Narrator

Nora took a paper map because she doesn't trust gadgets.

Maddie took pepper spray because she'd read too many true crime stories and didn't care if it made her look paranoid.

The hike was pleasant at first.

Leaves crunching.

A creek crossing over slick stones.

Ferns and rhododendron, thick enough in places that you could lose sight of the person ahead of you if they turned a corner.

That kind of density makes you feel watched even in daylight.

We saw sign of normal wildlife, squirrel chatter, bird calls, deer scat.

Then, maybe an hour in, we found the first thing that didn't fit.

It was a deer carcass, but not the way you usually find one.

Not a whole body left to rot, not scattered bones.

It was arranged.

The ribcage had been opened cleanly, the spine exposed, and the organs were gone.

The legs were still attached but twisted at angles that made me think of someone bending wire.

The head was missing.

Around the carcass, the leaves had been scraped away in a circle.

exposing damp soil like a shallow bowl.

And on a low branch above it, someone, or something, had hung a strip of hide like a ribbon, swaying slightly.

Eric said, "'Bear, immediately, because bears are the normal answer.

But bears don't arrange.