The last five months in the Dakotas had ground cattle-drive chic into her wardrobe, and these people were pure urban working class. It was all baggy denim and hoodies as far as the eye could see. Her fringed leather duster and matching black Stetson stood out to say the least.
Are you okay?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but the question slipped out.
He shook himself. “Yeah. Just. Stuff. You know.”
“Oh, believe me, I know about “just stuff.” I’m comprised of about ninety percent “just stuff”.”
He shuffled over, eyes bright and smiling. Chelsea’s stomach bottomed out. The man had tried to lie about his name and had done so poorly. Like many new hunters did. Yet he had beheaded a fairly big monster in moments. He moved a bit like the older people she hunted with, smooth and precise. But Rick had… an edge. He was so much faster… better than anybody she’d ever seen.
Keegan paced in front of her, long, thin legs eating up the distance between the dark headlights. The other monster hunters stood around in shifting groups of denim, flannel, and leather. Nobody talked much, and all the laughter was short and sharp in the ever-blowing prairie wind.
Taku-He turned deeper into the prairie.
Oh no you don’t!
Thought and action came at the same time. She floored her car once more; the wild bouncing briefly bringing on fear for her suspension, and overtook the monster.
The only constant was a sense of belligerent purpose. They were a people who knew that they were lucky to be alive, and they intended to press that luck yet again.
Once they were outside the restaurant, she looped the leash around the faux-wood horse hitch and hung his sign around his neck. It read, “I’m waiting for my owner and love pets.” Bentley’s mouth opened in a smile as kids squealed and headed over.
She has halfway across the dirt parking lot when Keegan called out. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop.”
Chelsea didn’t stop walking, but she did slow down. “What do you want?”
Keegan jogged up to her. “Nothing.” Then he shrugged. “Maybe a ride to the next town.”
The door to the haunt both attracted and repelled Chelsea. She hunted monsters and needed to talk to others who did so. But she didn’t have too many positive experiences with other hunters.
*Dead boyfriends and broken hearts don’t make for return customers.*
Tall and thin, the brain leech’s only resemblance to humanity was being bipedal. But the silhouette offended her sense of proportion, being truly too thin to be human, and its face was utterly alien. The lack of a nose making it vaguely reptilian, but also a touch insectoid, with side mandibles.
Words That Burn Like Fire 