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PROLOGUE – A LATE-NIGHT VISIT
TWO
DARREN TOOK THREE DEEP breaths and turned the corner into the barn. He jerked to a stop. He could not believe his eyes. The carnage was unimaginable. Dead, mutilated rabbits and bloody white rabbit fur were everywhere. The rabbits’ wooden and wire mesh cages were torn apart. “Damn it,” Darren said. “They destroyed thirty rabbits.” He spun around when something hit a horse stall. It was one of the horses. He watched it collapse to the ground. “What in the hell?” Then he heard the cows running across the field. “What the hell was going on?”
He ran out of the barn, looked into the dark field, and raised his shotgun. The moonlight helped him to see. He adjusted his aim to get a straight shot at the shadowy figure riding on the back of one of the cows. He squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked when it fired. He hoped he had not hit the cow. He squinted into the dark to see if he had shot anything. A wild dog? A wild animal? A bear? A coyote?
“Aaaahhhhh!” he yelled and covered his face and fell backward. Something had attacked him. It moved quickly from his face to his neck. He tried to grab it. It jumped to his back. He reached over his shoulder. It moved to his chest and the back of his neck. He grabbed at whatever was on top of him and screamed, “Aaaahhhhhh!”
“Darren!” Denice yelled, running off the porch with her rifle in hand. She could see Darren fighting with a figure. “Darren!” She raised the rifle and squeezed off a shot. Then something plowed into her with such force she left her feet. She hit the ground and gasped. The thing tore at her stomach. It ripped her clothes and her skin. She yelled. But no one heard her or came. She fought, got to her feet, and ran. Her knees buckled. She stumbled toward the house. She was in severe pain when she reached for the door.
Claws wrapped around her face. They were crushing her head. The thought of dying gave her a second wind. She grabbed at whatever was on her back and spun around in circles, trying to get it off. Then she gasped, froze, dropped to her knees, and fell sideways.
Darren and Denice lay twenty feet apart. Both were too bloody and out of it to see where the blood was coming from. They lay still. The cows, horses, and chickens were quiet. The area was back to dark and quiet as it was most nights. Moonlight shined on the one cow lying halfway over the fence. Deep tears down to the bone went down its side. Its tongue hung out. Its large head was nearly decapitated from its thick neck. The other cows stayed far away from the dead cow. It was as if they knew something terrible had happened there.
I hope you enjoyed Part Two of Mattie. Mattie is on Amazon. It’s available on Kindle Unlimited, too! Check it out. You’ll enjoy the rest of the book.
See you soon.
Joan Harbor