Women In The Night

Hannah Doblej

Sera stayed up for most of the night.

This was mostly because she kept having nightmares about either watching someone being torn limb-from-limb by a giant wolf or actually being torn limb-from-limb. 

So Sera decided to make use of her insomnia and do some more research.

And what she found was...interesting.

Every single one of the bodies either had an especially mangled right arm, or it was missing entirely. There were a couple of times that a limb was gone, but the right arm was consistently targeted. The bodies were found all over town, but not usually in populated areas – typically on roads, treelines, or large backyards.

So Sera called Dean at approximately 3 AM to tell her all this.

“Wow,” Dean said, obviously trying to take it all in, “So um, first off, you good? You seem kinda...rattled?”

“Oh yeah, I’m good,” Sera assured, taking another sip of her coffee, “I mean, my brain just kinda entered into a loop of god I’m so tired so I stopped being scared, which is kinda fun. Also I’ve got some Bones going on in the background, so that’s kinda getting me in the mood.”

“Well, good to know you’re still sane,” Dean teased on the other line, “But what does all that stuff mean? The information?”

“It means it’s a personal thing, I think.”

“You think?”

“I didn’t specialize in psychology!” Sera argued, “But I do know patterns, and this is the fifth time that the right arm has been specifically targeted. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s some kind of revenge tactic, and since they’re all men, it’s probably a girl that we’re looking for.”

“Huh. That’s actually really helpful, narrows it down a lot in a town like this. But really, are you good? I know this part of hunting can be a lot, and uh, well, werewolves aren’t exactly an easy thing to start with.”

“I have to agree with you there,” Sera sighed, “It wasn’t pretty, and I’ll probably have a couple more nightmares before I have to get up for work. Ugh!” Sera leaned back in her chair, “Work! I totally forgot I work in like, six hours.”

“Oh s**t. Get to bed, man. I can handle it from here.”

“Yeah, yeah. Well, I’ll try and sleep soon, but I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”

“Right. Night, Opal.”

“Night, Dean.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Dean turned off the phone and turned up the local police radio. Like any small town, it was quiet – boring, really. But Dean had been lazy the night before, and someone ended up dead, so she was on her toes as she cruised around the town.

Dean had focused more on town, since that was where the most people were, but she stayed more on the edge of town thanks to Sera’s advice.

She drove slowly, looking for any kind of movement at the edge of the trees, on the darkened roads. 

Man, I’m really hungry, she thought to herself idly, I know there’s a fast food joint in town, but I dunno if they’re open all night…

Dean’s train of thought was brought to a violent end though, when she heard a scream pierce the air.

Dean slammed on the breaks, looking around for – there! She caught movement up ahead and she peeled off in its direction. She came up on a massive, furry, hulking shape on the side of the road, looking like it was wrestling something. Dean pulled up and leapt out of her van, barely remembering to put it in park before drawing her gun and taking aim. She shot it three times, two of the bullets hitting its side.

The creature howled and straightened up, turning to face Dean.

Yup. Definitely a werewolf.

The creature had the snarling face of a wolf with blood dripping from its lips, reflective yellow eyes, a hunched back, and a body covered in coarse grey fur. Dean raised her gun again but the wolf just snarled and ran off into the trees. Dean fired after it once, but didn’t go again – silver bullets were expensive, and she wasn’t about to waste any more.

Once the wolf was gone, Dean ran over to the body to check the damage. A decent chunk had been taken out of the right arm, just like Sera had said, but otherwise he looked alright.

“Dan...zinger?”

Dean looked down at his face and gasped, “Sergeant Casey? C’mon, let’s get you to a hospital.”

He groaned as Dean put her gun in her chest holster and carefully hauled him to his feet.

“What...was that?”

“Don’t worry about that now,” Dean said, throwing open her van door and dragging Adam to the bed, “Hold on, I’m gonna get some bandages.”

She made quick work of finding her always-stocked first aid kit and grabbing some scissors and bandages. She left it open in case she needed to do some emergency stitches, but she was really hoping she wouldn’t have to.

“Hold still,” she commanded as she cut through the right sleeve of his jacket and shirt, throwing them off to get a good look at the wound.

“How bad is it, doc?” Adam asked lightly, though strained.

