DISCLAIMER: Resident Evil and its trademark is rightfully owned by Capcom.

CHAPTER 2: Rumours

Beep! Beep! Beep!

My eyes shot open at the sound of my alarm clock ringing. I groaned. I hit the switch button off then threw my covers aside and swung my legs to my carpeted floor. I had a stretch before opening my curtains allowing the morning sun to invade my yellow and white room. I took a quick shower and got changed into my jeans and yellow cardigan jumper before joining my parents downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning, mom. Morning, dad." I greeted them as I slid unto my seat in the dining table. I poured myself a glass of orange juice.

"Morning." Dad said as he took a sip of coffee. In his other hand, he was holding a copy of The Raccoon Times newspaper. Across the table from him I could see the main headline news: "Couple Found Eaten by Riverside". I shuddered.

"Here, honey. Have some pancakes I just baked." Mom said as she placed the freshly baked fluffy pancakes in front of me. Mom makes the best pancakes in the world. The sweet aroma invaded my nostrils making me hungry. My mouth would have usually watered if it weren't from that disturbing news article from the newspaper.

"Thanks." I helped myself to a good portion pouring some maple syrup over it before digging my fork I glanced up. "Hey, dad what's up with these murder things suddenly happening?"

Dad closed the newspaper and laid in on the table before answering. "That's the strange thing. I'd like to know myself. Apparently people, especially residents living by the outskirts of Raccoon City by the borderline between the Arclay Mountains and the town had been reported being murdered. All seem to have the same cause of death. They are either reportedly eaten. I would have guessed we have some cannibal out there or someone who is seriously mentally ill."

Mom shook her head. "Those poor people. I hope the police catch whoever is responsible for these unspeakable acts."

"Yeah. It's getting heaps of people pretty freaked out in school. Whoever it is needs psychiatric help." I gulped the last few of my drink then stood up and gathered my things. "Anyway I'm done. See you after school."

"Oh, honey? Would you like to have a lift to school? My meeting is cancelled this morning so I have some spare time," dad called to me as I grabbed my bag.

"Yeah thanks, that's great dad."

As my dad and I drove out of our street we passed the playground by the corner. A mental image of the dog flashed before my mind for a second and I remembered the bloody, mangled body it had, the foaming mouth and the dripping saliva. I could almost hear the threatening growl that was never filled with so much outrage. I gave my head a shake as the image disappeared like a balloon popping. Forget the dog. You have other things to do. I quickly consoled myself as we drove on the rows of trees and houses blurring together into a mix of colours too faded to make out of anything. In the back of my mind I tried to place the grotesque image of the dog, to mix into the colours and hopefully never to be made out again.

"Oh my gosh, did you see that man's face in the newspaper? It was like a scene from a horror movie. I swear he had no face anymore with all the mangled flesh being torn off."

I placed my tray of food across my friend as I sat down. It was lunchtime and the cafeteria was beginning to be crowded as I came to usual table I eat with my friends. Catherine looked at me expectantly as I began unwrapping my tuna sandwich.

"Ann! Have you seen that really gross news about that couple who was killed by the riverside? I mean, that is so horrible! Their faces looked like someone put it in the meat grinder. So creepy! I bet we have this weirdo psycho living in the mountains who hunts people then kills them." Catherine said energetically. She was practically jumping out of her seat. That's my friend. Has a wild imagination and a very lively personality. She's a little taller than me around 5"4, has long auburn hair and grey-blue eyes. She's a little chubby, but that kinda makes her look cuter. We became really good friends since the start of the school year.

"Uh huh. Mutilated bodies. Not every nice when it's the first image you see and you're having breakfast."

She laughed. "Man there are so many stories about these murders. I swear there's at least a killing every single day. I heard that this crazy lunatic had a daughter and she died. She was the same age as us and everyday he'll go killing anyone until he kills as many people as her age. He would cry and plead for her to come back to him. What a psycho!" she rolled her eyes dramatically as she reached for her chips.

