Knott turned to Krist , who had suddenly come back to existence, "Perawat, I need you to go and tell every student you can find to go back to their dorms and wait there until further notice. Can you do that for me?" He asked, putting his hands of Krist's shoulders.

"O…okay…" He stuttered.

"I'll send someone to your room in an hour to tell you what's going on. If you're not back by then I'll tell who ever it is I'm sending to look for you. Okay?"

"Okay…"

"Thank you Krist. Go now. Leave through the front. Don't follow us."

He nodded one last time and left the room.

oooooooooooooooooo

He ran through the forest, turning in and out of the trees, tripping over logs and branches. He ran into the street (thank god there were no cars) and across the basketball courts. He had promised Knott he wouldn't go into the forest, but that was the quickest way back to his dorms. He climbed over the fence separating the road from the basketball courts and ran over to the dorms. His heart beating desperately to keep up, he took off his jacket and dashed in to the building.

It was quiet. He could hear the footsteps and faint noises from the dinning hall. He checked his watch. 9:40 a.m. He had twenty more minutes before breakfast ended. Catching his breath, He walked briskly down the elegant cherry-wood hall and opened the large doors into the dinning room. The air exploded with sound.

There was at least  three hundred students talking and eating. This would be impossible. The only way to get the word out would be to stand on head table.

Whatever works…

Krist pushed his way through the crowds and down the hall to the elevated section of the room. He stepped up on the platform and walked over to head table. No one had noticed.

"Where's Headmaster?" He wondered nervously, scanning the table, his heart still pounding in his throat.

The only teachers sitting up there were a few dinning hall monitors and one of the secretaries. The secretary looked nicer than the rest of the ladies. He went to her.

"Excuse me…"

She looked up at the boy in surprise, "You're not allowed up here…" She said kindly.

"Please, we have a situation…"

"What?" She asked, cupping a hand to her ear.

She seemed older; maybe she was deaf. The noise of the hall was at a roar.

"We have a situation in the forest!"

The commotion caused the rest of table to look away from their dinner plates and at Krist .

"Someone was killed in the forest. Dr. Plustor and Professor Knott sent me here to tell everyone to go to their dorms immediately and stay there until further notice." He explained.

The dinning hall monitors exchanged worried looks.

"This had better not be a trick."

"No… no way. I promise!"

The older woman looked him over once and got up from her chair. She picked up a bell and hit it three times with a small metal stick. It rang clear and loud throughout the hall, echoing off the walls and tall ceiling.

The boys grew quiet and thousand of heads turned to face Krist. He began to regret this. Maybe this wasn't what Knott had meant. He felt uncomfortable under pressure.

"Please listen to the boy." She turned to Krist and in a hushed voice said, "Speak up now, sweetie."

All eyes were on him.

"I was sent here by the school doctors, Dr.Pluatir  and Ms.Alice…"

He cleared his throat. This was harder than it looked.

Hale noticed someone in the back. It was Alice. She had entered the hall and was standing against the wall. Her face was stained with tears. He looked to his friend's table. Where were Singto and Benjamin? They were gone too. So was Gunn. Newwie was in the corner with a few other people he had never seen before.

"We have an emergency… in the forest. There's been an accident. All students are to report to their dorms immediately. You will all receive calls from your deans letting you know what's going in an hour or so. Until then, you must stay in your rooms. If you see anyone along they way who hasn't heard the message, let them know."

He waited.

No one moved.

He bit his lip, "Umm…"

"You heard the boy!" The woman chimed in, "Get outta' here! Go! Spread the message, go straight to your dorms…"

He thanked God as the students began to rise from their seats and leave the hall.

"Don't make any stops, go straight to your dorms!" She continued as the noise grew in the room once more.

He turned to thank her, and jumped down from the platform. He ran through the crowd, receiving a few stares along the way, until he saw Alice directing traffic in the hall. She was blocking the hallway leading to the front doors so that you could only go left: to the dorms.

"Alice!" Krist yelled, grabbing her attention. He made his way over to her, "Are you okay? What happened?"

