Chapter 5: The Girl in the Cage, Part 4

List’s head snapped toward the jail’s door at the sound of the lock turning. Her tail went rigid as she backed into a corner of her cell, and her hands curled into fists.

Sheriff Darshan staggered into the jail, his steps lumbering and off balance, like at any moment he might double over. His breathing was ragged, and his forehead glistened with sweat. 

“You. . .” he grumbled. As if to punctuate his sentence, thunder rolled in the distance.

“What do you want?” List snapped.

She jumped as the sheriff lurched forward, rattling the cage as he slammed into the bars.

“You have to go.”

There was an edge to the sheriff's voice, a growl in the word “go” that unsettled List. There was violence in that voice. Her unease only grew when the bars of her cage began to groan, and she realized it was because under the sheriff’s grip, they were bending.

She found herself even more grateful to the girl who’d removed her chains. At least now, she’d be able to defend herself. Even if she was cornered. And even if the sheriff was apparently strong enough to bend iron with his bare hands.

Her heart began to race, and her body tingled in anticipation. Then a familiar voice came from outside.

“Evening, Sheriff.”

Valerie stepped into the jail, her wristbow loaded and leveled at the sheriff’s chest. The man snarled.

“You. You shouldn’t be here.”

“I’ve been getting that a lot today.”

“This isn't your business, outsider. Leave.”

“From what I hear, it only recently became yours,” Valerie said. “When did you and your wife move here, Sheriff? A few months ago.”

“Stop talking.”

“Right around when some people started hearing a monster in the woods, I’d imagine.”

“Stop.”

“Did you ever hear one, on all those nights you and your wife disappeared into the woods? Because I bet if I asked around, I’d find out people always heard those monsters on the nights the two of you went out.”

“Or was that little cabin the two of you built soundproof? Certainly looked strong. Maybe even strong enough to lock up a monster on nights you couldn’t control it. Until it got stronger. Until it got out.”

“You don’t know me,” Darshan growled. “What I’ve been through.”

“Maybe not,” Valerie said. “But I know that you’ve got a girl locked up that you know is innocent. I know that your shack in the woods was built to keep something in, not out. And I know you were the one who killed your wife.”

An animalistic roar tore itself fromDarshan’s throat as he lunged for Valerie. On instinct, she loosed a bolt into the sheriff, hitting him square in the chest with a wet thud before she leapt out of the way of his charge and let him crash face first into a wall.

“Holyshit,” List said. “Is he dead?”

Valerie stared at the body with ice in her veins. He ended up crumpled on the floor, half slumped against the wall, the bolt jutting out just to the right of his sternum like an off kilter flagpole as blood began to leak from it.

“I . . . he came at me,” Valerie said, stunned. “He—”

For a moment, Valerie’s mouth went dry as she stared in stomach churning horror at the first human being she’d ever killed. 

And then the sheriff twitched.

“Don’t move,” Valerie warned. “If you disturb the bolt, it—”

"You . . ." Darshan growled. "Should have stayed . . . away."

With a grunt, he grabbed at the wall, trying to find purchase to haul himself back onto his feet. His fingers carved grooves into the wood, growing larger as they dragged down. With a sickening snap, his back doubled over in an unnatural hunch. His jaw jutted forward as his teeth grew and his hair became thick and coarse. His face went from scraggly, to bearded, to completely covered in hair. His muscles swelled, with his clothing and even skin ripping open as it failed to stretch with his body.

In the span of a few seconds, the sheriff grew into a hulking, bestial form that struggled to fit inside the cramped space of the jail. Its body was covered in coarse, black fur. Already massive hands sported elongated, gnarled fingers tipped in claws. And its face had morphed from a man’s into a wolf’s.

A single, hoarse whisper escaped Valerie’s lips. 

“. . . werewolf.”

“What?!” List balked.

“Werewolf!”

Darshan lunged again, and this time Valerie had to dive out of the way. With his considerable bulk, he smashed into List’s cage, buckling several of the bars as she instinctively fell back, landing on her ass.

“Shit!”

Valerie loosed another bolt, then another, then another, all while backpedaling across the floor and desperately trying to scramble back to her feet. Darshan barely seemed to register the shafts as they sank into him, his advance relentless.

He brought his claws crashing down, and Valerie only narrowly rolled away in time. By the time she got to her feet, she had to duck again just to avoid his next swipe. Every time he missed Valerie, he tore further into the cramped interior of the jail, leaving it covered in claw marks and broken boards.

Valerie had dodged everything so far, but given how easily he was tearing the jail apart, the sheriff would only need to hit her once to end this. Trying to reload in the middle of their melee was too hard, so Valerie stopped trying, and the next time she saw an opening, she jumped into the air, and jammed a bolt straight into the werewolf’s eye.

The monster gave a yelp and swatted her out of the air and into the bars of List’s cell hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Clutching at his face, Darshan barreled for the door, breaking it and its frame as he retreated.

On the floor, Valerie coughed once, finally able to breathe again. “That . . . hurt.”

“I’m sure. Not to be insensitive, but can you get me out of here?” List asked, shaking the bars of her cell. “Preferably before that thing comes back.”

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Valerie grunted as she got to her feet, her body still aching from the last hit she’d taken. After a bit of wondering and an attempt to squeeze List through the warped bars, Valerie found the keys to the cell in the shredded remains of the sheriff’s clothes, and managed to get the damaged cell door open enough to let the hellborn girl slip out. 

As the two of them stepped out of the jail, stray raindrops began to find their way down from the dark clouds above, and Valerie cursed under her breath.

More rain.

“Where did he go?” List asked. 

“Not far,” Valerie said, finally reloading her wristbow while she had the chance. “Werewolves are territorial, and as far as he’s concerned, I’m trespassing.”

