Marcus Holt's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Marcus Holt crossed out the last mark on his map. Every sighting report led nowhere. He needed one living, unharmed specimen to prove Zeroveil’s rarest lifeform existed. Instead, his wall held guesses in red ink. His cramped research bungalow smelled of hot wires and plant soil. The Fuzzy Spider sat beside his desk, six furred legs tucked close. It watched Marcus slam a scanner panel shut. “Every survey is useless,” Marcus said. “People see lights. They hear calls. Nobody records a location.” The spider tapped a front foot against a sealed sample jar. Inside stood a Starry Rose, its dark petals glittering under the work lamp. Marcus had collected pollen from its lower leaves three days ago. His analyzer had flagged an odd protein in the dust. He had dismissed it as contamination. The spider tapped the jar again. Marcus scowled. “I heard you.” He pulled the pollen record onto the screen. The protein chain repeated in groups of eight. So did another file: the damaged sound clip from an old field report. Marcus ran both through a pattern filter. A line formed across the display. Then a second. The sound clip and the pollen record matched. Marcus stopped breathing for a moment. The rare lifeform had fed on the rose, or brushed against it. The reports were not random. They followed blooming sites. He grabbed a handheld reader and scanned the rose. The device chirped once, then painted a faint trail across the room. It ended at the bungalow’s vent. Marcus climbed onto the desk and removed the grate. A clump of violet pollen sat inside. Fresh hairs lay beside it, thin and silver. The Fuzzy Spider chirped and backed away from the vent. Marcus sealed the hairs in a tube. “You found the clue. Do not look pleased.” He fed the new data into the map. Four reported lights now made a clean route between known rose patches. The route narrowed to a single ridge of dense growth. For the first time, Marcus had a place to search. Then his reader shrieked. The trail on the screen moved. A bright signal pulsed beneath the bungalow floor. Marcus froze with the sample tube in his hand. The creature he planned to hunt was already at his home.