I dropped her off at her hotel to relax, get over the jet lag, and to freshen up.

Nightmare_Ron's re-emergence triggered something. That or he paid me another visit. How the hell would I know?

After I dropped Heather off at the hotel I returned to my place to get some rest. I had been awake for several days already trying to wrap up the 7 February and what-not. I sat in my recliner, staring at the wall. I sighed knowing the images would come, those images always come just before I fall asleep. They never change much. I can see the faces of everyone that died as a result of my orders, my actions, or simply my inability to save them. I know all their names, I remember where they were from, and I remember their families - I always delivered the news personally to them. Some of them died screaming, in fear, pain, shock, shitting in their pants, and desperately crying for their mothers - pathetic if they could see themselves, but when you're dying, there's no such thing as pathetic. Some of them never knew what hit them. Others took it in stride, as if it were scripted and they were actors in a movie. The blood, the innards, the screams, the pain, the bravery, the heroism, the brains, and the body parts welcome me into the realm of sleep, where they often repeat themselves.

"Comrade Ivan Sergeevich," a man in a Soviet military dress uniform said in a cold, tight-lipped manner.

"Yes," Vanya (Ivan) responded.

"It is time for comrade Nicolai Ivanovich (that is me) to come with us," the man responded.

I knew it was a dream, but I couldn't shake it. I feel deeper into it.

"Kolya, do as you are told," Vanya said to me.

I rubbed my eyes Vanya was standing next to me. The officer was across the room. "No," I responded.

Vanya growled, "Do as you are told, Nicolai Ivanovich!"

"You promised..."

Vanya hissed, "I am not going to tell you again. Do as you are told!"

Usually this is where the two tranquilzer darts put me to the ground, but, no, not this time. Vanya was my guardian and this cocksucking comissar wasn't going to be allowed to bark orders like a dog. I leapt at the comissar and grabbed him by the neck as my fist came hooking around finding his cheekbone and I heard the bone crack under the force of my strike.

I went to take another swing but the face had transformed and I saw Natasha, her delicate throat in my grasp. I released her and stumbled backwards catching a view of myself in a mirror that appeared from nowhere. I could see clearly my face, I was her father. I roared with fury and grabbed her by the back of her head and slammed her face down on the floor into a pile of leftovers I had swept off my plate and barked at her to eat the food like the worthless dog she was. "Eat it you fucking whore!" I screamed as I slammed her head into the ground. I threw her against the wall and screamed, "worthless!" and went to kick her in the ribs. I saw the blood clumping her hair and she looked up at me with such horror and pain. "I trusted you, Kolenka, please!" she begged. I knelt in front of her and screamed, "that's right, beg! beg! beg like the worthless sack of shit you are!" I got right in her face and bit her cheek until my teeth ripped through her flesh. The flesh and the blood from her soft face was sexual. I was going to enjoy this.

Then I heard a soft voice behind me. "Kolya!" And then I felt something tapping on my shoulder. "Kolya?" and slowly I turned away from Natasha. I was horrified at what I was going to see. I knew who it was but for some reason, I knew that it wasn't actually him. I knew what was coming next.

"I'm the one you left to die. You killed me!" the boy screamed at me in Russian. His voice was shrill and it hurt my ears.

"No, I tried. I... I..."

The boy mocked me, "I... I... The devil take you, Kolya!"

I stood up. "Not this time, asshole."

"You're supposed to protect the little ones. You're supposed to help them. You killed me, I was just a little boy. You don't deserve to be alive," he said in a mocking tone, still in Russian.

"I know you're fucking around. He's with Tanya now."

I turned to help Natasha up to get out of here, but she was gone. My mobile phone started ringing in my pocket.

"Kolya. Natasha," she sighed how she sighs. "Come on man you're late!" she said cheerfully, ending with that characteristic giggle she sometimes ends sentences with when she's in an especially bright mood.

I rubbed my eyes, shook my head, afraid to blink. "Yea, be right there," I said, but, honestly, I didn't know where where actually was. It only came to me in a few seconds after the phone call.

Yea.

I woke up before I got bloody.

I plan to.

It was simple the first day: you drop her off at one end of Nevsky and point down the road and say "there's more shopping than you can manage". Then come back around closing time. I have taken note.

Anyway. Besides being labeled a nut at least one of the witnesses openly asked "Why an American?" to which I quipped with a smirk, "she'll make you famous, are you in or out?" Interviews are lined up, so her weekend will be busy, I suppose. Maybe we can roam the park together on Monday or something. That's not going to be very easy to swing.

