Women In The Night

Gore

Dean pulled into the motel two days later in the evening, looking around at the mostly empty parking lot.

She didn’t see her mother’s truck anywhere in the lot, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. There were a couple of other places in Armstrong Station  – an inn, a decent lodge and spa, and a couple of tiny rooms and ktichenettes. There was a chance that Daisy was just staying in one of those, but their reviews were significantly lower than the one Dean had chosen. The two of them lived on a budget, but they had standards – and Dean drew the line at cockroaches. 

Dean entered the motel’s office, where a middle-aged white man sat behind the desk, watching an old military sitcom on an old-fashioned, square TV.  He looked up when Dean came in and straightened in his seat.

“Hello, and welcome to the Black Bear Motel. How can I help you?”

The man sounded surprised at her appearance, but also tired – much like every other motel front desk clerk she’d met.

“Lookin’ for a room for a few days,” Dean said, “just for myself. You have anything?”

“You’re lucky,” the man said as he reached under the desk and pulled out a binder, “since we’re in between seasons right now.”

“Oh yeah, it’s not quite hunting season yet, eh?”

“Yep, and it’s starting to get too cold for people to come this far north to fish. So, how long will you be staying for?”

“Not sure. Maybe about a week.”

“Right. Well, just be sure to check out and we’ll settle everything then. May I ask the reason for your stay?”

“Working on an old case that looks like it’s popped up again.”

The man glanced up at Dean as he was filling out her information, “You an officer? What case?”

“Classified,” Dean said with a smirk.

“Right…. Well, can I get a name for the room, Officer…?”

“Danzinger. Sergeant Danzinger.”

“Alright, Sergeant Danzinger, you’re in room 143.”

Dean smiled as she took her key, “Thanks. Oh, and uh, before I forget – have you noticed anyone else in the town recently? Maybe a middle-aged, blonde woman? Drives a truck?”

The man shook his head, “No, sorry. Why, she another officer?”

“No, just a friend. I know she likes to hang around these parts this time of year. Oh well, I’m bound to run into her sooner or later. Thanks.”

Dean then moved her van to park in front of the room, grabbing her overnight bag and throwing it onto the motel bed. The first thing she did was quickly look the room over; checking for two-way mirrors, hidden cameras, bugs, unusually suspicious stains. Thankfully, she didn’t find anything, so she sighed and sat down on the bed. She texted Quinn to let him know she got there safe, then called Sera. It rang a couple of times, then Sera picked up.

“Hey, Dean!”

Dean chuckled, “Man, you sound outta breath. You good?”

“Oh, yeah! I’m just packing up some stuff, and it’s kinda exhausting. How’s the drive?”

“It was long,” Dean admitted, standing up and looking out the window – it had a full view of the parking lot as well as the road. Perfect, “But I’m in Armstrong now, so that’s good.”

“Any sign of your mom?”

Dean sighed, “No. I asked the front desk guy at my motel if he’d seen her, but she might just be hiding out somewhere. I’ve only been here a couple minutes, so I’m not really worried.”

“Right, well, I’m sure you’ll find something at least. Anyways, you said you’re hunting a werewolf, right?”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“So...what makes you think it’s a werewolf?”

Dean chuckled, “You thinking of turning this into a lesson?”

“Well, you’re the one who said I need to know more before I can actually hunt. So, I’m learning.”

“Right. Well, okay, uh…. Damn, I dunno where to start,” Dean admitted, sitting down on the bed and looking around the room.

“Okay, well how about the signs of a werewolf? What makes you think it’s that?”

“Well, more traditional werewolves are fairly easy to spot; animal attacks during the full moon, large dog sightings, some hikers going missing.”

“Right. Makes sense. So what’s the next step?”

“Surveillance.”

“Ooh, sounds exciting!”

“Not really, I just drive around in my car and wait to see if I find anything suspicious.”

“Oh. Less exciting.”

“Yeah, really not that much fun. Well, I should probably let you go – I should start checking out the town before it gets too dark.”