“Honestly,” Dean admitted as she grabbed some rubbing alcohol and some balled-up pink socks, “not that bad, for a wolf bite. Here, bite this – it’s gonna sting.”

Before the Sergeant could protest, Dean shoved the makeshift gag in his mouth and poured the rubbing alcohol over the wound, pressing down on it with a damp cloth. Adam screamed, muffled by the gag, but Dean ignored him. Once the wound was clean, she was quick to bandage his arm tightly and bind it.

“There. Now, lay still as you can while I get us to a hospital.”

“You got any painkillers?” Adam groaned, now that Dean had removed the gag.

“Course, but I’m not giving them to you right before we go to the hospital so they can pump you full of drugs.”

“Right. Well, you have my full permission to go as fast as you goddamn please.”

Dean grinned, “Aye aye, sir.”

She left him on the bed before moving to the driver’s seat and gunning it off down the road, punching in the location of the closest hospital in her phone. Unfortunately, it was a good 40 minutes away. Not terrible, since Adam was certainly in no danger of bleeding out, but it was gonna be a long 40 minutes for the both of them.

It wasn’t long into the drive before Dean heard a groan and the sound of the bedsheets shifting. She glanced in her rearview mirror to see the sergeant sitting up.

“Lie down!” She commanded harshly, “You’ll just make it worse.”

“I’m fine,” Adam grunted out, “you bandaged me pretty damn good.”

“Lots of practice.”

“I can tell. What the hell was that thing? That attacked me?”

“A wolf.”

Adam scoffed, “That was no wolf – I’ve lived up north my entire life, and I’ve never seen a wolf like that. Too big. Too smart.”

“That’s just the adrenaline, messing with your head. It was just a big, f**k-off wolf.”

“No, it wasn’t. Sergeant Danzinger, tell me what is going on in my town.”

Dean glazed back and saw Adam staring at her in the rearview mirror. Finally, she sighed.

“Alright, but if I tell you, you have to promise not to laugh, or freak out, or call me crazy.”

“I’m a cop in a northern town,” Adam scoffed, “I can handle it.”

Dean sighed and rolled her eyes, “Alright, if you insist. Well, you’re only half right – it was a werewolf that attacked you.”

“A werewolf? You’re shittin’ me.”

“No, I am not shittin’ you. A werewolf has been hunting here for the past month or so, dunno how long they’ve been living here though.”

“You’re insane,” Adam chuckled.

“I told you that it was a lot to handle. Look, believe me or not, I don’t care, but I’ll still need your cooperation to do what I need to do.”

“Cooperation? What, to kill a werewolf?”

Dean didn’t answer.

“Are you serious?” Adam groaned as he shifted, “You’re really gonna kill a werewolf? What the hell are you, a monster hunter?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh my god. You’re really serious.”

“You asked, I answered. You gonna let me do what I need to do?”

“I dunno. You gonna shoot one of my neighbours with a silver bullet?”

“If they’re killing people, yeah.”

“You’re really insane. I should arrest you right now.”

“You even think about it and I’m dumping you off on the side of the road. I’m sure you know a lot about wolves, living up here, how good their sense of smell is. Now imagine how good it is for a werewolf.”

“You wouldn’t just leave me on the side of the road after going through all that trouble to rescue me.”

Just to be a d**k, Dean slammed on the brakes, causing Adam to yelp and fall onto the floor.

“Ow!”

“Oops.”

“This isn’t helping your case,” Adam complained as he got back on the bed.

“Honestly, I don’t really care. I’m gonna stop this wolf with or without your help.”

“Not if you’ve got a straightjacket on you.”

Dean sighed, “Sergeant Casey, you saw what was attacking you, you’re the one that said that it wasn’t a wolf. I gave you an answer, you can take it or leave it.”

It was quiet for a bit, and Dean turned on her music to fill the silence.

After some time, Adam spoke, “Do you have silver bullets?”

“Yep.”

“Can I see them?”

“Sure.” Rather than telling him where the bullets were (and have him possibly see the slew of other weapons she had), Dean reached into her holster and checked to make sure the safety was on her gun before holding it out to him. When she didn’t feel Adam grabbing it, she shook it, “C’mon, we don’t have all night.”

“I’ve only got one working arm, calm down.” Still, Adam grabbed it and looked at the old revolver, taking one of the bullets out. Dean could see its flash in her mirror. 

