The Supernatural Zoo

The Supernatural Zoo

By Stephen A Abell - Monday 11^th January 2021

Number Of Words:

He loved the hunt but these cold January winds left a lot to respect. They cut through his coat as easy as a warm knife through butter. The internet was good for many things, however, the people who reviewed this jacket and trousers had not stood in a Siberian forest. Maybe, he should have waited for the next cycle.

No, he told himself, put that out of your head. So it's a tad cold. Man up and remember the mission.

A lone howl slashed through the chill night air. He estimated his prey was still a mile or two away.

He had coded a search engine to specifically search out and pinpoint any mention of supernatural events, which may have occurred around the globe. The filters ran constantly; running through every media site the web possessed, and a few law officials would love to know about.

Jack's interest in all things supernatural had begun with his friends fathers death. His mate had taken to seeing things move and mysterious mists on the stairs. One night Paul invited Jack to stay overnight. Twice, when he had gone to pour himself a Jack Daniels he had witnessed the glass move. The first time, it had shifted to the right. The second time, it jerked to the left. He had searched for magnets and mechanisms but discovered nothing.

For the next three months, he had practically moved in with Paul. They had witnessed things moving; once, the radio had turned on by itself, though there had never been anything which came near the message of that night. These incidents petered out. Though the flames of newly lit fire in Jacks curiosity were starting to grow.

As life progressed, Jack waded deeper and deeper into the supernatural. He completed courses on electronic and microelectronics so he could create and build his own spirit detection equipment. This allowed him to open up his own electronics business, which he progressed into computerisation and software development. With the help of his employees, he taught himself how to code. It was a considerable advantage to negate the manual sorting of social media. Having an AI wading through all the stories and disregarding the hoaxes and fake news meant he enjoyed more time to investigate the reports and rumours which filtered through.

One of which had transported him to this Siberian forest.

In the last thirty years, his supernatural search had taken him from the insubstantial ghost to the tangible forms of cannibals. From the myths of fairies to the realities of daemons. Along the way, he had encountered many different people, one of whom, had taught him the concepts of hunting. Grzegorz had hunted everything. Their paths had crossed in their searches for the Chupacabra. Fortunately, Grzegorz was not a proud man and was willing to share the kill. For a price.

They had tracked the beast through the deserts and small villages of Mexico. During the quest, Jack had learnt to always stay downwind of your prey. The last thing you desired to do was to announce your presence, especially to something as deadly as the Chupacabra. But if you were unfortunate enough to be upwind then you needed to scent yourself. Wash with only water from local streams. Keep scrubbing your clothes with local plants and soils. Every so often it was feasible to cover yourself with faeces and urine from other animals. Anything to mask your human aroma.

That hunt had been informative, though ineffective. Both believed they had witnessed the creature, though it had been a mere shadow in the darkness. But it was not human, and was not any animal either had seen before.

Hopefully, this hunt would not produce the same outcome. This time was different. Jack had brought along an ace in the hole. A horny teenager. He had catfished the youth pretending to be a forty-year-old looking for a toyboy to fuck. There had been so many to choose from, talk about shooting fish in a barrel. He had hired an expensive prostitute to greet the boy and to ruffie him. She had delivered him to the van, where Jack had forced a Viagra down his throat and then let the woman masturbate the young man until they had loads of his cum in a specimen jar. He dropped the escort off at her home and had driven out to the forest.

He had never used third parties before, but the first rule of hunting is to identify with your prey. His quarry was known for two things, killing to survive and reproduce. Since he did not want to risk his life, if it could be helped, he opted for the latter. Which, found the kidnapped youth propped up against a tree. Naked, with his hands handcuffed behind him and the tree's trunk. Jack had smeared the chest and genitals of the young man with his spent seamen. If the reports had been accurate then it would not be too long before his target turned up.

The fist howl had indicated she would come in from the east. Ideally, he needed to be west, however, the wind was blowing from that direction. Even though he's scrubbed down with all the local nature he could find there was a chance she would still detect his smell. He slowly curved his way to the left, seeking a mighty tree to block the breeze. The modified sniper's rifle was capable for firing a tranquillizer dart for a mile. Regrettably, he could not place that much distance between himself and the prey. Using the night scope and measure he noted he was over a half-mile from the decoy. Fortunately, he could see the tree and kids left leg poking out into the clearing. A better vantage point was required.

A second lonely howl cut the silence. She was considerably closer now. He had to bed down and hope she would stay out in the clearing long enough so he could put a dart into her hide.

For the next ten minutes, he took long deep breathes and listened intensely for movement. Everything was silent. No insects chirruped and no birds cheeped. Even the trees had grown eerily silent in the cold wind. No creak or crack captured his attention.

In the clearing, the boy's leg twitched. He was coming round. A soft groan fluttered to his ear. Poor sod, he thought to himself as he watched through the night-sight scope. A shape strutted hesitantly into the glade.

Damn, she was staying close to the brush nearest him. Jack possessed no accurate shot. Come on babe, he thought, move out a little. A couple of feet should do it.

The youth was getting agitated, he could hear his expletives faintly. In the sight, he could see his frightened twitching. The lad was trying his hardest to escape.

Good lad, keep it up, he silently enthused. His target would maintain her distance and encircle her prey before making her move. Jacks finger flexed tighter on the trigger. Wait, he chided himself, wait. You fire too early you're gonna waste the shot.

She shuffled out sizing up the struggling human. Something wasn't right. Her eyes darted upwards as she detected a movement to her left.

As their eyes met, Jack breathed out and squeezed the trigger. The dart flew through the air and struck the target in her right rear flank. All those days on the practise range had paid off. He watched in horror as with a last ditched effort she pounced toward the vulnerable youth.

The scream erupted through the forest and suddenly the shadows were alive with scurrying sounds. He was up and running towards clearing.

"Thank God," he sighed, "you're alive."

The boy looked at him with shock in his eyes and then back to the wound on his arm. Jack looked to the unconscious creature. Blood dripped from the fangs and stained her muzzle.

"Sorry, kid." He unclipped the revolver from his waist, "You'll thank me when you get to heaven." He squeezed the trigger and the bullet passed through the young man's skull. Jack watched as the shock left the kids eyes.

Reholstering the handgun and shouldering the rifle he bent and scooped up the unconscious wolflike animal.

"Come on love. Time to get you back to the island. There's a certain Wolf Man who's longing to meet ya. The famous but lesser-seen Werewolf Woman."