"What the hell are you doing here, Claire?," Brent hissed.

"I just wanted to see what plans you guys have for catching this thing," she shrugged as she avoided his eyes and moved past him at the door before she walked over and took a seat.

The conference hall at the station was filled with police officials, some of them whom Claire knew, some of them she thought were familiar and some of them she didn't know at all. They were all waiting for Liam to arrive. She shifted her eyes to the side and saw some men setting up some equipment at the corner; reporters and news crew obviously.


She turned to her side and saw Brent tower over her."Move over," he said.


Claire moved to the next seat as Brent sat down beside her. She caught him glaring at her from the side of her eye and even after she turned to face him, he didn't turn away.

Brent shook his head at her.

"What?" Claire asked.

"I don't know who is more stubborn," Brent said as he finally tore his eyes away from her. "You or the mayor."


Claire chuckled and looked away from him. About twenty minutes later, Claire saw Tate hurrying through the door. He had some equipment with him and what looked like a large map rolled up under his armpit.

She was beginning to wonder where Dr. Liam was when she saw him walking in some seconds after along with Chief Kent.

It was crazy, but Claire thought he looked younger than the last time she saw him. He wore a grey shirt that looked like he was still in Africa. You know, those shirts people like Patrick always wore when they were at work at the zoo. Claire didn't know what they were called but it was tucked into black jeans with a pair of sneakers squeaking underneath as he moved.


She moved her eyes to see Jelani right behind him and she became certain that he was more of his bodyguard than his brother. She immediately remembered the story Tate had told her.


She didn't believe Jelani was Liam's brother, but she definitely believed the fact that there was a connection between the two men. A connection so strong, that she was sure she would never see Dr. Liam Price without seeing Jelani. He wasn't his brother, but the native African man was definitely Liam's guardian or something.


Claire was clearly intrigued by their relationship.

"Hey", Someone uttered from beside her.

She turned to see Patrick grinning at her, surprised that she didn't even know when he had walked in and taken a seat beside her.


"Morning Patrick," she smiled.


"Hey Brent," Patrick nodded as he reached over and shared a manly hand shake with the deputy.

Brent gave out his hands and shook him.

The meeting started with Liam apologising for coming late ofcourse, before he went straight to business afterwards. Thanks to Tate, he was able to bring up pictures of the first victims, the colleges students and that of Philip Wilson.


Everyone cringed and murmured at the sight of the mangled bodies appearing on the white screen. Well, everyone except Liam. Hell, he looked amused even.

He explained the killing patterns of feline and answered a lot of questions on that aspect. Some of the deputies in the room were shocked at the possibility that what they were seeing on the screen was done by a cat.

"A wild cat," Liam corrected one of the deputies. Liam then went on to explain what attracted animals like these to thier prey. He mentioned blood and noise as primary factors.


"Now we all know this means the July fourth festivities may not show any blood," Liam said, as he raised his arms to his chest and crossed them. "...But it will definitely bring a lot of noise."

The entire hall came alive with humming and murmuring. Claire tilted in Chief Kent's direction and could immediately tell that he was seething.


"So-so you're saying that the fireworks display will be like.....bait?,"an officer asked.

"Yep", Liam uttered.

"No!", Chief Kent fired from the corner.

Then everyone in the hall turned in Kent's direction. Everyone except Liam who had that look in his eyes that seemed to say, "Oh God here we go again."

"As a matter of fact," Kent said as he began moving forward. "I think it will scare whatever is out there, away."

Liam held himself from rolling his eyes but then, he shook his head.

Claire held back a chuckle when she saw Liam's gesture. She had seen rivalry coming up between Liam and chief Kent ever since the first meeting with the Mayor.

"Chief," Liam started. "You're right. But the fact is, this animal is different."


Kent turned and faced the scientist. "Oh yeah? How so?," Kent asked as he folded his arms on his chest.


