Chapter 3: Unexpected

"Where'd I put my damn screw-drivers!" Alexandra muttered to herself, as she used the back of her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

But as she looked through her tool boxes in the storage room, she suddenly heard a muffled scream.

She ran out of the shop to see what was wrong, and came across an old man sitting on his knees, in front of a large meat truck.

"Excuse me sir. What's wrong? Were you the one who screamed?" she asked him.

He looked up at her with tears dripping from his face.

"Look at my truck…"

She looked up at it and gasped when she saw that it was completely torn apart, almost as if something had tried clawing its way through the roof.

"How the hell did this happen?" she asked in bewilderment.

"How would I know? Besides, that's not the worst part. All of the meat inside is gone!" he said, almost in agony.

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" she asked.

He started to look annoyed,

"I mean: Vanished! Disappeared! Either way…IT'S NOT THERE ANYMORE!" he cried.

She arched her eyebrow at the strange old man for crying over something like meat, but then looked back to the truck.

People soon started gathering around the scene, staring in awe, at the torn up roof of the vehicle.

But meanwhile,

As everyone pondered about who or what could have done this, the culprit lay in the tall pine tree next to the school building, licking the blood from his lips.

"This place isn't so bad…" he thought, "Maybe I'll stay a while longer."

He was able to observe the scene easily, chuckling at the dumbfounded looks that the crowd of people had.

"Humans are so easily fooled…" he thought.

He then slowly lay back on the branch and fell asleep, with his legs dangling lazily over the side.

Meanwhile…

"Who could have done it?" Alexandra pondered as she walked home.

"I've never heard of an animal being able to actually rip off the roof of a truck…let alone a human."

While she was lost in her own thoughts, she didn't bother to check the time, since it was already evening.

When she got home, she changed into her pyjamas and turned on the television.

The News Channel was playing, so she just listened to the headlines.

"First up, we would like to inform the people of Blairsville that there is a big possibility that military troops from the South will be invading this part of the country.

So we would like you all to take precautions, such as refraining yourselves from leaving your homes unless it is for school, in which you must arrive several hours earlier, just to avoid any unnecessary confrontations with the soldiers, who will be scouring the city…so please be careful.

And now onto our second topic about the strange truck wreckage discovered this morning, along with hundreds of pounds of meat having disappeared from the inside of it. The officials believe that-"

Alexandra turned off the television at that moment, and instead, started worrying about getting up early for school in the morning.

Mostly because she already knew, that she'd probably be late anyway.

"Oh, joy…" she mumbled, dragging herself upstairs to where her room was.

That Morning…

It was 06:00 am, and as if on cue, a frustrated scream could be heard across town.

"Why me? A bunch of soldiers are going to be crawling around the city, and I'm still going to be late!" Alexandra moped, running all over the house for her books and clothes.

After 10 minutes, she ran out of the house and was too caught up in her sprint, to even notice that the streets were empty.

By the time that she reached the front doors of the school, they were already being locked up again.

"NO! Wait for me!" she shouted, hoping that they would hear her, but it was too late. She banged down on the door, cursing as she considered tearing it down. But stopped when something registered in her head,

"How could I be so stupid? There's always another way to get in…"

She smirked.

But as she got to the pine tree in the garden, her face changed from being hopeful, to being annoyed, as she realised that all of the windows in the school were covered up with metal bars. It would be impossible to get in now.

"Crap…" was all she could think of.

She started pulling at her hair from the frustration and screamed angrily. She then stomped around in circles convincing herself that she'd find a way back inside.

"Arrgh! Come on, come on! There has to be a way back in! Ummm…let's see, maybe I could…erm…no. Or perhaps I could…ummm…no, that wouldn't work. Wait a minute, I know! Oh wait…that wouldn't work either…" she muttered to herself.

She then sighed and slowly walked to the truck of the pine tree, dragging her bag across the ground.

Clouds were starting to gather in the sky, and it looked like it could rain any minute.

"Pfft…just my luck." She scoffed while sitting down against the tree trunk.

As she tried mentally cooling herself down from her outbursts, she failed to notice a pair of red gleaming eyes watching her from above. After a few minutes, she became tired and began falling asleep.

"You know…it's not safe to sleep outside when an army is headed this way." A male's voice said.

She immediately woke up and looked frantically around for the owner of the voice.

"What? Who's there?" she asked.

She walked around the tree, but no one was there. When she didn't hear a reply, she picked up her bag and took out her gloves.

"Edward? Is that you? Ugh, I should have guessed!" She spoke out loud.

She then decided to get up the tree so that none of the troops would find her, and if Edward was up there, she could teach him a lesson for scaring her.

She got a good grip on the tree, and slowly made her way up. As she climbed, she started sniffing at the air around the tree.

"Blood?" she whispered.

She carried on climbing until she was half way up. The scent was getting stronger, and soon she was staring at the red substance as it dripped from one of the thicker branches. She curiously made her way over to it and heaved herself onto the branch itself. Her face turned green at the sight.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" she said, covering her mouth.

A pile of animal bones lay on it in a small puddle of blood, attracting the flies that hovered over it.

"Edward, is this some kind of sick joke? Where the hell are you?" She slowly backed away when she got no reply.

After her face turned back to its normal colour again, she got ready to climb back down. But as she turned her head around, a pair of red glowing eyes suddenly appeared in front of her.

Her lavender eyes widened and just stared back into the red ones before her. Even though she couldn't see the face properly, she did see a large toothy grin spread on it.

"Did I mention that it also isn't safe to be alone in a tree?"

She didn't breathe. She just stood there in place, standing high up on a branch, while being confronted by some animal. She didn't bother to blink, since those red eyes were boring into hers. "E-E-Edward?" she stuttered while shaking.

As she stared in confusion at the dark figure, his red eyes came nearer and nearer, until they were a mere few centimetres away from her own.

The shadows then began to fade away, letting some sunlight break through. She stepped back and tried to take a closer look at the person. But before she even got the chance, she lost her footing and slipped on the blood behind her.

"Aaargh!"

She fell backwards, blindly grabbing something within her reach, but it wasn't another branch, and instead it was something rather long and fluffy.

She stared at the thing she was holding onto dear life for, and just hung there.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

She then heard a low growl from above, and tried looking up to whom the furry thing belonged to.

"I'm giving you three seconds to let go of my damn tail, stupid human!"