“Yeah, of course. Call me if you need anything!”

“Will do. Catch ya later.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The call ended and Sera looked around her apartment with a sigh. 

She had been in the middle of putting everything in boxes when Dean called, but she still had so much left to do. Almost everything that could be sold was tucked away and labelled, but she still had to put her major belongings in storage, as well as figure out what she could take with her on the road. Dean made it clear that they had to travel light, which Sera thought would have been a breeze, but she hadn’t realized how much stuff she had until she had to sort through it all and decide what was worth keeping.

In all honesty, she had been kinda hoping that Dean would stay around to help her pack everything, but Sera couldn’t really blame her friend for wanting to try and find her mother as soon as possible, especially since Sera couldn’t leave for another few weeks. 

Sera also had to admit that she felt less motivated to do everything when she was by herself. Not only because it was so much for one person to do, but also because there wasn’t that presence of Dean, offering a new life on the road, hunting monsters like some kind of fantasy come to life. 

Is it really worth it? Sera asked herself, for what she guessed was really the first time.

“Of course it is!” She told herself aloud, “Besides, I’ve come this far, not like I can really back down.” She turned to put some more things in boxes, but when she was faced with a large pile of baubles and trinkets, she paused.

“Maybe I’ll have some dinner first, and then continue packing. Maybe some pasta. Yeah, linguine all'olio.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dean took a big bite of her cheeseburger, glancing around the diner. 

It looked like every other small town restaurant with booths from the 90’s at the latest, plus some pictures of people with massive fish, even a couple of moose antlers over the door. Dean had to give it to them though – the place was clean as hell, which was rare for small town diners.

Dean sat at a booth by herself, chowing down on a pretty decent bacon cheeseburger and fries. The diner had a handful of other patrons: a family with two young kids at another booth; a handful of highway construction workers at the bar; and a young couple awkwardly sharing a poutine. 

“Hey, how’s your burger?” Dean’s waitress asked. She was pretty, with long, braided black hair and tanned skin. 

“Awesome, thanks.” 

“Glad to hear it! Is there anything else I could get you?”

“Yeah, actually. Do you know anything about the animal attacks last month?”

The girl’s face fell and she looked a bit confused, “The animal attacks? You mean the bear attacks?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Well, I’m looking to check out the woods before hunting season officially opens, and I just wanna be careful.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry,” she assured with a smile, “The attacks only happened for a couple of days. Lots of folks think it was some rabid wolf – it’s long dead by now.”

“Yeah, probably. But don’t you think it’s weird that it only happened on the full moon?” 

The waitress laughed, “Oh, so you’re a cryptid hunter? I should’ve known.”

“Guilty as charged,” Dean admitted, though she wasn’t about to give away just how true the statement was, “So, what can you tell me?”

She shrugged, “Not much – it happens, y’know? Pets go missing, sheep get killed, even a person every now and then. It sucks, but it’s just a consequence of living right in the wilderness.”

“Makes sense, but four people died last month – that’s pretty impressive for a rabid wolf.”

“Stranger things have happened.”

“Oh, I know,” Dean assured with a laugh, “trust me. But just, maybe stay inside tonight. It is a full moon.”

“I’ll be careful,” she promised before moving on to another table. 

Dean sighed as she returned to her burger. 

There was a decent chance that the locals were just hiding how scared they were, but it was more likely that they just...didn’t really care. More importantly, the waitress hadn’t made a single comment about another mysterious stranger who happened to look a lot like Dean, which made Dean more and more suspicious that Daisy was not actually in Armstrong Station.

Great.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dean’s mood only worsened over the next few hours.

She’d been up late prowling through the small town, looking for anything that could mean trouble under the full moon. Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen anything – at around 4 AM, she called it a night.

When she went to breakfast at 9, a body had dropped.

She overheard it everywhere as she walked to the diner; on the streets in hushed whispers, at the bar before taking a sip of coffee, and behind menus with worried glances.

