Echoes

Blood.

The beautiful, copper sweet scent of it was strong in the middle of the forest. It shouldn't have been strange; there were all kinds of wild predators taking down their prey in the midst of the thick trees. But none of those predators were quite like me. And none of that other prey was a beautiful young human photographer who had been stupid enough to wander into my side of the forest.

Her blood was even sweeter to me than any other predator, the scent filling my nose as I buried my muzzle deep in the torn stomach of a girl who had stopped screaming a long time ago.

Her chest still moved in fits and starts, but she'd passed out- either from the pain, or the blood loss, I didn't care. My mind was focused purely on chewing and clawing my way through her body to get to the tender parts. Blood coated my muzzle, pasting down the fur, splattered across my face and ears as I dug my paws deeper into her abdomen with my sharp teeth slicing through tender flesh while I tore her apart to have what I wanted.

She died at some point in the middle; by the time I'd ripped her chest open and broken her ribs apart, her heart was no longer beating. It didn't make it any less of a treat for me. It was the last of what I wanted out of the sweet young girl. So the broken, torn body on the ground ceased to interest me the second I finished her heart.

I laid down across the body's legs as I licked the blood off my paws. The sticky stuff was starting to dry to a nasty red-brown, and I knew it would stick my fur together if I didn't clean it. My face was much harder, but I managed as much as I could until it bored me.

Something snapped in the forest to my left. I jolted up to my paws, ears pricked and one paw raised up as I listened carefully. I hadn't thought the pretty blonde girl would be in the forest alone. Though I'd managed to lure her off before lunging and using that damned camera of hers to pull her down, no doubt her screaming would have attracted her partner. A partner I dearly hoped would be as young and ignorant as the girl had been.

Padding forward on silent feet, I crept my way through the underbrush, following the sharp sound of snapping twigs under heavy feet. It was pathetically easy for me to track, taking all the fun out of my hunt. And the human was upwind; my nose twitched as I raised my muzzle slightly, catching the scent of a… man.

I froze for a moment, ears cocked up as I caught an odd sound I couldn't place. I'd been away from humans for far too long to recognize anything other than that the sound was made by metal. Flicking the sound out of my thoughts, I continued to follow after the human, getting closer slowly so as not to alert him.

Finally, I could see my irritating prey. Tall, lean, short black hair neatly slicked away from a slightly sharp face. And a long cloak, one that fluttered around his booted feet as he walked. The same color as the blood I had just licked off my paws.

Suspicion would have made me pause if I hadn't already fallen into the hunt. I didn't have the reason to be suspicious; my hunger was forefront, clawing and snarling at the front of my mind, baying for my fur to be washed in more blood. I was no longer human enough to deny the call of that hunger. Not when my prey was right in front of me, whistling an unfamiliar tune as another grating metal sound jarred my sensitive ears.

It infuriated me enough to stop my silent stalking. My growl, low and loud, made the human pause- just at the right time for me to lunge forward, intent on my kill.

The human turned, cloak furling out in a flare of brilliant red, and a loud crack resounded through the trees, quickly followed by my yelp as my leap became a tumble to the ground. Flaring, blazing pain radiated up from my front right paw and the bullet that was lodged in it. If it had been just a bullet, I would have been able to get it out and attack again.

It wasn't just a bullet. I was filled with the burning pain of silver infecting my blood, making my breath come on heavy, pained pants as I scrabbled at the dirt trying to get back to my feet. If I could only get to my feet, I could get away. Get the bullet out and find a place to curl up until it healed.

My panting growing more ragged, I managed to force my way to my feet- only to fall when the gun cracked again. A loud, high whine came out of me as another bullet lodged in me, high on my left leg. The smell of my own burning flesh filled my nose as I whined and tried to inch backward. Any way to get away from the human who held the raised gun at me, his eyes as red as his cloak, wide and terrified as he stared at me.

My breathing rasped terribly, even though the bullets were nowhere near my lungs; the poison of the silver was creeping through me, killing healthy flesh as it went. Destroying me from the inside. My pants mixed with pitiful whimpers as I tried to drag myself away. Hoping for at least the dignity of dying alone if I had to die in agony. Whoever the human was, I didn't want him to see it.

The sharp, sudden burn of silver under my stomach made me yelp again, crying with pain as I jerked and further upset the other injuries. My struggles became even more useless before as I sprang a trap that had been waiting for me.

The metal grating sounds of before had a clear reason as bars pulled up around me. The acidic burn of silver increased; all of those bars, too close for me to get so much as my muzzle through, were made of a silver that shined subtly in the light drifting through the thick trees.

My growl was weak, pitiful, drawing off in another high whine as my body shuddered. Between the silver in my body and the silver that surrounded me… I was being dragged down, my vision fuzzing the human in front of me into a blurry red blob. I tried my best to snarl at him when he approached, my paws moving to gain the purchase to raise myself up and be threatening.

It was the worst thing I could have done. The black fuzz closed in fast as I collapsed back to the floor of my cage, chest heaving as I fought to get in air that wasn't tainted by silver. Useless. No matter how hard I fought, the poison of the silver was too strong, even for me. I could only give one last half-hearted whimper as I lost myself, and the world went dark around me.