As the Spartan turned and walked back. He felt a pair of eyes burn a hole in the back of his head. He turned one last time into the deep woods but there was no movement. He scanned one more time. But… nothing. He turned back towards the crash site of the phantom. As the Ex-covenant began to cover the crafted with mud and fallen trees the hunter was moving to disguise it in the forest. It was buried in the ground so only the top 4 feet protruded and it looked like a big rock.

…

"As I suspected…" A ruff and raspy voice said "Nothing but a man."

It stood up and it towered over the bushes at an astounding 9 and a half feet tall as it grasped its gravity hammer. It was about to follow the Spartan until the sound of helicopters approached. It looked up and saw the lights begin to populate the forest. He turned with a snarl and wandered deeper and farther from the helicopters.

Next day

Lacy remembered that night like it was a history test tomorrow. She woke up in her bed as she looked over the room. Lupa was sleeping on the floor when she convinced her dad her mom to stay at her dad's house for the night. She looked out the window as the smallest ray of sun illuminated the room. She rubbed her eyes as she wondered if what happened last night had transpired. The Man in the armor that looked like her dad, the weird monsters that looked at her and didn't speak except the smallest one. Which looked like a troll, or a goblin with a big bright backpack. She looked back down at Lupa who began to stir from her sleep.

"Lupa," Lacy whispered "Lupa!"

"H-huh," Lupa began to open her eyes "What?"

"Lupa!" Lacy said, "Get up!"

"Shut up, Let me sleep."

"Lupa! Get up!" Lacy said, "I want to go back to the forest!"

"What!" Lupa shot up "Why would you do that!"

"Oh thank god it wasn't a dream," Lacy said "It's just so curious to see what we saw."

"Yeah, a 7-foot robot man and fuckin ugly aliens," Lupa scoffed "If you want to go, leave me out of it. Besides, Your mom and dad won't allow it. Remember what they said."

Lacy remembered what they said to her in the car on the way home.

"Lacy I will never let you step on this side of town again."

"Yes, I know what he said," Lacy said, "But it's so cool."

"I don't give a shit," Lupa said as she looked lace dead in the eyes "You're not going. Now shut up, I'm trying to sleep. Besides we have school today."

Lupa turned on her side as she closed her eyes again.

Lacy thought about it but the metal man that she met had sparked her curiosity. She thought about what she could learn from that man. Or what that English-speaking alien could tell her. It looked like a monster in the closet but the way it carried itself. It seemed to be more scared of them rather than the other way around. The huge master like one with the blue armor with spikes looked like it could crush a car like a bug. But it listens to the smaller one.

'What was it called?' She thought

She imagined what happened for them to end up in this world, let alone in Royalwoods. She assumed it had to do with some super-advanced technology malfunction. But she remembered what the little alien said and his story and it sounded like they were trying to leave or escape something huge. She looked over at her sleeping half-sister as she was snoring. She jumped out of her bed and dawned a light red T-shirt and some genes as she stripped from her pajamas. She ran out of the room as Lupa still slept soundly. She didn't care if it was a school day, she was going to get to the bottom of this.

She slid into the kitchen and grabbed a protein bar from the pantry. And a stick note from the junk drawer. She showed the bar in her mouth as she wrote on the paper.

'Left for school early xoxo -Lacy'

She put it on her fridge door. Grabbed her backpack ran to her room and filled it with a pocketknife, some books, and candy from her Halloween drawer. She ran to the front of the house exiting through the front door and closed it quietly.

1 hour later

Lynn walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to get her daily glass of protein shake. She looked at the contents of the cold shelves and there was none.

"Damn we need to run to the store today," Lynn said

She reached for the sticky notes and pen. She jotted down a quick grocery list and was about to place it on the fridge until another sticky note grasped her eye. She pulled Lacy's note off the fridge and read it carefully.

"Ugh, Crazy girl needs to tell us when she's going to do this stuff."

She remembered what had happened last night. What that massive metal man was and those freaky aliens. She shuddered at the thought of it. She pushed aside the contents of last night and she looked at the fridge again and opened it. She pulled out a carton of eggs and cracked open the unhatched fetuses on the pan. She made breakfast for herself and her husband. As he was still sleeping in the room. How could she blame him though, he went through so much, over the past 2 days. Trying to plan a party at the only place that would take them, and get 14 kids to behave there was hard. But he said that it was the happiest he could be. She finished the eggs and slid them off the pan and onto a plate. She brought both plates to the dining table and sat both plates down. She looked up at the clock as she ate her eggs. 9:05 it read and Lacy should be in class by now. She wondered how they managed to do it to raise a little gir-

Ring Ring… Ring Ring…

Lynn sighed as she walked over to the house phone and pulled it off its wall-mounted stand.

"Hello, this is Lynn Loud your speaking to, what do you need," Lynn stated as she looked out the window

"Hello, this is Royalwood's Middle school, we are currently calling about your daughter Lacy." The lady said

Lynn snapped both hands on the phone as she held it close to her face."Y-yes what about her?"

She hoped it wasn't what she thought it was. She prayed that she didn't go to the one place she was forbidden to go.

"Your daughter was not in class today and is being marked absent." It said

Lynn's face dropped and her stomach started to turn in knots.

At the parking lot

Lacy raced to the parking lot where she last saw the Spartan and the ex-covenant. She grabbed a pole as she swung herself around a corner to see the parking lot that she once saw them in was covered in police tape and news vans. Her eyes grew wide as she saw a police officer carrying a 12 gauge shotgun into the forest.

