Inspector James sat at his desk, absently rubbing the bruise on his chest where the airbag had hit him. The insurance adjuster's words still rang in his ears: "Impact with large animal." Simple, clinical words that failed entirely to capture what he'd seen on that foggy road.

Boniface Ugwuja —"Boni" to most—sauntered into the office like he owned it, immediately helping himself to James's tiger nut drink. In the three weeks they'd worked together, Boni had proven himself to be an excellent detective despite his casual demeanor. He dropped into the chair across from James, propped his feet on the desk, and took a long sip.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, boss."

James grimaced. "Not a ghost. Something worse."

"Yeah?" Boni took another sip but paused halfway, his hand hovering just slightly unsteady. "This about your car? Heard Fidelis's Towing had to scrape it off the road yesterday."

James studied his partner's face carefully. "What do you know about the wildlife around here, Boni?"

The cup stopped halfway to Boni's mouth. Something flickered across his face—so quick James almost missed it. Fear? Recognition?

"Wildlife?" Boni's voice was deliberately casual. Too casual. "Got your usual forest creatures. Deer. Foxes. Why?"

"What about jaguars?"

The tiger nut drink splashed across James's desk as Boni's cup slipped from his fingers. "Jesus Christ," he whispered, feet dropping from the desk as he leaned forward. "You saw one?"

"Hit one. With my car." James watched Boni's face drain of color. "Thing was twice the size of any jaguar I've ever seen. And it..." He hesitated. "It stood up. Like a man."

"Amadioha, the god of thunder!" Boni ran a hand through his semi bald hair, eyes wild. "Amadi, Amadi, Amadi. You hit one of them and you're alive?"

"One of them?" James leaned forward. "You know about these things?"

Boni glanced at the office door, then lowered his voice. "Everyone who grows up here knows about them. We don't talk about them. We don't acknowledge them. We just... stay inside when the fog comes."

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Would you have believed us?" Boni laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Hey, new boss, by the way, we've got house-sized beasts that hunt in the fog. Oh, and they've been here longer than the town has. Sound reasonable to you?"

"Beasts?" James repeated quietly.

"That's what my grandfather called them. Said they were here before the settlers came. Before anyone came." Boni's eyes narrowed. "But they don't let people live, James. Never. Not in all the stories I've heard. You see one, you're dead. Period."

James fiddled absentmindedly at the keys on the table. "Maybe they have their reasons."

"Reasons?" Boni barked out another humorless laugh. "They're monsters, boss. They don't need—" He stopped as James's phone vibrated across the desk, dispatcher's number flashing on the screen.

"Inspector Uwaifo." His expression darkened as he listened. "We'll be right there."

Boni was already reaching for his coat. "How bad?"

"St. Phillips Road. Four dead teenagers. Two missing. Multiple injured." James grabbed his service weapon. "Called in by a jogger twenty minutes ago."

The drive to St. Phillips Road was silent, heavy with unspoken words. They could see the flashing lights before they rounded the final bend—red and blue strobes cutting through the morning mist that hadn't quite burned away.

James pulled up behind the last patrol car and stepped out into chaos.

St. Phillips Road wasn't really a road at all, just a dirt track carved through the woods. The air smelled of damp earth and something metallic—blood. The crime scene spread out before them like a grotesque scene: crushed red cups littered the muddy ground, some half-buried in sticky, dark patches of dirt, remnants of a lakeside party that had turned into a nightmare.

Officer Sarah Uche was the first to approach them, her usual composed demeanor cracking. "It's... it's not like the others, Inspector."

She was right.

Previous crime scenes had been clean, almost surgical—bodies taken, minimal evidence left behind. This was different. This was savage. This was rage.

A blue tarp covered the first victim near what remained of a bonfire pit. The edge had come loose in the wind, revealing a dark hand clutching a smashed phone. Another body lay twenty feet away, sprawled across a fallen log as if they'd been running when they were caught. The third and fourth victims were found closer to the treeline, together, like they'd tried to hide behind a large oak tree.

"Jesus," Boni whispered, turning away from the sight.

James moved methodically through the scene, noting details that seemed to scream wrongness. Claw marks on the trees were different—deeper, more erratic. The tracks in the mud showed signs of a chase, but they were chaotic, nothing like the purposeful hunting patterns from previous attacks.

The survivors had been taken to St. Leo General Hospital, but one girl, Mmesoma Agu, had insisted on staying to give her statement. She sat in the back of an ambulance, a shock blanket wrapped around her shoulders, dried blood matting her all-back braids.

"They were fighting," she kept saying, her voice hollow. "The things... they were fighting each other."

James crouched beside her. "What things, Mmesoma?"

Her eyes were unfocused, staring into the woods. "The big cats. One was... it was trying to protect us, I think. It stood between us and the others." She turned to James suddenly, recognition flickering in her traumatized gaze. "It had markings, like a pattern I've never seen before."

She reached out, fingers trembling, to grab James's shirt.

Before she could touch it, a low growl echoed from the woods. Everyone at the crime scene froze. Mmesoma's hand snapped back, and she began to shake uncontrollably.

"The missing students," James said urgently. "Which direction did they run?"

Mmesoma pointed toward a barely visible trail that led deeper into the forest. The morning mist seemed to thicken around it, defying the rising sun.

Boni grabbed James's arm. "Boss, we need to wait for backup. You don't understand what—"

"No," James said, checking his weapon. "I think I'm starting to." He touched his gun. "Call in backup and get these people out of here. I'm going to find those kids."

"James," Boni's voice cracked. "The tracks. Look at the tracks."

In the mud, clear as day, were two sets of huge paw prints. One set led toward the trail where the students had fled. The other—the one with the strange, familiar patterns in the pads—led straight to where James's car had been parked the night before.

The same jaguar that had spared him was hunting again. But this time, it wasn't clear whether it was hunting prey—or protecting it.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚

Drop a vote, leave a comment, and perhaps even share with a friend. ִ ࣪𖤐