I started to worry when Dean didn't immediately pick up. I was also surprised by the slightly breathless response when he finally answered. "Hey Sammy, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." I frowned slightly, "At least not on my end, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, everything's quiet here. Why aren't you sleeping?" Dean sounded confused, though not as breathless, and I suspected that he'd been startled when his phone rang.

"Um, because it's 2am? Time for you to have a break." I chuckled, "Sounds like you need it."

"Seriously?" There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the line, which I assumed was Dean checking the time. "So it is…that's weird."

I frowned again, it wasn't like Dean to lose track of the time like that. "Yeah…it is. Where are you at, anyway?"

There was more shuffling on the other end of the line. "You sure you're ok Dean?" I asked, really starting to worry about him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm out on the back ovals, trying to find a security guard who was apparently on duty last night." He told me.

"Ok, I'll meet you there. See you in a minute."

"Uh huh, ok." Dean sounded distracted and hung up on me.

I decided to drive round to the ovals, rather than leaving the car in the visitor parking where I had been waiting…expecting Dean to meet me there.

I had noticed when I'd left earlier that the campus was unusually dark and quiet, and it was the same now. Theoretically it would make it easier to spot someone who was where they shouldn't be, but it also meant that there were a lot more dark places where someone could be overlooked.

I hoped Dean had managed to pick up at least some useful information, or this could potentially be a very challenging hunt.

I pulled into a car park near the ovals, looking around for Dean, and feeling a fresh wave of worry when I couldn't see him.

I got out of the car and walked to the edge of the nearest oval, scanning the darkness till I saw the light of a small torch across the other side near the tree line. I couldn't tell from here if it was Dean, one of the security guards…or someone else.

Suddenly the torch beam disappeared.

I was about to call Dean again when my phone started to ring.

"Hey Dean, that you all the way over there?" I asked, going round to the truck to find a decent torch.

"Yeah, that's me. I'm coming your way now. Didn't want you mistaking me for a monster." He said it in a joking tone, but there was something else there that made me think he was checking that it was me on this side of the oval, and not a monster.

"Ok, I'll wait here then." I told him, and hung up.

The torch lit up again, and I realised he was using his phone as a torch.

I sat on the hood of the car while I waited, starting to scan the darkness with the torch when the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up.

Dean's distraction started to make a little more sense. There was definitely something out there. I could feel it watching us.

I could imagine that even Dean would be feeling a little jumpy out in the pitch black on his own with something watching him from the tree line.

When Dean finally reached the car he sat down next to me on the hood, eyes following my torch beam as it moved side to side.

"There's something out there." I commented.

He nodded, "Yeah, it's been watching me ever since I got to the edge of campus. I thought I spotted something moving over there," he indicated to where he'd been when I got here, "but I can't find anything."

"The security guard?" I asked.

He shrugged, "No sign of him. I'll ask around some more tomorrow."

I nodded, "You get anything from any other guards?"

"Not much. They didn't exactly go out of their way to be helpful." He sighed, "I get the impression that the police have been trying to push the blame onto them for not catching whoever's dropping the bodies."

"Makes sense." I commented, "I mean, it is more than a little odd that apparently none of them saw anything at all. They weren't even the ones to find the bodies in half the cases."

"It certainly looks like an inside job." Dean agreed. "Apparently the external lights have been out all week too, some electrical problem."

"Anything else out of the ordinary?" I asked, hoping he had more than that to show for a couple of hours investigating. Inside job didn't get us far on a campus this size…that was still potentially hundreds of people who could be monsters hiding in plain sight.

He shrugged again, "Just the missing guard…"

I sighed, "Right. Well, I'll keep trying. You'd better go and get some sleep before we have to go and talk to the cops and visit the morgue."

"Yeah, ok." He held a hand out and I passed him the keys. "Give me a call if anything happens."

"Will do." We both stood up. Dean headed round to the driver's door, and I walked off to have one more look around the ovals before heading back into the campus itself to see if I could get anything more out of the security guards.

I heard the engine rumble to life and turned to watch Dean head back up the road towards the main gate. He just hadn't seemed quite right, but hopefully a couple of hours sleep would fix it. Neither of us needed a lot of sleep to function…but we did still need sleep, and he had had hardly any these past couple of days.

Hi everybody! Now we're getting to the fun part! I have finally ironed out a few wrinkles in how to get from where I was to where I want this story to go! I can't wait to see what you think ;)

Big Thankyou to sensualxstacy and Sallyannerenee for reviewing!