Excerpt: Blue Shadows

Ok, the fence is repaired and my chores for the day seem done. The trouble is that isn't exactly the case, always something else to be fixed, or something that could be worked on. Still, My workload for the day is as done as its going to get now that the sun's down. Takes talent to write while walking, or frequent stops to pen one's thoughts down, and when a 'walk' consists of pacing an eight acre lot there's plenty of opportunity for thoughts.

Look, I know how I titled this journal, and I realize that what I've written to this point isn't terribly interesting, unless you're unfamiliar with gholems, though how that would be the case I'm unsure. I felt obligated to write about more mundane things so that there's a basis of comparison.

where was I? Oh yes. Out for a walk on my property.

Naturally I wasn't alone, while I didn't exactly fear Ferals, four legged or otherwise, encroaching I wasn't going to act a complete fool. So while I walked my two dogs roamed roughly along the same path. They're well trained and stay fairly close to me, so I feel secure enough to relax. Pity really, because fatigue caught up with me, and I skirted the land of Nodd, quite content in the warm night and what I presumed to be the safety of my own property. So when it attacked my first, and only, warning ws the sounds of both of my dogs laying into the intruder.

Both are rather large, and would've been considered mongrels by pre-war standards, and each weighing easily a hundred pounds. Even so both were tossed about like a child's stuffed animal. All i could tell was its approximate shape, roughly humanoid and approximately a head taller than I am (For reference's sake I'm roughly 5'9), and the one and only clear glimpse I got before turning to run was it tossing Cholo away.

Right now I'm hiding in cattle barn and...Gods...if it can hear half as well as I can then it should be able to find me by the sound of my heartbeat. Maybe its the animal smell here, I hope so anyway.

~~~~~

Three hours after I'd taken my walk I finally return to find my home as I'd left it. Billy taking her nap, the radio emanating soft static due to curfew. I know it happened, no dream feels that real, plus I was still in my work clothes.

~~~~~

Morning:
Dogs covered but left unburied, taking the horse in town to get Micheal to look at the bodies before I bury them. For once i took Billy' suggestion and took the shotgun with me.

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Post Script:
Micheal's finished looking them over and is talking with Billy while I take my turn digging the grave. Hard, but not nearly as hard as it would've been had we not had rain a few days back. I loved both of them, raised them, and in return they've helped keep watch over me and mine. I'm only thankful that whoever, or whatever did this wasn't' the sort to stop to 'play' with its prey.

I'm writing all this down as billy digs mind you. Apologize, whoever reads this. I'm not terribly good at a coherent narrative, especially now.

"It might've been a gholem." It must've been the third or fourth attempt Micheal made at getting my attention before her voice sunk through my grief. I looked up at her, writing as I starred at her (and somehow it all manages to remain ledgable), which prompted her to continue. "Cholo and Apollo had blue blood in their mouths."

Oh no...everyone'll start thinking Billy- no, no. They know her, they might not like her, but they wouldn't think she would just kill without provocation.

"I'll see if Frank can get the militia on the wire." She gave my shoulder a squeeze, "billy said she might be able to find where it went, or maybe where it came from." Micheal sounded slightly confuse,d "I don't know how she'd tell its path from anybody else's, but she seems convinced, and I'm worried." I'd heard this before, every time something came along that would make people associate her with the worst Billy would go try her damndist to find proof otherwise. Can't claim her, but if she keeps bowing to pressure then maybe she'll get hurt, or maybe they'll think she's going out of her way to make herself look good or...or...