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When she pulled open the door to the restaurant, the murmurs overwhelmed her. All the seats were taken. The chivalry of the cowboys had them leaning against the few empty walls, while kids played underneath the tables. Though guns were not an uncommon sight in Rose Valley, Shandi couldn’t help but notice how many more of them hung on the hips of its residents today.
“We gotta find this thing,” said one man. “Kill it.”
Dozens of different conversations echoed in the small space, every one of them referencing the beast in one manner or another. Fear. Defiance. Confusion. Shandi could hear it all mixed in with the crowd.
Another woman lamented, “There ain’t nothin’ on the shelves down at the supermarket. Gonna have to eat beans and cornbread for a while.”
Her friend responded, “Y’all oughta come stay with us. We got a whole deer in the freezer still. Might be safer together.”
As Shandi waited in line to order her food, she tried to hold on to as many of the descriptions as she could pick up in the crowd. Someone referred to the beast having glowing eyes, while another added sharp teeth and claws. One old lady described the beast with demonic wings, covered in fire and brimstone—a demon straight from hell, the old lady guessed. Clearly, these residents preferred to gossip rather than search the internet for the dozens of videos that were already popping up online.
“Shandi!” called a voice behind her.
She turned to see Bill, his long form looking particularly haggard. A lot had happened since the mutilation of one of his goats out at Serendipity Ranch.
“I’ve got some pictures you might want to see,” he offered, sidling up beside her.
The entire morning had been a deluge of phone calls and emails. Shandi had already seen enough photos and videos. Heard the rantings. Geneva had stopped answering the phone altogether, and Shandi had thrown together a questionnaire just to give all the people some way of feeling heard. She should have known better than to have stopped here, of all places. If the town was going to congregate anywhere, Mikey’s would be it.
Still, she felt obligated to welcome all news. “Whadya got, Bill?”
He held up his cheap phone in front of her and showed her a blurry picture of the beast next to the football field. He slid through more, one by one, waiting for her to react to each. The photos were fine, Shandi supposed, but she’d already seen better. At least Bill wouldn’t be spreading stupid rumors about wings and claws. Hopefully.
After the slide show had run out, Shandi smiled. “Thanks, Bill. Why don’t you email those to me. Maybe we’ll use’em in the paper.”
They most certainly wouldn’t.
The line moved forward. Only one person left before she could get the energy her body begged for.
She’d stayed up practically all night with Dan to alter what had been planned for Saturday’s paper. It had gone to print late, but at least it had the proper front page story about what had happened. Ordinarily, they only made a quick edit after the game to add the score and a brief description, but ordinary no longer applied to their situation. The game had been canceled after the beast had run away; an extremely rare and blasphemous action for Texas high school football.
Shandi and Dan had brainstormed on what they should call the monster and settled on calling it “The Beast.” Though simple, it hearkened back to the existing Rose Valley folklore that Bernard had shared with Jake, even if most people knew nothing of it before Friday night.
The horror now had a name.
The gruff voice of Mikey brought Shandi back to the present. “The usual?”
She nodded as Mikey scratched some indecipherable marks on a green order pad. She didn’t pay attention when he read her the total, took her card, and ran it through the scanner. Business complete, she stepped over to stand among the people crowded around the pickup area.
“Do you think it’s Bigfoot?” a kid asked his mother.
“No. It’s just some sick man,” she suggested. “Sheriff Donner will catch him right quick. Don’t you worry none.”
Shandi had had minimal contact from the Sheriff’s Department since Friday night. She couldn’t imagine how many reports they faced. Normally, she herself would be hounding the department for information, but since she experienced the scene directly and had her own video, she thought it better to leave Cam to deal with the madness.
A man beside them jumped into their conversation. “Did you see how fast that thing moved? Ain’t no man.”
Someone needed to bring these people down from the hysterical high they all seemed to be riding. Shandi wondered whether such anxiety could lead to a riot. Or a mob. Surely both would be more dangerous to Rose Valley than the beast.
“Shandi! Here ya go!” Mike shouted above the roar of the crowd.
Finally. Shandi took the greasy bag from Mikey, grateful for the opportunity to return to her office. To the quiet. To the normalcy.
Or the illusion of it.
Honestly, Shandi doubted that they could ever return to normalcy. In that moment, it felt entirely impossible. Shandi couldn’t name all the ways in which Rose Valley would be irrevocably altered by this event. She knew that regional news outlets would descend upon the town in short order. Maybe the story would even get to the national news; a prospect that provided more fear than excitement.
She squeezed through the crowd as quickly as she could, praying that no one else would stop her. Most of them had already visited the paper earlier in the morning, thankfully, so they had no more use for her.
Her pocket buzzed as she slid down into her car. She dropped her bag of food in the passenger seat and fished out her phone to see a text from Jake.
Sorry I didn’t respond last night. I didn’t have my phone with me. Steve filled me in.
The animated ellipses popped up, indicating another text. Shandi had forgotten that she had even texted Jake.
Another message.
I set up a trap to catch it. I have video proving that it was here at Watermelon Ranch after the game last night.
Shandi hovered her finger over the attachment. Another video to watch. Maybe the fact that the beast had gone to Watermelon Ranch after the game meant something, but it didn’t seem terribly important given the other evidence. She decided to watch it later.
Shandi tapped out a reply.
Thanks. That’s at least something new. Slammed at work right now. I’ll text you later.
She forwarded Jake’s video to Cam and started the car, grateful that no one had blocked her in.
On the drive back to the office, she tried to focus in on the beast. To solve the problem. To even see the problem clearly. An animal would be easy to deal with, even one completely unknown to science. An animal could be hunted. Killed. It could be explained by science. Its patterns could be predicted and accounted for. The beast hinted at something else entirely, seemingly a man but with strength and fortitude that couldn’t be explained.
As she drove through the deserted streets of town, Shandi briefly wondered if maybe Rose Valley should prepare for the prospect of a demon straight from hell.
