Beastly Winter — Chapter 27

As Will stepped through knee-high snow to shove the back café door all the way open, a feral odor assaulted his nostrils like a pack of wet-haired mongrels. The odor intensified as he stepped inside the hallway and looked past Roy’s office doorway toward the restaurant proper.

The only sound was the howl of the winter storm behind him.

“Roy?” he called out, watching the office in hopes the owner would stick his head out to see who had come inside. Of course, with the cold flooding in from the back entrance, it was unlikely anyone would be there.

Will quietly padded on a floor of snow toward the office. He saw the paw prints in the white drift. Maybe they actually were dogs, not the strange beasts that Dr. Willowsby had told him they would be. He pointed his revolver at the open doorway, wary of a sudden attack.

Even with the door, he looked inside at the mess that whatever had been here left behind. The room stank and was the obvious source of the awful smell.

There were no animals there now.

He walked on into the restaurant, fearful that at any time he could be jumped by a stray creature that had remained behind in the relative comfort of the storm-blasted building.