Really Strange Stuff - Ch.26 - Stake-Out (Patreon)

=::= Callie's PoV =::=

"This is it," I said as I turned off the country road and onto a long driveway.

It was about half past seven in the evening, but being the middle of summer we still had a couple hours of daylight left. Although between the hills and the trees, there was probably no more than an hour before the area was deep in shadow.

Dave's property was at the end of a long unpaved road a little ways west of the community. It led part-way up into the hills, and the nearest neighbours were at least a quarter mile away back down the road.

Sure enough there wasn't much left of the home, apart from a pile of burnt timbers, charred furniture, and some blackened appliances where the kitchen once was. The damage was bad enough it was hard to get a feel for how big the place used to be, or what it might have been like. Beyond what was left of the house were the remains of the chicken coop, and past that was an old shed.

Neither of those had burned, but the coop looked like someone had driven a truck through it. The shed wasn't in great shape either, one door was missing while the other hung off a single hinge. And finally, an old pickup truck sat parked next to where the house once stood. It showed signs of heat damage along the side that faced the building, like blistered paint, flattened tires, and the side windows were shattered.

The house and outbuildings were in the middle of a good-sized yard, with a weed-filled vegetable garden out back next to the shed. Beyond that the area was all heavily wooded.

"This place already gives me the creeps," Bailey commented quietly from the back seat. Her ears were already folded back as she peered out the windows.

Serenity nodded, "Same, but we're here so we should probably have a look around. Obviously keep your eyes and ears open though, just in case."

My girlfriends both had their cameras with them when we all emerged from the car. Before we started exploring though I got my baton out of the trunk. Even if it was kind of silly I still felt better having it with me.

"Good idea," my best friend said as she reached into the trunk and pulled out her golf club.

Bailey picked up her lacrosse stick, then I closed the trunk. And with phones or cameras in one hand and sacred tools of our chaotic faith in the other, the three of us started carefully exploring the property.

"We should try and cover as much ground as we can before it gets dark," Sere suggested as the three of us headed towards what was left of the house. "But it's probably safest if we all stick together."

Bails grimaced and with her tail practically between her legs she stated, "Trust me there's no way I'm going to wander off on my own."

I gave the cute foxgirl a side-hug as I stated confidently, "We'll be fine."

She smiled and returned the hug, then we all focused on the investigation. She and Serenity started taking pictures of the area, while I used my phone to record some video of the two of them and what was left of the structures.

Enough time had passed since the fire and everything that we couldn't find any trace of the police investigation, and there weren't any footprints visible in the ruins or the dirt around the house. No sign of the gas can or shotgun either, but we all figured the police would have carted that away as evidence.

After a few minutes picking through the ashes and burnt-out remains of the house we moved on to the chicken coop. That was all splintered wood and twisted chicken-wire, but there was no sign of any birds. There weren't even any feathers around.

"None of the stories mentioned the coop being destroyed," Serenity commented. "I wonder if this happened afterwards?"

Bailey shook her head, "I don't know? It looks like someone drove a car through it though."

I pointed out, "No tire tracks around it. No footprints either, but all this could be months old."

Then a thought crossed my mind and I asked, "Hey what sort of tracks would a worm or slug even leave? How about a snake or serpent, what kind of tracks would that make?"

"Worms and slugs are normally too small to leave tracks," Serenity pointed out. "Although slugs usually leave a trail of slime? But none of the stories mentioned slime trails. So this is speculation, but something that shape that's big enough to fit the stories isn't going to leave normal tracks. I think it'd be just a smooth flattened path."

The tall hot catgirl added, "If we're talking about something snake-like though, that can be very different."

Bailey suggested, "Rather than looking for some specific kind of trail we should probably just take note of any unusual marks we see in the ground."

"Good point," Sere agreed.

From the coop we moved on towards the shed and the overgrown garden. From the look of it nobody had been tending to the vegetables or dealing with the weeds for the last few months, which fit what we'd been told.

I poked at the remaining door with my baton as I said, "Looks like someone or something smashed the doors open?"

"Hard to say if anything's been stolen though," Serenity added as she looked inside. "That lawnmower's got to be worth some money. And the chainsaw."

The inside of the shed was a bit of a mess. It looked like at one point there'd been a bunch of gardening tools on some shelves, but the shelves were knocked down and everything was scattered around inside. My girlfriends took a few pictures of all that, and got more shots of the property from this angle.

When they were done I suggested, "How about we take a quick walk around in the woods? Maybe we can find some tracks out there?"

Bailey was still anxious about it, but both she and Serenity agreed. Although they also made it clear we'd all be heading back to the car when it started getting darker out.

The three of us stuck together as we walked a little further away from the home, and soon enough we were making our way through the thick underbrush. We tried to be sort of methodical about it, rather than just wandering around aimlessly. So we went out about a hundred yards or so into the woods, then turned and walked in a sort of circle around the house. We didn't find anything interesting though, so we moved out another hundred yards deeper, before circling back in the opposite direction. And that's when we finally came across something interesting.

"This has to be it, right?" I asked as the three of us stared. "Like this wasn't caused by any sort of normal animal tracks."

It was a path of smooth flattened ground about two feet wide, as if someone had gone back and forth over it with one of those rollers they use for flattening asphalt. And it definitely gave me the creeps, my tail was down between my legs. My ears were up though, twitching this way and that as I listened for any strange sounds in the woods around us. Both my girlfriends looked the same, ears up and tails down.

Serenity frowned at the trail for a few seconds then shook her head, "I don't know any more about trails and tracks than you do Callie."

