Page 18 of Coveted By The Bear

“Hello? Who’s there?” I asked. The sound of something moving had me inching forward. Then I saw it.

“Oh my God!” I screamed, horror freezing me in place.

People didn’t typically think of wildlife when they thought of New Jersey, but Barvale literally meant bear-town. I supposed the founding fathers enjoyed the wildlife around these parts as much as the locals still did.

But I never heard of a bear opening a door and knocking down a shelf of brake pads.

“Oh shit. Okay, um, I’m not going to turn and run. I am just going to back away,” I murmured more for myself than for the enormous brown bear.

The animal seemed to understand, and it almost looked like he was laughing at me.

“What the?” I muttered, then I saw another behind him.

Only this one was convulsing or something.

Did brown bears hunt in packs or pairs or something?

I had no idea. But something weird was going on.

“What the hell is going on right now? Aghhhh!” I screamed.

My eyes were wide, and I backed up so far, I hit the wall behind me. I dropped to the floor and crawled away, ducking behind a rolling tool chest.

I peeked around and saw the first animal stand on his hind legs. The bear roared so loudly he almost shattered my eardrums.

My breath was coming in pants, and I knew this wasn’t a safe place to hide.

I continued to crawl, just making it to the office, when I heard a nasty clicking and crunching sound behind me. I glanced behind me as I closed the door. Not really believing I was safe yet. But there was a phone inside and I could call the police or something.

The sound of nails on a chalkboard made me scream again, and I sobbed as I grabbed the phone wire and yanked it off the desk.

Shit.

I forgot there was a huge window looking out into the garage from this office. I don’t know how the bear knew what to do, but the animal sliced the window in two, using six inch long black claws to cut it in half. Then he roared again, and the thing shattered.

I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die.

Stop it. I’m not gonna die!

More cracking sounded, and I picked up the receiver and tried to dial. But there was nothing.

No ring tone. No sound at all.

“You won’t be making any calls with that,” someone said, and I shivered.

“Hello? Don’t come in here! Run! There are two huge bears,” I called out a warning.

But wicked laughter echoed in the space and a stranger appeared at the broken window. He was big and mean-looking. His eyes glowed gold, and he was, well, he was naked and snarling at me.

“‘Run. There are two huge bears.’You hear this, Rick? The little human thinks the bears will get us,” the man said, and his laughter was even worse now.

He started cackling, and saying things, terrible things about what he was going to do to me.

“Hurry up and change, man. Tiegs said we could do whatever we want to her,” the man said, and I could see it.

There was something not right here. The second bear walked closer to him. Both of them were standing in front of the shattered window, and I bit back my frightened tears.

Fur receded and a huge, menacing man stood where the second bear had been only a moment ago.

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