Burn It to the Ground

Maura’s POV.

Note to self: Kill Kass.

There had been a lot of things in my life so far that I’ve had to do, even though I didn’t want to, even though it made my inner sane person shutter. But this, this was one of my most hated. Apparently Kassia hadn’t been using a metaphor when she said ‘Go underground’. I had been hoping for a mysterious looking warehouse with shady inhabitants, seeping with information about the murders. But no, we were in the sewers of Cheyenne, looking for any signs of a Shapeshifter since apparently the last time the boys had a run-in with one, its lair was somewhere within the city’s underground. Underground=sewers. I should have got that sooner. "So, what exactly are we looking for?" I asked, sloshing my way through shallow pools of water containing god-only-knows-what...And a dead bird...

"Skin. It has to shed to change from one person to another." Sam answered, shinning a flashlight along the mucky walls as huge black rats scurried their way along the ground, their little feet moving silently. Kassia grimaced, muttering something along the lines of 'I knew that.' I didn’t, but then again I half-assed the research after yesterday’s beer incident, so I wasn‘t very surprised.

The sewer channels were confusing, shaped out of concrete and covered in grime. It was full of dead-ends and sharp turns, making it almost impossible to tell where to go, especially since we didn’t actually know where we were going, just what we were looking for. Little dripping noises could be heard all around, draining from the streets. I wasn’t squeamish in the least, but I was beginning to notice that we were all starting to smell like wet dog. I shoved my hands in my pockets, peering into another tunnel off to my left for any sign of movement. I caught myself dreaming of scenarios where the Shapeshifter would pop out of one of them and shout ‘Hey, here I am! Come shoot me!’ I mean really, these things had to know that eventually their blood-soaked joyride through life would have to come to an end and we would catch up to them, so why not just behave? The answer: Because the fuckers are idiots. And evil idiots at that.

“I think I found something!” I heard Kass call out, shinning her own flashlight towards a lump of what appeared to be rotting flesh and hair, the white light bouncing off the moisture and making it eerily shiny. “You found it!” Dean announced proudly, as if he were announcing the winner of a scavenger hunt. We all scurried over to where Kassia was pointing and I squatted down to examine it out of morbid curiosity. It was a sickly, very light pink with tuffs of brown here and there, most of it having fallen out. Little squirmy things explored it, in and out of the meat itself, and it had suffered through enough decay that it was almost unrecognizable.[I ]Almost.

“Uh, Kass. It’s a dead cat.” I informed, hating to rain on the parade here. Everyone made a face, the smell becoming almost too much to stand. Sam hesitantly nudged to mess of fur and decay aside, revealing a larger pile of thin, pale skin and teeth underneath. “I stand corrected. You found a dead cat and Shapeshifter-goo, double points!” I reached up to highfive her, only to be left hanging. “Well we’re on the right track at least.” Said Dean, turning back to continue on through the sewers. I shot one last uneasy glance at the fleshy mess before getting up and catching up to my sister.

“We know it’s a Shapeshifter now.” I said in a low-voice, my stomach doing nervous flips-that I would never admit to-at the thought.

“Or an Alligator, they can live in sewers you know.”

“That’s a myth” I pointed out, mentally noting that it also wasn’t Cheyenne that held that myth.

“So are Shapeshifters. We hunt myths, Maura.”

Damn, she’s got a point there.

Sam’s POV.

I walked with my brother, Maura and Kassia keeping several paces behind as they talked about Alligators or something. I was on edge after the discovery of the shed skin, remembering that we probably weren’t alone in Cheyenne, Wyoming’s underground. The further we went into the damp, musky sewers the more eerie things got. There were less and less signs of life, less mice and insects to avoid stepping on. A blood stain here, human remains there; a fingernail floating in a puddle of muck. Disney land had absolutely nothing on this place, thrills were around every corner. And of course remembering how well our last encounter with a Shapeshifter went-Dean being wanted for murder and then pronounced dead-didn’t inspire confidence either. Let’s just hope this time no one dies; real or not. I thought as I took the safety off my pistol, gripping it with both hands as something sounded from a channel to my left, sounding like a skipping rock. I glanced at my brother.

“Probably a trap.” Pointing out what everyone already knew, weapons were immediately drawn and ready. Dean and I both had pistols, Kassia a sawed off shotgun and Maura another handgun.

“Willing to risk it though?” I asked, a long pause following. If we had an opportunity to take the Shapeshifter out right then and there, we would take it, but the possibility that it was stalking us was ever-present and unnerving.

“Alright, I can’t believe I’m saying this but-Let’s split up. Sam and I will go check it out, you girls keep going.” Immediately I could tell that that wasn’t what they had heard, what they had heard was: ‘We’re tougher because we’re men so we’ll go put ourselves in danger as a show of masculinity, while you two women folk continue on without us.’ and it scared me a little bit that I knew that’s what they heard.

Eyebrows rose and hands were put on their hips. Unfortunately it wasn’t our hands that were put on their hips. Oh god I’m starting to sound like Dean…

“Or,” Kassia began “We could go, considering we have the heavier gun.” She waved the shotgun a little, daring someone to argue with her.

Dean took her up on that. “No, it’s probably nothing anyway.” She looked like she was desperately fighting the urge to shoot him in the face as Maura tilted her head at me, silently asking who’s side I was on.

“We’ll be back.” I called as I ran to catch up with Dean.