As for Lyosha, I can't say I've seen anyone get off on such a bad foot with him like that. As a psychologist he's generally attentive to the feelings and emotions of those around him.

As for our creature. There are plenty of places for it to hide and go unnoticed. The park is adjacent to a large forest. It's nocturnal, not many kids or old people to take. Fall down drunks don't fight back.

So yea that's where we are. Interviews over the weekend and perhaps a visit to the park with her gear on Monday.

No. Nothing like that. At least not that we've detected.

I agree with you, Ron.

I need some shut eye.

Been another encounter with this thing. This time we have a little more to work on; and by that I mean a body.

Some kids were wandering around along the forest paths when a couple lagged behind; they were kissing and groping each other and the guy reports hearing a snarl shortly before something jumped out from the trees knocking them both over and then ripping her out of his arms pulling her into the forest. She screamed only briefly before a loud growl and the sound “of crunched bones” was the last thing he heard.

Sasha will take her to the morgue to check out the body and interview the examiner. Then we will take her to the attack site so she can have a look there, too.

Ron Caliburn wrote:They don't "crush bones"

But they can.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761 ... amily.html

Cats typically kill smaller prey by snapping the animal’s neck, often with a bite to the top of the neck. Larger prey is subdued and killed by a bite to the underside of the neck that apparently pinches off the blood flow to the brain or strangles the windpipe. The extinct saber-toothed cats may have used their huge canines to slash through neck arteries or to slice the windpipe of victims.

Cats are also opportunistic meat-eaters. Large cats often steal the kill of smaller predators, including other types of cats. A pride of lions can chase off a pack of hyenas from a kill and will also take a kill from a leopard or cheetah. Cats also scavenge, but cannot easily crack open heavy bones to obtain marrow. Other predators not in the cat family such as hyenas and, to a lesser degree, wolves, can use strong crushing teeth to break up bones.

Ron Caliburn wrote:No large cat is going to go for a neck crushing attack on a human sized target. We're too big relative to even a tiger for them to go after us like that.


This is something else.

I'm not liking the path this thinking is headed. 'Specially in the light of your other post.

Ron Caliburn wrote:Yes, but we count as larger prey in that sense.

The neck breaking stuff is a housecat vs mouse sort of size ratio.

So, Dawes. Any luck on getting that plaster mold? How big of a cat you talkin' here?

P.S. Just to head off Kolya: I know we don't have to like it. But it don't hurt to make feelings know, either.

The mold has been completed from all I know. But I've been distracted by other matters so I have not talked to Heather in a bit to learn what she knows or whatever. I should free up over the next couple of days to coordinate more with her. Hopefully she's not being kept in the dark too much. Of course there's always plenty of shopping to be done.

No new reports or sightings but we know this thing has bountiful food supply and we know it likes to drag off drunks so there is no telling how many are missing and we just don't know about it. There was a search for half-eaten bodies conducted in the area. No results.

We'll probably be expanding our search grid. And let Heather do some walking.

So do you think we're dealing with a cat that decided to go AWOL on normal hunting tactics?

Hate to say it Heather Dawes. But until we have all the facts, we're gonna have to speculate.

It's apparently eating good. Some Petersburg cops sent some missing persons reports my way. A drunk living in the area, someone actually bothered to say they were missing her alcoholic husband. Fascinating.

More soon. Sorry. In quite a hurry.

Puma go for a bite to the back of the neck when they can, and have been known to drag a deer that weighs up to 175 lbs up a tree, lepards are smaller still, also go for the back of the neck, and have been recorded pulling thousand pound wildebeast up into trees before eating them.

If it is a great cat it does not have to be exceptionally large to drag off a man, we are actually on the small side compared to what most great cats hunt.

Wouldn't ming getting the measurements off of that pawprint though, maybe even photos of the trail.

We found a couple of the missing drunks when they got drunk and came in to start begging for more coins to get drunk again, but one is still missing.

More soon, I promise. Sorry for the delays.

Hectic doesn't begin to describe things.

Well, if you can ruskie, get me some pictures of the tracks. I have been on the trail of various lycanthopes more than just a couple times, and have picked up pretty well on estemating height/weight, as well as stance and speed based on tracks.

Hope to be able to meet up with you Caliburn, might be on the hill soon, one of my leads takes me up to Penn. Ave.