Chris shot a sideways glance at Piper for a moment as he overheard the small quip, but he decided to make nothing of it. Whatever she said about him wasn’t important. Especially when her mouth seemed to shut once the pictures were lain out across the table.

 Horror movie gore doesn’t compare to the real thing. Once you’ve seen someone eviscerated like the pictures of the victim on the table, there was no way any movie would ever compare to the levels of disgust thee pictures generated. It wasn’t a wolf. The claw marks dug deeper than the average for a feral wolf, and teeth that ripped that deep into skin couldn’t have done the damage of your average wild wolf, but at the same time the marks didn’t seem to match that of a bear, or another mammal that was prone to aggression. 

 Like a super-sized wolf emerged from the shadows and struck down their prey. Chris understood the sheriff’s skepticism. The fact the man had none of the knowledge he had when it came to animals allowed a little extra room for speculation, but he knew just by looking at these pictures that whatever “thing” killed the man that his own response was going to border on the level of absurdity.

 He eyed Carver behind him. He saw them man’s gun peeking out from under his jacket. The man seemed just as intent on doing something about the situation, by whatever means necessary.

 Chris’ hand clutched in a fist. God, he’d love for someone to step out of line right around now.

 “Well, there it is,” Chris muttered, “There’s two ways we can do this: I can tell you what didn’t kill the victim we see in front of us, or I can give you some theories on what it might have been. One will leave room for your own guessing, and the other may throw my authenticity as a professional into the question.”

 He sighed, scratching at the back of his neck as he stepped over to the other side of the table, “Either way, I don’t think anyone is going to like where this is going.”

[@Kidd] [@The Harbinger of Ferocity]