NOTE ONE : : this is a piece of fanfiction based on the series Primeval. I neither own the series, nor the characters involved. None of these characters should bare resemblance to anyone, but they may do so (though not on purpose).
NOTE TWO : : all French translations come from the address .com/french/ and may be incorrect. Please point them out if there's something drastically wrong, but not otherwise.
NOTE THREE : : character death. It says all.
NOTE FOUR : : this is merely a first draft, of some sorts. There is no point saying that this is complete, but I will not go spend my last few days of the holiday sorting out fanfiction unless I know that someone likes it. Two person minimum on the editing front.
Wandering through a completely empty shopping centre has a strange feel to it – especially when the shopping centre happens to be in London. Whether or not she came from said area, Lois knew that it would be more likely than not that the shops would be open and full of visitors.
In front of her, the younger sibling, Frankie, was leaning over the barrier, taking a photograph of whatever caught her eye. Though they both knew that you needed a permit to do so ("just some terrorist nonsense," Frankie had once laughed) the younger rarely agreed to it. No matter how many times she was caught and asked to put her camera away, she would always pull it back out.
But Lois was a stickler for rules, you see, and this sight didn't please her. She'd let it pass once, twice, even three times. But now it was getting to be too much.
"Frankie, stop it," she said sharply, noticing that the flash went at that exact moment, but jumped slightly.
"Damn..." was the only response, though, until she relined the camera up.
"They'll think you're a terrorist, Franks – you need to stop."
There was a second flash, this time resulting in a smile from the younger girl. "Oh, don't be silly, Lo; if someone thinks I'm a terrorist, so be it. I know that the people on devArt will agree with me."
"But-"
"The human race is bred from a lack of trust," Frankie snapped, "and if they want to think that they can stop terrorists and other groups by banning photography, then so be it! But I disagree, and I openly disagree. If they want to take my camera, they can. If they want to... Fuck."
"Françoise!"
Her eyes shot closed. If there was one thing that Frankie hated about her sister knowing the French she did not, it was the fact her full name was pronounced with the same rough edges their parents used. If anything, it made the whole name flow better, but as it was only ever used in the act of telling off, which made her almost want to wince with annoyance. In fact, if it wasn't for her younger sister Nathalie, Frankie would still have her full name told to everyone, which always made matters worse.
"What, Lois?" she snapped, turning to face her once, blue eyes blazing with anger. Her camera was in hand, poised to take a picture of the thing in front of her.
"Why on Earth did you-"
"Sh!" she shouted, making her sister jump. "Come and look."
Stepping to the edge, Frankie pointed down below, onto the ground floor. Standing there was a large, scaly thing. If she didn't know better, Lois would have called it a lizard.
"What do you think it is?"
She received no answer, only seeing Frankie filming the creature.
"Is it a lizard?"
"No..." her younger sister answered slowly. "Why would it be a lizard?"
"It looks like a lizard," the elder pointed out, not quite seeing her sister's logic.
"Lois, can you seriously tell me you've seen a bipedal lizard, with porcupine spines running along its spine, can you?"
"Well, no, but somehow I doubt it has any resemblance to a porcupine, Frankie."
The younger rolled her eyes, continuing the filming. It was a beautiful specimen, looking as if it was confused by its current location. It was sniffing around rather happily, however, as it would wherever it came from.
And then it lifted its head. Zooming on the camera, Frankie could just make out long head, and an upturned snout. Roaming over the rest, she spotted how its tail was stiffened and stood out from its body, and how there was, in fact, two large, sickle shaped claws on its hind legs, similar to those of...
"A raptor?"
Frankie shook her head slightly, only just realising she spoke out loud while describing the creature.
"Franks, are you seriously telling me you think this may be a creature from the Early Cretaceous? That's not even possible – not even if Jurassic Park has been and gone, and some idiot has brought it back from some island that's been lost in time. It's too big to be a raptor!"
"It looks like a Deinoychus – they go up to hip height on one of those comparison graphs with a human. Should be about three metres in length, but this one may be even bigger. I still can't quite see it. Hang on, I'll try to get a picture."
As she steadied the camera, Lois stood watching, contemplating on the unusualness of the conversation. Both aspired to work with animals, but both in different places. Lois wanted to be a zoologist, working with the hear and now, but Frankie wanted to be a palaeontologist – or a dinosaurologist, as the younger would say, but she highly doubted that that was even a real word, never mind a career.