Dean flashed her badge, grabbed a coffee and a donut, then headed to the crime scene.

It was on one of the main roads outside of town, heading to the more remote cabins. The road was sectioned off, and based on the two cop cars present, it looked like the town’s entire force was there.

“Um, excuse me!” One officer said indignantly as Dean ducked under the police tape. He approached her, looking rather miffed, “Who are you? You can’t be trespassing here, this is a crime scene!”

“I know,” Dean said, pulling out her fake badge and flashing it to him – just long enough to convince him, quick enough to avoid suspicion, “I’m Sergeant Dean Danzinger, RCMP. What do we have here?”

“A sergeant?” The man said as he narrowed his eyes, “What the hell is a sergeant doing here?”

“Investigating a case,” Dean said, shoving her free hand in her jacket pockets as she sipped her coffee, looking around the area, “We’ve got reason to believe that this might be part of a case I’ve been on for a while. May I see the body?”

The man looked her up and down, “You sure don’t look like a sergeant.”

Dean smiled pleasantly, “I heard about the incident right when I was going to breakfast, please excuse the casual attire. So, the body?”

The officer looked like he wanted to argue more, but instead he huffed and turned away, leading Dean further into the scene. She could see a puddle of blood and mangled parts up ahead, with a photographer and a man with a sheriff’s hat standing over it.

“Sheriff,” the officer grunted, catching the young man’s attention. He turned, revealing a handsome, square face with some stubble and steely grey eyes. He glanced at Dean before turning his attention to the officer.

“Yes, Jacobs?”

“This is Sergeant Dean Danzinger, from the RCMP.”

“Oh, hello,” the sheriff greeted cheerfully, taking off a glove and holding it out for Dean to shake, “I’m Sergeant Adam Casey, sorta the sheriff here. If I may ask, what is the RCMP doing up here in Armstrong?”

“Well, we’ve got some intel that there might be a connection to a case I’ve been working on for a while, thought I might take a look.”

“Oh, be my guest!” Adam said, stepping away to allow Dean to look at the body, or what was left of it. 

Dean could feel Adam and the others eyeing her up as she looked over  the mangled remains. As was typical of a small town, the force looked to be made mostly up of men – mostly white men. They probably thought Dean would gag or get teary-eyed or something, but she had seen much worse than a few dismembered limbs.

“Wow, this is a mess,” Dean said, crouching down to look over the body, “These are some gnarly teeth marks. What do you think made these?”

“We’re thinking bear, or maybe a rabid wolf,” Adam sighed, “This is...it’s a lot.”

“You had a bunch of attacks like this last month, right?”

“Yeah. They stopped after a couple of days, so we just assumed it was an animal attack. I mean, the bite marks are certainly not human and well...I don’t think any human could have done this.”

“You’d be surprised,” Dean chuckled as she stood up, “I’ve seen some messed-up s**t. Anyways, I’m gonna need a full autopsy report to check, but I’m gonna take a gander and say that the dismemberment was done pre-mortem, and those chunks were definitely taken out by teeth and claws, no murder weapon.”

“Are you sure?” Adam asked, “That seems...impossible?”

“Drugs can make you do some crazy stuff, man. So, tell me more about the murders from last month.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So there’s definitely a wolf running around, based on the crime scenes, and it looks like they’re mad as hell.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well,” Dean said with a sigh, and it sounded like she was sitting down, “werewolves usually attack because they’re hungry, so they eat. Usually, there’s not a ton left over – not that they pick the bones clean or anything, but they don’t leave a lot. But this one is weird because there’s a lot left. There’s chunks missing, don’t get me wrong, but most of the body is still intact, clothes too, which is weird for a werewolf. This makes me think that this werewolf actually has some control left when they shift, which is dangerous.”

“Okay, okay,” Sera said, moving to sit down at her laptop and putting Dean on speaker, “since when do werewolves have control when they become wolves? I thought they just kinda turned into like, rabid wolves or whatever?”