Her eye make-up was smeared from crying. She didn't seem to care though. She looked tough as ever, "My brother and Professor Knott told me to come find you. I saw a group of seniors and told them to go back to their rooms. My brother is going class to class to tell the Saturday students. I think the word has spread well enough."

"Great."

"I was surprised to see you up there like that."

"Yeah, I guess I should've thought through it a bit more…"

"No, you were great."

"Thanks… um, have you seen my friends?" He realised she didn't know any of them, "Um…SINGTO Prachaya , Mark Benjamin , Lucas Gunn, Newwie Tawan…"

"Benjamin?"

"Yeah."

"You're friends with him?"

"Yeah…" He responded, "Why?"

"I know him." Alice noticed the questioning look on his face, "We… uh… ran into each other."

He almost laughed. "He seriously did get her autograph…"

"Have you seen them?"

"No, sorry."

His smile faded.

She noticed that too, "Krist, go back to your room. Make sure your roommate's there. I'll come and find you and we'll go look for them."

"Really?"

"Yeah, now go."

He thanked her and followed the crowd of people to the dorms. A few security guards came in and took Alice's position. She ran upstream into the dinning hall to help out the teachers.

oooooooooooooooooo

Upon entering his room, hr noticed New sitting at his desk, the phone up to his ear. Seeing Krist as well, New gave a quick nod of acknowledgement.

He threw his jacket onto his bed and collapsed next to it, waiting for Newwie to get off the phone.

Click.

Newwue turned around in his seat, "Krist are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Who was that?"

"Just one of my friends just checking in."

"Oh," He had almost hoped it was Singto calling for him, "Um, we're gunna get a call from are deans…"

"I know. I saw you up there. That's why I asked If you're okay."

"Oh." Krist  said quietly.

Newwie got up and sat next to him, "What happened? Did you see anything? Everyone's talking about you."

He was too tired to worry about anything. He laid on his back and sighed, "I was a talking a test this morning, and afterwards, Dr. Plustor came in and told Professor Knott that a student was reported missing last night. And that they found him, dead, in the forest." Krist explained, recalling the incident in his head.

"Jesus Christ…what happened?"

"I don't know."

Riiiiing

Riiiiing

Newwie got up and answered the phone, "Hello?"

Why weren't Singto and Benjamin and Gunn at breakfast? Sure it was Saturday… did they have a class or something? What if it was one of his friends who were found dead? What if it was them that are sitting in the counsellor's office waiting to find out what's going to happen next?

His mind was racing. He couldn't just lie there and do nothing.

"It's for you."

Maybe it was Singto.

He got up and took the phone, "Hello?"

"Krist?"

"Yeah, who's this?"

"Gunn."

At least Gunn was okay. Maybe Singto was with him.

"Where's Mark?" Gunn asked quickly.

"Huh? I dunno. Is Singto there?"

"No, no one can find Benjamin or Singto ."

Kriat's expression fell, his heart beginning to pound into his stomach,

"I don't know what to do…"

He sounded scared.

"I just ran into Alice, that girl from before, she said she'd take me out to look for my friends. She's a staff member so she can pull it off. Come with us."

"Great!"

"I'll call you when she gets here."

"Okay."

Click.

Click.

oooooooooooooooooo

The forest was quiet; the wind had died and not even the birds sang. Somehow the sun was still shining through the clouds, brightening the already white snow. A body lay helplessly in the powder turned red with sticky blood. It spread all around the boy, matting his hair and staining the side of his face and hands. His skin was hard and pale, like clay, and his eyes were glazed over.

Surrounding the body were a couple doctors, including Dr. Plustor and a few others from the hospital nearby. Headmaster Sataporn and a few security guards were there, as well as the police. The trees and bushes surrounded the body, making it hard for others to do the same. Only a few people could get near it at a time.

"So who was it?"

"A junior, around 17 years old. He must've gotten out here late last night, and died sometime around 3 a.m." Dr. Plustor began, "No one's allowed back here for safety reasons. We can't monitor this area."

"So why was he out here?"

Dr. Plustor took the police officer through a few trees to a taped off area. He was one of the school policemen, head of school security, "Look down there."