"Me and Sere are both city girls, remember?" Bails added. "You're the only one of us who's got much outdoors experience."

I grimaced, "Right. Well, I say we follow it? Left's going to lead us back towards the property I think, so let's go right and see where it takes us."

Neither of my girlfriends were too enthusiastic about the idea, but they didn't argue. And it was a lot easier following the trail than pushing through virgin forest, so we were able to move quicker and more quietly. That meant it only took us another couple minutes to find out what was at the end of the path.

"I'm not going in there," Bailey stated with her ears folded back and her tail down low. "Not a chance."

The strange trail led us directly the the mouth of a cave that disappeared into the side of the hill. And with the light fading from the sky above us, it made the interior seem even darker and more ominous, like the maw of some great stone beast.

Serenity's floofy black tail was all puffed out as she nodded in agreement, "None of us are going in there. We don't have the training or the equipment."

"And it's starting to get dark out now," she added. "Which means it's time to get back to the car."

I hesitated, while my tail twitched and my ears focused on the cave mouth. "Do y'all think it's using that as its lair? Or maybe it even made the cave? Maybe this thing lives underground. That'd explain why something so big has gone unseen for so long."

Bails cringed, "I really don't want to think about that right now Callie. Not while we're standing at its front door."

"I don't think the cave is new," Sere pointed out. She gestured with her golf club, "The entrance looks pretty weathered. Actually this might be an old abandoned mine?"

She continued, "You might be right about it staying underground though. If this is an old mine there could be other entrances, which would let it travel around undetected."

I nodded, "Right. We know it's nocturnal, since all the sightings and activity happened at night. And it seems to be sensitive to light, so caves might even be its natural habitat."

"This is all very interesting but maybe we could continue the conversation back at the car?" Bailey asked. "Or better still, back at the hotel?"

Serenity nodded, "Let's get moving. We don't want to get lost out here in the woods in the dark."

"Fine," I sighed as the three of us turned and headed back the way we came.

Fortunately there was no real risk of getting lost. We still had enough light to see where we were going, and it wasn't that hard to find our way back to the property. And it's not like the sky was going to suddenly turn dark just because the sun was hidden behind the hills to the west, we still had a long twilight ahead with the fading sunlight reflected off clouds above us.

Once we were back in the car I asked, "So are we sticking to the plan? Hang out in the car here and wait a few hours, see if anything happens?"

"I guess," Bails replied uneasily.

Sere nodded, "Keep the windows closed and the doors locked, keys in the ignition. If something comes up we'll take pictures from in here. And if things get dicey just start the car, turn on the lights, and get the hell out of here."

"Right on," I smiled.

We all tried to get comfy as we settled in for a long wait. We had those bottles of spring water we bought earlier, along with the snacks, so we were ready for a long stake-out. There was some quiet conversation as we waited for it to get dark, the three of us talked about what else we could do with the last few days of our vacation. Although that would depend on what happened next, like if we saw the monster we might stick around a little longer to keep up the investigation.

Around ten o'clock the sky was finally completely black, and all three of us were quiet. I was watching to the front and left, while Serenity covered the front and right. Bailey was sitting sideways across the back seat, so she could keep watch out the back window. And both her and Sere had their cameras ready, while I had my phone in hand so I could record video if anything happened. Except things stayed fairly quiet, at least at first.

"Heck," I sighed quietly some time around eleven o'clock. I slipped my phone into my hoodie pocket and picked up my twirly baton as I told my girlfriends, "I gotta use the kitty litter. I'll be back in a couple minutes."

Bailey whispered, "What? You're not going out there are you?"

"Well I'm sure not gonna go in here!" I hissed back. "Don't worry, I'll just be a minute."

Serenity whispered, "Be careful."

Before opening the door I reached up and hit the switch to disable the dome light. Then as quietly as possible I slipped out of the car. I left my door open a few inches so as not to make any loud noises closing it, then crept off towards the nearest trees for some privacy.

With a tree in between me and the car I dropped my pants and crouched down to take care of business. I had my baton in my left hand, and gathered a couple leaves in my right hand to clean up afterwards. Except just as I was finishing up my ears twitched. It was only then when I realized just how quiet the woods were.

My heart started racing as I tried to remember if there were any of the normal forest sounds when I'd emerged from the car a minute or two earlier, but I was positive it was silent then too. So I finished up as quickly and quietly as I could, then as I was pulling up my pants my ears twitched once again. This time I definitely heard it.

It was like something sliding across the ground, and it sounded like it was heading my way.

I clutched my twirly baton tightly as my tail tucked right down between my legs, then I turned and darted towards the car. I wasn't the least bit worried about how much noise I made on the way back, and as soon as I got to the door I swung it wide open and dived inside then yanked it shut behind me.

"Oh shit!" Bailey gasped as she started snapping pictures out the back seat window.

At the same time Serenity shouted, "Start the car! Start the car!"

Just as I reached for the ignition I caught a glimpse of movement out the corner of my left eye, then the whole car lurched as something slammed into my door. My side window shattered, showering me in little bits of safety glass, and Bailey let out a shriek behind me.

Out of reflex more than anything else I swung my baton as I yelled, "Scram!"

The pink rubbery knob at the end of my girly metal stick bapped the monster on its snoot as I turned the key and started the car. There was a flash of pink-tinted light and an angry rumble, then the thing was gone just as fast as it appeared.

Without hesitation or even a whole lot of thought I threw the car into gear then floored the pedal, and got us the heck out of there.