Nothing To Fear ....

Unwanted Gifts

      "Are you sure nobody else wants to come?" Andy inquired, as he moved toward the front door.

      Joe simply staggered into the kitchen, mumbling "Coffee,"while CC, Jinxx, and Jon shook their heads.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Faith looked up from her laptop and said, "Nah, I'll take a pass today. You guys have a nice run, though."

      Andy joined Ashley, Jake, Jesse, and Yanni at the door, all of them wearing sweats and sneakers. The plan was to jog to the end of the private road and back, roughly a mile each way.

      The plan changed abruptly the moment they stepped off of the porch and looked across the yard.

      "Holy shit!" Andy and Jake shouted simultaneously, while Yanni's jaw dropped, and Jesse went pale.

      "What the actual fuck happened here?" Ashley asked in a startled tone .

      Hearing the commotion, everyone else piled onto the porch, and a collective gasp emerged as they saw what the guys had found.

      Lying in the grass, midway between the porch and the driveway, was the gutted carcass of a large buck, its large brown eyes now glazed over and empty.

      Everyone stepped into the yard, encircling the animal, and Joe said " I guess Jinxx was right about the coyotes." 

      "No." Faith responded.

      "What the hell do you mean, 'No'?" Andy inquired .

      "There's no blood," she stated flatly.

      Everyone stared at her in confusion for several seconds, then a look of comprehension crossed Ashley's face. "Fuck, she's right!" he said. "If this thing had been killed here, it would be laying in a puddle of blood. Not to mention that at least one of us would've heard something! Hell, it's almost right under your window, Andy, and you wake up at the drop of a fucking hat!"

      "So do you think that maybe some of the locals don't like the idea of a bunch of 'satanic rock and roll weirdos' staying here, and decided to try to scare us off?" CC asked.

      " Who knows?" Yanni responded. "But no matter what it's about, we all need to start being more careful. We can talk about it some more later, but right now we should get this thing out of here."

      They abandoned the idea of jogging, and, along with CC, wrestled the heavy carcass off of the lawn and into the back of the pickup truck that Ashley drove up from the detached garage behind the house. Before they moved it, Joe made sure to film it, just in case they might need the footage later.

      They drove a couple of miles down the road, then pulled over into a small clearing, and carried the animal into the treeline.

      "Nobody lives out here, and it's far enough away from the house that we won't smell it if the animals don't finish it off," Jesse commented.

      "Yeah, this is probably the best we can do right now," Andy replied.

      "Do you think we should've called the cops and reported it?" Jake questioned.