Tristan stared down the hall.

It'd been a few hours after everyone else had gone to sleep, but he'd had trouble joining them in dreamland - perhaps it was due to being forced to spend a few days in the future with limited aid, or perhaps almost being eaten was the problem. Either way, he'd been on edge for a few days since his return...and that made it especially hard to sleep when birds were walking around on the roof. He'd just about reached the door outside to address that problem when he heard...something else crawling on the roof.

Something much, much bigger.

Tristan normally wouldn't be too worried about that - large monkeys were known to wander the island, somehow not starving to death - except he could also hear dogs barking in the distance. And dogs normally didn't bark at monkeys...though there was a creature he had recently met that they might bark at.

Warily, Tristan opened up one of the windows to look outside.

Despite searching for some time, he ultimately found nothing out of the ordinary.

Tristan turned to head back to his room - he was probably hearing things. And honestly, he needed a lot more sleep.

The window next Tristan exploded, showing the teen in glass shards. Before he the pain from the various cuts he had received could reach his brain, something tackled him to the ground. Desperately, he squirmed and wreathed, trying to break free, but his captor would not budge. Turning around, Tristan found himself staring at the creature's awful, eyeless face,

Then the predator bit down on his neck.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tristan woke up with a shriek, absolutely soaked in sweat, hands clawing at his throat. When it became apparent that said throat was still intact, though, he slowly began to calm down. His eyes darted across the room, searching for any signs of the predator. Finding none, he turned his attention over toward the nearest clock.

5:15 AM

'Great. Another nightmare. Just how many is that now?'

Sighing, Tristan got out of bed and made his way toward the door - the sun had not yet risen, but the light of day was arriving, and maybe a short walk would calm his ner-

Shink-wump!

With only a minor twinge of surprise, Tristan registered that something was grabbing onto his leg. Turning his head downward, he realized that he had become caught in his own rubber-jawed leg-hold trap.

Groaning, Tristan turned around and headed back to bed - he could remove the trap after he got up again.

XXXXXXXXXX

"How many times has he woken up screaming now?"

Tai thought for a moment, before shrugging at Michelle. "I haven't been keeping track."

"You think they're getting worse?"

"I can't actually tell. All I've noticed is that Tristan's been less active and a bit grouchier. And a little paranoid, too..."

Michelle recalled that he had borrowed several wooden boards, a hammer, and some nails from the supplies buildings, and didn't remember him returning them.

"Just what did he see in that facility that made him so...so..."

"Beyond the fact that they killed people, I don't know, and for the sake of having a relatively decent remainder of my childhood, I don't want to know."

"Fair enough."

Even as the words left her mouth, Michelle wondered if she should call the park's psychiatrist and arrange a meeting between him and Tristan - her friend was really starting to worry her.

XXXXXXXXXXX

The relative calm of the shoreline was momentarily shattered as giant feet stomped through the dirt, bringing the massive predator to the water's edge. Its massive maw soon descended, lapping up as much water as it could.

The Torvosaurus was enjoying her new life in the park - there was plenty to eat and drink, and little to no competition for any of it. Occasionally, small mammalian carnivores wandered into her home, but they were easily intimidate. More fun was had when the tusked omnivores wandered into her territory - they provided something she could hunt, and unlike the strange fork-horned animals, the tusked ones were not particularly fast runners. The fact that they usually tended to be rather plump often made killing them even more fun.

What had happened a week ago, though, had been...rather strange. One minute, she and her fellow megalosaurs had been calm, but in the next, they had gone berserk. And they didn't know why - only that whatever had made them go berserk had drawn them to a clearing where eyeless carnivores fought with the humans. For whatever reason, the blind beasts made the Torvosaurs even angrier, as they and many other creatures from all over the park had united as one to slaughter the creatures, attacking until none were left. Why eluded the tetanuran, but when the last one was dead, she instantly felt calmer.

A sudden flash of light made the carnivore turn her attention to the opposite bank. There, much to her surprise, was a great glowing object of sorts. Perplexed by the sight, she took a step toward it, only for the light to suddenly get brighter -ACK TOO BRIGHT!

Wincing, the megalosaur closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the light was gone. Her atteniton flitted all across the bank, but despite her best efforts, she could not find the light again.

A splash in the water made her forget all about the light - it looked like another arapaima had swum into her exhibit.

XXXXXXXXXX

Hidden from view, the creature watched the temporal aberration with cautious curiosity, waiting to see if it would try to pursue. When its attention fell upon the large fish, though, the observer decided to leave.

It seemed that more of the aberrations were destined to show up in the future, not that that was a bad thing - they humans, at least, were careful not to release the beasts where they would cause too much harm. Yet, at the same time, new problems were beginning to emerge - creatures from the future were now in the present, potentially altering the destiny of this world.

...Actually, as long as they did not escape into the wild, time would go on just fine.

Still, things were getting a lot more complicated now.

XXXXXXXX

AN: Yeah, I love cliffhangers.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!