Author's Note: Warning. There will be some gory stuff in this chapter, but it's not going to be in any sex scene. I don't play that way.
***
Outside, in the dark, Pearl shined her flashlight. One hand was on the handle of her gun, which was still in the holster. At first, she thought she needed to find a river, but then she realized that a van had been driven to this place. There had to be enough space for the van to get in, which meant that if she followed that empty space she'd eventually find roads. Roads were even better than rivers sometimes.
A quick look in the van showed that the dead man was still in there. Nobody had dealt with the body as they were meant to. Where were those kidnapping scumbags?
Pearl sighed and looked around. Trees. Trees and more trees, but she found a gap and tire tracks in dirt and rocks. It wasn't even a dirt road, but it counted. Her new manly boots crunched as she walked.
Quiet, but not fully quiet. Bugs and stuff. Sometimes a far off animal growled, shuffled in leaves, or even howled. Those sounds didn't frighten her too much, although she was concerned that some wild creature with rabies might attack her.
Her inner Little Red Riding Hood voice told her to stay on the path. Always stay on the path. This wasn't a stupid old rule that was told by out of touch Boomers. When lost, you either stay where you are, or stay on a path. Pearl was in a situation where she needed to get out, so she stayed on the path.
No paved road yet. There was only the rural, informal route. Dirt and rocks.
Something slithered across, making her stop and gasp. It might have been a snake.
Pearl made sure she couldn't see any other possibly intimidating thing and then continued.
The loudest growl yet made her stop again. She even hopped in place. She turned her flashlight to the direction of the noise. Nothing was visible, but she did hear a man scream.
But then ... she saw someone emerge. A running man hollering in rapid Spanish, probably Beads. Pearl couldn't understand him, but she knew it was one of her kidnappers.
Pearl whipped out her gun and cried out one of the few Spanish phrases she knew. "Β‘Alto!" That meant stop or halt. She also said, "Β‘Tengo un arma!" She was pretty sure that meant, "I have a gun." Pretty sure, not one hundred percent. Your average three year old Spanish speaking person knew a whole lot more than Pearl.
She thought she could intimidate him with the concept of being shot.
It didn't quite work, the man screamed something else. Pearl only recognized one word.
Demonio.
Demon.
Whatever he meant by that, Pearl didn't care. She shot at him. The recoil was tough. The chemical smell was unpleasant. Sadly, she missed, and the man only rushed harder towards her. Pearl circled around him and ...
Forgot about her inner Little Red Riding Hood.
Right in the woods.
She was so scared that she'd turned stupid.
In her stupid mind she thought she could hide in the trees. On the path, she'd be out in the open. She kept looking back. The man, she was pretty sure it was Beads, he did go after her for a while, reaching out, and Pearl did make a few more shots at him.
But she was pretty sure she eventually lost him. His voice faded away. His form was no longer visible to her. Maybe he stopped chasing her, which made some sense. Why chase after a person shooting bullets at you? Pearl definitely wasn't a good shot, but she might've gotten him at some point if he kept going. She wasn't worth that danger, right?
Panting, she stopped and leaned against a tree. She went into her backpack for more bullets.
Demonio, huh? Was he calling her a demon? What a whiny bitch! Kidnap a woman and then you call her a demon? How very Christian of him! And yes, she considered Catholics to be Christian, just another flavor. Anyone who said anything different, in her mind, was probably falling to the No True Scotsman fallacy. But that was her opinion, and Pearl didn't know everything.
She was ready to go again. She carefully put her gun back in the holster and looked for that route she'd been on. Then she thought, "Even if I find it, that piece of shit will be out there." Maybe she needed to go in a different direction, sort of following the the path, then return to it?
She needed to find the path in the first place, right?
But ... she'd already forgotten what direction she'd taken when she'd fled into the woods!
Wait.
She blinked. Her fingers drummed on her flashlight.
Demonio. The ending of that word sounded masculine. Spanish was one of those feminine and masculine languages. While there were exceptions, the general rule was that masculine nouns ended with the letter o and feminine nouns ended with a.
Did the word demonio have a special feminine version that ended with a or did it stay in its original form no matter the gender of the demon in question?
God damn it, had that guy been talking about her or not?! Why the fuck hadn't she ever bothered to learn more Spanish growing up?!
Thunk!! Crackle!! Coughing, choking!!
Behind her?
Pearl's flesh felt like it rippled.
Get the FUCK back to the route! If you see Beads or anyone else that could fuck you over, shoot!! That's what her brain screeched at her.
She weaved through some trees.
A growl! A heavy, gritty growl!
To her left now!!
How ... how could she not look?
She turned her head and light to the source.
Big ... furry ... thing? Claws on ... hands?! Standing like a man?! Thick legs, massive, canine-like feet. Dangling near the feet ... a mess of blood and trailing intestines, partially coated in dirt and leaves!! A worming, hellish figure, a man with his belly ripped open!
A bearded face distorted by agony.
Hairy?!
There was an uneven path of blood following the scene.
Blood on the beast, on the clawed feet, even on the clawed hands. Up, more blood, on the humanoid torso. On the throat. On the ... the face. The face that was a combination of human and something else. The face with a long tongue and blood sliding around on long, hellish teeth.
SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIIIIIIIIIT!!
GET THE FUCK OUT YOU DIPSHIT!!