Desperate to get her weekend underway, Jess tried to hurry out of the school and into the last remaining rays of sun. Unfortunately for her, her path to brightness was blocked off by a boy so big that he probably would black out the sun.

"What do you want Duncan?" She sighed. She was really not in the mood for this right now.

"You weren't answering my calls last night," He said expectantly.

"That's because I told you everything I needed to say the last time you called. And the time before that," She sighed, walking away hoping he wouldn't follow, but of course, he did.

"Why won't you give us another chance?" He asked.

"It's just not working ok?" She cried. "This doesn't have to be weird between us, if you would just stop being so difficult about it".

"You're the one that's making things difficult by not talking to me!" Duncan's voiced raised, attracting the attention of several other students.

"Can you please leave me alone?" She asked, hoping her tone would let him know that this was the last time she was going to be nice about it.

"Not until we sort this out!" Duncan yelled even louder, this time attracting the attention of someone who'd heard enough.

Kyle Brennan wandered over to the former couple and shoved Duncan out of Jess' path.

"Hey back off man," He warned. "She told you to leave her alone".

"Kyle!" Jess hissed angrily, but none of the boys heard her.

"And what's it got to do with you?" Duncan smirked at his aggressor.

"I'm just sick of seeing the assholes around here thinking they own the place,"

"Don't you know who I am?" Duncan asked, knowing that Kyle obviously did. He just liked reminding people. "I'm the captain of the football team which means I'm better than you. You and all your soccer buddies. Everybody knows that you guys can't win shit".

"How about you go put your helmet on and we'll find out?" Challenged Kyle. Duncan merely grinned wider, laughing.

"You know, I like you Kyle. I really do, you're a cool guy," He acknowledged before turning his voice to a low whisper so that only Kyle could hear it. "Which is the only reason that I'm not going to beat your ass today. But if you get involved in my business again . . . it's going to be a totally different story," He patted Kyle on the shoulder a little harder than what was necessary before turning round and walking off in the other direction, not even looking at Jess anymore.

"Are you alright?" Kyle asked his neighbour after he'd recovered from Duncan's threat. Although he'd acted tough in front of everyone, Duncan was a pretty big guy.

"What the hell was that?" Jess cried.

"I thought you wanted him gone, I was just standing up for you," Kyle said defensively.

"I was handling it".

"It didn't look that way".

"It doesn't matter! I don't need you to fight my battles for me!" Jess was angrier now than she was when she'd last fallen out with Kyle. She had been starting to wonder if she'd been a little harsh on him yesterday but now those thoughts were completely out of her head.

"I was just trying to help," Kyle sighed.

"Why does everybody think I'm so helpless all the time?" Jess groaned.

"I don't think that, and I'm sure nobody else does!"

"You're all the same!" Jess' rant prevented her from listening to Kyle now. "I'm not just this damsel in distress that everybody wants me to be. I actually can do things on my own, for myself. So please just leave me alone," She said, leaving before Kyle had a chance to argue any more.

Giving up on Jess for what he told himself would be the final time, Kyle jogged away, hoping to find his friend again. He really did need a ride to the game the next day.

*

While Jess and Kyle continued to argue and Matt was off doing god knows what, Katie reluctantly stepped through her front door.

"Hello?" She called. "Anyone here?" Her questions were met with silence, confirming her worst fears. "Dammit".

She walked through the house and reached the outdated kitchen and made two sandwiches, piling them stealthily on top of each other so that she could also carry a glass of water to the back room in the small bungalow.

"Are you awake?" She whispered in case the answer to her question was no. The TV was still on, but that meant nothing. She had to mentally adjust her eyes as she got into the room as it was much darker than what she was used to. Her mom had recently bought an expensive blackout curtain and it was working wonders.

Katie sidled along the side of the bed and laid down her luggage on the nearby cabinet.

"How are you today?" She asked the man in the bed.

He stared straight ahead at the television, but offered a grunt by way of response. His features remained that of a middle aged man, but his skin remained pale and everything was enlarged, an obvious sign of his rapid weight gain. But through it all, Katie still saw her dad.

"I know that Emily just left for work but I didn't know if you'd eaten. So I made you a sandwich!" She tried to speak as cheerfully as possible, smiling when the mention of food brought her dad round to finally looking at her. She tore the snack into small pieces and slowly handed them to his shaky, outstretched hand, occasionally offering up the water for him to drink straight through a straw.

Katie, along with her sister, brother and mother all took turns to look after Mr. Collins, meaning that he would only ever be left alone for a maximum period of five minutes. She had been warned that her sister had to work that afternoon, and so Katie had rushed home, harbouring hopes that her brother had gotten away from the gas station early or that her mom had cancelled her shift at the store. But as expected, it was her turn.

After her father looked as though he'd had enough to eat, Katie put everything back on the bedside cabinet before finally starting on her own snack, turning towards the TV as she did so.

"So . . . what are we watching dad?" She asked with a smile, happy that her father was happily giggling beside her, clearly enjoying the movie that was on. She wasn't sure what it was but the screen was giving off the darker tinge that an eighties production usually did. Despite everything, Katie loved watching television with her dad. It was the one thing from her childhood that they could still do together; and besides, she was well aware that this was where she got all of her quirky pop culture references from.

