172- bloody souvenirs

Anthony Gotham

The click of the guard’s camera flash as it went off left stars in my vision, blinding me to the trickling silver light of the moon as we stood around the small shadowed lot only feet from the bloody clearing.

I watched the masked wolf shake out the photo in the Polaroid and slip it cleanly into his Manila bag.

“What on earth happened here?”

“It looks like there might have been a blood bath, Your Highness, all female…possibly more than one,” Fedora whispered, pointing out the deep tracks of blood staining the porcelain snow that had mixed with black earth.

I held my breath, my boots shifting uneasily as I waited for the royal examiners to finish up with the evidence.

The council would want a detailed explanation of why I had dragged half our troops from the base for a forest reckon that ended up being a wild fucking goose chase.

“Are we done here yet?” I growled, the despair twisting in my chest only doubled when one of the masked wolves held up his thumb for me.