More...Gifts? (Chapter 1 of the Modern Day AU for Warhammer 40k)
CW: Mentions of dead animals, blood, and threats
@astrohymn for the podcast paranoia idea
Leah was in a deep sleep. She had already managed her first week in Paradise Falls, Colorado, but not all things were going well.
She was still trying to finish unpacking boxes. She had all the large pieces of furniture, except for a bed, which she had to order and was still waiting on delivery. So she made a nest out of all the blankets she had. Not that she minded sleeping on the floor, yet she still preferred a bed.
A sickly sweet smell hits her nose, slowly rousing her from her slumber. "Why do I smell blood..." She slowly pushed herself up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She hadn't eaten the previous night, so she wasn't surprised the smell of blood made her hungry. More specifically, deer's blood.
She pulls on a shirt and a pair of jeans, not even caring if they were clean or not, as she makes her way out of the bedroom. Her feet quietly pad across the floor as she makes her way into the direction of the back door, where the source of deer blood.
Leah opens the back door and finds a deer carcass on her back porch. The stag had its throat torn open from which the blood pooled from.
She glanced back at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was eight o'clock at night, which meant she slept the whole day away. She is still in pain from the other day of moving the heavy furniture.
Her lips curl back at the thought of tearing into the raw deer meat but at the last second decided not to. "So the local cryptid left me another gift?"
She turns on the porch light, illuminating the back yard out to at least five feet past the porch. She stares out at the inky darkness beyond her backyard and to the woods beyond. "If I catch you..."
Leah steps out onto the porch and grabs the stag by one of the antlers. "I'm going to make it hurt."
*This is going to hurt a lot when I'm done dragging it to the shed,* She thinks to herself as she hefts the stag halfway up to her shoulder and drags it slowly to the shed. By the time she made it to the shed, she was sick from pain.
She didn't know who kept leaving deer carcasses on her property, but she always made good use of the meat. Right as she was going to lift the deer and stick it to the meat hook, she catches movement out of the corner of her eye.
A growl rumbles in her chest as she fights off the urge to shift into whatever animal she felt would be best used to either frighten off the intruder, or if push came to shove, deal with the poor sod.
"And me without my combat knife. Clever bastard..."
Leah steps out of the shed as she tries to see where the intruder ran off to on her property. Her gaze moves towards the fence, the property line where the neighbor's house was, as she sees a large shadow disappear over it. "Great..."
By midnight, she had the deer cleaned and cut. She had just finished cleaning up and was working on making herself a pot of venison stew. She had her earbuds in as she started listening to the podcast of a crime documentary.
She quietly hums to herself as she cuts the vegetables. But it wasn’t long before she saw movement outside her window. She freezes where she stands and listens. She doesn't hear any movement as she takes her phone out and catches movement outside her window again. She snaps a picture and looks to see what it is.
She frowns in disappointment. The picture was blurry. "Whoever it is, they step one foot into my house, I'm going to make them pay."