As much as she complained about it, Katie knew that there could be far worse ways to spend a Friday night.

*

As Matt once again made his way through the darkening forest, he let out a grand sigh.

Although used to hiking alone, he now admitted to himself that it was so much better to do it with some company, even if they didn't really want to be there. He hadn't really had any dealings with the other kids before, but at this point in time he'd take whatever friends he could get. Unfortunately, none of them wanted to come with him tonight.

They probably didn't want to hang out with him again at all.

Using these thoughts to spur him on, Matt made quicker progress than usual and before he knew it, he was almost at the heart of the forest, at the bottom of the steep hill that led up to the famous waterfall.

Looking up at his daunting climb, he said to himself, "It's only three miles uphill. What's so bad about that?"

As he began his ascent, Matt once again thought about his newest acquaintances, before thinking of what little friends he'd had before "the incident".

His entire life had changed since that day, as was that of his parents. He knew deep down that none of it was any of their fault, but that didn't stop them feeling that way, or from anyone else reminding them that they had a murderer in the family.

As if they'd forget.

Matt had known, as soon as the police arrived at their door. He couldn't explain why but as soon as he'd spotted the flashing blue and red light out his window, he knew what had happened. He'd drifted apart from Cameron in recent years but he still would never have suspected that something like this would happen.

While he'd sat in silence and watched the entire nightmare unfold before him, his mother had screamed so loud that he felt the walls shake. His dad had tried holding her back from dragging her oldest son away from the officers who were carrying him out but she kept breaking free, making things a lot more difficult for them. By the time that the car had driven off with his brother in the back, the entire street had exited their homes, whispering amongst themselves, no doubt forming their early theories as to why the kid had been arrested and Mr and Mrs Maguire had sped off after them. Matt had stayed behind though, not wanting to be at the station when his brother was formally charged with murder.

Once again, Matt just knew he was guilty.

He'd seen his brother once more after his arrest where Cameron had told Matt that he would never see him again. There were no tears and no hugs. As far as goodbyes went, this one was pretty subdued.

While the whole Maguire family struggled to come to terms with what had happened, the rest of the town seemed to take it even harder. While they came over to offer their support and sympathies to them, their sideways glances and silent sneers were not well hidden.

Matt often wondered to himself why when a man died, people didn't seem to care much unless they were related to him. But when a child died, the whole community seemed to act like the boy was their own.

Perhaps it was a question that only someone in his situation would think to ask.

Suddenly, Matt's thoughts of not so better days were interrupted by the sound of laughter. Just like before, when a child laughs everyone says it's sweet. But this was no child. This laugh had a mischievous edge to it.

"Seriously? Who's all the way out here at this time?" He sighed quietly. "Except for me, obviously".

He ducked behind a nearby bush and twisted his body until he was practically inside it before turning his attention towards the cackle. In the dying light, he could see a group of three young men approaching from a different curve of the same hill he was climbing, and they weren't alone.

Despite their laughing and joking around with each other, Matt felt that these guys provided a real threat.

This was because they were carrying behind them, what appeared to be a body.

Although wrapped in a bloodstained white sheet, Matt had seen enough movies to know what the hidden form was. While two of them struggled to carry an end each, the third simply charged ahead without a care in the world.

"Oh shit" He gulped, regretting his obsession with these woods for the first time. He wanted to run out of his hiding place and bolt straight home but he was both scared he'd get caught, and also morbidly curious as to what exactly they were up to.

"How much further?" One of them asked what Matt presumed was the leader.

"A couple of miles maybe" The furthest forward boy replied in an exhausted voice. "Once we get to the top, we'll dump him over and head back straight away. Just think, it'll be easier on the way down."

Matt wasn't sure why, but he was positive that he recognized the voices of the group, but without a clear view of their faces, he wasn't going to be able to put a name to them. In a way, he didn't want to.

Matt waited them out until they'd carried their deceased passenger off into the uphill distance before finally, slowly leaving his post. He then decided to turn back towards town.

Going up to the top of a mountain to find the Gorgoya was one thing.

Going up to meet a group of potentially murderous men was another.

https://youtu.be/xhDbgJXS51Y

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Woooo! New chapter time!

This one is purely designed for a little bit of backstory into all the characters we don't know too much about yet, although I'd like to think that Jess is still a bit of a mystery.

And what about that body huh!? Do you think it's a dead body, or is it something totally different? Maybe it's related to the monster . . . maybe not! ;-)
As you'll have noticed too, there's another music video in there at the end! This songis "Spider in my mouth" by Fozzy, one of my favourite bands at the moment. I chose this because not only is it super atmospheric for the scene at the end, but I feel like the chorus echoes the thoughts that someone like Matt would be feeling every day. I hope you like it.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter because it felt like I was building up the tension so that when the story truly kicks into overdrive, it'll feel like much more of an impact.

So with that in mind, lets get to that overdrive . . .