"All we've got is deer, foxes and vermin. Now, there has been the occasional supposed sighting of bears over the past few decades but that's about it."

My father was currently engrossed in conversation with a group of hunters sitting in the diner booth behind me. He had eavesdropped on their conversation regarding the recent events that had been happening here in Barnaburgh Hill. As soon as they mentioned the three dead bodies that they had stumbled upon within the reserve two days ago, my father was up out of our booth and over sitting in theirs.

"Supposed?" My father questioned intrigued by what the hunter had told him. Since we had entered the diner all eyes had been fixated on my father and I, even as we ate. Newcomers really must have been a rare sight to these town people. Not to mention how unusual it probably was for them to be in the presence of some random person questioning them on every detail of their town's recent occurrences ... and wildlife for that matter.

"Many people have claimed to have seen large brown animals running through the woods. But, no one has actually ever encountered said creatures face to face. My boys and I, we've tracked through every inch of those woods and I'm telling you now, we ain't never seen no bear." The other hunters sitting around all mumbled lowly in agreement to the statement.

The diner door bell rung as it opened and three people entered bringing in with them a blustering gust of snowy wind. I felt the cold run down my spine as it passed over the booth causing me to shiver. I really hated the cold. I really hated winter.

The first to enter was a women in her late forties dressed in a pale khaki uniform with a shiny sheriff badge pinned to her shirt pocket. The other two were gentlemen in their thirties dressed much the same. One of the men was unnaturally tall and stocky and the other was of average height and build.

"G'day Orla, boys." The waitress greeted them as she ran out from behind the diner counter and ushered them inside away from the blizzard raging outside. "You must be frozen. What can I do for you this evening?"

"We won't be staying long Darcy. We're just in need of some of that soul warming coffee of yours." The women praised before nodding to everyone in the diner in acknowledgment. She was a good looking woman to say the least, though she wore no makeup on her pale face. Her shoulder length brown hair made her appear young from afar, however up close the slight wrinkles on her face from what I assumed was stress gave her age away.

Darcy the waitress immediately scurried off to fetch them coffee as ordered, and Orla and her subordinates began moving through the diner whilst simultaneously dusting the snow off their uniforms.

"Any news Orla?" One of the hunters called out to her and instantly all eyes in the diner fixated on her. They must have been talking about the case my father had come to investigate. It was a small place after all, an event such as this was probably the talk of the town.

"Nothing yet boys." She sighed disheartened and that's when her eyes fell upon my father. A stranger she didn't recognize. A warm smile spread across her lips as she approached the booth. "Good day. You must be newcomers?"

"Pleasure. My name is Michael Jones." My father greeted her formally standing to his feet to shake the sheriff's outstretched hand. He then proceeded to reach into his jacket pocket and pull out his official badge flashing it to her clichély. I cringed internally even though I had seen him do it a hundred times before.

"Mr Jones. We weren't expecting you for another two days." She admitted, her warm smile now faltering to a distressed looking one. "Thank you for coming out so soon. Welcome to Barnaburgh Hill"

"Yes, well it was quite a concern after the DNA samples from the bodies in the morgue came back unidentifiable, so I thought it be best to come out immediately to begin investigations."

"The sooner the better I guess." She responded uneasily. "We have a house on the edge of town set up for you already. The property is already furnished like you requested and I had your daughter's files faxed over from her previous school there this morning thankfully."

My father gestured for Orla to come take a seat at the booth I was currently occupying and I nodded my head in response muttering a polite hello at her. "This is my daughter Eliza."

"It's a pleasure Eliza. School tomorrow, you must be nervous?" She asked making small talk as she took a seat across from me. I remained silent as my father's eyes locked onto me intently awaiting my response. I never thought much about starting new schools. It was always the same, they were all the same.

"It'll be a lot smaller than the schools you're probably used to." She continued as if trying to reassure me. However, I didn't need the reassurance. "God knows it must be really hard moving from school to school to follow your father's work."

"It doesn't bother me." I answered honestly. And it was genuinely the truth. My father and I never settled anywhere long enough for me to make any real friends so I didn't mind. It was easier to say goodbye to places and I didn't really fit in anywhere we went, so I was more than happy to oblige and follow my father for his work needs. My father ruffled my hair and I swatted his hand away in embarrassment turning a beetroot red.

"Will the school be open tomorrow if this blizzard continues?"

"One thing about this small town is that we keep going no matter what the weather throws our way. This blizzard isn't the worst we've seen, those weather people don't know the half of it!" Darcy the waitress chimed in as she approached the table handing Orla her black coffee. Orla wrapped her hands around the mug instantly soaking up its radiating warmth.

"Good, well I was hoping to begin investigating immediately." My father began and I couldn't help but let out a noticeable sigh. "The hunters were saying that there have been spottings of large brown animals within the woods on numerous occasions."