“You’re really serious, huh?”

“Deadly.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Sera was officially having second thoughts.

She got maybe two hours of sleep the night before, plagued by horrible nightmares and terrifying thoughts. Her decision to use her insomnia to research certainty hadn’t helped. Sera should’ve just watched some cartoon or something to cheer her up instead, but no, she had to read the real-life horror story that she was now a part of. 

Sera was a softie living a cushy life in a big city where the most traumatic things that had ever happened to her were her parents’ deaths and the fire at Dean’s house as kids.

...Okay so both of those were fairly traumatic to go through, but they hadn’t been especially violent, and Sera hadn’t actually witnessed either of those events. How the hell was she supposed to look at a real, actual dead body when she could barely look at pictures without throwing up. What about killing? Dean had promised Sera that she would be going nowhere near the actual hunt and before, Sera had found it insulting. Now? She was relieved.

Her inner turmoil must have shown, because most of Sera’s coworkers avoided her.

Most.

Jared, in typical Jared fashion, crept up behind Sera to lean over her chair and ask, “Hey, what’s up?”

He hadn’t even gotten halfway through the question before Sera shrieked and thrust her chair back, earning a subsequent yell from her friend. 

This naturally caught the attention of the otherwise morning-weary office as some people cried out in surprise and everyone turned to look. Including their boss.

“What the hell is going on out here?”

The attention was snatched by Michael Scott, a harsh man with a no-nonsense attitude who either pretended to ignore any jokes made about his name and position, or he genuinely knew absolutely nothing about The Office.

Sera quickly helped Jared up, who looked more confused than anything.

“Um, nothing, Mr. Scott. Jared just startled me is all.”

Mr. Scott looked her over before sighing, “Come with me into my office, Sera.”

With the eyes of the office on her, Sera made her way into her boss’s office, and he shut the door behind her.

“Have a seat.”

Oh god, she thought to herself as she shakily sat in the stiff chair in front of his desk, he’s gonna fire me! Please, I only have a couple weeks left….

“Sera, I know you’re nearing the end of your time here,” he began, fixing her with a plain yet firm stare, “but that is no excuse to begin attacking your coworkers and causing a scene in the workplace.”

“I’m sorry – I didn’t mean it! I just didn’t get much sleep last night, and I’ve just really been on edge lately, and Jared just came up behind me, and I –”

“Sera,” Mr. Scott said, stopping her, “I understand that you’re leaving to help out your friend, yes?”

“I – yes. An old friend of mine. I’m going to be travelling with her.”

“And what is it that you’ll be doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“While you’re travelling.” Mr. Scott raised an eyebrow, “you’re going to be earning money somehow, yes?”

Sera shifted in her seat. Dean had told her that most hunters – the most efficient kind, anyway – lived completely off the grid, which meant no salary, no footprint. They hustled stupid men in bars, pickpocketed lazy tourists, maybe did an odd job here or there like paint a fence or fix a car. They dealt almost solely in cash, but they had credit card scams for when they needed it.

Of course, Sera wasn’t going to be telling her boss this.

“Freelance. I’ve looked into more open opportunities, ways to do data analysis on the road.” The best part was that Sera wasn’t even lying.

“I see. Well, I’m sure it’s very stressful – uprooting one’s life for a complete change can be daunting. How long will you be travelling for?”

“I’m...not sure. But I think I like that – not knowing. Um, Mr. Scott, may I be perfectly honest with you?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Right. Okay.” Sera wiped her palms on her skirt, “Well,I hate the corporate life. A lot. I hate waking up every morning and knowing exactly what’s going to happen, what my routine is. Sure, there are always going to be little surprises that may even interrupt the routine, but it’s still the same thing every day and every night, and it feels unending. With Dean – um, my friend whom I’m travelling with – that routine is destroyed. I think...I think that’s what freedom is. I want to learn what it really feels like.”

“I see,” Mr. Scott said sagely, interlacing his fingers and resting his chin on them, “With freedom though, comes risk. Are you prepared for that?”

“I thought I was,” Sera admitted, “But now...Dean is working on her own, and I’m kind of realizing how scary her life is. I still really want to go, but I don’t know if I’m prepared.”

