Chapter Three

Since Trace's aunt's house was one story, it would be pretty easy to sneak out. Trace put her leather jacket, previously discarded onto her floor, on and grabbed her wallet and keys to be safe. She then grabbed a belt, opened her window, and climbed out.

Trace carefully laid the buckle of the belt on the other side of the window sill and closed the window. This way, she could open it whenever she returned with no problems, and wouldn't have to worry about a cold room.

After walking for a few minutes, Trace found herself outside of her new neighborhood. Not knowing the town, she decided to just walk around aimlessly.

The girl had been enjoying herself, walking around in the dark of night, feeling the cool wind on her face. She kept at it for close to two hours.

She had been contemplating the idea of trying to climb onto the roof of a building (she likes heights, her mother could never understand why) when she heard a strange noise coming from the nearby alley.

Trace stopped and stood completely still, listening. She soon heard the noise again. Even though she wasn't sure what it was, it could have been someone who was injured, so the girl stepped into the alley.

She walked slowly, cautiously, softly calling out, "Hello? Is anyone there? Hello? I'm not here to hurt you."

Trace had been nearing the other end of the alley when some kind of beast burst out from behind some trash and attacked her.

She was taken by surprise and did not move when the thing jumped on top of her. It took a minute for her brain to process what was taking place.

Once she realized what was going on, Trace panicked. She screamed and tried to fight the monster that was clawing and biting at her.

She had somehow managed to get out from under it and hastily stood up, feeling dizzy immediately. But before she could run, the thing clawed at her again. She could feel the deep cuts the creature was creating. Without any warning, it had suddenly grabbed Trace and threw her against the brick wall.

Trace tried desperately to hold onto consciousness, but found it becoming more and more difficult. She could hear people, she hoped it was people, running towards the thing that attacked her.

Just as two pairs of shoes came into her line of sight, Trace Peterson passed out.

Gwen and Owen had been searching for their last weevil when they heard a commotion in an alley. Running towards the noise, the sight of the weevil attacking a girl came into view.

As they got closer, the two saw it throw the girl aside. "Owen," Gwen started.

"I know," he replied, "But we've gotta get that first."

Closing the distance between themselves and the weevil, the two Torchwood members tried to get close enough to spray it. Each, in their own time, saw the girl lying unconsciously against the cold, brick wall with several deep wounds oozing blood.

It took another ten minutes to take the creature down and as soon as he was sure that it was down for the count, Owen turned to the girl.

Confused, the medic called out, "Gwen?"

"Yeah?" came her reply as she was still dealing with dragging the weevil out of the alley.

"Where did the girl go?" Owen asked, trying to stay calm.

"What do you mean?" she asked, finally looking up, confusion across her face.

"Well, I do remember a girl being passed out over here before, however she's not here now."

The weevil moved suddenly in a struggling Gwen's arms, and the two decided to just bring it straight back to the Hub, along with the other two they caught.

As soon as all the weevils were contained properly in the Hub, Gwen and Owen told Jack about the girl that seemed to just vanish.