There was something ancient in the woods, something that had escaped the prying eyes of humanity long enough that they'd forgotten that it had ever escaped in the first place. Even as it moved from forest to forest, using the back-country lanes to its advantage, it had been so rarely spotted that there was no longer any name for it. Not even a footnote in the most obscure local lorebooks.
When it rediscovered humans accidentally, it found them far better prey than it remembered. They tasted sweeter, were juicier and so much slower. It began to follow smaller groups around the woods, creeping between the dense canopy until someone wandered just that little bit too far from the others. It always struck too fast for them to so much as gasp out in surprise, let alone cry out for backup.
Nearly twenty years passed before the first of its multitude of victims were found by a young child who climbed a dead tree and found a half-eaten corpse in the hollow trunk. With the police being called to the scene shortly after, with more and more bodies being found each and every day, with the missing persons lists dwindling every hour as the dead were named, the creature found itself surrounded by too many things to eat.
That was when it made its mistake. It jumped into the middle of a forensics team, unaware that armed officers were close enough to hear their shrieks of terror and pain, abruptly ending in wet gurgles as their throats were clamped down in its large blunt teeth.
It had never been shot before that day and was never seen after, having fled in a blur of feathers and fur the second the first bullet struck. Nobody quite knew what they'd seen or where it went, only that they'd been left with nine fresh corpses afterwards.
When it rediscovered humans accidentally, it found them far better prey than it remembered. They tasted sweeter, were juicier and so much slower. It began to follow smaller groups around the woods, creeping between the dense canopy until someone wandered just that little bit too far from the others. It always struck too fast for them to so much as gasp out in surprise, let alone cry out for backup.
Nearly twenty years passed before the first of its multitude of victims were found by a young child who climbed a dead tree and found a half-eaten corpse in the hollow trunk. With the police being called to the scene shortly after, with more and more bodies being found each and every day, with the missing persons lists dwindling every hour as the dead were named, the creature found itself surrounded by too many things to eat.
That was when it made its mistake. It jumped into the middle of a forensics team, unaware that armed officers were close enough to hear their shrieks of terror and pain, abruptly ending in wet gurgles as their throats were clamped down in its large blunt teeth.
It had never been shot before that day and was never seen after, having fled in a blur of feathers and fur the second the first bullet struck. Nobody quite knew what they'd seen or where it went, only that they'd been left with nine fresh corpses afterwards.
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