“Right. Well, change is always daunting. You have been a loyal and devoted employee and unless you do something truly stupid in the next couple of weeks, you are always welcome back here.”

Sera smiled, a weight lifted off her shoulders, “Thank you, sir. It’s really appreciated.”

And it was. 

Sera had a safety net, in case the monster hunting didn’t pan out. She had a place to come back to.

It was okay to second-guess.

____________________________________________________________________________

Dean stayed at the hospital overnight with Sergeant Casey before driving him home.

This time, he sat in the passenger seat, and it was silent for over half the ride, until he spoke.

“Maybe I’m going crazy, but I think I believe you.”

Dean didn’t need him to elaborate.

“You’re not crazy. Werewolves are a lot more common than you think.”

“Werewolves…. God. I was almost killed by a werewolf!”

“Better than being killed by a werewolf.” Dean glanced over to see Adam’s disapproving face before saying, “Sorry. Desensitized and all that.”

“Sure. So….who do you think the werewolf is?”

“Not sure,” Dean admitted, “I was kinda hoping you’d be able to help me out with that.”

“I don’t know the first thing about hunting a werewolf.”

“Yeah, but you know everything about everyone in this town, right?”

“Sure!”

“Then do you know of anyone – probably a girl – who might have a vendetta against men?”

Adam sighed and flexed his arm a bit, “I’m sad to say but...it’s a small town. Some of the men here are rough. People get scared. Evidence disappears, if it’s even there to begin with.”

“Love that,” Dean grumbled, “What about something on the right arm, maybe a scar?”

“That….that sounds like Hannah Doblej.”

“Hannah Doblej?”

“Yeah, she lives on the Whitesand reserve not far from the town, and she works at the diner as a waitress.”

“Long, black hair kept in braids, tall, pretty eyes?”

“Yeah, sounds about right. She was on her way home one night when she was assaulted. She had a knife on her, fought back pretty hard, but her assailant fought harder, gave her a nasty scar on her right arm.”

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say her attacker was never found.”

“Nope. It happened only a couple of months ago, and I kept pushing but...people got bored pretty quick. Nobody really seemed to care., I’ve kept my ears and eyes open, but we never figured it out.”

“And you have no idea who her assailant is?”

“None. She has very little recollection of the event.” Adam frowned and turned to face Dean, “Do you...do you really think that Hannah is our wolf?”

“She very well could be, but we need to find out soon – tonight’s the last full moon.”

____________________________________________________________________________

“No, yeah, there’s something off here.”

Sera could hear Dean sigh on the other end of the line.

“Of course there is. Whaddaya thinking?”

“Well, she fought back pretty hard, right? And werewolves are supposed to be pretty damn strong, even in their human form.”

“So the other guy should’ve been hospitalized, he would’ve been charged, and we wouldn’t be in this mess. Damn, I hate how much sense that makes. Now we’re back at square one.”

“Hm...not necessarily. It’s possible that the werewolf could be connected to her and is enacting revenge on her behalf.”

“That’s...smart. Alright, we’ll go check her out.”

“‘We’? You met up with another hunter?”

“No. Local sheriff was attacked by our wolf, and now he’s helping me out.”

“I’m amazed he didn’t arrest you,” Sera laughed.

“Me too. Hey, I gotta go, but I’ll keep you updated, okay?”

“Okay! I’m just getting off of work, so I’ll be home if you need me.”

“Great. I’ll talk to you later.”

The call ended and Sera sighed. The whole hunting thing didn’t seem any less daunting, but Dean seemed to be aware of this at least. Sera didn’t expect it to be an easy transition, but she knew that she could count on her friend to be there to support her.

____________________________________________________________________________

Dean always felt like she was trespassing whenever she had to go investigating on a native reserve.

The people that lived there were usually seriously suspicious of Dean, and while Dean completely understood the sentiment and the complex history behind it, it was still frustrating and it made her job that much harder. Not only that, but Dean was trespassing on sacred land.

Still, it was on the lower end of her crimes.

Adam directed Dean to Hannah’s home, a bungalow with a wooden porch. They parked in the gravel driveway and the two stepped out, making their way to the door and knocking on it.

Sure enough, the girl from the diner answered with a confused smile, glancing between the two of them.

“Sergeant Casey,” she said before looking at Dean, “And...you were at the diner. I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

“Just ‘Dean’ is fine.”