The police officer's eyes followed Doc's finger, pointing down to the snow.

"Footsteps. Those are the boy's. There are two other sets of footsteps that follow the boy's to his body."

"Where do the others lead?"

Plustor sighed, rubbing his temple. There was something out there in the forest. Something dangerous.

"Come with me, there's something you should see."

The police officer followed Plustor past the body, and past a couple groups of people and more bushes and trees.

"Watch the footsteps."

The two walked around the forest, eyes glued to the footprints in the snow. They followed the prints and the police officer noticed a sudden change. One pair began to lose the tread marks from the shoe.

"That's just the snow falling and covering them up…"

"Then how come the other footprints stay the same?"
The police officer gave doctor a strange look.

"Keep watching."

They continued to watch the snow, and as they walked, the footprints changed even more: they became bigger; five points began to press down harder in the snow than the rest. The normal footprints stopped, but the other set kept going. The policeman looked in horror as they slowly became bigger; claw marks and paw pads indenting the white powder around it. And that point in time, and normal ones began to head in a different direction, and other set just stopped abruptly.

oooooooooooooooooo

It was another long thirty minutes before Krisy received a knock on his door. He jumped up to answer it. Newwie peered out from over his textbook to see who had come by. He was expecting the dean.

It was Alice .

New practically fell off his bed. Was she allowed in this building?

"Hey."

"What's going on? Can we go look for Sing…"

"Krist …" She said solemnly.

He froze, "What?"

She stood silent.

"What is it?!"

"We can't leave."

"What?" he stammered, "Why not? You said you could take us! You're like practically a teacher!"

"I know but there are still a few students missing."

"What do you mean?"

"We can't find two of the newer students."

"Have they identified the body?"

"Yeah, I didn't catch the name, but it was junior from room 34-b."

His heart sank into his stomach.

"I gotta go, I'm really sorry, Krist ."

"It's all right. Thanks for trying."

"See you, Krist ."

"Bye."

She left, her long, ebony hair swinging behind her as she walked.

Hs shut the door and locked it, leaning against the wall behind him. New had just gotten up, still surprised to have seen Her standing in his doorway. What was a girl doing in the boy's dorms? He looked to Krist just in time to see him slide down to a sitting position on the floor.

"Krist ? Hey ! What happened?"

He didn't move.

He walked over to the narrow hallway connecting the door to their room, "Hey… what happened?" He got down on his knees in front of him, "Do you know Alice?"

He nodded, "It's Benjamin."

"Huh?"

"Room 34-b. That's his room number. That's why my friends weren't at breakfast."

What if it was Benjami? All along, He had been worried about Singto , when Benjamin was the one in danger. What if he was lying there in the forest, dead? A bunch of cops and paramedics surrounding him like flies to dead meat. What if he left last night to meet Alice, and died along the way? Who could've killed him? Who was in the forest that late? Who was in the forest…

Newwie leaned into Krist and put his arms around the boy.

"Jesus Christ, Krist …"

It was afternoon by now; the sun was no longer in a position to glow through the tall windows. It merely floated above the forest contently, shining down on the empty streets and sidewalks.

Krist sat up against the wall in the narrow hallway, Newwie's arms around him.

He buried his face into his shoulder, saving himself from blushing, and bursting into tears, "New…"

oooooooooooooooooo

"What the hell is this? Some kind of sick joke?"

Doc looked to the officer with grim eyes.

"What happened to these weird footprints?"

"They continue," Plustor pointed to an area where the normal ones had run off, "Over there."

"That's impossible, the boy would've had to lunge ten yards behind him. That, of course, being after he changed into some weird animal." He said sarcastically.

He remained silent.

The policeman looked at him in disbelief, "No… no way Plustor. You did not bring them here."

He turned his head, breaking eye contact, "I rounded up a search party for a few missing students. We have no lead on the killer, besides the footsteps, so right now we need to focus on getting the rest of the students to safety."

The officer looked hard at Plustor Inipat, "How many are there?"

"Well over nine hund…"

"No, how many of them?"

Plustor  sighed, his eyes following the footprints into the forest, "Just four."