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Autumn, 1980

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Police officer Hennen was driving through the streets of Leagrave, Bedfordshire, when after hours of radio silence, he suddenly got a call.

"Officer, this is Headquarters. We've got a report from a strange sight and it must be checked out."

Hennen grabbed the walkie-talkie and answered the headquarter while keeping an eye out on the dark road. "What's the 'strange sight'?" He really had hoped this would have been a quiet night.

"Two bear carcasses have been found at the shore of the Lea River. You're the one who is nearest, officer."

Hennen sighed, but then he realised she had said bear carcasses. There were no bears here, except from the ones in the zoo.

"Bears?" he repeated. "Has a zoo reported them missing?"

"There are no bears missing." Well, that was odd. Then where did they came from?

After he got the exact location, he turned the car around and went to see the bear carcasses. Till his horror, there were indeed two dead bears, but they were small. Still little cubs, and they did not drown as Hennen had expected; they had been decaptivated and the sight was just horrifying, not strange as the Headquarters had said. He couldn't believe his eyes, who would do such thing?

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Winter, 1981

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Aiden jumped out of bed when his alarm clock went off. He quickly dressed himself and went to the room of his big brother. He grabbed a pillow that laid on the floor and threw it at his head.

"Wake up, Jacob! It's time!"

His brother grumbled and pulled the sheets over his head. With an exasperated sigh, Aiden walked to the bed and almost dragged him out of it.

"Alright, alright!" Jacob protested and he got up before he would had fallen out of bed. "Why did I agree to this?" he muttered, more to himself than Aiden.

"Because it'll be fun!" Aiden answered enthusiastic, ignoring the fact his brother actually hadn't wanted an answer.

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Now, get out of my room so that I can change clothes."

"Mommy says you shouldn't roll with your eyes, they can get stuck halfway."

Jacob shook his head and shoved him in the direction of the door. "Get out."

Aiden walked, almost skipped, away and not more than ten minutes later, they both stood outside. The snow reached till their ankles and their feet sank away in the freshly fallen snow. They set course towards the marsh where they had agreed to meet with the others. It was still early in the morning and there was not much traffic on the road. Aiden walked at front while Jacob trudged behind him, he rather would have still been in his bed in stead of plodding through the snow. It didn't take them long to reach the marsh, but the others weren't there yet.

Jacob let his head hang. "I still could've been sleeping." He half-hoped they wouldn't show up, but then his little brother screamed in excitement.

"There they are!"

In the distance, Jacob indeed could spot the twin brothers, coming their way. Great. So much for getting back to his warm bed.

They greeted each other and Aiden clapped his hands together. "Now, let's get on an adventure!"

Jacob stared at his brother back who turned around and started walking again. Jacob didn't understand how he could be that happy in the morning. With a jawn, he followed his little brother and the twin  - who were best friends with Aiden. Their parents only had allowed Aiden to go if Jacob did go as well, and he had begged his brother until Jacob couldn't stand it any longer and finally had given in.

Jacob followed them blindly, not really looking where they were going and his thoughts drifted away until he suddenly crashed into Trevor.

"Look!" he said when Jacob had found his balance once again, and he pointed at some prints in the snow. Aiden and Fred noticed they both stood still, and they followed Trevor's pointed finger.

"What kind of prints are those?" Fred asked curiously, but Trevor just shrugged.

"It's not from a dog."

"Duh, I can see that too. I'm not stupid."

Trevor teasingly raised an eyebrow at Fred.

"Shut up," Fred growled. "I'm not stupid, really."

"It's huge," Aiden stated. "Let's follow it!"

"Erm... I'm not sure if that's smart..." Jacob protested but they already had started to follow the trail which led away from the barely noticeable path, and he quickly followed them. He couldn't leave them out of sight, he was the oldest.

The snow changed to mud and carefully they made sure they wouldn't sink away before they took other steps. From out of nowhere, some fog came setting up and they couldn't see more than a dozen meters. They stopped moving and they had goose bumps all over their body.

"Let's head back," Jacob whispered, he got an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. They never should have left the path. They all nodded but before they were able to turn back around, something huge caught their eye. An enormous beast stepped into their eyesight and their jaws dropped. It reminded them of a bear; it had a dark fur, almost black, but its eyes were crimson red and left the boys frozen with fear.

For a moment, the beast and the boys stared at each other, but then the beast reared up on his hind legs and it growled a mighty roar.

The boys screamed in terror, and in panic, they turned around and started to run away. The beast followed them angrily and all four didn't dare to look back over their shoulder, tears ran down their face from fear and their hearts were beating fast with adrenalin.

"Come on! Faster!" Jacob ushered Aiden when he started to fall a bit behind. Then, Aiden tripped over his own feet and Jacob stopped to help him back on his feet. The beast was closing in and Jacob grabbed Aiden's hand while he dragged him along. The twin was still running, not noticing or ignoring they had fallen behind.

The ground beneath their feet was rumbling because of the enormous beast that seemed to be getting closer each second. Time seemed to slow down, but then they reached the edge of the marsh and all of the noise stopped. The ground was no longer rumbling and the growls of the foul beast had faded away. The twin had fallen on their knees in exhaustion and Aiden was trembling all over his body.

"W-where did it go?" Jacob whispered, he tried to see the beast but it was gone, just as the fog. Jacob ushered the twin back on their feet, they had to leave this place before it came back! They ran back to Jacob's and Aiden's house, and distressed, they told their parents what had happened. Their father called the police and no more than a couple of hours later, fifty police men descended on the area near the Lea River, but they could find no traces of anything living out on the marsh...

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Present day

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THE TELEGRAPH

July 28, 2016

BEDFORDSHIRE - Young girl (16) found dead near Lea River. Police claims it was again an animal attack. Animal control still hasn't found any traces of this beast. This is the fifth dead in three days time. Police suggests everyone to stay away from the Leagrave Marsh.

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THE TELEGRAPH

July 29, 2016

LONDON - Young boy (14) found dead near Lea River. Police claims it was an animal attack. The death seems to be connected with the deaths in Bedfordshire. Animal control is searching for trails of this beast. Police calls upon all townspeople to be vigilant.

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A/N: Still need a few more people... But I want to start this thing! Tell your friends, family, I don't care, to join xD Four places left!