Adermoor Cove: Donovan Road - 5. Chapter 5

Moira stood up from the table and stretched. Her throat was starting to hurt from all the endless talking. Her eyes burned with exhaustion and her head throbbed from where she had hit it while running through the woods.

Enzo sat at the table just as patient as ever, as if it was just another day at the department, but she could tell from the way Carlos kept glancing at his father he was ready to get back to the crime scene.

Moira sat back down. It was up to her to finish the rest of the story, even if she didn't want to. "The two times I thought I heard the bear outside Ramona's house, I'm not sure if that was real or not. But what happened this morning, I know it was real. We were planning to go on a picnic since it’s such a nice day when it snatched her right through the window and dragged her out like a rag doll." She closed her eyes to keep the tears at bay. "I'll never be able to forget her screams."

                                                  …

Saturday morning. Moira stood at the sink, washing dishes. She had Data Romance playing on her phone through the Spotify app. Ramona was out in the barn, feeding Winchester.

Her arms were buried elbow deep in soapy water. She felt a sense of contentment she hadn't felt in a long time, a sense things would be okay. Last night Ramona and she had made love together like never before, ferociously and passionately. Each orgasm had been like a string of fireworks going off, one right after the other.

She looked out the window at the barn and thought she saw a flash of pink: Ramona’s sweater. She smiled to herself, recalling the silky feel of Ramona’s hair as she ran her fingers through it. She began to run ideas of what they could do for the rest of the weekend: maybe a scenic hike through the woods or a picnic on the beach. It was already almost the beginning of September. Winter would be here before everyone knew it, and then it would be too cold to go outside and do anything.

Moira had just finished with drying and putting the rest of the dishes away when Ramona came back into the house. Moira watched her scrape the heels of her boots on the welcome mat to get straw off. Ramona looked up.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked Moira.

“I don’t know. I’m just glad to have a few days off. I don’t have to grade papers or go over Shakespeare for the millionth time. I can just be here, spending time with you. I was thinking we could go on a picnic after I take a shower. Make some sandwiches and bring the rest of the potato salad we have before it goes bad.”

Ramona nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.”

Together they went about putting the picnic together. Moira untwined a bag of sub buns and cut them open with a knife while Ramona stood at the stove, brewing tea. Moira relished the comfortable silence between them, the simple fact they could enjoy each other’s company without saying a single word. Will it be like this when we move in together? Moira thought. She wondered what her old college friends would have thought if they could see her caught in the winds of domestic bliss? In her college days when her friends and she used to visit the dyke bars in New York City, when she would come home to her tiny studio apartment so innebriated she could barely keep her eyes opened, she used to laugh at all the same-sex couples who copied all the straight couples with their white picket fence dreams.

Now look at me - I’m just like the women I used to make fun of.

By the time Ramona put the pitcher of tea in the refrigerator to cool off, Moira had finished making the sandwiches, wrapped them neatly in plastic wrap, and set them in the picnic basket. Ramona vowed she would have the rest of the picnic put together when Moira came down after taking her shower.

When Moira stepped out of the bedroom, clean and dressed in a fresh outfit, wet hair hanging to her shoulders, the house had gone completely quiet. She could no longer hear Ramona moving around in the kitchen.

“Ramona?” she asked.

Silence. No answer.

She froze. Don’t freak out. Maybe she went back outside to check on Winchester before we go on the picnic. Still she couldn’t slow the rapid drum beat of her heart as she descended the steps. She found Ramona standing in the kitchen, before the window over the sink. She was standing stock still, seemingly frozen. The picnic basket sat on the counter, the flaps open. Inside the basket she could see the sandwiches she’d made, the tupperware container of potato salad, and the thermos of tea. Something about it made the tenseness within the kitchen more uneasy.

“Ramona, what’s wrong?”

"Shhh." Ramona held her hand up. She turned her head slightly so Moira could see just enough of her face to be able to tell the blood had drained from it. She was afraid.

Now Moira was afraid too.

