Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

across their faces. "I don't know why. I just can't stand up to the guy." Vance lifted his shirt to show them his back and sides, knowing that there must still be fresh bruises to add shading to overlapping scars, stripes across his back that bore witness to several different belts over the years.

Terry's jaw dropped silently as Sarah tensed her eyebrows and lips, balling her fist to prop up her chin and turned her face away.

"Anyway," Vance said, lowering his shirt. "The insurance payout was big on the barn and he told me I had to take care of it. Couldn't look like arson or it wouldn't cover it. So, I drove out to dad's folks' old property. Must've been about three in the morning. I'm out there in the dark barn, trying to get the hay to catch with this little lighter, but it won't burn. Walk back to the truck to grab some gas, knowing I can't use too much or it'll look suspect and I hear all this moaning in the distance." Vance waved his arm out to the left.

"A person?" Terry asked.

"Cows," Sarah said.

Vance nodded at her. "I knew something had them shook up and thought it might be a bear or coyotes. But something had me spooked too. So I rushed into the barn, dug a hole in the middle of the hay bale, poured in some gas and lit it up. I figured, it being in the middle of the pile, nobody would know an accelerant was used to start it."

Vance reached over to grab another can of beer and lifted it in front of him.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Terry asked.

"Course not, but I couldn't get the shit to catch fire without it," Vance said.

"I think he was referring to the drink," Sarah said.

"Oh. Well... I..." Vance stared down at his hand as he tried to recollect why he picked it up to begin with.

"Enough about that," Sarah said. "So, what happened?"

"Yeah, so it starts catching real big. I mean, big." Vance whirled his hands both upward, over his head. "And then I hear the most god-awful screeching sounds from the cattle across the field. You could hear them running and yelling all over out there. I was worried they'd stampede or something. Then it got quieter, but every now and then there'd be another one and then I heard like... A spring snapping or something too."

"Must've been the fence," Sarah said.

"Yup. Saw it on my way out," Vance added. "After the noise died down, the barn itself started to really burn, so I was walking back to my truck and there it was. Standing not thirty feet away. I could see it plain as day, with the fire. It stood on two legs, a little taller than me. Long, canine snout. Big, long ears," Vance motioned the shapes around his face, further emphasizing the ferocity of its appearance. "Covered in hair. Its shoulders were rising and falling with its breath. You've seen the movies, right? A werewolf. There's no other way around describing it. A big werewolf was standing there, looking straight at me. There was no way I could've beat it back to my truck and got outta there." Vance stopped and let out a huge huff of air as he let the weight come off his shoulders.

Sarah lunged her palms outward and looked at him with the same expression as Terry. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Vance asked.

She shook her hands out at him. "What happened?"

"Yeah," Terry said. "So, how'd you manage to escape?"

"No idea," Vance said. "It walked toward me and just stopped and stared for, must've been a minute. And I walked backward to my truck." He laughed. "Thought I was going to shit myself."

"Are you sure?" Sarah asked.

"Positive." He looked across the fire and scanned side to side at both of their faces. "Guess I didn’t look very tasty."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about it?" Terry asked.

Sarah rejoined the discussion. "Yeah. Everyone who's died since then, having no idea about-"

"About what?" Vance asked. "Hey everyone. Watch out. There's a werewolf roaming around," he said, tossing his stick into the fire in frustration. "Wouldn't have changed a damn thing. Besides, and say what? That I was busy burning down the family barn when this thing shows up?" Vance stood up. "No. I just hightailed it outta there while it walked toward the road and I heard it howling from back there. That was it."

As Terry and Sarah began talking, Vance thought he caught sight of something blink at the fire tower. He turned and watched the structure still standing tall in the darkness, a memorial to times long passed that towered above to remind him of what had been. The light flashed again across the metallic gray surface. "There it is again," he said as Sarah and Terry stilled to attention.

Vance turned in the opposite direction to see a shaky white beam flicker from behind the shrubbery below. He cuffed his hands in front of his mouth and heaved back with a huge breath. "Bout damn time!" he shouted so loud that his words echoed back.

“Ow!” Sarah shouted, covering her closest ear with a squint of her eyes. "How about a little more warning next time you pull that."

A silhouette passed back and forth ahead of the glare as the light tilted down to the ground and David's shape began to take form just ahead of Janice as she swung the flashlight around until they were within speaking distance.

"We're all here," David said. "What's next?"

"Oh!" Terry jumped from his log, frantically slapping his pants.

"Watch out," Vance shouted. "Those embers bite."

"So, what are we all here for?" David's words pressed a little harder than before as Vance looked in his direction. Sarah and Terry walked closer from the side as Janice stood close to David. It was awkward, to be sure, but it didn't bother Vance quite as much as he thought it would.

"Who's disarming the trap?" Sarah asked as the others looked in Terry's