Chapter Two

The next morning, Claire got up early for school. She showered, had some breakfast and left the house. The hot Texas sun wasn't quite scolding hot yet, and Claire thought this was the best part of the day.

As she passed Common Grounds, she noticed something: it was incredibly quiet. Normally, there would have been crowds of people getting their morning coffee on the way to school or work, but today there were only six or seven people in there. Now that she noticed it, the streets were completely empty, too. Weird, Claire thought, and carried on walking.

Claire's day wasn't too long- she only had two classes, so it was over before she knew it. There were't many people in school, either. Must be some kind of flu going around, she thought to herself, but this seemed too… normal for Morganville.

Eve and Shane were playing video games when she got home. They had been spending a lot of time together lately. Claire wasn't too sure how she felt about that. It didn't make her jealous, because Eve and Shane were good friends, but she wanted to spend time with Shane, too.

Michael was in the kitchen reading a newspaper, looking tired.

'Hey,' Claire greeted him.

'Hey. How was your day?' He asked, still reading his paper.

'Not so bad,' She said, while getting a mug from the cupboard and turing the kettle on. She was thinking of telling him about how empty Morganville was, but she wasn't too sure about the situation yet.

There was a long silence. Claire made her coffee and sat down opposite him at the table. 'So.. how are you and Eve?' She knew it was a personal question, but Michael knew they were concerned about them.

When he looked up at her, there were dark patches and bags under his eyes, which told her that he hadn't gotten much sleep. 'We're… delicate.' He said softly.

Neither Michael or Eve had told the other two about what had happened. They were keeping it some kind of secret. Claire was dying to know, though, but she didn't want to force them to give answers. She just hoped they would be okay. Claire nodded and sipped her coffee.

Studying seemed no fun to Claire, and she didn't know what to do. It was only three in the afternoon, so not time to start on dinner yet. She looked out of her bedroom window into the small garden they had. No one ever went out there. There were no plants, no lawn furniture or anything. Just grass. And a shed- which Claire had never paid much attention to. She was staring at the unfamiliar object, when she saw the bushes move behind it. It couldn't have been the wind- it looked as it the bush had been ripped open.

Puzzled, Claire stared harder. Why was the door slightly open? Who would have been in there? Or who would have been in their garden?!

She dashed out of the room and down the stairs, past Shane and Eve still gaming, through the kitchen and out of the back door. She slowly approached the shed. There was no one here anymore- and she was curious. She opened the door and peeked inside- no horror movie villains in here. Just a normal shed. All that was in here was tools and a bicycle, and in the corner there were planks of wood resting agains the wall and a shovel. Claire pulled the wood away to see what was in the corner.

Something was hidden in their very own shed- a box. An old wooden box thats hinges were rusty and broken. There was no key needed to open it- and as Claire opened the lid it squeaked. There weren't many things Claire could imagine someone hiding in her garden shed, but she definitely never expected bottles of liquid labelled with symbols she didn't recognise…