Nerves as tight as a stretched rubber band, she stood at Ramona's side.

"There's something out there," Ramona whispered. "Can you hear it? Whatever it is, it's huge."

Moira stood stock still and listened. That was when she heard the creature bellow. It was the bear.

"What the fuck?" Ramona hissed.

Moira closed her eyes, trying to will the bear away. Go away, go away, please come back some other day. She didn't realize she'd grabbed Ramona's hand until she felt fingers tightening around her own.

Its come back for me. Its come back to finish what it started.

Then something outside began to make a shrill screaming sound full of fear and pain. It took Moira a second to realize it was Winchester, Ramona's beloved horse, making that sound.

"Winchester," Ramona sobbed and ran for the front door.

Before Moira realized what she was doing, she ran after her lover and grabbed a hold of her, slamming the door shut before she could step outside.

"What are you doing?" Ramona shouted. "Let me go!"

"Don't go out there…"

"But Winchester...I can't stand that sound he's making…"

They wrestled in the middle of the living room, Ramona trying to get out the door and Moira trying to keep her from doing so. In this time of peril they were like two children fighting for control.

Then the sound stopped.

Ramona's eyes went wide. She was no longer a cop but a child. Tears trailed down her cheeks. "Winchester," she said again.

"You can't go out there," Moira whispered. "Get on the phone, call the cops."

"I am a cop."

"Not right now you're not."

Ramona wiped at her eyes. "What is it? What kind of animal just comes onto your property and kills your horse? That's not normal."

Moira threw her head back and laughed hysterically. Adermoor Cove isn't a normal place. She went to the old phone mounted to the wall above the trash can back in the kitchen. Using the old fashioned dial rotary, she dialed the emergency number. Melvin, the dispatcher at the department, answered on the second ring.

Fighting to keep her voice calm, Moira said, "Melvin, I need you to send someone out to Ramona's right away. There's a bear in her barn and we're pretty sure it just killed Ramona's horse."

Ramona had gathered her courage and was looking out the window. She glanced back at Moira. "I think it's gone."

But Moira hadn't heard what she was saying. Her eyes grew as wide as quarters. She was vaguely aware of something wet and warm trickling down her leg. Her hands, which gripped the phone, shook so bad it almost fell from her fingers. "Get away from the window," she said in an odd strangled voice.

The bear was standing right outside the window, so close its breath was fogging up the glass. Its mouth was open, showing a dark cavern. Whatever had infected it had gotten worse, taking its tongue and right eye. She thought she saw something wriggling out of the empty socket, some sort of insect. The one eye it had left was centered on Ramona.

Ramona had frozen, her shoulders bunched up. Moira dropped the phone and ran towards Ramona, reaching out to pull her away. With a dreadful sort of premonition she already knew what was going to happen.

But it was already too late.

The bear's muzzle burst through the window in a spray of glass just as Moira grabbed Ramona's hand. Their fingers wrapped around one another's. And then Ramona was ripped from her grasp in the blink of an eye. Moira was sure she heard the sound of Ramona's arm being yanked from its socket.

The bear had Ramona in its maw. Somehow it had managed to squeeze the upper half of its body through the window. Now it was pulling back. Ramona tried to grab onto the edge of the sink, her face streaked with blood from where she'd been cut with glass, only to be yanked away as easily as a rag doll. She bent forward as her chest struck the window sill. Moira thought she saw red blood gush from somewhere.

And then Ramona was out of sight. But Moira could still hear her screams. They were high-pitched, almost inhuman.

The paralysis gripping Moira broke. She forgot all about Melvin and the phone, thinking only of the shotgun. Why didn't I grab it in the first place? Why didn't I -

She moved the armchair over to the fireplace and grabbed the shotgun. It was still loaded from when she had put shells in it last night. She shot out the door and jumped down the three porch steps. The impact of her feet hitting the ground traveled up her legs hard enough to almost bring her to her knees.