“You’ve dealt with a lot of werewolves, then?”

“Not exactly. I’ve read a lot about them.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“I know what I’m doing. Just stay close, and we’ll get you somewhere safe,” Valerie said.

“Tell me you’ve got another weapon I can borrow.”

“Not unless you count a whip.”

“Why do you have a whip?”

“It’s an exercise in—it doesn’t matter. Just stay with me.”

List groaned, only for her frustration to be replaced by panic as she spotted a large, dark shape looming on top of the sheriff’s home. She had just enough time to register the look of murder in its one remaining eye before it leapt down, coming straight for them.

Valerie shoved the two of them apart just as Darshan's hulking body crashed down onto the spot they’d been standing a second earlier, and loosed another bolt into the creature’s back. She rolled with her own momentum, creating distance as she reloaded. She came up spattered in muddy water, weapon loaded and ready to fire.

On the opposite side of the werewolf, List recovered her own footing, and with a flick of her wrist, unfurled a long, leather whip. Too late, Valerie registered that the weight of the weapon was gone from her hip.

“List! Be—”

With what could only be described as expertise, List twirled the whip around her body before cracking it straight into Darshan's face, leaving a gash on its cheek. The werewolf turned to face her with a snarl, lunging forward, but List was already moving, keeping the whip thrashing around her as she did.

As Darshan closed in, List leapt back, clear of his reach, and delivered another whip crack, this time to the monster’s throat, before immediately cracking it again, striking it in the eye Valerie had stabbed earlier.

The werewolf recoiled and howled from the pain, instinctively retreating a few steps and giving List time to pull further away. She yanked the whip's length back to her, catching it in her off hand.

Valerie stared, dumbstruck and catching rainwater in her open mouth.

“. . . careful.”

List caught Valerie’s eye before jerking her head toward the werewolf. “Come on! Or did your werewolf books tell you to just stand there and gawk?”

That, and Darshan recovering from List’s attacks, finally snapped Valerie back to her senses, and she took aim once again as the beast charged. Questions about when and how List had learned to use a whip even better than Valerie could wait. There was a monster trying to kill them.

As the fight progressed, Valerie found herself working with overtime, and struggling to keep up. List’s surprising proficiency with a wildly inefficient weapon aside, she was severely lacking in other fundamentals. She fought with a wild abandon and no heed of her surroundings—including Valerie’s line of sight. The girl's constant, erratic movements didn’t make lining up a shot any easier. But she had to try. 

A whip could sting something fierce, and it certainly made for a spectacle, but it wasn’t going to put down a beast like a werewolf any time soon. Truthfully, Valerie wasn’t sure she could either, given how most of her shots went ignored by the sheriff. 

Aiming for a clear weak spot, like the head or vital locations, at least provoked a reaction, but the constant holding and repositioning List’s fighting forced her to do made the opportunities for such shots few and far between.

And as it turned out, List wasn’t the only one not minding her position. Valerie got so caught up in trying to line up a shot, she didn’t realize until it was too late that she’d positioned herself directly in the werewolf’s path of retreat. The next time it recoiled from one of List’s strikes, it retreated straight toward Valerie. And in an instant, she was too close.

In the split second she realized her mistake, she panicked, and the werewolf pounced. Before she could react, she was on the ground with the werewolf’s jaws caught on her wristbow. The metal apparatus crunched and buckled under the beast’s teeth, ruined.

Valerie kicked and shoved, trying to get free before she lost an arm, but it was like kicking a brick wall. One of the werewolf’s claws dug into her shoulder, and she screamed. In a last, desperate play, she grabbed hold of one of the many crossbow bolts still lodged in its hide, and started stabbing. There was no thought or strategy to where she stabbed—only a desperate, animal desire to survive.

It didn’t stop the werewolf. But the whip that wrapped around its throat did. 

The weapon went taut as, at the other end, List dug her heels in and pulled with everything she had. Between her and Valerie, the two of them just managed to hold the monster back from tearing Valerie apart.

“Get back here, you overgrown mutt!” List grunted.

The werewolf responded by jerking hard against the whip, yanking List off her feet and straight toward it. It swiped at her in the air with its claws, and Valerie screamed as she watched blood spray out from List’s face.

When she actually caught sight of List’s face as the girl tumbled through the air, Valerie’s scream got stuck in her throat.

A massive red gash had opened on one side of her face, starting part way up her cheek and reaching all the way up to her hairline. Blood ran freely from the wound, leaving half her face almost completely covered in her own blood.

And she was smiling.

Never once letting go of her whip as she careened through the air, List yanked hard on it, pulling herself back to the ground as she twisted mid air to land on her feet. Her whole body tensed from head to tail, and energy like red lightning crackled across her whole body as the tattoos on her body glowed blood red.

“Is that all you’ve got?!” She screamed. “You're boring me!"

List yanked on the whip again, uncoiling it from around the werewolf's neck as she readied another swing. The energy dancing all across her raced down the length of the whip, and it flashed as cracked it one last time. The entire whip became a blinding length of bright, glowing red light, tinging the rain and mist around List as it cast her features in its bloody glow.

When the whip struck the werewolf, it slashed through his neck as if it wasn't even there. Blood gushed out from the wound, spattering against List as she stood, shoulders heaving as blood ran down her face. The werewolf gurgled, limply grabbing at its throat as it dropped to one knee, and then to the floor. After one last twitch, Darshan went still in a pool of his own blood.

The wicked grin never left List's face.

As Valerie stared at the hellborn girl standing bloody and victorious over the broken, bolt-ridden corpse of the werewolf, a part of her wondered whether or not the town might have had two monsters in it after all.

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