Eyes of the Blood Moon

The Creature of the Woods

Ella met Hassan, Struge and Ed outside her home.

"Mr. Flynn, I didn't expect you to join us?" Ella greeted with a smile.

"Oh I was worried about Riley. He'll be joining us to, he's just coming to catch up," Ed told them waving his hand down towards the empty street.

Ella nodded and turned to the Sheriff. "So whats the plan?"

He sighed. "Not sure. I suppose we need to find evidence of something living in the uppards. Track marks, bones, droppings, really anything we can find you know?"

"Alright, got it," Ella agreed.

"Sorry I'm late," a gruff tired voice said from behind the group.

"That's alright. We were just discussing what we should be looking for," Ed told Riley.

Riley just nodded before walking up to Ella. The group took off down the road towards the uppards.

Ella and Riley walked together, at the back of the group.

"We're looking for predator evidence," Ella explained. "Anything that'll tell us something's living up there. And then, the Sheriff and Sturge are gonna see what they can do about it."

"Hm," Riley grunted lazily. "So are you heading to the Crock Pot luck," he said sarcastically.

Ella laughed. "Yeah, I've been asked by Dolly to sing. I think she still wants me to preform those little plays for the gathering."

Riley let out a small laugh. "I remember one year, I think we were like 13, you preformed that song with Erin, I forget what it was called, but you did some sort of stunt...do you remember? Shocked the entire town."

Ella began to laugh harder. "Yeah, yeah I do! We sang Defying Gravity and I hadn't told anyone I attached that line to the tree, so at the finale verse I shot up into the sky, really it was just a harness and some old butterfly wings I had, but the looks on their faces was priceless."

Riley laughed as well. "This town will believe anything is a miracle. Even if the answer is so obviously right in front of them."

Ella nodded after calming down. "Yeah...that was fun though. I'd do it again."

"Do something more crazy. This town is dying for some excitement," Riley said rolling his eyes.

"It sure is. When I moved back a little over a year ago, it was the exact same as when I left. The only difference was poor Leeza...I hadn't heard about it when I was away," Ella said sadly looking at Joe's trailer as they passed by. He was sitting on his lawn chair, a beer spilt all over his clothes, passed out.

Riley nodded. "It happened...just before I left. I think that's when I decided I didn't want to stay here anymore. I knew it'd be the talk of the town for years to come."

They kept walking on in silence until they reached the uppards. It was marshy and wet after the storm, they had to tramp along through layers of sinking mud before they reached any dry land.

It was a small island, surrounded by the flooded marsh.

"Alright look around, but be careful, if it is a predator we won't want to get too close," The Sheriff warned before walking off towards the woods.

Riley, Erin and Ella used to hang out up here, when they were teenagers. Most of the kids did. They went towards their old camp site to find beer cans and charcoal littering the place.

"Warren," Riley grunted looking down at it.

"How do you figure?" Ella asked walking around towards the bramble path that led into the woods.