82.
She could hear the breathing first, a wounded rasp like a ten pack a day smoker towards the end. She knew the wolf wasn't hurt though, she'd tried, but had failed and now it was hunting her in the dark. Gilbert was somewhere down there with her as well, but the storm drain system they were in amplifie sound in a way that he sounded like he was everywhere. Same with the wolf, she couldn't tell if it was next to her, or a good distance away.
Clarissa's left arm was broken, the creature had lashed out at her in the dark before she could draw a shot on it and the blow had been devastating. The arm hurt when she breathed, it hurt when she moved, it just hurt. She found herself wishing she'd just gone homeless instead of being an exterminator, at least in homelessness she wouldn't find herself hurt and hunted in some drainage tubes near the Columbia.
"I can smell you." The wolf's voice was slimy like a used car salesman. "You think if you don't talk I can't find you, but I can. Your partner is lost and I know exactly where you are, I'm playing with you, the taste of your fear is delicious. What you idiots thought coming after me is beyond me, I'll enjoy ripping it from your flesh.
"And I'll enjoy mounting your corpse above the fire place you piece of shit." Clarissa didn't have much left, her arm hurt and the wolf probably wasn't lying in that it knew where she was, but she hoped Gilbert too knew where it was and was just laying a trap for it. It's all she had in the limited light she could see in the drainage tubes.
"There there let it all out girl, soon you'll be screaming in pain as I eat your intestines." She heard a splash behind her and spun with her good arm an almost stabbed Gilbert in the chest, thankfully he caught her hand before she could stab him. He put a finger to his lips and indicated she keep talking, by twirling it in a circle.
"So do you want to be mounted like you're leaping forward or would you prefer the head up your ass option? I'm good either way."
"Such false confidence, I don't even know what you expected to do with your little bow and arrow, neither you nor your boss can kill me, it's rather insulting."
"And yet your hiding in the dark like a little scared puppy. I think you are afraid of us, instead of just killing us, you ran into here, terrified we were going to kill you, what did you do to piss the devil off anyway? Piss on his rug like a disobedient dog?" The sound of splashing and the raspy breathing came from all around Clarissa until she saw the skin wolf, its horrifying human not human wolf form bearing down on her. She crouched like it would do anything and then Gilbert fired, the devil's .45 was loud, way louder than any gun she'd ever heard fired, especially in the confined space of the drainage tube. The wolf looked confused as the bullets hit it and took large chunks out of its flesh. It landed not too far from her feet.
"What is that?"
"It's called a pistol, it fires bullets." Gilbert fired two more shots into the skin wolf's head.
"One off our list." Clarissa felt cold, from her remembering first aid, it meant she was going into shock.
"Right, good lord you look terrible, we need to get you a doctor and fast."
"No I'm good you know one armed exterminator in a devil hitlist contest."
"Yep probably a concussion along with that arm, come on."
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