The Shadowkiller by Matthew Scott Hansen Read Free Book Online

pleasure.

    Five minutes after finishing his cigarette, Jack needed another. He knew he shouldn’t but he stopped, pulled out his smokes, and popped one up. So what if I’m an extra five minutes late to the rendezvous point?
    As he lit up he heard a rustling in the trees nearby. Probably a chipmunk or a raccoon or something. He was hoping to hear it again so he could report at the office Monday he’d encountered some real wildlife. He did hear it, only this time it didn’t sound like a squirrel. It was definitely bigger. He held a lungful of smoke, keeping as quiet as possible for fear of spooking some decent fauna like a deer. Maybe it’s a bear.
    Quickly exhaling and stubbing out his cigarette, he began walking. Fifty feet up the trail he heard it again, a faint crackling of small branches and maybe some partially dried needles on the floor of the forest. He heard, even felt something, as if whatever it was had decided to pace him, just out of sight in the trees.
    â€œMitch? That you?”
    He didn’t believe this was Mitch’s style, but the man was certainly cunning enough and perhaps possessed just a hint of cruelty. Maybe he wanted to scare his pal. He thought he had detected a little passive aggression from Mitch.
    â€œMitch? Come on out, you jerk. I know it’s you.”
    Nothing.
    Jack quickened his pace despite the increasing upward slope. There was definitely something following him. Maybe worse, whatever it was seemed to be toying with him. His mind raced to find possibilities. A mountain lion? A bear?
    Another slight crackling sound off trail caused a chill to rocket down the back of Jack’s neck. He didn’t think a bear would follow someone. It would prefer to just make its move or stay away altogether. It had to be Mitch. Jack stopped and confronted the wall of green.
    â€œOkay, you made your point,” he said, stifling his anxiety. “I’ll keep up.”
    Nothing.
    Mitch would have shown himself at that point, unless he was perverse in a way Jack had never imagined. Now Jack was scared and started moving even faster. He remembered the stories of people being mauled and killed by mountain lions a few years back in California and got goose bumps. Then he tried to get a grip, telling himself it was ridiculous that a grown man would be frightened by a few sounds.
    This is silly…fucking nuts, frankly.
    Jack stopped again and peered ahead into the forest. For a split second he thought he saw movement, a large shape quickly passing, then nothing. He stared, shaken. He couldn’t have seen what he just saw. Or thought he saw. Optical illusion, or…
    Jesus, it really is a bear. It’s a fucking bear.
    Yet his mind rejected the possibility because bears just weren’t that big. He’d seen them in the zoo and watched Grizzly Adams as a kid, and though that was certainly a big bear, it sure as hell wasn’t anywhere near as big as—
    No, he refused the thought. Nothing in the forest was that big. Yet trees don’t move…

    He watched the small two-leg and felt its rising fear. It pleased him that they were also easy to catch and provided a large quantity of good meat. Once the colorful yet tasteless outer skin was sloughed off, their soft underflesh was savory, better than any other animal he had eaten.
    He stood in the shadows of the big trees and watched the small creature standing down the trail and followed the teachings of the old ones: let the hunted come to you.

    Jack’s radar was on full alert but there was nothing on the horizon. Nothing but that shape he thought he saw. After twenty seconds passed with no other indications, he tried convincing himself he hadn’t seen it. He couldn’t have seen it. Frightened, he turned and started trotting uphill, pulling out his pack of Marlboros as he moved. He’d light on the fly.
    Then he had a feeling of something warm on his back. It was such a palpable but bizarre