Nightmare

Chapter 4: News Coverage

"Yeah, of course. It's not everyday you wake up outside your house, even though this is just a rental." Kira replied.

"Exactly. Maybe the news'll show something interesting." I responded as we both looked at the TV.

"So something interesting has happened recently. It appears to have happened at at least four in the morning." The reporter on TV said.

"Told ya." I said to Kira.

"Sshh. I wanna hear this."

"A woman, Shelby Askuma, was found dead in her bed in a gruesome way. It's said that some kind of animal attacked her while she was asleep. But you know what's strange? There's no signs of any animal entering her house last night." The reporter said.

The reporter walked towards the front of a house and stopped in front of a door.

"This is her house. Let's take a look at the incident, shall we?" She said.

She and the cameraman walked into Shelby's house.

Once inside, the reporter was followed into the bedroom. A white sheet, not from her bed, was placed over what appeared to be a body. I could see some blood on the sheet.

Two policemen were talking to each other in the house. It sounded like they were trying to figure out what happened.

"Hello, I'm Ashlynn Waters. I was told to investigate what happened here. May I pull the sheet back so we can see what the victim looks like?" She asked the first policeman.

"Of course, Miss Waters." He responded.

Ashlynn pulled back the somewhat bloody sheet, and it definitely was not a pretty sight.

"Oh my...." Ashlynn said as she looked at the dead body, all covered in scratch marks and blood.

Ashlynn turned back around to the camera after looking at the dead body for at least another minute.

Once she was facing the camera, I noticed that she looked pretty shaken up.

"Um....as you can see, Miss Askuma's body looks terribly mutilated. What could have happened? If it was an animal, how did it get inside and back out and make it look like it wasn't there in the first place? Let's ask the policemen here a few questions." She said as she walked over to the two policemen.

She outstretched her microphone bound hand to the first policeman.

"What do you think happened here, sir?" She asked.

"I'm not entirely sure myself. I think that maybe a wolf made its way through an open window or something and attacked her in her sleep." The first policeman said.

"Interesting. As for you?" Ashlynn said as she pointed the microphone towards the other police officer.

"Well, I'm not sure either. I think that maybe someone made their way into her house so quietly as she slept and killed her once they thought she was asleep." He said.

"Interesting. So you think someone killed her and made her look like this? Do you think you'll catch them?" Ashlynn asked.

"Look, lady, it's just a guess. A hypothesis, if you will. I'm not sure if we'll catch this guy. I'm not even sure if it was a guy. This person could've worn gloves, but it very well could've been an animal." The police officer responded.

"Interesting." Ashlynn said as she turned back around to the camerman. 

"I think that's all the time we have for today. Follow me back to the front of the house, please." She told the cameraman and he followed her out of the house.

Once at the front of the house, it seemed like Ashlynn was struggling to have a good grip on her microphone.

"I-I'm sorry. I just wasn't expecting the body to be that bad..." Ashlynn said as she gripped her microphone.

"I'm Ashlynn Waters, bringing you today's news and signing off."

I switched the channel and glanced at Kira. She looked very worried.

"Kira, what's wrong?" I asked.

Kira didn't say a word and got up from the couch.

"I'm gonna go eat, Yuki. I'll be back." Kira said as she walked away. I started following her, but once I saw her walk out of the RV and into our car, I knew things were serious.

I watched as the car drove away and into town. I decided to take a walk to clear my mind.

I hadn't even started my walk when I noticed what appeared to be fabric near the RV on the sand.

I walked over, bent down, and picked up the pieces of fabric off from the sand. I inspected each piece.

Why did each piece look so familiar?

That was when it hit me-it looked a lot like the pants she had been wearing.

I started inspecting the outer fabric.

Yes, this was definitely her pants. That would explain why she had no pants on this morning.

I walked into the RV and placed the pants fabric on the bed. I figured I could TRY to sew them back up later, and exited the vehicle.

I started walking along the beach when I noticed animal prints on the sand and some spots on the sand that appeared to be brown or a really dark red.

Blood, perhaps?

I started following the animal prints. They looked a lot like wolf prints, but also different somehow.

I found myself at the end of the beach, the prints ending right before the small staircase.

I had to be right. This had to be Kira. Kira had to be the main suspect in what killed Shelby.

I made my way back to the RV as I said one thing out loud:

"I knew it!"

End chapter