“Alright, Dean. How can I help you?”

“We wanted to ask you a few questions,” Dean said, “if now isn’t a bad time.”

“Oh.” Hannah’s face fell as she glanced behind her, and they could hear the sounds of conversation, “Um, we’re just having lunch…”

“I’m sorry, Hannah,” Adam sighed, “but it’s time-sensitive. Hopefully this won’t take long.”

“Right.” Then she looked back over her shoulder and shouted something to her family in Ojibwe before stepping onto the porch and shutting the door, “I’m not in trouble or anything, am I?”

Adam said “no” at the same time that Dean said “yes”.

“Oh.” Hannah’s eyes widened, “Okay, that’s not great. What happened?”

Adam and Dean stared at each other a moment before Dean sighed and crossed her arms, speaking first.

“We’re here to talk to you about the recent attacks. We have reason to believe you’re behind them.”

Hannah’s face fell as she struggled for words, “I – wait, I thought – they’re animal attacks!”

“Exactly. Wolf attacks, to be precise?”

“I’m sorry, but does it look like I have claws and fangs to you?!”

“Maybe not in the daylight.”

“You’re insane,” Hannah snarled, turning to Adam, “What the hell are you doing with her? What is this?!”

“I know it sounds insane,” Adam tried, “but it’s true. I was attacked last night by a werewolf, and Dean saved me – it’s why my arm was in a sling.”

“Oh, great, so you’ve both gone crazy. Get off my land.”

“We can’t do that,” Dean said firmly, “Look, somehow, you’re connected to this werewolf. I don’t think it’s you, but I do think you know who it is.”

“Werewolves aren’t real,” Hannah snapped, “Get lost!”

“Hannah,” Dean said, trying for a gentler tone, “people are dying, and we’re trying to stop that, and we are very quickly running out of time, so I’m going to break it down for you. We essentially have two options: either you help us figure out who the wolf is and we put an end to the killing; or you don’t tell us, and a serial killer goes free for another month, and more people in your community die. It’s your choice.”

Hannah just stared at them with annoyance, and the silence went on for so long that she started to doubt Hannah’s involvement.

Finally, Hannah sighed and glanced around, though the area was empty. She took a moment to herself before she spoke.

“I...I think I know who it is. But she’s just protecting me.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked.

Hannah hugged herself and looked back at her home, “After...after I was attacked, I was scared to go anywhere, I couldn’t work, I could barely leave the house. My friend...she helped me, protected me. Whenever I went somewhere, she went with me, even at night. I dunno why, but I always just...I never felt scared with her. It was like she just, had this energy, like you take one wrong look and she’ll rip your throat out.” Hannah sighed, “I asked her, and she said that men never posed a danger to her, pretty much nothing did. I uh, I told her that I never felt safe around men. Shortly after that, the bodies started popping up.”

“Sounds about right,” Dean said, “Can you give us a name?”

“She...she protected me.” Hannah turned to them with a steely expression, “I want to do the same for her.”

“People are dying, Hannah!” Adam cried, “And your friend is killing them!”

“Adam,” Dean snapped, gripping his injured arm, causing him to wince, “go wait in the van.”

“No, I –”

But Dean just squeezed harder, earning a small yelp as she glared at him, “Get. In. The. Van.”

Knowing he was gonna lose that argument, Adam just nodded and returned to Dean’s van. She waited until he had shut the passenger door before turning back to Hannah.

“Look, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I’m a monster hunter, and this friend is more than likely our monster.”

“You can’t kill her,” Hannah said, her chin beginning to wobble, “She’s my friend.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I can’t make any promises, but I can try.”

“What do you mean?”

Dean sighed and crossed her arms, “The world isn’t in black and white, it exists in shades of grey, and the monsters are a part of that. I don’t think your friend is evil, especially if it’s not something she’s completely in control of, but the fact of the matter is that innocent people are dying. Your friend needs to face justice, and she likely needs help. I’ll try to talk to her before tonight, see what I can do.”

“And...if you can’t talk to her?”

“Then I kill her.”

“Get out.”

Dean knew that she had gone about as far as she could, so she nodded and turned away.

About halfway to her van, Hannah’s voice rang out.

“Emily Martin.”

Dean paused. She waved, heard the shut of a door, then went back into the van.