“In the movies, maybe, but it’s more complicated than that. Sometimes people have control when they shift, sometimes not. Usually when people have control, they’ll go after animals or just stock up on raw meat. But when people don’t have control, they start attacking anything they can.”

“...Right. So what does that mean if they’re aware of themselves?”

“That they’re doing this on purpose, and probably for some f****d-up reason, but I dunno what it is yet, and I’m running out of time.”

“Well, I should be able to help,” Sera offered, “I’m all about patterns and research, remember?”

“I mean, I’d sure as hell appreciate the help, but you sure you have the time? I know you’re busy with packing and everything.”

“Oh, I need a break,” Sera admitted with a slight chuckle, looking around at her mess of an apartment, “I’m sick and tired of putting things in boxes and labelling them. So, tell me about this werewolf.”

“Well, all of the victims have been white men, a couple of them were construction workers, but I don’t know if that holds any correlation. That’s...that’s all I’ve got.”

“Right. Well, you said you got the case files right, maybe you can send them to me and I can look them over, check out the details myself.”

“I mean I could, but I dunno how good of an idea that would be. The case files include crime scene photos and...well, they ain’t pretty, Opal. Most of the things I see aren’t pleasant, but werewolves leave particularly messy crime scenes.”

“Dean, it’s fine,” Sera assured as she began to dig through some information on Armstrong Station, “I’m gonna be a hunter too, right? So I gotta get used to it. Besides, I love horror movies!”

“Which is all well and good, but this isn’t a movie. It’s real s**t, and it’s gorey as any Tarantino flick. I can still send the case files but just...be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I can handle it. Just send them over before I die of boredom.”

“Alright, you asked for it. I’ll send them over, but I’m going to go back out and see what I can find. I’ll call if I need anything.”

“Sounds good! Be safe!”

“Thanks, have fun looking through the files.”

The line clicked with the end of the call, and Sera was left alone. Sure enough, an email came through with a bunch of files attached to it. Sera made quick work of opening them up and organizing them so she could flit between them in a timely manner. She also had a notepad at the ready for any patterns she might find. 

She began to skim through the first couple, looking for any similarities, any patterns. The victims all seemed to be middle-aged men, and four out of the five men were white, while one was WhiteSand Indigenous, from the reserve that was a couple of kilometres out from the town. 

It didn’t seem as though they had any connection to each other, aside from the fact that they all lived together. A couple of them were neighbours, but those two weren’t sequential to each other, so Sera doubted it held anything. 

As she continued to scroll, she came across the first crime scene photo and froze. 

It was...bad. 

Skin flayed from the body, revealing shiny white bone underneath, everything from the hair to the pavement stained in blood, bits and pieces strewn about. The bodies were left twisted around, like they got moved around a lot shortly after their death, which Sera supposed is exactly what happened. The more she looked at the picture of what used to be a living person, the more sick she felt to her stomach.

“It’s fine,” she told herself, forcing a smile, “it’s just like in a movie. Yeah, just a torture porn flick. Don’t worry about it.”

The second picture was somehow worse.

The man’s right arm wasn’t even in the picture, and it was noted that it was missing entirely, assumed to be eaten by a bear or something else. But the muscles were shredded so badly and so explicitly that Sera didn’t think she would ever eat pulled pork again.

She forced herself to continue looking, but by the time she got to the last picture, she had to rush to the bathroom and try to hold back her lunch. 

Once she was sure she wasn’t going to puke, Sera stood up and splashed her face with cold water before drinking some. Then she looked at herself in the mirror and was disappointed to see that her complexion was rather ashey.

“Am I cut out for this?” She wondered aloud, staring at her teary-eyed reflection, “I can’t even look at the pictures without being sick, how the hell am I supposed to be a part of murder investigations?”

Sera sighed and pushed her hair back away from her face, trying to calm herself down. 

She had to help Dean, at least with this. Once she had, Sera could take some time and figure out what she wanted to do in regards to hunting and...gore. 

How she was going to hunt monsters while avoiding gore though, she had no idea.