The Hunting Party

Doug relishes the dark and quiet hours of the early morning. He ran into Julien on his walk, but Julien stalked off, looking guilty but otherwise without trouble. Doug walks with his dogs, Griffin and Volley, who are excited by the scent of incoming snow. The dogs follow something rustling in the trees. Doug calls out after the figure but finds only boot prints. The visitors from London wouldn’t own anything as practical as the boots, so Doug supposes the figure could have been one of the Icelandic couple. However, Doug wonders why either of them would run away from his voice.

Doug experiences fugue states, in a dark curtain overwhelms him and puts him to sleep. His therapist diagnosed these fugue states and Doug’s incident of violence as symptoms of the same trauma. He ended his therapy sessions when it came time to talk about the trauma; instead, he chose to live in isolation from people.

The narrative flashes forward to January 2, 2019. Heather calls the owner of the lodge to report the dead body. He reminds her to call Iain, who would have left on New Year’s Eve, to keep him in the loop.