The camera flashed beside her, and they both turned to the screen to see it. Frankie whistled. "Looked right up at us as well."
Clicking some buttons, Frankie frowned. "Where'd it go?"
"What?"
Frankie peered over the edge, making Lois grab her. "It's gone. The flash must have scared it."
Then something clicked in Lois' mind. Suddenly it made more sense. Of course no one was here!
But, then again, if she was right, they were in deep, deep trouble.
"Erm, Franks?"
"Yeah?"
"Raptors are carnivores."
"I'm aware of that, sis."
"There's no one here."
"I also happen to be aware of that, sis."
There was a pause, and Frankie's eyes widened slightly.
"You don't think..."
"Maybe," Lois muttered, noticing the escalators ahead of them – and the big lizard-thing climbing up it. "Run?"
"Yep."
As they sprinted, Lois pulled ahead. She always had been the fastest, and the fittest. Then again, she would turn sixteen in December, and Frankie had yet to turn fourteen, and wouldn't until the January.
As she sprinted towards the escalator, she just had time to spot the lizard thing sprinting from the other side of the circular area. God was it fast. There was no chance of them outrunning it, but maybe they could loose it.
"Up then down..." Lois muttered, heading up the escalator, then up the next, before jumping down one and up another two. It was a simple pattern, really, but hopefully one that the supposed 'raptor' wouldn't understand.
Once she was on the topmost level, Lois moved behind one of the corners of a shop. Sitting there, she pulled her knees up to her chest, listening carefully for the footsteps of anything – either Frankie, or the 'raptor'.
But all remained silent. Nothing happened, until there was a screeching. Not human screeching. Not even close to that. It was like a whine compared to the noise that came next, however, as there were the thumps of heavy footprints.
Trying not to gasp (not to breath, even), Lois slipped further around the corner, watching as the 'raptor' appeared backwards. It's head was low, at the same height as the girls, but it only focused on her with a golden eye. It was terrifying, but beautiful at the same time – otherworldly, as if it had appeared from some strange time that humans neither knew of or understood.
But then the thing that was scar the life of anyone appeared.
From its mouth came a foot, followed by a pair of legs. She didn't need to see the rest to know who it was one the bottom of the black t-shirt came into view. It had the same printed Polaroids on it, the same rugged look to it.
Frankie.
Holding back the idea to gag, Lois tried to turn away. It was hard, but what she witnessed when her sister features finally appeared helped.
Those eyes, usually in the most vivid blue, had dimmed to a greyish colour as her life ebbed away. There was a large gash on her cheek, that went over on of those eyes. There wasn't any movement, except for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, which appeared to be slowing with every movement.
A noise broke Lois out of her staring. A whining, similar to the call she had hear earlier. There was a thump, and Frankie winced, only to have the 'raptor' roar its response to whatever juvenile had singled to it in the first place.
Calling for food, was Lois' first thought, as she scampered on hands and knees to her sister, who no longer appeared to grace the world with her presence. Her necklace – the Tomb Raider Charm, as their elder brother had called it – had disappeared, but the camera still hung in her limp hand.
As it looked towards its pray once again, Lois jumped back. There was no chance of saving her sister, and as much as she wanted to, as she saw her dragged off towards the bowling alley. More of those things were in there – she could hear them replying to the calls of others, but soon it all fell silent.
Contemplating her options (or what few her clouded mind could come up with), Lois followed, heading towards the place that her family had visited the day before.
Peering through the gapped doorway, Lois could see no monsters. There didn't appear to be anything in there, in fact. Nothing was even out of place. Maybe she'd imagined all of the noise in there, but somehow she doubted it. There had been another in there.
Mraah.
She froze. The whimpering noise, closer than she'd ever imagined. Turning around slowly, she glanced around into the empty air. The noise came again, and her heart sped up.
It was below her.
Looking down, a miniature creature looked up at her. It wasn't quite a small version of its parent, but it was one of them – that much could be seen within it's eyes.
But it wasn't the creature that interested Lois, but what it was holding in its mouth. A silvery chain, wrapped around itself a few times, and a large teardrop shape, with a shimmering black marble-like orb in the centre. Around it the metal was patterned in a symmetrical pattern which made shapes rather like hearts around it.
Frankie's necklace.