"Yeah. I have heard of murders happening because people were being robbed or caught in a gang street fight or whatever, but murdering people and tearing off their flesh is just gruesome," I added taking a bite of my sandwich. I made a face as I chewed remembering those disturbing pictures from the papers.

"You guys talking about the strange murders?"

I looked up to see Francis who is another one of my best friends. "Hey, France." I slid over to let him have more room to sit down. He placed his tray down beside mine as he sat down. Francis also happens to be my next door neighbour; we've known each other since forever.

"Have you guys heard? There's another murder but this time a whole family was massacred," he said. Catherine's jaw dropped open while my eyebrows shot up.

"Really! What happened?" I dropped my sandwich, my interest was too captivated with another gruesome story than the canteen food. Besides our cafeteria food always tastes like cardboard anyway.

"Apparently a family was found dead inside their own home. The whole place was a mess it's like a war happened there. Anyway there was blood everywhere. The family members can't hardly be recognized coz they've got so much blood on them. And you've guessed it. They've got bite marks all over their bodies and ripped and torn flesh."

"Wha–! Oh my gosh! That is the most horrible murder in this town. Ok, we've definitely got a demented freak living with us. I am never going downtown ever!" Catherine exclaimed.

"That's the weird thing. There had been reports from the neighbouring victims that they were attacked by about ten people." He shrugged chewing thoughtfully.

"Ten people? Do you suppose a cult or something?" I asked deep in thought. It was hard to imagine a town like this could have bizarre troubles. After all, Raccoon City is a small populated town. I pretty much live in a suburban town with a population of around 300,000 residents. It has a quiet and peaceful atmosphere. It's also a popular local tourist site especially on the upper section class. The town has the cosiest cafes and one of the nicest Japanese gardens on the area. It's also big on plants. There's quite a few plant stores around selling special herbs for the body. Some of them are believed to even cure people's wounds cleanly at a decent rate. Special plants and exotic flowers can often be seen planted along fancy flowerbeds that lines up around the apartments upper town. I often see it whenever I stop at a coffee shop with my friends or parents. A small quiet town is just hard to believe to house madmen or women who likes to murder civilians and eat them too. It's just not right.

"Who knows? Could be a pretty messed up cult or a bad gang."

"These news are getting freakier than the last. I have heard lots of horrifying stories. I even heard one girl from our year level disappeared one day while walking home from school. She was never found alive again. Well, not her whole body. Her head was found severed and there's all these dogs carrying it and eating it up. How gross," Catherine pretended to gag. Francis scrunched up his face looking grossed out as well.

Just the mention of a dog with a severed head made me stop on my tracks. For a minute I saw the black mangled dog in my head holding a bloody head between its teeth. I felt a shiver creep up my spine. "There have been heaps of stories going around. All of them are scary. Some are probably exaggerated for effect."

"Maybe so. But remember, there's always a hint of truth to rumours and stories," Francis said opening his milk carton.

I stared at my tray of food, lost in my own thoughts of the events that had happened. It's unnerving. Stories reported on the news and papers are only seen on horror movies and stories. To hear about them actually happening in real life is just so unreal. It's like we're on a movie and our real lives are suddenly placed in a movie script or something. A loud bell rang out on the cafeteria signalling the end of our lunch break. One by one students started piling out of the cafeteria until few people are left around the tables.

Catherine groaned. "Oh no. History's on. And we've got another stupid test to do. I hate tests!"

I couldn't help but smile. Catherine can be such a drama queen at times. She always moans about tests that she won't pass it and how she's gonna fail big time. However she's not as bad as she thinks she is and manages to pass usually. We gathered our empty wrappers and cartons on our trays and put them in the disposal bin. We started heading to our class chatting what we did during the weekend.

"See you guys around. I got PE right now," Francis said as he headed towards the gym. I waved as he left.

"How much did you get to study?" Catherine asked.

