“Another goddamn rainy week—”
“It’s gonna be a rainy one this week, folks.” The voice on the radio and Brigid speaking at the same time, “ Just listen to that heavy patter of raindrops on your windows. Got some heavy winds in there too, no thanks to a powerful tropical system moving in from the south.”
“This asshole’s upbeat voice this early in the morning is—“
“—A major washout in some areas further down the mountain, so if you’ve any travel plans for the next few days, then I highly recommend—“ his voice was silenced, the radio shut off.
“Enough of that, sheesh!” Brigid was standing in the living area, a quarter to 7am, waiting for her roommate to emerge from the restroom. The world outside had taken a turbulent turn from unseasonably chilly temperatures and extremely early snowfall to a warmer, humid, and, unfortunately, rainy and windy.
“Eligh, c’mon already. Bad enough, you woke me up a full two hours earlier than needed. Take your shit or save it for the woods.” There was no reply from the big bear, which was unsurprising as he did not like being spoken to while on the pot.
The fox had dressed in a pair of weathered black jeans, a simple black t-shirt, and her black and pink hoodie, complete with ears on the hood and pink and black horizontal stripes making up the entire right half versus the solid black on the left.
Looking herself over in the mirror, she pondered whether she should add her crescent moon choker or not. Hell, she’d already dug out the gaudy as-all-hell hoodie from the depths of her clothes collection; why not just complete the ‘30-something desperately clinging to their Emo years” look?
The days since Advrik’s dinner party had been wholly uneventful in Brickhedge; with Advrik busy with his upstart and Eligh’s paws tied up at the office most of the time, Brigid hadn’t had much opportunity to get out, giving her a sense of deja vu, harkening back to the previous spring. She shuddered, hoping this wouldn’t be a similar event.
Sure, the wolf had kept in constant contact, bookending each day and night with a Good Morning/Good Night text, which was really sweet and a nice change from the usual silence she’d got from boyfriends in the past—
Boyfriend. The first time she’d thought of him that way had sliced a smile right across her face.
She’d missed him. Ever since he opened his business, he’d been actively tackling the posted jobs, trying to lay down roots for his new enterprise. From the discussions they’ve had since then, it sounded like it was going pretty smoothly. Even the mole had gotten involved in a few cases, which had made her wonder if there’d be anything she could potentially offer the wolf beyond her companionship and support.
She needed some fucking money really bad, too.
When the bear finally emerged from the bathroom, the two made their way to the giant SUV parked on the sidewalk, dashing through the heavy rainfall and fighting against the wind that both promised to make today’s trip out of town a slow, plodding one.
“Warmer, my ass; that rain was cold as hell.” She said as the vehicle roared to life, large raindrops smacking the hood and roof of the vehicle in a steady thump-thump-thump rhythm.
“You didn’t have to come with me today, Brigs. I’d have been all right on my own.” The big bear said, shifting the vehicle into Drive and pulling out of the space with ease.
“Full disclosure, big guy. If I stayed cooped up in that apartment for one more day, I was going to go Primal and totally wreck its shit.” Her hood had draped itself over the short bridge of her muzzle, concealing her eyes as she pulled the strings tight, constricting the cord that ran the hood’s rim and closing it tightly around her head.
Off of Main Street and pulling away from Brickhedge and its outer reaches, the bear became quieter and quieter. An annoying habit for any passengers wanting to chat. Eligh was about road safety, even more so when the weather was as inclement as it was currently.
The mountain that Brickhedge had been situated upon felt at times as if it had been crafted specifically for the town and the town only, for the road that coiled around the giant mound of earth had been carved in a way that left little room for further structural development without major terraforming.
Road conditions were sloppy, with deep pools sitting where potholes once stood. Streams of water coming off the various hills and slopes washed across the road, creating potential for hydroplaning if one wasn’t paying attention.
