*AN* The character "Katie Knight"- does not exist in any of my stories (at least for the time being.) Any mention of "Katie" is an OC based off me.
Just a heads up, I will be changing the titles of some of my stories soon. As I mentioned in a past AN I was trying to make a series and then use only one word to describe the story as a whole and that word would also be used as a revelation or opening/closing line. I got a little bored with this one and it was getting hard to come up with clever names.
This is going to be longer than I thought, only because the plot is starting to come together and I want to try my luck at throwing in some clues/twists/turns/cliff hangers. Bear with me as I take a slow stroll through this story. *
The last night of vacation, the group went out once more to see if they could find anything at all about this beast. Kendall, James, Carlos, Logan and Camille scoured the streets of LA in search of the animal. Lucy wasn't interested in searching for it anymore and Katie had yet to come back from vacation although she was due back sometime earlier in the day. Either way they would see her tomorrow. They had been searching for hours and as dawn approached, they lost faith. Eventually, they were too tired, bored and let down to continue and once they reached the desert, began to trudge back through town towards Carlos' place.
They talked amongst themselves about many things, mostly as to why the beast was no where to be found, and why it seemed as though the mission always failed. They continued down the main street, through Hollywood, quiet except for the distinct noise of their paintball armor and weapons as it hit against each other. James stopped cold, fear coursing through him, he couldn't gather why but for whatever reason he was freaked out and couldn't move. His friends tried to console him but nothing seemed to work as James dropped to his knees, trembling.
Knowing they would be in trouble, but with no where else to turn, Logan suggested calling for help, but before anyone could get a hold of their phones a blood curdling noise rang out through the town. They all froze at the sound but couldn't tell where it was coming from or what it was. Needless to say, the noise woke up much of the town as lights started coming on in apartments and houses all around them. The neighbor hood began to bustle as if it were rush hour.
The commotion of curious bystanders and residents quickly turned to shrieks of terror as gunshots could be heard in the distance as well as a lot of yelling and the same noise. Many people ran for cover in their own houses but the 5 friends were stuck with no where to go and ducked into an alley way, peaking their heads around the corner to see if anything was happening. Gunshots continued as did the yelling but they became closer and soon a rumbling began as the earth shook beneath them. Camille let out a scream as the shaking became more aggressive and the guys huddle together around her, preparing for an earth quake.
A group of gang members came running down the street, guns and knives in hand as they kept shooting backwards blindly. They had trouble running with their pants hanging so low, 2 of them ditched their pants all together when they fell to their ankles. The gang members were scared out of their minds as they ran but the trembling didn't stop, instead it only got stronger and soon enough the cause of the supposed earthquake came into the light.
It was the beast; now at half the height of a house. It's eyes were a bright golden red, teeth glistening in the moon light as they showed from it's mouth. It's sleek black fur stood on end as it again uttered it's howl; it stood it's ground as it growled, long tail whipping in the air as it locked onto its target. The 6 gang members continued to run but in an instant, it took off and seemingly in one stride, was in front of them blocking their path. It wasted no time and in one fell swoop, lowered its jaw and all 6 members vanished. It turned around and not a trace was left except for the beast licking its chops after a filling meal.
The group who had witnessed the entire thing, sank back into the alley and held their breaths as they tried to stay out of sight. The beast began to walk back to where it came from but its strong sense of smell picked up their presence. It bent down to the alley and gave a sniff before snorting and continuing on. Kendall and Carlos peeked out and watched as it walked down the street and down another alley, leading towards the Hollywood sign.
Hearts beating a mile a minute, the group sat in silence as they waited for their pulses to return to normal. Once calm and sure that there was no longer a threat, they got up and made a break for it to Carlos' house which although was a few blocks away, it felt much longer. They arrived in one piece and immediately sunk to the floor in relief once inside. No one talked much and once they ditched the armor, they all fell asleep in the living room for what little there was left of the night.
Katie arrived early that morning, around 6am by train and went straight to the Knight's residence. She had her own key as being part of the family and just crashed on the couch to avoid waking anyone. Mrs. Knight was already up and saw Kendall's bed empty and after a quick panic, checked her phone to see a voice mail from Kendall saying he wouldn't be home. She went to make breakfast and saw Katie, sound asleep on the couch and pulled out a blanket for her and covered her. Katie slept a lot on the plane but she was still a bit jetlagged and slept until about 9, when Mrs. Knight left for work. Katie got herself some breakfast and then wandered around the house for a little bit before deciding to bother Kendall; when he wasn't there, she was a little confused.