"As you can see the police are making a complete search through the forest for the creatures that were posted by the employee of Dino's pizza parlor." A news lady said "And we hm him right here. Now tell me, sir, was this, in fact, a real video, or did you manage to photoshop this."

"No this is 100 percent real," The employee said "There was this giant man with weird armor and this freaky little alien that was trying to talk to a family that we were serving that night for a birthday party."

"Do you know who this was?" She said as she held the mic to her mouth

She placed it near his face "Nah, I don't but it was a large family with like 20 kids but they h-had"

He paused as he made eye contact with Lacy.

"THERE, THAT'S THE GIRL!" He shouted which grabbed the attention of every news reporter in the area.

They faced Lacy and she felt a knot begin to form in her stomach. Suddenly she felt someone tap her shoulder. She faced to the left and saw a camera being shoved in her face as a news reporter held the mic to her face.

"Are you the girl that talked to the aliens?!"

She turned as another camera crew passed a mic to her mouth.

"Are you sure that they're aliens?!" A female reporter asked

"Did the metal man try and attack you?!"

"Why did the man in the armor attack you?!"

"Why didn't you try and fight back?!"

"Did your family see you recover him?!"

Lacy was now swarmed by 10 news crews as they all harassed Lacy for questions. The flash of cameras forced her eyes shut as she put her hands up and covered her face. But the light of the cameras find cracks and seep in like a weak dam. She kept getting pushed around like a beach ball. She shoved her way through the cameras as she pushed her way under the tape. She ran to the first but a hand grabbed her before she could cross the border into the unknown. She looked back and saw a massive police officer grasp her backpack.

"Woah, where do you think you're going!"

"Let me go," She said as she hit his hand

"Hey, your not supposed to be here." He said as he begin to drag her to the police tape. Back to the reporters.

She looked back at the news people still flashing the cameras and she looked back at his hand. She opened her mouth and bit down as hard as a dog biting a steak. The officer winced in pain as the pain shot through his body and let go. She was dropped to the ground as all eyes turned to her. She stood there looking at everyone before she stood up, the looks were of shock and disbelief. She dashed into the forest as she heard the sound of officers talking on their radio.

"Hey! Stop!" An officer yelled

She kept sprinting as she heard more leaves crunch behind her. She looked back as she saw 2 officers following her. Her heart began to beat even faster as she ran faster as well. She looked back and saw that she was now approaching the site of where she saw the Spartan when they saw him first. She began to smile as she kept on running for what seemed like 30 minutes. But when she arrived, there was… nothing. Nothing but a big hole in the ground where she saw the Spartan. She stopped for a second and looked back at the officers. She had lost them but the crunching of leaves was getting louder by the second. She looked around while she panted heavily. She had a look of emptiness, she began to wonder if everything really was a dream. She heard the leaves begin to slow down as she looked around. Suddenly the leaves stopped crunching and the cops finally caught up with her.

"Hey!" one officer said "Stop!"

She turned back and saw both officers. One was a chubby officer and the other was a skinny officer. They put their hands out to seem like a non-threat and she had a face of emptiness and she stood there with tears beginning to form in her eyes. She saw that the officers began to approach. She didn't try to run anymore. She saw that she was just a crazy dumb stupid imagination. She saw that the officers began to look at her.

"Hey, it's ok," The chubby one said, "we'll take you home to your parents and everything will be ok."

He placed her hand on her shoulder as she closed her eyes and put one hand on his radio.

"Hello, chief…" He radioed

There was nothing but static on the radio.

"Chief come in…"

Nothing but hissing over the comms.

"Huh, seems that the coms are down, right Whitman…" the officer said

…

"Whitman?" He turned and saw that there was no one there

"Whitman?" He said as he stood up and looked all over.

Lacy looked up from the ground and looked around. He took his hand off her shoulder and she walked away as she slumped on a tree as cried in her palms. He looked around and there was nothing there until he decided to walk away from the crying girl. He began to bellow Whitman to try and find him until he was too fart to see the girl. Suddenly he felt a large hand grab his head. He attempted to scream but the palm muffled the scream. He saw its face through the fingers that were suffocating him. It looked like a monkey but its face hair was braided and it dawned a golden helmet that had a golden horn on the front. He attempted to scream but the monkey thing flexed its hand and crushed his skull.

The mushy red brain pulp filled the brute's hands. The Burke smiled as its teeth showed with a sharp tip. It opened its palm as the brain matter splattered on the floor. He raised his gravity hammer and held it in both hands.

"Humans are weak and pathetic creatures." He said

He was about to leave but soon the sound of weeping connected with his ears. He looked back up where Lacy resides and smiled.

Lacy still wept in her hands as she kept on thinking that she wasted her time and everything she saw was nothing but a dumb dream. She looked at her bag and was about to react to it. She thought that some Halloween candy would cheer her up until the officer came back. But a hand grasped her neck and hoisted her up. She was struck by shock as she was yanked face to face with the brute chieftain and it roared in her face. It smiled once the thunderous roar was concluded. It threw her to the ground as it hoisted the hammer over his head ready to bring it down on the girl.

"Human looks tasty, you will fill my aching belly well."

It raised the hammer even higher and was about to swing. Lacy screamed and closed her eyes ready for what happens next. She stopped her screaming as she felt her vocal cords begin to shred apart. She waited for the inevitable pain that this monkey was going to unleash. But instead of feeling pain. She heard the sound of it howl in pain.

She looked up and saw him rubbing his head. She looked to the side and saw him. The Spartan held the beam rifle in his hands as it was aimed at the brute's face. The brute looked up and saw the Spartan and snarled in anger.

"SSSPARTAAAAAAAAN!" It yelled as 747 kept him in his sights.