Chapter Four

Jackson was not a stupid 25 year old boy. He did not want his little cousin around if someone was in the house but he did not want to have her alone in some room and have her taken if they were still around. He turned to her as he grabbed a flashlight, afraid turning on the lights might scare someone into doing something stupid, and said, "Stay close behind me and try not to scream unless you see someone." She nodded her understanding as he looked at her pale face. He did not know if she was as scared as he was but she was at least close. He flicked the flashlight one and started towards the living room. Cujo, having been trained since he was just a pup saw the signs Jack was making and made sure to follow them since he was on edge as well. He motioned for Cujo to go to the livingroom and he did, sniffing around, he sneezed once, then twice. His owner reccognized this as him keeping the scent of whoever had been here in his memory, in case it was needed. He listened to the clicking of the dog's nail as he circled the living room. When he came back into the hallway Jack knew it was clear.
He let out a breath and motioned with the light down the small hallway to the kitchen on the right, straight across from the livingroom. As Cujo went in he listened as he heard the dog check the cupboards, he listened as he heard a shuffling sound, whcih he took was Cujo looking under the table. When he came back out they moved on down to Jack's bedroom, then the bathroom and lastly the spare room which had been turned into Jack's writing room or "office". It was in the last room where it seemed to go a little wrong.
The 2 year old pup went into the room, he began his circling. But it was when he was suppoed to be roughly around the window that he heard growling. "Stay here," He whispered as he got up and got into the doorway. He was about to turn on the light when he saw what looked like a monkey on the broken window sill. It was almost like the creature, the scrunt, almost as if it was made of branches instead of grass. Green, moss covered twigs, wet from recent rain, the smell wafted over to him. It actually was somewhat familiar to him for some reason. The feet, or what he could see, looked like they had gone through freshly mowed grass, like hair sprouting randomly on its body. It was then he heard a bark and a cry like a monkey and as he looked he saw a second of these monkeys standing off with Cujo. The monkey swung but Cujo dodged and came in for a neck bite but the creature was faster and knocked him to the floor. "Cujo!" Jack ran for his friend as the monkey moved to the window with its counterpart. They looked at one another and then back at Jack before they left the same way, he guessed, they came in. Through the window. "I guess my office is now traffic for the weird." He mumbled as he took a look at his dog. "You're ok buddy you're ok. Let me look Cujo, Hey! Don't snap at me let me look." When Cujo finally let him look him over nothing felt broken, there was no bleeding just some sore spots. "Good boy." he said to him, petting him gently. "It's ok Joce. Everything ok now."
He looked into the doorway and saw her already standing there. "I'll say! What were those things?"
"I don't know," he said, staring around at the ruins, but he smiled as a thought came to him. "But I know where to find out."

Chapter Three

As Jackson headed inside he heard barking. Cujo was at the door as he came in whining and licking him all over. "Oh stop being such a worry wart you big baby." As he  walked to the kitchen he noticed that the two strange men he had been with, were no longer with him at all. In fact, when he went outside to find them, thinking they may be by the dead body of the creature he had killed, he didn't even find the body. "Okay. I'm officially a little creeped." He headed back inside for his Coke and rum mix, he didn't even care that it was two in the afternoon. When Cujo gave him a look that said, isn't it early, he just said, "Hey, it's five o'clock somewhere" before downing the rest of glass two.
He slid out another Smooth cigarrette as he found his way to the couch. Sliding into the comfortable cushions, not even getting the chance to turn the T.V. on before he passed out.

He was dreaming. He had to be dreaming. There was no way that a giant eagle was giving him a ride on its back. No that's not right. It is Eatlon. He did not stop to even think of how he knew that. He watched as the montain city came into view. He was finally home. After all of these years. He smiled and did not care to wipe the one solitary tear that fell from his eye. As he looked down on the long forgotten city beneath the sea he could hear crowds of people cheering his return. But as quick as came.
Jackson awoke with a start. Cujo was barking at him, ringing his bell by the door. "Oh come on man really?" He groaned as he got out of his seat to get the leash. "Alright let's go." As he clicked the leash into place and opened the door for the excited puppy.
The dog did its business as Jackson bundled himself up a little more to protect himself from the chill night as he watched Cujo walked to the car. "Where are you going?" He watched him walk to the car and bark at the door. "Cuj' we're not going anywhere for the next. . . Oh shit." He thankfully had his keys in his jacket when he had check the time and noticed it was 9:00 p.m. and he was late.
He opened the door and let Cujo take his backseat place and sped out of the parking lot a little to fast. Thankfully it only took him five minutes to get to the bus station, along the way noticing he had not only missed a phone call from his aunt but also from Jocelyn and Grace. "Bud we are in so much trouble." Cujo whined and laid his head down. "Yeah I know."
He pulled into the vacant lot and kept the car running. He sat on the hood and looked around, not seeing any signs of life. He sighed and prayed the girl had not taken a cab since she probably had no money and expected Jack to pay for it for being late. He pulled out a smoke and decided to wait a little longer but he was lucky because she came walking out. She had a backpack over her pink winter coat, a messenger bag across her shoulder with flowers on it and a look that could kill.
"I thought you quit smoking." He flinched, remembering he had just lit one.
"I uh. . ."
"Don't bother lying to me Jackie, you know I won't take it. You said, you said. . ."
"I know I know I know, but it was a hard day and. . . I'll get it in the car."
It was a quiet ride back to the apartment, even the dog was quiet. Although, he was quiet because Jocelyn was rubbing him behind his ear. Traitor, was all Jackson could think. When they finally pulled up, she did not even wait for Jack to turn and try to apologize, she grabbed her bags by her feet went for the door. Jack followed behind quickly hoping to make this better but as he got to the door he could tell something as wrong.
"Joce."
"Yeah?"
"Get behind me." She did without saying another word. The apartment was a mess, it was obvious someone, not some thing had been in here, and he did not want his little cousin finding out what.

