A sound reminiscent of a screaming alien bug cut through the night, a sharp and hissing screech that seemed to chill the air. "What the hell was that?" Dianne's friend asked, placing a hand on her chest and stepping between her friend and the unseen source of the noise in a defensive stance.
"Uh... a barn owl?" Dianne responded, barely able to suppress a giggle at her friend's overzealous reaction. "Most common owl species in the entire world?"
Her friend turned her head back and gave Dianne an incredulous look. "Aren't owl supposed to hoot?"
Dianne gingerly reached down and lifted her friend's hand off her chest, her short and dark fingers wrapping between the other girl's long pale ones. "Horned owls do. Barn owls screech." She placed a hand on the other girl's shoulder and stood on the tips of her toes to plant a calming kiss on her lips, confirming their status as girlfriends rather than close girl friends. "Relax, Carly. You know that the witch only nabs people once every few months, she almost always goes after people who wander off the path alone, and only goes after groups in extremely rare circumstances."
The girl who'd been identified as Carly blushed. "If it is a witch..."
Dianne rolled her eyes. "Don't you even start with all that government undead cyborg alien conspiracy theory garbage. I swear, that band is turning your brain to mush!"
"I never said it was all of those things! I said it was probably one of them!" Carly defended. "Dom makes a pretty compelling case, she's pulled together the clues and-"
"Yeah, that's great you guys, can we hurry this along? I'd like to get to our campsite before next week if it's all the same to you." The athletic girl at the head of the group called back. Carly and Dianne gave each other one last good luck kiss before jogging to catch up. Julia, the girl trailing at the rear of the group, panted and continued to trudge at an even pace.
The Collector, stepping out from behind her tree as the girls passed, had come to a decision. Julia's sister and Carly were both pretty argumentative, likely to kick up a lot of fuss on the shelves, and Julia herself was a bit too young for The Collector's tastes. Dianne was nice, smart, funny, and pretty to boot. It would be her head that The Collector would add to her collection.
Cutting ahead of the group of girls, aware of all the shortcuts and alternate paths along the trail the girls were following, The Collector climbed a tree that commanded an excellent view of the surrounding forest and met with her 'barn owl'.
"Sup boss?" A cute, round, early thirties looking Latina head inquired as The Collector wrapped her fingers through its hair. Dianne had been correct about the call being that of a barn owl, but the source was not an owl at all, but Gal, a former country singer with a formerly extremely long name that ended with 'De Galicia' which The Collector had since shortened to Gal. Gal had studied bird calls as a hobby, and as a bodiless head with little else to do besides practice with her well trained voice, she'd perfected the calls and used them to assist The Collector in her collecting. She acted as a sort of scout for the collector, using different calls to indicate which direction groups were travelling in, if there were other groups or wild animals nearby that The Collector should worry about, and general just enjoyed watching The Collector work. She actually quite liked the idea of being a living head, mostly because it meant she never aged and her voice never degraded.
To Gal's surprise, The Collector put Gal's head on, and responded to Gal using her own smooth voice. "I'm taking the black girl's head, Dianne. Care to help me do a little hands on work?"
Gal, speaking inside the Collector's mind (or, technically her own mind, which the Collector was now occupying alongside her), answered "Of course! Anything for you boss!"
"Thanks!" The Collector said, patting Gal's cheek which both of them could now feel. "I will have to dirty your head up a little bit, but I promise to make it up to you in the morning. I'll give you the full spa experience, three hours of it, you'll be cuter and cleaner than ever, I swear!"
“No problem, I don’t mind getting my hands dirty from time to time.” Gal joked.
With her apologies out of the way, The Collector unfurled Gal’s long, wavy ponytail and ruffled it up, sticking bits of bark and twigs in it as she did so. She reached down, picked up a fistful of dirt, and rubbed it on Gal’s cheeks and on her own clothes. Finally, she began sprinting in circles for a few minutes before running to head off the group of girls, her face now sweaty, disheveled, and begrimed. As she caught sight of the group, The Collector screamed “HELP! HELP PLEASE! OH GOD, HELP!”
“What’s that? Who’s there?” Julia’s older sister asked, shining her flashlight right in Gal’s face and causing The Collector to shield her eyes.
“Please, you’ve got to help me, she took her! She took my daughter!” She cried, continuing to run at the four girls as she pulled at their heartstrings, hoping to drop their guard. The first girl in the group to react was..
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