Zora Grizz

          Marley couldn’t take their hiking boot off of the hidden trap they’d stepped on. They now saw the rope lying cleverly slack near a tree base, the netting barely visible underneath the scattering of leaves on the ground. If they lifted their foot they'd be trapped instantly. They couldn’t run. 

          The sprinting footsteps grew closer. Marley could smell someone’s breath tainted by bad coffee floating in the air. They stared up at the sky: the full moon was hidden behind thick, ominous, clouds that promised rain.

          The crunching of leaves and twigs became deafeningly loud in the forest and without shifting their body weight on the trap’s release, Marley’s head snapped to the left, looking directly at the spot where the trap’s maker now appeared.

          A young womxn skidded into the clearing, breathless, a twig hanging in her long brown ponytail, her eyes wide and something else…victorious. She was holding a large shape in her trembling hands: a thick, white, collar with a tracking antenna on it. 

          Marley’s eyes narrowed. Every instinct in their body demanded that they run, that they fight, but all they could do was stand there: frozen. They hated every infinite second of this predicament. 

          The seconds seemed to slow and stretch for a very long moment as the two silently considered one another. And then:

          “What the actual fuck? What are you doing in my trap?” the ponytailed woman said. And then, a light bulb going off behind her eyes, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” her eyes shifting rapidly from victorious to confused to alarmed. “We have to get you out of here, now. There’s something else in these woods tonight, something that I’m tracking. Something dangerous”.

          Still, Marley didn’t say a word, didn’t move. They didn’t trust the deep growl waiting at the top of their throat or the gold shine passing briefly across their eyes or the treacherous moon holding the change at bay with its paltry window dressing of clouds.

          The womxn quickly shoved the collar into an open messenger bag at her hip and out of sight, as she moved towards the taut tripwire held under Marley’s boot. “I’m so, so, sorry. And very glad that you caught yourself before lifting up your foot…your reflexes must be amazing! Much better than mine,” she laughed. She pulled a pair of pliers from her bag and knelt by a tree at the edge of the clearing, where the wire was tied to a weighted release. Gingerly, she cut it, removing the tension and rendering the trap useless. 

          Still, Marley watched her. They didn't move an inch, not yet convinced that the threat was gone. 

          There was a small twitch in the womxn’s jawline. A slight flicker of her eyes. 

          Marley softly cleared their throat, making sure that the gravelly growl was dispersed, before carefully, finally, speaking. “Who are you hunting out here in the middle of the woods, at night…and all by yourself?” They twisted their head to the side slightly, watching the womxn watching them. Marley smiled, baring their teeth.

          She stood up and put the pliers back in the bag, brushing her hair out of her eyes as she took a step towards Marley.

          Marley resisted the urge to brush away a strand of their own curly red hair that had gotten dangerously close to poking them in the eye. They were too terrified to move. Terrified that any moment now, the moon would peek through the clouds and its glow would shine on them, sending them headfirst into the change…right in front of this womxn who’d been hunting them with a collar and a trap. They barely breathed.

          The womxn sighed and looked at Marley with a slightly discouraged grin. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I’m Gemma, by the way.” She was several steps closer to Marley now.

          Still, Marley didn't move an inch.

          “The trap’s disabled. And again, I am so sorry about that.” She laughed nervously, “please don’t sue me or anything. I’m just a researcher. I don’t have much…well, just data.” She laughed self-deprecatingly.

          Marley was tired of this and running out of time. They made a sudden decision in their head and it was as if a switch flipped. This change wasn’t visible the way the one the moonlight threatened to spill out of them at any moment was. This change was subtle…calculated. Their eyes softened, their posture relaxed, their lips twitched up into a slight smile. They paced gracefully forward: one step, then two, closer to Gemma. They met Gemma's eyes intentionally, holding them with a golden warmth. “Not at all Gemma”, Marley purred smoothly. “I’m glad you found me and not some dangerous creature. I was on a hike, you see. And I appear to have lost my way.”

          Marley paced slowly closer, never breaking eye contact. 

          Gemma’s expression relaxed slightly, her eyes looked somewhat glazed over. They were a very deep shade of brown. Almost black. Marley registered this in the back of their head, a red flag that they would see better in hindsight.

          “I…I’m glad…yes…” Gemma’s eyes unfocused and her arms went slack as Marley held her steady in their gaze. 

          Marley was only a breath away from her now. “Here, let me help you,” they crooned softly.

          Gemma was taller than them, most folx were, and Marley used their low center of gravity and ample hips to easily knock Gemma off balance with a well placed bump to her thigh. Marley stared  into Gemma’s eyes as she fell, catching her neck gently with the crook of their ankle and lowering her head slowly to the forest floor. “Sleep now”, she whispered. “And when you wake, know this: I just want to be left alone.” Marley shook their head. “Humans”, they muttered disgustedly.

          Glancing nervously at the sky, Marley reached into Gemma’s bag and took the collar. Then they hurriedly made their way over to the tree with the severed wire. They extended their long claws from their fingertips and made quick work of restringing the trap. The moonlight was growing brighter, sweat trickling down Marley’s neck. They were running out of time.

          They easily hauled Gemma, her bag, and the net meant for Marley high up into the air, tying the trap off neatly. Gemma had her pliers. She could cut herself out in the morning. 

          Marley stared at the collar, considering their options. Gemma obviously had the ability to track it. Marley could use that to their advantage - duct tape it underneath a bus, mail it to one of those tourist-traps, some kind of “paranormal museum” and laugh as they sent Gemma there. 

          But as they felt the muscles in their body begin to ripple and shake, they knew they were simply too out of time to be clever. Marley snapped the collar in two. As their legs buckled and their spine quaked, they crumbled the tracking antenna to dust in their gnarled fist. A loud crack rent the air as the change rendered itself complete. Marley threw their head back and an ear-splitting howl echoed through the trees and across the mountains. 

          But it was followed by another sound. An unexpected sound.

          “I knew it!” Gemma cried darkly. She was very much awake and unhypnotized, suspended safely in her net, cell phone in hand: videoing Marley under the light of the full moon.

          Marley grinned a giant, blood thirsty, wolfish grin: their sharp teeth on full display. “I told you to leave me alone, Gemma”, their human voice emanated eerily from their deep, barrelled, chest. 

          Gemma paled and almost dropped her phone, trying to shift her weight entangled in the mesh. 

         “It now seems you’ve left me no choice but to get that video from you…such a pity.” Marley prowled dangerously close underneath the net. 

         But instead of cowering, Gemma smiled slowly. She pulled some kind of remote control from her bag and looked to the ground beneath Marley. “Sorry about this, friend,” she said softly. “...I just need more data.” She pressed a button and live wires lit up with blue arcs of electricity, making a large grid pattern on the ground.

         Marley growled, trapped in a square of light directly beneath the net holding Gemma safely above it all. They couldn't move out of the square without risking contact with the zapping rays of light. They snarled, then lunged themself up, up, through the air, towards the netting easily climbed by claws and teeth.

 

         Far away, on the eastern edge of the forest, sudden screams pierced the night sky, so loud and panicked that it was impossible to tell if they were from a human or an animal. 

 

         The long silence that followed was broken by a single deep, hoarse, cackle…echoing out over the trees.