His job was his life, he was the perfect example of a raging workaholic. I just hoped that in the future I'd never become that involved and dependent on my job.

"Ah yes the Barnaburgh Hill bear fable. Mr Jones, people have been claiming to see bears in the reserve ever since this town was first built." She laughed taking a sip of her coffee not passing much heed of my father's seriousness on the matter. "Rumours are much like wildfire here. There ain't no bears. Let alone any in this country."

"You think some other kind of animal is lurking within the reserve then?" My father quizzed again hanging on to every word Orla was saying as if she held all the answers he would need to solve this case.

"There ain't any predators in those woods!" The hunter from before voiced up from the booth next to us, obviously having been eavesdropping on our conversation with Orla. "Not unless there's a hoard of oversized mutant brown foxes running around playing ninja."

I had to stifle a laugh at the hunter's quick witted response which earned me a disapproving look from my father.

"Sorry." I muttered still trying hard not to laugh.

"See ...often visitors would come to the town and head up into the reserve unauthorized for camping and such, but they would never return. We've tried to keep unauthorized personnel from entering the reserve but it's proved to be difficult due to the size of it. The rangers would regularly find deserted campsites of said unpermitted visitors but never any bodies. The reserve has been searched thoroughly numerous times and yet still nothing was ever found. That was up until two days ago." Orla began and an uneasy tug started to form within my chest. This didn't sound too good.

"It wasn't up until about two days ago that we found any bodies. One of the reserve rangers claimed he saw a bear in the woods that day so we sent some rangers and Tommy and his men up to have a look. It was then that they stumbled on three unidentified bodies that looked like they had been gruesomely attacked by some sort of animal." Orla continued to elucidate gesturing to the hunters in the booth beside us.

"I've been doing my job for many years. As a hunter I've seen many animal attacks over the past few decades. But being completely honest with you the bodies that we found.... I don't know what done this attack. I've never seen an animal do something like this." The hunter whose name I now knew was Tommy voiced, and his men all mumbled in agreement under their breaths.

And with that comment my stomach flipped a hundred and eighty degrees. This wasn't in my father's normal jurisdiction in the slightest. He was used to dealing with criminals. Not wild dangerous animals. Something in my gut was telling me this wasn't going to end good if we stayed here. Something was telling me that we should leave this town while we still had the chance.

"So when some fancy hunting people rolled into town about a month ago me and the boys explained to them that hunting was only permitted during fox and fowl seasons within the reserve." Orla explained before Tommy took over finishing the story.

"We told them to leave and go look somewhere else for hunting. Barnaburgh grounds are off limits this time of year, even to the locals. They were suspicious looking folk, with fancy jeeps and fancy equipment. I remember their faces, one of the three bodies that were found were definitely a part of that group. We recognized them instantly... even in the state they were in. Suspicious folk are hard to forget if yano what I mean."

My father nodded his head in agreement to the hunter's statement taking the information all in. "And yet we couldn't match the bodies DNA prints to any human profiles. Maybe if we could get a security image of the vehicles license plates we could find out some more information on them."

"Sounds like a good place to start Mr Jones. I'll have my men start pulling up video files from the security cameras around the town." Orla agreed and I could tell she was impressed with my father's quick thinking and initiative.

"But, if they weren't killed by an animal ... then perhaps we're looking at a homicide. Several homicides in fact."

Orla snorted at my father's next comment as if it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. "A homicide Mr Jones? Barnaburgh isn't that type of town. Our town folk are harmless, that I can guarantee."

"Indeed they may be Sheriff. But, that doesn't mean that these people couldn't be subjects and targets from others on the outside. People have been going missing on and off for a long time here and now there are three dead bodies laying in a hospital morgue with no DNA prints matching to any human found on file across the globe."

Orla narrowed her eyes slightly in response to his statement. The diner remained silent, too silent for my liking as everyone processed what my father had just said aloud. He had a valid point though. What was happening here wasn't normal.

One of the hunters sitting next to Tommy muttered something lowly below his breath and got ushered by the others to stay quiet. I could barely make out what he had said, although it sounded like something along the lines of 'those darn freaks'. Before I could speak up, Orla stood up promptly and cleared her throat gaining the attention of everyone within the diner.

"Mr Jones let us discuss this tomorrow in private. This isn't the time or place to speaking of matters such as this anyways. My boys and I will escort you to your new home. I'm sure you and Eliza are tired and in need of rest."

Her smile wasn't sincere; I was sure of it which is why I made no effort to neither respond nor smile back in return. Her coffee sitting before me was basically full, she had barely touched it. This only further added to my suspicion about her unsettled persona. But why was she so uneasy? It seemed that my father had been thinking the exact same thing as I caught him staring at her coffee mug in thought. We both remained silent and shared a look to one another. What exactly was going on here in Barnaburgh Hill?