The vehicle had lifted wheels so it could handle the potential downed branch that might fall across the road as the wind force increased, but it was the flooding down below that worried him the most. A few feet would be doable, but get that in a rushing motion across a road, and that could spell the end of him.
“Where the hell are you even going today, anyway? I thought you had to work.”
Slowing the tank of a vehicle to a crawl near the first and arguably oldest of the “Welcome to Brickhedge” signs, Eligh said, “I’ve got to run an errand for the mayor,” he patted the documents that were wrapped, hilariously, in a K-Mart bag to shield from the rain.
Beyond the gravel road, a few yards away was the highway; taking a left would take you straight to the American/Canada border. Turning right, however, would take you to Bethlehem, a far larger, more luxurious, and well-known town in the northeast, priding itself on being “the highest town in New Hampshire” or something akin to that.
“And this couldn’t wait? Or be faxed, or fuck me, even emailed like the rest of the world? Why endanger yourself in this kind of weather for some stick-in-the-mud, mayor?” As she spoke, a weakened water-logged branch nearly seven feet in length crashed down beside the idled SUV, nearly taking out the old, weathered Brickhedge sign and splashing thick, grimy mud all over the large vehicle.
The bear gripped the steering wheel, saying, “You didn’t have to come, Brigid. I told you I could do this on my own.” But the fox didn’t reply, instead shifting in her chair and resting her paws on the expansive dashboard. She unbuttoned her hoodie. She’d not worn a bra today.
As the rain continued to fall, seemingly intensified with each drop, so did the wind increase in strength. No more than five minutes down the road did Eligh have to pull over to the curb again, his heavy-duty windshield wipers failing to clear enough of the tropical moisture away fast enough.
No other car had passed by in the hour they sat there, waiting for a break in the rain that never came. Only the sound of trees toppling over somewhere in the woods, their roots unable to hold on against the increasing wind gusts and the weight of the moisture-laden branches.
Fox and bear remained silent, only the hum of the engine and gentle expulsion of heated air from the vehicle’s vents accompanying the heavy patter of the rain. Eligh kept his brights and emergency blinkers on, just in case some reckless beast came speeding down the highway.
Several minutes passed, the sky darkening as the rain began to fall even harder still. The two beasts inside the cab of the massive vehicle had been lulled into a near state of slumber.
Thump! A low, thundering noise rumbled from somewhere deep in the woods. A few seconds later, the vehicle vibrated as the shockwave struck it.
Brigid, jolted awake and upright by the crash, said, “That was a big ass tree—“A second, identical sound had cut her off. This one closer. “Eligh, we should probably go home.”
Eligh sat upright in his chair now, straining his eyes against the heavy cascades of water that slid down every square inch of the vehicle’s glass. “Maybe you’re right—“
Thump! The entire vehicle shook violently as a heavy oak tree crashed down onto the road in front of them, nearly smashing the hood of the vehicle and spraying broken bits of pavement, rocks, and mud all across the vehicle.
A second tree along the forest’s edge where it met the road came down, this time connecting with the right headlight and smashing it in completely. Mercifully, the tree slid off onto the flooded ground below, resulting in a huge splash.
Through the fogged windshield, what Eligh and Brigid witnessed next was like a scene out of a horror movie.
A massive form stepped out onto the road, standing atop two huge feet with legs as big a round as the ancient trees it had knocked over. Its massive body was disfigured and bloated by the rain, covered in coarse, wiry brown fur. It dragged the knuckles of its huge hands across the mud, so heavy that it destroyed and pushed up the pavement as it lumbered across the street, thankfully unaware of the only two beasts to witness its horrifying visage as it disappeared into the woods on the opposite side.
“E-Eligh…”
Another moment passed, and the sound of the unidentified monster went silent as the darker clouds above gave way to more sunlight, the rain weakening as the landscape brightened just a little.
“What in the ever-loving fuck was that?” she said, not willing to take her eyes off the treeline for which the monster disappeared through.
Brickhedge had a new problem, as the creature’s path had it going up the mountain on a crash course for town.
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