Cottonmouth
is a short horror story written by Quieta. It tells the story of Detective Anya Eadding and her attempts to track down the Serial Killer known as Wolf of Chattanooga.
Anya begins the story being called in to investigate the death of a family who was killed by the Wolf. After a rather vitriolic breakup with her boyfriend, Anya goes to the bare to drown her sorrows in liquor. Then when she meets James, who is not what he seems...
Tropes in this work are (Spoilers!!!):
- All for Nothing: Anya practically ruined her life searching for the Wolf, and she only ended up getting abducted, raped, and the wolf getting away with his crimes.
- Alone with the Psycho: Anya is held captive by the Wolf, and it’s just her and him.
- Anti-Hero: Anya is a broken woman who is rather selfish, quick to anger, and obsessive, but she wants justice for the victims just as much as any other cop.
- Ax-Crazy: The Wolf tries to paint himself as a Knight Templar, but it’s made clear he’s nothing more than a rabid monster killing because he can.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Wolf manages to get away scot-free for his crimes, and ends the story about to kill Anya’s ex-boyfriend.
- Berserk Button: After their breakup, bringing up Anya’s ex-boyfriend is a good way to piss her off.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Wolf acts like a nice and personable guy while seducing Anya.
- Big Bad: The Wolf of Chattanooga.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The story goes to great lengths to show how flawed Anya is, but the wolf is so much worse...
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The Wolf’s method of killing involves slitting the throat from ear to ear and then disemboweling the victim. It’s implied not all of his victims immediately die when he’s done.
- Despair Event Horizon: Anya after escaping the Wolf’s clutches.
- Downer Ending: Anya has crossed the Despair Event Horizon, and the wolf gets away. The story ends with him clearly about to kill her boyfriend.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Anya goes to a bar to get wasted...and the Wolf seduces her while she’s drunk.
- Embarrassing Tattoo : Anya has a tattoo on her back an exboyfriend conviced her to get which she isn't fond of.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Wolf is quite charming while seducing Anya. He keeps this act up even as he rapes her.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Wolf wears glasses as he seduces Anya.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Anya isn’t the most pleasant lady to be around, but her heart is in the right place.
- Karma Houdini: The Wolf of Chattanooga gets away, and makes it very clear he intends on murdering Anya’s ex-boyfriend when he learns who he is.
- Kick the Dog: The Wolf raping Anya after seducing her.
- Knight of Cerebus: The story was always dark, but things gone down hill fast when “James” reveals who he really is to Anya...
- Knight Templar: The Wolf claims to be this, but he’s actually just a Sadist who kills for fun.
- No Name Given: The Wolf introduces himself using two different aliases, so his true name is unknown.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Anya’s boyfriend has this reaction to leaving her as he’s on the road. Unfortunately, as he’s considering turning back, he picks up the Wolf.
- Oh, Crap!: Anya, when she notices the clues the Wolf intentionally left in their hotel room about who he is.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Wolf of Chattanooga is the only name we got for our killer.
- Porn with Plot: Bordering on Fan Disservice, the only sexual moment in the entire work is the Wolf’s rape of Anya.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Wolf abducts Anya and rapes her multiple times over the course of the story.
- Serial Killer: The Wolf of Chattanooga. He claims to be a Knight Templar, but he’s actually a hedonistic.
- The Sociopath: The Wolf is a violent, murderous Serial Killer, who can nonetheless turn on his charm and seduce Anya.
- Stalker with a Crush: The Wolf has been watching Anya since his first murder, and he clearly has something for her, considering what he does to her when he finally has her at his mercy.
- Wham Shot: Anya notices a ring on the bed table beside her. At first, she thinks the man she met was trying to cheat on his wife with her...then she notices a framed picture of a family, the same family that the Wolf had killed at the beginning of the story.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Wolf killed an entire family, kids included.
