying me away from the c*****e, deeper into the trees.

“Wait!” someone shouted behind me, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

The screams followed me, sharp and desperate, until they cut off all at once.

The forest went silent again.

---

I don’t remember how I made it back to the orphanage.

When I stumbled through the gates, bloodied and shaking, I couldn’t form the words to explain what had happened.

“They’re all dead,” I croaked, my voice hollow.

The director stared at me, his expression cold. “Where are the girls?”

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

I could still see those eyes, burning gold in the darkness. I could still hear the growl, low and deep, rattling in my bones.

“We weren’t hunting girls,” I finally whispered, my voice trembling. “Something else was hunting us.”

They didn’t believe me, of course.

But they didn’t see what I saw.

They didn’t see the shadows move.

They didn’t see the way those eyes glowed.

They didn’t hear the growl, so deep it felt like it came from the earth itself.

I’ll never forget that sound.

Let me know if this revised version works or if further adjustments are needed!