Page 9 of Starlight

He held his breath, ears straining for any sound. The darkness under the trees moved, and a fucking massive grey wolf stepped out. Had it smelled the food? Was it hungry?

Did it prefer pasta or human?

Human with a side of pasta?

He swallowed, but his mouth was dry as his fingers closed around the rifle. Getting mauled by a wolf was not his idea of a good time. He lifted the rifle slowly.

The wolf stared at him.

Cole fired into the trees over the wolf’s head, hoping it would run away. Instead, it grew wings and flew upward, before crying out and tumbling to the ground.

The creature lay face down in the dirt.

“Fuck.” Cole stood. Had he killed it? Whatever it was.

He took a couple of steps closer, heart beating hard as panic and fear entwined and threatened to stop his breathing. He’d shot something. He hadn’t meant to shoot it. It had been a wolf, and he’d shot over its head to scare it away.

It couldn’t be a wolf…wolves didn’t have wings.

The creature groaned, and Cole froze, not sure if he should run to the presumed safety of the cabin or offer assistance.

“I can’t believe you shot me?” The winged creature grumbled and turned its head to look at him with its big red eyes.

For a moment, Cole was lying on the side of the road, convinced he was about to die. “You!”

The creature who’d saved him and damned him in the same night was on the ground only four yards away, bleeding into the dirt. “You’re the one spying on me?”

The creature…not a wolf but the mothman monster, which he hadn’t imagined all those years ago.

“Fuck.” Cole took a step back.

Mothman stared at him, as if confused. “I’d remember if we’d met.”

“Seven years ago, almost to the day. You…you were the wolf in the road they tried to avoid. You killed my cousins and almost killed me.” How did anyone forget that?

“Oh…” Mothman blinked. “You’re the kid I pulled out of the car?”

“Yeah, I’m the fucking kid.”

“Your cousins killed my sister,” he snarled.

“No, they killed a…” The words died on his tongue.

“A wolf? Like you just tried to do?”

“I didn’t try to kill you. I fired over your head. I didn’t expect a wolf to grow wings.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you shot me and I’m dying.” He rested his cheek on the ground and groaned, fluttering his eyelids like he was about to pass out.

“You’re a terrible actor. I was hurt worse in the car accident. Which you caused.” He put the rifle on the camp chair, because he wasn’t going to kill the monster.

“I didn’t mean for you to be hurt. That was an accident.”

“Same.”

“I helped you. I could’ve left you to die.”

There had been times when Cole had wished for that, usually when he woke up in pain from another nightmare. “So what? You figure that I owe you?”