Back at Carlos' place, it was nearly 1 in the afternoon before they were all up. They were tired after an exciting night and yet didn't talk about it much. After checking phones and seeing messages and missed calls from Katie, they knew she was here and waiting and although, tired, they didn't want to let her down but ditching plans to meet up. Katie went home every break since she had more than 6 months to kill. They made it a point to meet up at least once before returning to the set to catch up and make other plans. They soon woke up enough to fully grasp what had happened the night before and wasted no time in filling Katie in, who was surprised at the sudden info downpour. She quickly went over some of the evidence they gathered in photos and video.
"Katie, I was hoping you could tell me what this is." Kendall said. He pulled out a small bag with something black in it. "James found this in his yard, it's fur but we want to know if it could be from the animal. I figured, you would know, since you know all kinds of dog fur and this thing is mostly dog." he said handing the bag to her.
"It definitely is fur." she said as she looked at it. She opened the bag to get a closer look and she rolled it in her fingers. "It's plush and soft but yet stiff. I'm not sure what type of dog this could be from to be honest; it has too many different qualities to be able to tell." she said handing it back.
"What about these pictures?" Logan said turning his screen to her. "I took these last night when we ran into it."
"It's huge." Katie noticed
"He's got to be about 12-15ft tall at the shoulder." Kendall measured
"I don't think this thing is a male…" Katie began.
"What makes you say that?" Kendall asked
"Well, for starters it doesn't have a penis." Katie continued
"This isn't even a natural animal, maybe it was created with out one." Carlos defended
"That's a sad life…" James said nonchalantly. The girls looked at him. "If it is male I mean, if it's a girl then that's cool too! I was just saying that if it was male and had no dick then it must suck and….I'm just going to shut up now before I dig my own grave." He said.
"So it's a girl?" Camille asked.
"Well, I was going to say so, but Carlos could be right. If it is a genetically altered animal, then there is a possibility that it could be genderless or even modified gender. The frame of the animal is big but still holds a shape of a female which would be my second source to say it's female. But for now I'd say keep it genderless." Katie said.
"What do you mean by 'if it is a genetically altered animal'? Is there another possibility that we should be thinking about?" Logan asked.
"Well, evolution could play a role, this could very well be a new species. it's a small possibility but it is out there. Besides, you did say you saw one in London." Katie explained
"True, we don't know what exactly it's migration patterns are or if it even has one. We also don't know what types of abilities it has." Logan agreed
"But it could be safe to say that it does have a migration pattern. Think about it, why does it disappear for months or weeks even years at a time?" Kendall added
"Ok, say it does migrate, we still don't know how, why or where it goes." James said.
"We don't know much about this animal at all." Logan said exasperated.
"why don't we just start from the bottom and work our way up? I'm sure we can come up with all kinds of research and experiments based on the stuff we have." Camille suggested.
"We would all have to work on this on our own time, shooing starts tomorrow and after that its another tour season." James said.
"Alright we can do this, we just need to take one section and work on it exclusively. Kendall and James, I would suggest working together on working out a timeline of appearances as well as mapping out locations seen in or heading too. Logan and I can work on the research of the animal itself such as physical attributes and temperament characteristics. Camille and Carlos, you guys can work out anything else and be the middle man between the two groups. No doubt we all saw something different and every view helps." Katie instructed, taking the lead. The pairs got straight to work and worked through the afternoon as the piled up papers and chalkboards full of information.
*AN* Bear in mind this story is different than things I have written before for this website. This story could be considered an experiment on my own behalf. I'm publishing it here just for a safe place so to speak. whether readers like it or dont, doesnt matter to me, at least not on this story. I'm trying different things on this one so it really is for my own benefit. Feel free to leave feedback thoughts opinions, foreshadowing, let downs, changes etc. I'm not going to go back and change what I wrote but I can always use suggestions in future stories but no promises, sorry. This is also a reason as to why the grammar, spelling and overall outline and setup are the way they are, I'm treating this as a rough draft story, published for safe keeping/feedback. No need to leave comments on the bad spelling, punctuation, capitalization and what not, I'm aware of it but like I said, this is just a rough draft story since I am trying something new.*