Narrator

Predators drag and tear.'

This looked like deliberate placement.

Nora stood a few feet back, her face tight."

Maddy didn't come closer at all.

She stayed behind us and whispered, This is weird.

I crouched and looked at the ground.

There were tracks, but the leaf litter made them faint.

I saw deer prints, yes, and what looked like a dog's paw prints, but elongated.

Then I saw something that made me straighten up fast, a human footprint, partial, pressed into the damp soil where the leaves had been scraped away.

It wasn't crisp enough to see tread, which suggested bare foot or a worn sole.

It was adult-sized, and it was positioned too close to the carcass, like someone had stood there working.

"'Guys,' I said."

and my voice came out lower than I intended.

Eric leaned in, saw it, and backed up.

Okay, he said, forcing a laugh that didn't land.

Okay, so, hunters.

Nora said nothing.

She was staring at the strip of hide on the branch.

In daylight, it looked less supernatural and more like something a person had done, which should have been reassuring.

Instead, it was worse.