Brian took a look out the window. Ford panthers, cruisers. Sheriff Mark was on the scene, so were some deputies and an ambulance. Brian shook his head at Macy, "Let's not risk it right now. Let's leave Tim to sleep it off." 

He stepped out the door, and into the front lawn area of the apartment, along with other crowd types. He could hear the muttered prayers and rumormongering discussion among the others, but didn't join in. Sheriff Mark picked him out of a crowd.

"Brian, thought I saw the truck." Mark Luntz was a big man with a fairly large belly, but also muscle. As a small town Sheriff, his humdrum job became that much harder with Emergence. He looked like he hadn't slept well, but that wasn't unusual. Lots of people had nightmares these days.

"Yeah, was giving a friend a ride home from the bar. Wound up shuttering in place when I heard whatever that was last night."

Mark had a grim look on his face.

"It's not pretty." He gestured him toward the cruiser, away from the others. Brian followed along in silence, rubbing his head. He knew that look on a law enforcement officer.

"Truth is, Brian," Mark shuffled from one foot to the other a bit before steadying himself, "It's ugly. You sure you don't want to deputize? Guy with your experience, I could make you senior deputy, reporting to me only."

"No thanks, I just don't want to get into it again." He made it sound like he'd seen something so traumatic that he resigned from the Marshals. It was his usual story that he told friends and family.

"Yeah, I kind of figured."

"So what was it, you think?" 

"No idea, but there's a body," Mark's voice was lowered, "And it looks like it's been eaten. But what's worse is that there's signs that the body was methodically butchered."

"Fuck," Brian breathed, "A cannibal?"

"Who knows these days? But keep that to yourself. There's going to be hell to pay with the locals already without knowing the details. EMT's and deputies know to keep their mouth shut. I'm just telling you as a professional courtesy. Start carrying a gun."

"Yeah, I get that." It was hard to say what Brian felt around him, except there was a sense of dread around the place and no real reason why he'd feel that. But there'd been impressions since Emergence started. He'd hear things that weren't there, or see symbols here and there. And where the body was covered, there were symbols painted over it, as if in blood red. He knew that it wasn't something others were seeing. He couldn't tell what the hell that all meant, because he had no idea how to read any of it. 

"Thanks for the heads up, Sheriff. I'm going to get out of your way." 

He made his way back to Macy, while the crowd murmured and muttered. A couple locals that knew him asked him what was up, and he didn't say much. But then, Brian Parr was known as the closemouthed middle child. His brother and sisters had the gift of gab, but Brian was more taciturn. But once he and Macy were more alone, he told her, "Something killed, butchered and ate a person. That's what we heard last night. Maybe you should take a look from a distance, see if you get something out of it when the crime scene unit clears out..."

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