Oct 28

9:35 pm

Bella sat with her legs outstretched on the sofa. Her head rested softly on the arm of the chair. She was dozing off to the nameless cartoon on the screen. Some dog was running around with a talking baby. She felt her eye lids drop just a little. She knew that she should go to sleep but she didn't want too. It felt like she still had to do something.

Shit. She had left her work clothes in the washer! She jerked off the couch and ran to put her clothes in the drier. She threw them in and went back to the couch. The cartoon was starting to bore her. She picked the remote up and switched the channel. The news channel was flashing red. She decided to watch and see what was happening.

The anchorwoman appeared very uncomfortable. "We have news on the missing woman, Fiona McAdams, age 22. A skull was found in that has correctly been identified as belonging to the young woman. Continues searches for the young woman's remains are still in head way. If anyone has any news, please contact your local police."

Bella sat back and thought more about that. What had been done to this poor girl? Bella had not thought of it much over the few days but the truth had hit her hard. They had identified the skull as belonging to the missing girl. Forensic analysis but be something truly amazing. The fact that they were able to match the girl to the bone was a miracle. Where was the rest of her?

Bella got to thinking about murder. It was not like things like this didn't happen. They actually happened more than anyone new. Serial killers were also more around than you would like to believe. Though Bella didn't believe that there was one in DuBois. DuBois was not a big enough town. Things like that did not happen here. Maybe there was an animal attack. If there was no body how did they know the cause of death? Maybe she just encountered some bad luck. She refused to believe that there was a serial murderer. Those things just did not happen here.

She got up from the couch and went over to her lap top. She pushed the power button and waited for the desktop to load. She typed 'Fiona McAdams' into the google search bar. Images cascaded across the page.

Fiona was pretty. She had beautiful chestnut hair and blue eyes. She was a student at Penn State DuBois. She was on her way to a better life. What had happened to her? That was the big question. How could a girl just disappear and then reappear in just a few weeks. Why was there no one who could remember seeing her? How did someone just disappear from the streets? How could she be found only by her skull? How was that even possible? She was no medical student but didn't tissue take longer to decompose?

Was there something more sinister going on? Was there just a terrible accident that nobody witnessed? There were wild animals in Pennsylvania. Bears, wolves, and mountain lions were over the entire state mostly. It would not be unlikely that she had been attacked by an animal. It was a sad and unfortunate affair.

Bella was not heartless. She felt too many emotions that she tried to not think about things. The fact was, was she didn't allow herself to feel for this girl because she secretly hoped she would be found. She did not like to dwell on unpleasant things. She had hoped that Fiona would be found. It did not look like that was the case.

Bella swallowed loudly in her throat. She should never have changed the channel. She would never be able to sleep with all these thoughts and images in her head. She rubbed her hand on her head and got up from the couch. She went across her living room and into the bathroom. She popped the medicine cabinet open and took out a bottle of sleep aides. She needed them. She shook out three and took them with water from the tap.

She walked to her bedroom and laid on the bed. The hall light was still on. She watched as the light started to fade as her eyes started to drop. All her thoughts on Fiona were slowly starting to disappear. She did not want to think of these things any longer.

Pretty soon, she was asleep.

Bella started to dream.

In her dreams she could not make out any of her surroundings. All she sensed was dark shadows and the feeling of being trapped. She could not make out where she was. She did not even know who was out there. All she could sense was the feeling of death in the air.

She could hear heavy breathing and soft cries. The dark shadows swirled around her thicker than before. She could not see who was making that noise. The noise intensified into a thick scream. In a second, the scream was cut off with the sound of a heavy thud.

Bella could not sense anything of time and place. She could not see anything but the thick smoke. All she could hear was the sound of something being dragged across a floor. She could feel the fear starting to overwhelm her. Her breaths were coming out ragged in her chest. The panic was threatening to consume her.

Bella could see a shape emerging from the shadows. A dark outline was starting to appear. Her heart beat painfully inside her chest. She felt like it was about to burst. She did not know if she could handle the sight of the mysterious figure. She was not expecting the image that appeared.

A single red eye gleamed from the shadows. Its message was clear, it was dark and terrifying. She took a step back and tried to move away. Whatever that eye was, she did not want to be a part of it. The shadow seemed to sense her distress. It started to swirl madly and inched forward. Bella stumbled back and fell. She hit the ground so hard her breath got knocked out of her.

The shadow seemed to shriek and it rushed for her. Bella screamed as the darkness clouded around her. The air was ripped from her lungs. She felt like she could not breath. She felt like she was going to die.

Bella yanked upright in her bed. Her heart thudding so loud she had no problem hearing it. The nightmare was slowly fading from her memory. She could remember a menacing eye but even those details were starting to fade. She looked at the night stand. 6:10. She should be asleep. What had woken her in the first place? Wasn't she having a nightmare? She could not clearly remember. She did remember that something in her dream had scared her. But what was so scary in her house?

She let the nightmare fade away. The details were slowly starting to disappear. She laid her head back down on her pillow and tried once again to fall asleep. The clock ticked softly with each minute that passed. Bella fell asleep once again. This time her dreams were not disturbed with any dark thoughts. She slept and forgot all about the nightmare.

Authors: Alright, here's the first three chapters. Let me know what you guys think! There's still a lot to come so stick around. Thanks so much for reading.