Under no other circumstances would she have thought about approaching one of these 'raptors', but now she appeared to have no choice. It had Frankie's necklace – the one piece of her sister left from the murder scene, other than the black camera that was still hanging around her wrist.
Crouching down, she put her hand out to the juvenile. "Who's a cute little guy, eh? Why don't you come here, yeah?"
The 'raptor' stepped forward, as if about the sniff her hand, before jumping forward. If she hadn't been prepared, Lois hated to think what would have happened as it headed for her with those razor sharp claws. Instead, she grabbed for the necklace, grasping it and trying to pull it from the youngster, only succeeding in hitting him against the floor, causing another startled mraah to escape. Pulling from her grasp, it snapped at her fingers, the miniature teeth as sharp as any adults leaving a horrible gash. Hissing in pain, Lois dropped the chain.
That's when the chase began. The 'raptor' spun around, running, the girl chasing after it. Her injured hand was cradled to her chest. The pressure of the situation was clearly getting to her as she had a sudden flashing thought of her sister, and the pain she must have felt at the hands of that thing.
Jumping forward, she managed to grasp the writhing tail of the creature, pulling it towards her. Crouching as you would when removing something from a dogs mouth, she trapped the 'raptor' between her legs, pulling it's jaws apart with her hands.
For something that would one day be a grown killer, it relented easily, scampering off as soon as she released it.
Standing, she wiped the chain on her t-shirt, slipping it around her neck, before heading for the exit, head still pounding in her head, and her heart beating ninety-to-the-dozen.
In a flash of insanity, Frankie paused. Ahead of her, Lois ran on, not noticing her siblings pause. There was no way they could outrun that thing. They needed a distracting, which, in 'raptor' terms, would mean live bate.
Waving her arms about, and jumping on the spot, Frankie made sure she had the creatures attention before turning to run again. The chord for her camera kept it in place, but only just.
Behind her she could hear the footfalls of something a lot larger than a raptor. It's feet clicked on odd occasions as the sickle shaped claw bounced on the tile floor – a tell tail sign of how much trouble she was in, should there be an incident in which she would be caught.
For a moment, she sped ahead again, and the noise stopped. It seemed to be fine, until her general clumsiness came forth, and she slipped.
Hitting the ground with a thump, she tried to jump up again, only to fall. Stupidly, she looked behind, seeing the creature readying to attack. Panic set in. There was little chance to get out of this. If only she could get up...
Victory. Just about on her feet, she stepped forward, only to have herself have to bite her tongue. Falling again, she hit the floor, biting into it a bit too hard. She could taste blood now, and whimpered slightly.
The 'raptor' had her.
"Il cera bon, Lois," the elder boy noted, hugging his sister close. It was almost a week after the incident in the shopping centre, and Alix was her only salvation from the nightmares. "Ils vont vous poser quelques questions, et ensuite, tout sera parfait."
Since everything had happened, French had been the only salvation she had from the press, who constantly seemed to be watching her every move to find out more about what had happened.
"Promesse?"
"Je le promets," he swore, surprised by the innocence hidden in the whispered speech of his sister.
Nodding, Lois stood, kissing her brother on the cheek – a sign that she was more terrified than anyone could imagine – before turning to her younger sister.
"Être bonne, Nathalie," she muttered, hugging and kissing the eleven year old also.
"Alright..." the younger muttered, her brown eyes meeting her sisters identical ones. She was frowning, annoyed at the amount of French swimming around her nowadays.
Pausing, she asked "will you wait?"
As her siblings nodded their consent, Lois noted that there were a few things to be thankful for.
One – I have plenty of help.
"Lois?"
She nodded to the person who would be interviewing her.
"Alright, I'll just ask you a few questions about what you saw. My name is Jenny Lewis, and I don't want you to feel scared, alright?" the woman gave her a sickly sweet smile, which made Lois want to strangle her.
"May I ask what it was that killed you sister?"
"I'm afraid I don't know."
"I see..." the woman, Jenny, didn't seem annoyed by her lack of response, but instead rather impressed. In her hand was a pad of paper, which she quickly scribbled on, not looking up as she asked the next question. "You said you saw the creatures – could you tell me what it looked like?"
"No," she snapped overly quickly, making Jenny raise an eyebrow slightly. "I- I don't remember what they look like."
The interviewer, though still looking confused, nodded. "It must have been a traumatic experience for you." There was a break in the talking for a moment, and all though there had only been two questions, Lois was grateful. Did this Jenny person really have to be so straight forward? But the peace didn't last, as she began again.
