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PREDATOR: The Thin Man

The forest was quiet, its floor blanketed with a fine mist that crept among the roots of oak

and beech on sylph-like feet. Deafening silence pervaded the air, not a hiss of wind or

creak of tree limb to be heard. It was as if the whole of the woods had been stricken byDeath. Occasionally a shape moved in the darkling distance, noticed but uncertain,

tentative. single bird sped over the canopy of bare trees, making not a peep or call. The

woods were utterly empty.

The summer sun was slowly fading behind the hills to the west, painting thehori!on with vibrant gold and carmine hues, wisps of still clouds accenting the sky with

slashed streaks of white. "inally fading to bruised purple and then to black dotted with

the bright pinpricks of stars, night rolled over the forest with an ominous totality.Darkness had come to the wasteland of trees, and all was still.

#ick made camp shortly before the sun faded away, building a fire and setting up

his tent, putting some beans and hotdogs to cook, and getting fresh water from a flow thatmade hardly a burble as it ran tumbling over rocks in the streambed. It was a pleasant

enough night, but a hell of a thing to come out on a dare for. $is friends had all claimed

the forest was haunted, a claim they couldn%t quite back up with any firsthand proof. $ecalled them it, saying he%d be willing to go and see for himself if they weren%t able to

man up and do so themselves. &hat%s more he%d go it alone, since they seemed loathe to

even come within sight of the place.

In hindsight, it would have been better if at least 'erry and maybe #obert hadcome along to corroborate his story when he made it back to town, but his friends had all

(ust stared into their drinks or scuffed their work-boots on the floor, saying nothing. )o

here he was, camped out in the woods alone, making a bite to eat.)pooning up a healthy plate of beans, he sat back by the fire-pit, lifting his fork to

his mouth when the distant sound of loud pops, like tree-limbs cracking apart in a strong

gale met his ears. $e (erked upright, scanning the trunks for a distant campfire, or maybea bear. It was stupid of course* the bears in this part of the state were wary of people, and

he%d at the very least brought a handgun with him, (ust in case. fter a few moments of

silence an the sound didn%t repeat itself, he ate, cleaned the pot out, and went to clean his

dishes in the stream.&hen he returned to camp, he stopped (ust by the fire-pit. There in front of his

tent was a medium-si!ed white stone. It hadn%t been there when he%d left, he%d made sure

to clear the area around his tent of brush and rocks. $e (ust stood there staring at it, tryingto make sense of how in the hell it had gotten there when POP-POP-POPthe sound

from earlier came again, louder, more violent. $e (umped, dropping his plate and fork.

)ilence. )tillness. +ot even a gust of wind rolled over the woods to mar theperfect quiet, though #ick could hear his blood rushing in his ears like a slamming of the

tide against a wall of granite cliffs. +othing happened, nothing came out of the darkness,no sound broke upon his ears. )lowly, deliberately, #ick un!ipped the tent flap and

crawled half inside to put his dishes away, muttering to himself that he was (ust spooked.)pooked by what his friends had told him, warned him against, startled by a sound he

couldn%t eplain, by the stone that shouldn%t have been there.

Turning on his knees to rise, he saw the man standing (ust inside the ring of trees,and went stone-still. The man was tall, taller than #ick himself was, and he boasted a

good si feet four inches. $e was also uncommonly thin, like bundled sticks dressed in a

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black silk suit. #ick blinked, an the man was suddenly closer, no more than a foot from

the fire-pit, and he could see the man had sickly white flesh stretched taut over the

featureless epanse of his head. $is eyes widened in shock. $ow the hell had he movedso fast n odd sound broke from the trees, then* a steady, strident clicking, like dry

bones clattering against one another. #ick%s head (erked at this new noise, and even the

thin man seemed attracted by it, the faceless head craning up at an unnatural angle until itseemed the whole of his head looked as if it had (ust shifted one-hundred eighty degrees

vertically to peer behind it.

#ick leapt inside the tent, !ipping the flap up and fumbled in his backpack. Thethin man turned his body, his head remaining fied on a point in the tree limbs overhead,

from where he had entered the small camp. )omething looked back at him. It saw the

shape of two humanoids, outlined in varying shades from red and orange to green,

yellow, and blue. The taller of the pair was by far the cooler of them, with barely any heatat all in its form, while the smaller was frantically pulling apart its parcel, searching for a

weapon of some kind, the being hoped. /rey that fought back always provided the best

sport.

s the thinner of the two turned towards the being, it gave another of the bone-striking-bone vocali!ations, curiosity tingeing the sound. 0ould it see him Impossible.

+o soft-meat had evolved heat-pits of their own, yet. 1ven if this thin humanoid couldsee him, it proved only so much a threat as the man-prey fumbling with what he

recogni!ed as one of human-kind%s small slug throwing burners. 2ood, the one was

willing to fight. )till, the thin man felt instinctually odd. It seemed not the least afraid,and its movements were both unnatural and fluid. Its head made another boneless shift as

it turned back towards the small yurt as tendrils rose from its back.

The thin man seemed to grow in stature, the very air around it growing blackly

cold as it hunched over the cloth dwelling. The being in the trees let loose a loud growl ofwarning. $e sensed the malice in the thin humanoid%s stature, the hunched poise as if

ready to strike. One of the dark tendrils on the man%s back lashed out and opened the tent

with a downwards slashing moment. )hots from the smaller one%s burner clapped in theair and its owner screamed in fright.

$is warning unheeded, the thing in the trees dropped to the ground. 3luish arcs of

energy crawled over its form as the shift-suit concealing it deactivated both thin man andthe smaller one glanced at the newcomer. 3ig, almost as tall as the thin man himself, but

more brutishly built, clad in strange silvery armor stood within the ring of trees. n

epressionless mask covered its face, and long tresses like black tentacles hung past the

shoulders. Thin man and small man stared as it unhitched a long tube from its belt, andspun it sidewise in one hand, telescoping the ends until it sprung to its full length. The

spear leveled at last in a point between both humans.

#ick looked on as the giant thing displayed its weapon, mouth hanging agape, thetall tailored-suit-clad man forgotten in lieu of this new menace. $is friends had been

right, the forest was haunted, he was wrong for coming here. $e leapt up and ran,

handgun dropping from limp fingers as he fled.The bulkier of the two beings tracked the escaping man%s progress until he could

no longer see its heat-signature, and turned to face the thin man again. 1cept for the

lashing and quavering tentacles on its back, the thin man stood still again, straight and

tall, nearly a handspan over its seeming rival, unwavering. Interesting. This thin, too-cold

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human felt unafraid to the hunter. #ead(usting the angle of his spear, the being bounced

on the balls of his feet, twisted his right forearm to etend twin blades from the back of

one gauntlet and leapt forward as the black chill around the thin man seemed to epand.lready a quarter of a mile away, stumbling between tree-roots and over

pro(ections of rock, #ick heard the howls as the things set about to killing one another. If

ever he got back to town, he%d have a new respect for his friend%s warnings, and a healthyfear of being alone in the woods.

Days later, reports came back to town from a ranger station that a camp had been

viciously attacked by a bear, and an unidentified person had been likely been killed anddragged off to be eaten. +o one asked #ick if he%d heard anything, but he knew it was his

own camp, and that either one monster or the other had been savaged. $e said not a word