Chapter Two

He leaped over the windowsill and dropped to one knee. He clenched the bat a little tighter when he heard the rustling of leaves again. He tried ot turn towards the sound, when it sounded like it came from the right, but when he did another came from the left. "hello?" he yelled. The answer he received was a growl. "Oh fuck." He tried to calm down but he was having some trouble. He reached into his pocket with one hand, grabbbing his phone and the card the two mysterious men had given them and started dialing the number.
"Agent Thomas." As he was about to answer the creature jumped and was on top of him. It was a blur of claws, a muzzle filled with teeth and the sound of those teeth knawing on wood. When Jack finally got a good look at this creature it wasn't really covered with fur. It looked like it was nothing but laid flat grass, matted and clumped mudd was what held it together. Its jaw snapped and wriggled trying to get through the hard maple wood. Jack pushed a little harder but his arms could not do anymore, even with his adrenaline rush, and that is what was worrying him. He lowered it closer to his face and could smell his breath, rotten leaves, moss and petrified wood. "Dude. . . Two words. Breath mint." He shoved up and over on the bat, sending the thing flying to the ground and sliding on the new wet leaves from the rain last night. He stared at its eyes and it faced off with him. He finally put his feet underneath him to stand. He put the bat between the two of them and held it more like a staff instead of a bat. He watched as it backed up as he advanced. "What in gods name. . . You have the advantage boy. Take it." He muttered uder his breath. He took another step but heard a twig snap, he looked down and as he did, the creature jumped. "Jesu. . ." He cried, pushing the bat forward and planting his feet to keep from falling over again. It stumbled and Jack took his chance to swing, like the pro-athlete his wasn't, striking the side of it's green muzzle and hearing the sound of broken branches instead of bone. It crumpled at his feet and almost seemed to dissolve into the grass.
Jack stepped back and fell over himself trying to breathe and not freak out. The bat fell from his hands and found their way into his brown hair which was sweaty, wet from the leaves sticking here and there on his head andmore sweat.
He heard something like words coming from on the ground, it was then he realized his phone was still on. He picked it up with shaking hands.
 "Mr. Carter? Are you there sir? Are you. . . No I haven't heard anything from. . ."
"I'm here agent Thomas. And uh. . . I think I found the creature you were looking for. Is it ok if it's dead?"
"It's what?"
"Dead."
"How did you. . ."
"Baseball bat." He answered. There was silence on the other end as agent Thomas tried to think of an answer.
"You killed it. With a baseball bat?"
"That is what I said."
"We'll be over in ten." Jackson could hear the car tires squealing as it turned sharply. "Where are you?"
"Outside my apartment, around the back." The line went dead and when he looked at the phone's screen it said 'call disconnected'.
"Well bye to you too." He slid it back into his pocket and made it back to his window and sat on the open sill. "Fuck it." He leaned back and got into the drawer and pulled out his Malboro Smooth pack of ciggarettes and a scorpio lighter. He slipped one out with ease of repitive practice as well as lighting it and sliding both pieces into his chest pocket.
By the time he had finished his first smoke in over 2 years the two agents had come around the back of the complex. "s'about time boys." He let out the last bit of smoke and dropped the butt to the ground, dropped down from the sill and crushed his smoldering butt. He walked towards where the body was, which he had been staring at since he had killed it.
Where is it Mr. . . Oh." He pointed at the corpse as he slid another smoke between his lips. "And you. . ." He motioned a swing with a clicking sound with his tongue."
"Right to his muzzle. Surprised I hit him really since I never was good at baseball but I guess when you're life depends on it."
"Well uh. . . Thank you very much. . ."
"You want to tell me why my life depended on this? And why the fuck this thing was around here in general. This is not a common mutt since this. . .this. . . Shit that is covering him is not fur." Jackson got louder as he went about his rant. "You wanna tell me what the fuck is going on?"
"Sir. . ." The other agent started to say.
"Shut up Frank."
"But he's. . ."
"It's kind of late for that because of our own mess." He motion to his lips towards Jack and he passed a smoke over to him and lit it. "What you killed was a scrunt. Straight from the blue world, which you should not have been able to kill it."
"Why not? because before most people can even see it. It strikes from the grass. No human response is fast enough to do anything."
"But I did."
"And the only way you could have would be if for some reason you had some inkling of where it was. They attack from behind, not the front."
There was silence among the three of them.
"I need a stiff drink." Jackson sighed.