"You said your sister took some photographs of the creatures?"
"Only one photo, and some film."
"And?"
"And what?"
Jenny sighed, glancing up at Lois for the longest time since they had first met. Unlike the warm, yellowy brown eyes of the young girl and her siblings, the adult had what could have been similarly kind brown eyes, but something had made them hard and unreadable.
"And do you still have these pieces of evidence."
"Evidence? Evidence against what? Those creatures disappeared, and they took Frankie with them."
"If you have no memory of the event, then how do you know that?"
Lois faltered slightly. Upon returning home, she and Alix had decided upon a story they could tell. They had watched all of the footage taken on the camera, which had only actually stopped when the one survivor had left to shopping centre, only to find that the film feature had been running the whole time.
'The story you tell them is vital,' Alix explained, holding one of his politics book in hand. At eighteen, he already knew where his life was going, and had read the information in hand at least twice. 'If you feign innocence, and tell them you have no memory, they may question you about her death, but we cannot let them see what happened. Tell them you saw the creature, but forgot about it during the chase. We'll give the picture to Nathalie to mess up on Photoshop – you know what she's like with these things, it'll never look changed.'
'How are we ever going to manage this, Al? So much lying and disseat... Frankie wouldn't be pleased...'
'Yes, well, somehow I doubt she wants to cause mass panic with the fact there was what we think may be raptors running around in a shopping centre in London, do you? 'Cause that's what will happen if you tell anyone other than us – mass panic. Or...'
'Or?'
'Or they'll think you've gone insane and lock you up somewhere.'
'And there's no way out of this?'
'None.'
"The police told me," she replied, smiling sweetly at the woman. Two – I have someone to help me with my story. "Now, what were you saying about the film?"
"I was going to ask if I may see it."
"I can show you the photograph – or, at least, how it came out once printed," Lois held out a damaged image, but one that none the less showed the shape of a strange lizard like creature. The colour was faded, and there were spots of light and dark in various places, as well as lines of white. "The film fared even worse, I'm afraid, and couldn't be viewed by my family and I, even. I would have brought us some relief from the idea of her death going without punishment."
"I'm sure she died quickly and painlessly."
"Yes," Lois muttered, fingers absentmindedly rubbing over the white scar that had come from the creatures teeth. Around the large, extremely visible one were smaller, neater scratches, "I'm sure she did."
But as she looked up, she noticed that the interviewer seemed to think so as little as she herself did.
After a moment of pause, Jenny frowned, looking unsure, but none the less nodded again. More scribbling followed, before she stopped to look up at Lois. "I'm sorry I can be of no more help, and I'm sorry you cannot be. A noble decision, but I would like to keep this image, if you don't protest?" She waited for no response before continuing. "Good. Well, thank you. I'm sorry for the loss of your sister, but I must head back to work," she ended her sentence with another of her smiles, making Lois smile sarcastically back. "Goodbye, Lois."
"See y'u."
So she simply stood there, waiting for the woman to leave. She didn't once look back, and Lois couldn't care less.
"It'll get better, you know."
And arm wrapped around her waste, and she leaned back. "I know Alix. It just seems hard enough to live the way we are without having our sister murdered by supposedly extinct creatures."
"It's hard, and always will have that element of uncertainty, but we can only hope that nothing else happens like this to anyone else."
"But how do we know it won't?"
"We don't."
"That sounds promising."
"'Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating'," Alix grinned as Lois gave him a confused look. "Carl Von Clausewit – he was a Prussian soldier, and a German political theorist. His full name was Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz, so not only did have quite a cool name, he also had quite cool hair. What? I looked on his Wikipedia page."
Lois laughed quietly, before pushing her elder brother off of her. "Alright, Alix, come on – Nathalie is waiting for us?"
"Of course. You did ask."
"Good to see you listen."
"Good to see you think of yourself as the centre of attention." His brown and amber eyes sparkled, and Lois found herself thankful for something else.
Three – thank God that only Frankie inherited Papé's blue eyes.
Il cera bon – it will be alright
Ils vont vous poser quelques questions, et ensuite, tout sera parfait – they'll ask you some questions, and then everything will be fine
Promesse? – promise?
Je le promets – I promise
Être bonne – be good
Papé – a name for your Grandfather