"I managed to study for a couple of hours after I finished with my chores. I don't think I've studied enough, though. Well I hope this test is better than our English one last time." I did tell my parents I'd study harder. I usually get good grades in school but ever since this year, I'd been a little distracted with my friends either chatting on the net or talking on the phone. And my parents are suddenly worrying that I'm gonna let my studies slip. I'd better show them I'm still on track.

She groaned again louder. "Man! After this test we'll be having a group assignment for English, now that you've mentioned that subject. Ugh, knowing Mrs. Cavel she's gonna choose the groups. I just hope I'll end up with someone cool."

I nodded in agreement. I really don't wanna get stuck with someone who's a social loafer.

The remaining time was spent answering short answers about The Black Plague and its events. It wasn't a tough test to do and I'm sure I'll pass this one. After finishing the test I copied down my homework which was to read text passages in our text book about the effects of the bubonic plague. I quickly wrote more notes in my organiser printing the necessary information in my neat blocked writing. Pretty soon the bell rang signalling the end of class. I capped my pen after I finished writing down my notes and looked up to see most of the class had already gone out. I stood up from my desk after packing my things away when a newspaper page caught my eye. It was the same page that my dad was holding this morning about the murder of the couple. The headline stared boldly at me announcing the news to the whole world and disturbing pictures accompanied the story. I had never really read the whole article. I approached the piece of paper on the floor and soon after curiosity got the better of me. Bending down, I picked it up from the ground and held it at arms length to read concentrating, my eyes reading word by word.

COUPLE FOUND EATEN BY RIVERSIDE

A couple was found early this morning by a hiker in the riverside along RaccoonForest. Victor Hales (31) and Margaret Field (28) were found several feet away from each other. The couple was reported to be found at around 6:30am. Michael Dose reports his findings as "very shocking and disturbing murders" upon the dead bodies. Both couple had bite marks all over their bodies that appeared to be both human and animal like. Torn human tissue can be found surrounding the bodies and a couple of metres away from them. It seems like they couple fought a struggle first. Shoe prints and ground marks can be found on the area. It has been reported that a group of around ten people were responsible for these murders. Hales apparently is reported to have huge missing pieces of flesh on his neck and death is the reason due to blood loss. Clothes were torn and bloodied and two fingers were missing from his left hand. The bone from his right leg is protruding out. Field, who was a couple of feet away has torn ligaments hanging out from her left eye socket, her eyeball apparently missing. Several teeth were found near the body which is assumed to belong to the female victim. One shoe is also missing and the body is covered in bite marks similarly found from her boyfriend. A huge hole was found from her stomach, the intestines, kidneys and flesh all eaten out. Both bodies are covered in blood and the victim's jewelleries were used for identification.

The S.T.A.R.S Bravo team was sent to investigate these bizarre murders. Bravo team's captain, Enrico Marini describes these happenings as extremely unusual. "We had not had reports of murders as bizarre as these. Each victim is found eaten to death at unusual circumstances. All incidents are reported in or around RaccoonForest. We believe the culprits are hiding within these woods. The team is working hard to uncover whoever is responsible for these horrific murders. We strongly advice people to stay away from the forest for the time being until this case is solved and use precautionary safety actions such as locking doors and windows at night."

I folded the paper in half and tucked it in hastily in the newspaper stand at the corner of the class in disgust. This is unbelievable! This sounds like a script for a horror movie. The news left me washed with a feeling of dread. It seems like Raccoon Forest houses the place of horrors. I don't know much about that place. I have never been in it. It was situated by the outskirts of town just near downtown and I don't usually go that far. I hope the S.T.A.R.S team find those insane maniacs whose idea of murder is to eat human flesh. I could feel goose bumps on my arms and my hair standing at the back of my neck. I looked around class out of my deep thoughts realizing that I'm completely alone. I hurried out walking as fast as I could pushing out the disturbing images of the murder out of my head as best as I could.

Author's Notes:

Tinkies: Thanks for your sweet review! Really appreciate it )

HHOD: Wow, I was pretty surprised to receive a review from you. Thanks for the compliment, I'm really honoured from it D