Ch. 3 –
* Earlier That Day *
The Predator watched silently as the group of teenagers invaded his territory. His blood boiled at the sight of them, and his fist clenched on the hilt of his machete. He would have to kill them, just like he'd been doing for years. It was what his mother wanted. He knew that, even though she would never speak to him any more.
His piercing black gaze raked over the seven children, and in his mind's eye he could see their deaths as he picked them off one by one…
He would take the thin blond boy first. 'Dillon', they had called him. It would be too easy for the Predator. A twitch of the hand would be more than enough to break the boy in two.
The small raven-haired girl, Beth, would go next. She would be the first to notice that Dillon had gone missing; He could see it in the way that she fawned over him. And when she came looking for the boy, all that He had to do would be to sink his blade into her soft, pliant flesh.
Like dominoes they would fall. He would learn their names, like he did every time that someone invaded his sanctuary. They could always see it in his eyes, the knowledge of who they were before they saw no more. Already he knew most of their names. Dillon. Beth. Adam. Drew. Miranda. Brooke.
But the last girl had the Predator pausing. She seemed… different than the others. Not as loud and annoying. She was more quiet and withdrawn than her rowdy companions, and more than once he had seen them looking at her with the same expressions that others had turned on him when he had still been alive.
He wouldn't know why until that night…