*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. *
After a toiling day of research, they called it a day, satisfied of their findings. They developed enough theories and information to put together a decent sized case. They put it on hold as they began their filming season although occasionally talked about it during breaks. Only during vacation could they go out in search of the animal, everyone taking turns. Almost the entire known cast except for the parents and children went out on the hunt although most nights they came up empty handed.
Logan and Katie continued their research on the photos and videos going over each one several times, picking apart each frame for its movements, physical, mental and emotional attributes and other such characteristics. They did the brunt of the work, combining Logan's knowledge of math, medicine and science with Katie's knowledge of canine science. Kendall, James, Lucy and Camille filled in blanks in the information based on what they remembered or heard on the news.
Katie and Logan were sitting together in the break room working on the case in their free time; it had been a few weeks since any of them looked at it.
"Logan, do you still have that piece of fur that James found?"
"Uh…" he said as he began to search his bag. "Yep, I do." he said handing to her. "Did you think of something?"
"I just wanted to look over it again in case I missed something." she said working it over. She put it down again and checked over her notes but found nothing new. "I'm going to get some more water, I'll be right back."
"Grab me a soda from my fridge?" he asked.
"Sure." she said on the way out. Logan put his nose back into his computer. Something began to click and he double checked all his notes before running to Kendall's room. Katie came back to see Logan gone, no note or sign of him anywhere so she left him his soda and took a walk to the bathroom.
"Kendall!" Logan yelled through the door as he knocked but there was no answer. "Kendall wake up and open the door, it's important!"
Kendall opened the door, obviously tired and a little grumpy but he had no time to tell Logan off before he came in and set up his computer.
"Come look at this."
"What is it?"
"These are some of the pictures I collected from various sources as well as mine that I took."
"I saw these."
"Yes, but I've been going over them again and again, looking for anything that might stick out and I think I got something." he began. "Katie and I were working out some of the basics as far as different characteristics and attributes but that's not what I'm here to show you. Look at these similarities here, here and here." he pointed using his mouse. I cross referenced these pictures with other ones and all the features are the same. There are no discernable characteristics between these pictures."
"So what does that mean, that there is only one?"
"That's the thing, I'm not sure yet, it still could go either way. Without DNA testing from all sites, it will be nearly impossible to be sure. Also without knowing the lifestyle of this animal it will be difficult to tell if the fur serves a purpose. For example, zebras' stripes allow them to blend in with each other plus each pattern is different; like a finger print, no two are a like. He same could be said about this animal's fur but like I said, without DNA and lifestyle knowledge, it cant be certain."
"Ok then what was the point of this?"
"Well I found something else that was bothering me. Remember a while back when scientists said they found human DNA mixed with the sample?"
"Yeah…?"
"Check out this picture." he said, taping away on his computer and turning it to Kendall. Kendall looked at it for a while before shaking his head.
"I don't get it, what am I looking at? I know it's the animal but what exactly…?"
"I don't think it's the flash but look at the fur over here. Do you see a red hue?"
"I do."
"It only seems to be on the neck fur, like a mane of a horse. And look at this over here, I found this shiny spot on the fur and I used some enhancement software to bring in a close up of what appears to be some sort of medal."
"Did you find out what it was?"
"I did as much as I could but there was only a portion showing to begin with, so I only have a sliver of it. However it is enough to determine the size and there are a few markings which I cross referenced with some popular gang and ritualistic signs and symbols that are popular on this side of the country and I came back with 4 hits." Logan said calling up the matches.
"Wow, that's pretty good." Kendall said. He squinted at the screen before taking a closer look. "I've seen this one before." he said pointing to match number 3.
"Where?"
"I don't remember off the top of my head." Kendall replied
"Hmmm. Well it came up as a satanic symbol used for declaration. I couldn't find much on it, I don't even know what it's called." Logan explained
"Lucy!" Kendall suddenly said
"What?"
"That's where I've seen that symbol, Lucy wears a pendant with that symbol around her neck everyday. Maybe she knows what it means." Kendall explained
"Good call." Logan said as they went to her room
"My pendant?" Lucy questioned
"Yeah, what does it mean?" Kendall asked
"I don't know, I just wear it because I thought it was cute. It was too pretty with all the stones and colors that I couldn't resist picking it up." she explained. Lucy's rocker look often made people mistake her for a Satan worshiper or some other alternative lifestyle label.
"I found it under Satanic symbols." Logan said.
"What! Oh my god!" She said unhooking it. "No wonder I have been getting dirty looks!"
Without any further indications of what they started, Kendall and Logan went back to their own rooms. Kendall went back to sleep and Logan kept chugging away at the research. Logan made notes for Katie to check over when she was free but she was busy the rest of the day so who knows how long it would be until she had some free time again.
"Another update in the case of the mysterious beast called Demon. It has been spotted yet again and according to some witnesses, it was seen chasing and devouring a renowned gang member and closest posse. Although Demon appeared to be gentle and lost, this change in behavior is unsettling and police and officials order residents to stay inside at night, when the animal is most active. Chief of police states 'It's best if residents stay out of our way so we can do our best to subdue the animal without innocent bystanders getting hurt. We want to survey this animal in hopes of finding out exactly what it is and why it has settled in LA, however because of it's recent behavior change, we cant assure that safety is no longer relevant.' The anchor said.
"Oh no! They cant kill it!" Camille said.
"they wont kill it unless they have to. They are going to try to catch it first to study it but if it becomes to dangerous then they'll kill it." James explained.
"Neither of those sounds like a better option. I don't believe it is dangerous, I think its just because of all the attention." Camille said.
"It is growing at a pretty good rate as of recently so maybe it reached its maturity level and that's why it has gotten so out of hand so to speak." Logan added.
"Then it's time we step up and take matters into our own hands. We need to really hit this research head on and find out when and where it will strike next. We need to get a hold of this animal before anyone else does."
"Agreed." Lucy said. "But I wont be tagging along anymore, I have to work on another project for the studio."
"No problem, one of the Jennifers' asked if she could tag along and help out." Carlos said
"Really?" Logan asked
"yeah, she said she felt sorry for it."
"Jennifer #3" they all said in unison.
"Ok, we start the search our first vacation night. Until then hit the books!" Kendall instructed.
*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.*