“Mom, wait!” Ben said, now fully clothed and approaching the group from behind.
“Sasha’s still out there!”
“Who?” Samantha looked quizzically at her son.
“Sasha Myers, Graham’s daughter. She and I were… together when Mom called.” Ben says, blushing a bit.
“I’m not about to let you go running into the woods to find her. Do you think she’s still there?” Samantha asked.
“I don’t know. But it’s pretty easy to spot her. She’s a white tiger.” Ben said, a little annoyed that they were wasting time talking about this. A scared normal wasn’t going to react well to see an eight foot tall white female weretiger. And what’s worse, it’d be much easier to get a picture of something with light colored fur like Sasha.
“Alright, I’ll call the police and tell them to find her too. Calm down Ben, she’ll be okay.” Samantha tried to prevent Ben from running off. The last thing she needed was to worry about his safety too. While Samantha walked off to make the call, Eric and Cassie said their goodbyes for the night.
Francis already drove off in to the hospital to deal with the Julie Stoval crisis. And though Francis said that Eric didn’t need to be there, he felt he should. He still cared about Julie, no matter how nuts she was or wasn’t.
“Well, the normal aside, I REALLY enjoyed tonight.” Eric said.
“Me too. Good luck at the hospital.” Cassie said. She understood why Eric had to go. She wasn’t angry, or jealous, much to Eric’s relief.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning?” Eric asked hopeful.
“Definitely. Want to come over here or should I come to your place?”
“I’ll come over here. You don’t want to leave your mom all alone do you?”
“Good point.” Cassie said. She and Eric shared a kiss, and half it for as long as they could. Eventually Ben cleared his throat, signaling that they had to get on with the night. Cassie went inside her house, while Eric followed his mother and Ben to the car. He and Ben sat in the back, the two women in front.
“Can someone tell me what’s wrong with Julie now?” was the first thing he asked once they were on their way.
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Claire Robertson, as hard as she tried not to, found herself lost as she ran through the woods. The rifle provided little comfort, as it was pitch black out, and she had no decent means of light. A small flashlight, and her camera, but they only threw light for a few feet. A lot of good that would do if she saw another one of those giant wolves. What’s worse, she had no way of knowing if they were following her.
Meanwhile, Sasha Myers was making her way back towards her house after thoroughly enjoying her time with Ben. She’d never thought much of him until now. He certainly knew what he was doing. And Sasha looked forward to the night they could engage each other again.
As she walked through the forest, she caught an unfamiliar scent. A regular person’s scent. She initially froze, but then started to follow it. Sasha was eventually led to what as the remains of Claire’s campsite. Just a tent, with a solar powered lantern, a sleeping bag, some food supplies, and a lot of bug spray. And some distinctly female items left strewn on the floor of the tent.
“I’d better get out of here before she comes back.” Sasha thought, glancing around for any signs of this normal. There was another trail leading off in the direction of the lake, so Sasha went in the opposite direction.
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“Any sign of her?” One of the police officers asked his colleague.
“No. Do we even know what she looks like?” the other officer asked.
“No. The two wolves only saw her as she was fleeing. But her camp has to be around here somewhere.”
Two of officers, part of Moon Lake’s tracking “K-9” tracking unit, were searching the woods for Claire. They remained in uniform, since the girl was most likely scared shitless. Seeing one were would be a shock, but two? At least they had been teenagers, because two fully grown werewolves probably would have warranted a scream or two.
“I got the were tiger’s scent!” The radio clipped to the officers’ shoulders buzzed.
“Where?”
“Don’t worry, I think she’d heading in the other direction. Starts to drift towards the residential part of town.” the officer elsewhere in the wood informed them.
“Thank god for that.” One of the officers on Claire’s trail said in relief.
“Alright, well let’s get back to the search. One less person to worry about. Hey, I think I’ve got something!”
The officer’s flashlight hit a bit of plastic. An abandoned water jug. And five or so feet from it was a tent. The scents obviously belonging to a normal human. But lingering weretiger scents as well.
“You don’t suppose the two encountered each other, do you?” The officer asked, worried the girl was in even more of a panic now.
“Doubtful. The normal’s scent is fading, she left a while ago. The tiger’s is much fresher.”
The officer breathed a sigh of relief as the other began combing through the vacant tent.
“We’ve got a serious problem.” he said from inside the tent.
“More serious than an out-of-town normal running around the forest scared out of her mind?”
“Yup.” The officer emerged from the tent holding a box of bullets.
“An out-of-town normal running around the forest scared shitless, and armed.”