Chapter - Three
Landon Kirby

Landon had always been a nerd. He spent all those moments inside the library, reading up on superhero and supernatural books. In all that reading, he had never given thought that superheroes could be real.

Rafael had become angry and thrown a heavy carton of assorted mechanical items across the breadth of the lawn. He had lifted it with such ease. And Landon was floored as he saw it happen. The characters in his books were suddenly coming to life. Oh, his best friend had this super-strength inside him! And Landon… he dreamed of becoming his side-kick. He would be the Robin to Rafael's Batman.

Somehow, he had calmed his best friend down lest he destroy some more property. Their foster parents wouldn't like it. As it is, the father used violent measures to ensure their discipline. He would have complained to the authorities, but Rafael had always insisted that he do not.

A month had passed, and Rafael had not spoken much about Cassie. He missed her too and had often cried, sitting on the borders of the woods surrounding Mystic Falls. Cassie had been his friend, and she always had his back whenever the bullies of Mystic Falls High rained on his parade. He wished Rafael would talk to him about her death, but he would not.

His friend would only talk about one thing - the monster with the crimson red eyes. That got him curious, and he started researching about this monster with the crimson red eyes. If Rafael could throw a heavy carton a few feet away as if it were nothing, he could surely believe in a red-eyed monster. Yet he had found nothing that would give a clue as to what the monster was.

All he knew was that Rafael believed the monster had caused the crash that killed Cassie. And if Rafael believed that, he believed it as well.

Ever and anon, his feet would take him to the site of the crash, a quiet place on the highway that led to a peaceful yet quaint little town of Mystic Falls. He went out of town in the dark, even though he had been warned against doing so. Over the last decade or so, the town had suffered from strange deaths and mysterious resurrections. He had heard about an entire Council of twelve men off themselves in a fire and some blur killing a group of twelve women in a forest not far away from the crash site. That was a few years ago, but the memory of Mystic Falls was fresh and unforgetting. Even now, another Council functioned, the town seeming quite aware of the existence of mysterious entities, yet something they never made public. However, they would warn anyone of getting out of town alone in the dark even though the attacks had lessened of late and there was quiet even in the surroundings. Cassie's death, though accidental, was the first weird death that happened after a long period of time.

Today, however, he found it in himself to come in the morning. Cars zoomed past him, one of the drivers honking at him, reminding him to head back into town and go to school. Ugh, he said to himself, why couldn't people just stick to their business? He bent down to the ground, hoping to find any physical clue to what the monster was, especially since he had heard it was seen last night. He frowned as he saw nothing and kicked a pebble in frustration.

"Quite the anger you've got!" a familiar female voice remarked. "What's it this time? Someone filled your bag with stones?"

The voice was not mocking. Neither was it sympathetic.

He turned around and saw Hope walking towards him. What was she doing here?

There had always been something mysterious about her. She frequented the town but it seemed that she did not live in it. She went to the boarding school out on the town's skirts, a place where the troubled rich kids went. He had researched her last name after they had first met a couple of years ago. And her uncle was mysterious too, in all his black suit glory.

To her question though, he wondered if he should answer.

"I… I just came to see…," he stuttered.

"To see where Cassie died," she completed his sentence, nodding. "Makes sense… you were good friends."

He nodded too. He didn't want to tell her about monsters and freak her out.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "You hated Cassie."

"True that, but that's not why I came here," she said. "I was only taking a stroll through the woods. I needed some morning air."

"And you decided to come so far from school?"

"Well, I kinda like the woods… bored of seeing concrete and cement."

Landon snickered. "And now what?" he asked.

Hope fell silent for a bit, her eyes searching for something at the place. Did she suspect anything? Was she looking into Cassie's death? He shook aside his thoughts. Hope didn't know Cassie well enough to look into her accident. Why was she here then? He didn't believe she was here for a morning walk. There was plenty of circular tracks in and around Salvatore School for that. Even if she wanted to go into the woods, she had come too far for that purpose. Her boarding school was a long way away from here.

"Now you tell me what exactly you are looking for in this wilderness, Landon!"

He felt a frown encroach on his forehead. He wondered what he should tell her. Should he tell her about the monster? Would she think him a freak if he said he believed in Rafael's story? But he couldn't lie… not to her. Ever since he had first laid eyes on her, he had always felt she was right for him. There was a connection there he couldn't refuse.

"Rafael spun a story about some crimson-eyed monster and…"

"…and you came here to verify whether it is the truth?"

Landon nodded. "Yes, I did… though it was futile, I guess."

"Well, as far as I know, the monster only ever comes out at night," Hope said. "Besides, Landon, it is dangerous."

Landon cocked an eyebrow. "And it isn't dangerous for you?"

"I can take care of myself," she replied, confidently.

Landon pulled his eyebrows wider. "And why is that?"

"Let's just say I know… I have some skills."

He couldn't help but laugh. "You think some jujitsu would take care of the monster?"

"That'd be ridiculous, Landon… if I go by the eye-witness accounts, this monster is smoke though it appears like a body."

He was taken aback. What did she know? And did she know about the monster already? How? Questions raged through his mind.

"H…how do you know… all of this?"

Hope smiled. "Let's just say I am curious about anything supernatural… and I've to be frank with you, Landon… I dabble in the occult."

"Like seance and all?" he queried.

"Sometimes," she replied, taking a bit of mud from the side of the road and putting it into a plastic bag.

Landon noticed it and found it strange. "What are you doing with all that mud?" he asked.

Hope turned to see him and giggled at the confusion on his face. "Oh this?" she pointed at the mud bag. "I have a geology report to submit and I have been collecting soil from Mystic Falls. I also got some from New Orleans. Just a little research project is all."

"But what's the relation between this project and the monster?"

"No… no relation at all, Landon… you keep looking for that monster… meanwhile, I have a report to complete… and I have a long way to walk back."

She turned and walked away from him, back into the woods on the other side of the road. A few steps away, she looked back and smiled. It took his breath away. Oh, how he wanted to follow her or at least walk her back to her school! Just then, his phone buzzed with a call. It was Rafael. This only meant one thing. Mystic Falls High had noticed his absence, and something had happened for Rafael to keep calling like this. He raised his head and saw that Hope had vanished into the woods.

She had totally acted mysterious with him, and he wanted to find out why. He would find out why… but after whatever had happened at Mystic Falls High.