The vet was seemingly hunched over, both hands gripping the table's edge to support his upper body, as his gaze was deep into a set of six photos aligned infront of him.
"Mason, you said that the gunshots all ceased at once ?" he asked one of the two young men that were standing with him in the animal clinic.
"Yes, it was like... they were silenced at the same time," replied Mason still perplexed by what just came out of his own mouth.
Without taking his eyes off of the pictures the vet continued, "what ever it was, it must have been fast, and it cut deep,"
"It? so... You are sure it was a single creature that did that?" intervened the second young man as baffled and confused as his partner.
"Take a closer look at this slash," he pointed to one of the pictures, as he sligntly budged to leave enough space infront of him, he resumed talking once the boys moved closer to him, "If you align the pictures this way, what can you notice?" he proceeded to put the photos in said order.
On five of the images, a different body was displayed, they all had multiple wounds scattered randomly on the corpses, however one fairly big gash on their chests seemed to be commun for everyone, from the depth of the injury and the trajectory, it was logical to deduce that it was inflicted to all the victims at the same time.
"It... but...who?....what?" blabbered the boy even more suprised than before.
"Yes Corey, it's exactly what you are thinking, this wound was inflicted by one strike only, I can say for sure that, this is the cause of deat,." retorted Dr.Deaton in his usual calm tone," I should be able to tell more if I examine the bodies upclose,"
" But these don't look like normal werewolf claw marks?" quized Mason.
" Nor talents for that matter," added Corey.
" No, indeed this slash appears to be too big, too wide for a werewolf to make," finished the doctor.
An instant of silence passed when they just stood completely quiet, trying to absorb the informations they just received before they heared the doors to the clinic fly open, the sound of a bell ringing and frantic breathing.
" DOC!! We need help!!" a man's voice yelled behind the wall.
They ran to find out who it was and how they could help him. Two men were standing at the entrance, the one that yelled for help seemed to be in his early forties, soaked in his own sweat and eyes wide open. He was holding the other young man's arm around his neck to support him and keep him from falling.
"Peter?" asked Mason.
"What's wrong with Theo?" pumped in Corey before Peter could say anything.
Theo was barely conscious, the doctor moved forward and grabbed his other arm to put it around his own neck then, both Peter and Deaton dragged Theo to the table in order to be examined.
"What the hell happened ?" Mason freaked out.
"Give me five minuts to breath, please... I just ran a mile with this dipstick on my back," begged Peter while trying to catch his breath.
"He should be healing by now, this doesn't make any sense," said a confused Deaton.
"Well... don't expect me to make any sense out of it, I mean we didn't even see the thing, it was so fast even with werewolf eyes I couldn't see it coming... the darkness didn't help either," spat Peter without taking any breaks, angry at the situation he was put in.
Theo remained sensless on the table, lying on his back eyes closed, his heart rate wasn't slowing, he was struggling to respire, his shirt was torn off allowing his bare skin to be visible, a large wound streached from left to right across his chest.
Mason abandoned his shock face, squinted his eyes and opened his mouth ready to speak, but nothing came out. Corey noticed his expression and immediately asked, "What are you thinking about?"
That directed Peter's and Deaton's attention on Mason, who kept eying Theo's chest.
"Mason...what do you have in mind?" quized the vet.
" Uh... the wound, it... looks like... one we already saw tonight," he said as he picked one of the pictures up.
The three men approached him to see for themselves what he was talking about, the gash was extremly similar to the hunter's laceration, the one that caused their deaths.
" I guess we were the luckier ones tonight..." joked Peter.
A scream of pain and agony filled the room, they all turned to find its source, they were petrified by the horrifying show taking place before their eyes.
The flesh around Theo's wound was gradually changing to a greenish colour, quickly replaced by a darker purple all the while he didn't stop screaming and gasping for air.
It was like a sped up decomposing process, followed soon after by some sort of black blood leaking from his eyes, nose, ears and mouth, they had to lay him on his side so that he didn't choke on that substance.
"Nevermind....There are a few key diffrences between the attacks afer all," said Mason always in a state of stupor.
"Peter, i think you are going to have to tell us everything that happened down to the tiniest detail,"
"I do hope his recovery doesn't rely on that, because I saw almost absolutely nothing and there isn't much to tell," replied Peter as they were all trying to hold Theo down on the table.