Gowrow
Chapter One
Lynn shook her sister Melody awake at two in the morning. "Melody. Melody wake up!"
"Lynn?" Melody mumbled groggily. "...the hell are you doing..."
"I found another story."
Melody groaned and buried her face into her pillow. "And this couldn't wait until morning?"
Lynn pulled the pillow out from underneath Melody's head. "No. The fearsome gowrow is only active at night!"
"You are my eternal punishment." Melody yawned and ran her hands through her hair. "This had better be good."
"It is, it is, I promise!" Lynn settled cross legged on Melody's stolen pillow and turned on a flashlight underneath her chin, which made Melody grumble and squint her eyes.
"The year is 1897," Lynn began in a dramatic voice. "Travelers have come from out of state to explore the Ozark mountains. All the farmers warn them to stay away because a terrifying monster called the Gowrow has awoken and is eating their livestock!"
"That's the stupidest name I've ever heard."
"The gowrow," Lynn continued as though she hadn't heard Melody, "is named for the growling noise it makes. It is totally horrifying to all who hear it."
"Yeah, I'd pee myself if I heard something coming at me saying 'gow toe'."
"It's gowrow. And you totally would pee yourself because it's a twenty foot lizard with huge tusks and sharp claws and a knife for a tail and it eats people and-"
"Okay, I get the picture. It probably has beady little eyes too, right?"
Lynn huffed indignantly. "The gowrow loves caves and lakes. It has big milky eyes and really bad vision."
"Get back to the story please," Melody sighed.
"I would if people would stop interrupting me, geez! Okay, so the travelers ignore the farmers' warnings and venture into the mountains."
"Woah, didn't see that one coming."
"Melody! Stop interrupting! The travelers wander through the mountains all day, but they never see the gowrow."
"Then what's the point of this story?"
Lynn whomped Melody in the face with her pillow. "Shut up! I'm trying to tell you but you won't stop talking!"
"Okay, okay, sorry, don't get upset," Melody said, rubbing her face.
"You can be a real pain in the butt sometimes. So what I was trying to say was that they don't see the gowrow until they settle down for the night by a famous sinkhole called the Devil's Hole."
"You mean the Devil's Hole that is coincidentally right near our house?"
"Melody! Ugh!"
"That was the last time, I'm being quiet now, I promise."
Lynn scowled, but continued. "That night, right before they fall asleep, they hear a deep growling noise coming from the Devil's Hole. One person goes over to look-" Lynn paused dramatically. "-and is snatched up by a huge green lizard claw!"
"No. Way."
"Yes way. The other travelers rush over to help him, but before they can get close, the entire gowrow crawls out of the sinkhole and attacks them! They try to shoot it but it's too fast, and it drags them all down to its lair where it keeps them all for dinner!"
Melody frowned. "So...if they all get eaten where does the story come from?"
Lynn hesitated. "Um...well, explorers pieced the story together later."
"Really," Melody said, raising an eyebrow.
"Um, yes, really. Very intelligent explorers." And here Lynn smiled mischievously. "Smart explorers...like us?"
Melody blinked, processing this, then-
"No. Absolutely not."
"Please, Mel!"
"We are not hiking around Devil's Hole at two in the morning."
"But we have to! I want to look for the gowrow and it's only active at night and Mom will never take me..."
"Hmm, I wonder why?"
"You're just scared of the gowrow."
"I am not!"
"Are too! Prove that you're not!"
Melody gaped at her, then groaned loudly and reached for her car keys on her bedside table.
"I cannot believe we're doing this."
Lynn squealed excitedly and threw her arms around Melody. "Thank you thank you thank you! You won't regret it, I promise, this will be fun!"
"Go get our hiking boots and put them in the car, you manipulative little brat."
A half hour drive and a short hike later had them at the Devil's Hole.
"Hmm, I don't know about you, but I don't see any go-roes."
"Gowrows."
"Whatever." Melody ran her fingers through her hair again. "Look, Lynn, not that I'm not having a blast here, but maybe we should start thinking about heading back?"
Lynn's face crumpled. "Come on Mel, five minutes...please?"
Melody checked the time on her phone. "You have three minutes, kid."
Lynn bit her lip and scampered to investigate the sink hole. The gaping maw of the Devil's Hole, while not particularly frightening in the afternoon sunlight, took on a more menacing appearance in the moonlight. She crept to the edge and knelt in the dirt. If she squinted into the darkness, it was almost like she could see a pair of glowing white eyes...
No! Lynn shook her head to clear her thoughts. She was practically a professional explorer, after all, and explorers were known for being cool under pressure.
She picked up a pebble and weighed it in her hand, then chucked it into the hole, right where she saw the eyes in the darkness. The rock bounced against the walls, but she never heard it hit the bottom.
Melody sat down at the edge of the lake a short distance from the sink hole and rubbed her eyes sleepily. She couldn't believe she'd agreed to this wild good chase. Or, wild gowrow chase.
Whatever.
Melody sighed and tiredly watched the completely still, glass-like surface of the water. The bottom of the lake dropped off into deep water, and she could see groups of small fish drifting about.
"I bet your sisters don't drag you out to the wilderness in the middle of the night, she said to the fish. "I bet they sleep through the night like a normal person..."
She yawned loudly. "Normal people probably don't talk to fish either," she said as she watched them. To her surprise, a ripple passed through the water and the fish began swimming away at top speed.
Melody frowned. Weird. Where we're they going?
A popping noise brought her attention to the center of the lake. Streams of bubbles had appeared and were bursting on the surface of the water, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Lynn?" Melody called. But Lynn either didn't hear her or was ignoring her.
Was it Melody's imagination, or were those bubbles moving closer? Something about this felt so wrong to her.
"Lynn!" she called again, louder this time. She tore her gaze away from the lake to find her sister, who was still kneeling at the sinkhole.
"Wait a minute Mel!" Lynn whined. "I thought I saw something!"
Melody scrambled up to her sister and away from the lake's edge. "So did I. We're leaving."
"Mel, no, not yet, not when we're so close -"
"This is not something we're fighting about, come on, move it -"
"Just because you're scared -"
"Lynn!" Melody shouted, grabbing Lynn's shoulders and shaking them. "Come on, we've got to go!"
But Lynn didn't move. She had suddenly gone very pale, and was looking over Melody's head.
"Lynn?" Melody asked slowly. "Lynn, what's wrong?"
Lynn's eyes were wide and terrified as she pointed a shaking finger into the air. There was a rasping growl from behind her back.
Melody only had time to glimpse a blur of scales before something collided with her chest and sent her flying far away into the rocks.
"Melody!" shrieked Lynn.
A sharp pain in the back of her head and a blurred outline of trees was all Melody was aware of. Her instinct to get away took total control of her body. Dimly she could see herself stumbling to her feet and staggering away from where she had fallen. Her hand went to her pocket and pulled out her phone. Unaware of what she was doing, she put in her mom's number and listened to her voice mail message.
"Mom...Mom..." She stopped for breath. "Me and Lynn...Devil's Trap and...gowrow?"
She tripped and her phone clattered away.
Something flipped her onto her back and through the haze that veiled her vision she could see two huge white eyes and moonlight glinting off red stained tusks.
Two wet scaly claws grabbed her and she closed her eyes.
A/N: Sam and Dean will show up and start investigating next chapter.
