Shadow Thief
Dark eyes glinted in the moonlight. The large cat jumped effortlessly and silently onto the roof of the small farmhouse. She crept down to drink from the gutter, and then leapt over the garden and into a huge tree.
She slowly slid down the rough bark, and landing noiselessly. The goats hadn't even realized there was an intruder. This was so easy, too easy. She got into a stalking position, her tail dancing in the air like a snake.
The goat she had chosen was a tannish brown, with a white underbelly, chest, and rump. She gathered her muscles for the leap, and then she was on the goat, her claws cutting through his fur and making him bleed, her fangs were scarlet, she felt so alive!
But this pleasure lasted for seconds, because the farmer had awoken. The lights flickered on, and the door opened. The predator saw the long stick in his arms, the stick that always meant death.
She darted away, running from her bleeding prey. She ran swiftly, not spooking at the bullets missing her by inches, the bullets that sprayed dirt into her fur.
She arrived at her destination, the henhouse. Not wanting to pause too long, the cat saw her target and grasped it around the neck with her jaws.
It squawked and struggled, but she ignored it, for she was stronger. She was the hunter, and it was the prey.
This deadly predator had stayed too long. She leapt onto the roof of the henhouse, and then disappeared into the shadows.
Escaped Puma Spotted in Manchester County.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, "Shadow Thief", an escaped Puma from the London Zoo, attacked a small farm just outside of Manchester. Shadow Thief maimed a goat, and then killed a hen. This is the 5th attack since Shadow Thief escaped her enclosure at the London Zoo, and it is believed she fled London and targeted small farms, maiming and killing livestock. She has worked her way across three counties, and despite all of the traps and experts searching for her, she has eluded capture. "It's like tracking smoke", Expert Tracker Samantha Hills says, -1A
I didn't feel like flipping the pages and searching for page 1A, and besides, I knew what I need to know.
"Guys?" I said to the table at large, and everyone turned to look at me. "The Shadow Thief attacked another farm."
The whispering started at once, until Nina finished reassuring Amber and looked at me, trying to hide her fear.
"Where Fabian? Where was it spotted?"
This was the part I hated. "Manchester,"
It's funny how such a simple word can cause so much panic and fear. A simple shake of the head from a doctor, or a "No" from the woman you love. That's the way this word worked. It caused Nina to turn around and explain to Amber for the twentieth time how the puma only attacked farms, and how it would never come here. It caused Mara to start lecturing everyone on what to do if you see a Puma. It caused Jerome to pretend to maim Alfie, and it caused Mick to yell at them to shut-up.
"What if it comes here?" Patricia said, and surprisingly her voice rang through all the others clearly and loudly.
"It won't," Joy responded.
"Yeah, why would it come here?" I agreed. This thing wasn't a man-killer; it was just a regular puma that happened to be on the loose and causing chaos.
"Are you done?" Nina asked me, and I nodded. She got up and went to go get her bag, while I waited for her at the bottom of the stairs. I heard her footsteps before I saw her, and when she reached me we exited Anubis House, and walked over to school.
Even though I had promised everyone that the puma wouldn't come here, I still was a little wary. It obviously wasn't a normal creature, freeing it's self from its cage. Better safe than sorry.
School was boring and dull, because all anyone wanted to talk about was the Puma. Where it was headed, how it was being tracked, and silly rumors about how it was a ghost.
I went up to Nina's room after school and we worked on homework together until dinnertime. See? Perfectly normal day, if you don't count the fear that's gripping the entire school.
They were close. I could hear the noisy humans crashing through the undergrowth, and I could hear their dogs, barking like maniacs. I could scent every single trap they'd laid out for me, and avoided them with ease.
What they didn't know about me was their greatest flaw.
Then I saw it. A flash of brown and I also smelt it. A sickening, musty smell. One of their dogs was close.
I decided to take to the trees, and with a scrabble of claws and an extra heave of my muscles, I was darting happily from branch to branch. Up here, I was home.
They couldn't track my scent, and their dogs couldn't catch me. They could shoot me though, so I kept running, faster and faster.
I knew exactly where I was going, what I had to do. My mission was simple, and it was framed in my mind.
Kill her.
It drove me on, was my purpose. She deserves to die, and as slowly as possible. Spread the fear out. Drive her insane.
My mistress whispered things to me at night, Freedom in exchange for service. The girl is a foe, for only she has to the power to raise our enemies. She could cause our destruction.
So I run, I run quickly now, determined to shake these petty humans off.
I leapt down from the tree, grasped one of their dogs in my jaws, and then ran off. The humans wouldn't even know what had happened until it was too late.