The cat’s eyes tracked his every move, but it didn’t hiss this time. Instead, it shifted slightly, revealing something hidden beneath its belly. Alan’s heart pounded as he heard faint, strange sounds—soft, muffled noises that were unfamiliar and unsettling.
The strange sound sent a ripple of dread through him. Alan’s first thought about the mystery of the hidden creatures was bear cubs. He lived in bear country and in harsh winters, it was common for bears to invade people’s backyards. Did a bear cub get lost and stuck in his yard?
Alan took a step back, bear cubs meant that the mama bear would be close by and he could sustain a fatal attack if she saw him as a threat. He hurried back inside, his breath shaky as he fumbled for his laptop. He typed in a frantic search: How to get rid of bear cubs from your backyard safely. He clicked on the first video that popped up trying to find a solution to this strange predicament.
But as the video played, Alan’s eyes drifted back to the cat outside, the muffled sounds playing in his mind. Then it hit him—the sounds didn’t match. They were not the high-pitched whines of bear cubs at all. There was something different about them, something that didn’t quite fit.