Ramona's screams still rang in her ears. Moira ran around to the back of the house, trying to hold the gun carefully the way she'd been shown. The ache bouncing up her thighs hurt like hell but it was nothing compared to the fear raging in her gut.

She reached the back of the house just as the bear disappeared into the woods. Moira put on a burst of speed, forcing herself to take deep breaths. Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered all the lectures about pacing and endurance back in her track and field days during high school.

Moira dove into the woods without a second thought, doing her best to keep the bear in sight. It was no longer running, but crashing almost leisurely through the underbrush. It had Ramona by the leg and was dragging her along behind it. Her leg was twisted add an odd angle and there were many cuts on her face. She must've seen Moira chasing after her because she screamed her name.

"Moira!"

There was no time. It was now or never. Moira knew in the back of her mind it was useless to try and shoot a bear from this distance with a shotgun; she wasn't a huntress.

But she had to do something. Her ribs were already beginning to feel as if they were going to rupture their way out of her.

She aimed the shotgun at the back of the bear and fired. The shotgun bucked wildly in her hands like a thing with a mind of its own. The pellets slammed into a tree just inches away from the bear, tearing away bark and leaves. Close but not close enough.

The bear was completely out of sight now, and so was Ramona, her screams growing ever more distant. Moira was sobbing now, more afraid than she had ever been in her life. She sucked in a breath and ran through the trees and thickets. Stray branches snagged at her hair and flesh as if to reach out and stop her from going any further. She threw the shotgun to the side. Useless fucking thing.

The sound of sirens cut the silence.

Moira spun around and began running back towards the house. Something sliced into her cheek, another branch perhaps, hard enough to draw blood.

Her foot caught on something hard, sent her sprawling on the ground. Her head slammed into the ground hard enough to open a gash. It was only the sound of the siren, like the distant ring of a bell that gave her the will to get to her feet. A few minutes later she stumbled out of the woods just as Jack Nichols and Devin Smith were coming out of the barn. Nicholas was bent over, vomiting his lunch on the ground. Moira was too much in shock to notice or care.

Devin was the first to notice her, a woman who looked like she'd been through hell: dirt and leaves clinging to her hair and the leggings of her jeans, the bloody gash on her forehead, her eyes fixed on them with a mad determination.

"It took her," she said. "The monster took her."

                                                      …

Carlos reached for the cell phone. He tapped a few buttons and tucked the phone back in his pocket. “I think that’s it. Thanks Moira for being such a trooper...your statement could help us find her.”

From the stiffness of his voice and the false sense of hope he put into it, Moira could tell he was trying to keep it together. Overwhelmed with guilt she felt tempted to say she was sorry, wanting to be absolved for her failure to save Ramona. But her words, like so many other things on this horrible, horrible day failed her. She was back to shaking. She felt like a small child, tired and alone. She would have sold her soul to the devil right then and there to be able to go home and sleep, to have Ramona safe in her arms. Up until now, until she’d seen the bear, she hadn’t even believed in the devil. He was just a mystical symbol people made up to keep themselves in line.

Today she was certain she’d seen the devil. Everything she had ever believed had changed in the blink of an eye; every conviction she’d ever had, had been snatched out the window along with Ramona.

“I’m going to have one of the guys take you to the hospital,” Enzo said, getting up from the table. Carlos had already left the room. “Normally we would’ve taken you right away but given the circumstances...” He didn’t finish the sentence, didn’t need to. It’s all in his voice, Moira thought. He doesn’t think there’s any hope for Ramona. He thinks she’s dead. She kept hearing Ramona’s screams ringing through her head, remembering how she’d run through the woods, the knowledge that the situation was hopeless constantly ringing in the back of her mind.

“I did everything I could,” Moira said, unaware she was speaking the thought out loud. “I ran after her but no matter how I fast I just couldn’t catch up. And even though I knew it was pointless I kept running. I just couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. It wasn’t a normal bear.”

“I know you did everything you could,” Enzo said, startling her out of her thoughts. His dark brown eyes were like reassuring weights. “We’re going to find the creature that did this and bring it down.”