Chapter 3: First Murder, First Enemy

"Alrighty then!" Ashley said as she exited the car. "Thanks for the ride Mel! I'll see you…some other time! Bye!"

"Bye!" Gloria, Caitlin, Jessica, and Melissa said in unison.

They drove away while Ashley went home after a long day. As soon as she went inside, she got dressed into her pajamas and went to her room. As she was getting into bed, a big black spider crawled out and slowly crept up the wall. "AHHHHH!" Ashley screamed as she was backing away. "AHH! Oh my God!"

She continued to scream her head off while backing away. Obviously Ashley had a bad case of arachnophobia, which, everyone should know, is the fear of spiders. When arachnophobia took over, she would go completely nuts. She suddenly tripped on her own foot and hit her head on the wall. She got up, holding her head with her hand, by pulling herself up with the window ledge. But when she got up, she saw something climbing up the wall of the house across the street. "What the hell?" she cursed.

Completely forgetting about the spider, she continued to watch the thing climb up to a lit room. She had a very bad feeling about this. "I think I'll go check it out," Ashley said. Then she thought to herself, I can't believe I'm doing this.

She did not bother to change. She quickly got her keys, exited her home, and hid behind a tree on her front yard. She saw the thing break the glass and go in as the lights turned off. Ashley went closer but faster and hid behind another tree. She suddenly heard a scream. A minute or two later, the thing came back outside. Ashley hid behind the tree in the darkness.

The thing became more visible as it ambled closer to the tree Ashley was hiding behind. She then realized that the thing was a monster but she couldn't see what it was. The monster was right by the tree and its head was right by her own. Ashley could smell its stinking hot breath when its head was by her head. It smelled of dried blood and rotten meat. Though the monster couldn't see her, it could still smell her.

Since Ashley was a vampire, she could hide extremely well in darkness (an ability some vampires have), even if she was a white vampire. She would turn midnight black in the blink of an eye. That's why, or at least one of the reasons why, she was master of darkness, as well as Gloria. She held her breath until it finally left after a number of seconds. She sighed and took in a deep breath of fresh air. She then headed towards the house.

When she opened the door, she heard something beeping. What's that? she asked herself. Where's that beeping coming from?

She decided to investigate. She could hear the beeping sound getting louder as she got closer to the kitchen. Then she discovered what was beeping. It was coming from the owner's alarm! "Oh crap!" Ashley yelled.

She then realized something. I need a frickin' password and obviously I don't know it. It might cost them, but my only option is to break it.

All of a sudden she grabbed the alarm and tore it off the wall. The beeping stopped and silence settled. Well, at least for a human. But since Ashley was a vampire, even in a disguise as a regular human, she could still use her keen sense of hearing. And she could hear panicked breathing. The breathing was coming from a closet in the family room. She turned on the light and opened the closet to find a startled young girl backing away. "It's ok," Ashley soothed. "I won't hurt you."

The young girl got closer to her. Then Ashley asked the young girl where her mother is. "Upstairs," the girl replied. "But you can't go. Something's up there."

"Then I'm going to find out what," Ashley said in a determined voice. "You stay here. If I don't come back, then……go run to someone else's house and tell them what happened ok?"

The little girl nodded in reply. Seeing the young girl's frightened face told Ashley that whatever scared this girl shitless was probably the one who broke into the house earlier. Ashley headed towards the stairs and went up but slowly. When she reached the top, she went to the room on her left. She opened the door slowly and looked inside the room. Nothing. Ok, she thought. I have to calm down.

She took in a deep breath and then exhaled. She went to the next room right next to it, but before she even reached out to twist the doorknob, she smelled a familiar scent. She could smell human blood. It was coming from a room behind of her. She opened the door and checked inside. And to her horror, she found a female adult literally torn up to shreds and a large pool of blood. "Ew," she said with a disgusted face.

Then she saw huge footprints, perhaps 5 feet in length. The footprints were definitely not human, obviously. They were monster-like. It had 3 toes and it was clear that it had claws. It looks like Mel's footprints, she thought.

The monster footprints looked like the footprints of Melissa when she was a dragon. But Ashley knew Melissa wouldn't do that. Though she had a serious temper problem especially when she became her normal draconic self, she wouldn't kill anybody unless she hated a specific person or if someone pissed her off a lot and she couldn't take it anymore.

The footprints got Ashley thinking. Since the footprints were similar in shape to Melissa's footprints, it was probable that the monster was a dragon or at least half dragon. But it didn't make any sense. How could the monster be a half dragon or even a full dragon if she didn't see any wings? Assuming it was a dragon, its wings would've been sticking out, but there were no wings. And if it wasn't a dragon at all, then what could it had been and why did it attack this house? Surely the monster could've killed the family next door or killed a long time ago. Why now? Ashley's mind started to fill up with questions, making her all the more confused. She didn't know why this had happened but she wasn't going to be able to solve it on her own. She would have to tell the others about what had happened so they could help her. Whatever this was needed to be stopped and Ashley felt the authorities wouldn't be able to stop it on their own.

Ashley cleared her mind of any questions and concentrated on the young girl's dead mother. She approached the torn up body, but cautiously. For all she knew, the monster could've planted a parasite in the body. She and her friends, besides having mastered skills, were experts on one thing. She and Gloria were death experts, which means that they could determine how someone died just by look at them or studying them. But sometimes Ashley regretted having this ability. Melissa was a monster expert, Jessica was a spell expert, and Caitlin was a weapons master, which means that she knew every weapon, from blade to guns, and she could identify a weapon used in any kind of killing.

She looked at the dead person carefully. She didn't like the idea of looking at a torn up dead human girl, but hey, whoever said solving a murder mystery wouldn't be bloody?

Then she thought of something. First the girl's neck was broken and then the monster tore her up like a piece of paper, almost beyond recognition. Wow! This monster had some strong jaws, but I'll have to talk to Mel tomorrow. We have to identify this beast and fast. Only God knows where it'll strike next.

She got up, walked out of the room, and called 911. She stayed with the girl until the police arrived. Once there, she left the house and returned home. Then she nestled into bed and finally got some sleep.