Aamaya's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Aamaya reached the edge of the grove before dawn. The old trees drooped with dark moss, their boughs hanging low like curtains. She found the creature's tracks in the wet dirt, three claw marks pressed deep. She followed them past the first row of trunks. Then the trail stopped. No prints. No broken branches. Just black bark and silence. The one thing that could tell her what she was had slipped away, and its tracks were already gone cold. She knelt and pressed her bare hand to the last clear print. Her obsidian eye pulled tight in its socket. A flash hit her. She saw the creature crawling under a fallen log, wings folded, red eyes shut. She saw a stream behind it and a split gray boulder. The vision snapped off. She gasped and rocked back on her heels. She knew where it hid now. Her eye had given her the one thing the ground couldn't. But she couldn't go alone, and she knew it. She ran back to the cabin. Alana stood in the doorway, arms crossed. "You're not going out there without me," Alana said. "Get in the truck. We file a report first. I'm not chasing anything until this is on record." Aamaya climbed in. Alana drove them to the county station, its blue sign crisp in the morning light. Inside, a young man sat at the desk. He was tall and blonde, in a white tank top, tattoos covering both arms. Crosses and doves ran from his wrists to his shoulders. He stood and offered his hand. "Jake Dawkins," he said. "New transfer. I'll take your statement." Aamaya forgot the creature for a second. She stared at the ink on his forearms. "Those are... really something," she said. Her cheeks went warm. Alana's head snapped up. "Transfer? Nobody told me we hired anyone." She looked him over, jaw tight. "I work here. I'd know." "Started Monday," Jake said. He pulled a form toward him. "Sheriff signed off. Guess the memo missed you." Alana muttered under her breath and dropped into a chair. Aamaya slid into the seat beside her, still glancing at Jake's arms. He clicked a pen. "So. What happened out at the cabin?" Aamaya opened her mouth. Then she saw it. On his left hand, near the thumb, a small mark inked in black. Two crossed lines, then a curve, the same shape she'd seen carved on nothing yet felt she knew. Her stomach dropped. The creature in her vision had the same mark on its wing. She went quiet. Jake noticed her staring and covered the hand with the other. "It's nothing," he said. But his smile was gone. Aamaya looked at Alana, then back at Jake. She had come here to report a monster. Now she wondered if she'd just found someone who knew exactly what she was.