"It killed six men, Chief," Tate then cut into the conversation with an expression on his face that seemed to show his dread. "Six full grown armed men. It killed them all in one night, at the same place, at the same time."



Liam looked away from Tate and turned to Kent with a mischievous smirk. "I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like an animal that is easily frightened by anything." Liam said.

Kent became uneasy for a while with his eyes darting all over the hall. Even through that look, Claire knew the police chief wasn't giving in easy. "Well, that being said," Kent began as he turned and faced Liam with a smirk. "It's still an animal and we are not gonna stop this year's festivities because of an animal."


Claire darted her eyes to Liam and saw his jaws clench. She thought this was this was fun. "Asshole." someone hissed from beside her.

She turned and saw Patrick's narrow eyes glaring at Kent. His sudden hatred for the police chief was unmistakable.


The meeting finally came to an end after an hour and about forty-five minutes. Claire actually thought it would be longer than that. Everyone of the officers had left, leaving Claire, Patrick, Liam, Tate and Jelani behind, along with officers Brent and Larry. Claire was still in her seat with Brent sitting beside her. Patrick had gone over to join Tate and Liam in front and Larry was at the corner standing beside Jelani.

"This is gonna end badly, you know," Brent said.


Claire faced him. The uncertainty she saw in his eyes made her heart beat a little faster. She had never seen Brent look so unsure before.

She turned back to face Liam and Patrick infront as they were engaged in a conversation, a conversation about Kent obviously, because Patrick looked like he wanted to punch someone.



Tate on the other hand, was busy studying the large map on the table infront of him.

"They can take care of it," Claire finally said to Brent.

Brent held back a chuckle, before he turned and looked at Claire. "This thing killed six men, Claire."

She could not deny the fact that Brent had a point. Tate had said the same thing before, but for some reason, there was something about the way Brent said it that made Claire's stomach flip.

She turned away and stared into space,feeling herself beginning to tremble. The memory of her dream hitting her in the face, hard.

Everyone was beginning to believe this thing couldn't be beaten, but Claire wanted to think otherwise for her son's sake. She Swallowed hard while still lost in thought. She could just take her kids and go back to New york.

"....And leave Edith behind?"

"Be right back," Brent uttered as he got up from his seat and made his way to the front to meet the others.

Claire watched him walk away for some minutes, then she moved her gaze to Liam and caught him staring at her with an expression Claire couldn't put her finger on. An expression that made her feel he knew what she was thinking. An expression that seemed to tell her that he knew she was scared.

Claire quickly turned away and shifted her eyes to the corner where Larry and Jelani were. She had now realised that she could always look to Larry for a laugh every now and then.

She watched as Larry pulled out his Phone and moved in to a stern and stiff looking Jelani for a selfie.


"Say cheese", The young deputy cooed before the flash.


Jelani did not even move a muscle. He just turned slowly and frowned at Larry who was indifferent to his reaction as he glanced at the pictures he had just taken with his phone. Jelani was probably wondering if all white people were this strange.

Claire smiled. She could not deny the fact that Larry was adorable. He was a twenty-seven year old man, but he had the heart of a child.


"Wait.....oh my God", Tate's utterance pulled her from her thoughts immediately.

She spun and saw everyone gathering at the table were he was.



"What's wrong?," Brent uttered as he walked over and away from Patrick and Liam.



"What were those markings again?," Tate asked with his eyes still on the map.

"What markings?", Brent asked; puzzled.

Tate then looked up at the deputy. "The ones you made on the last map we had."



Brent walked over to the side of the young boy, pulled out a red marker and stood there studying the map for a while, before he bent down and scribbled on it.

It was when Tate's eyes widened as he was looking at the map that Claire decided she was going to join them over there and immediately stood from her seat.


"Liam," Tate called. The urgency in his voice was unmistakable. Liam quickly walked over to the join Tate and Brent, with Patrick following close behind.

"What is it?

Claire was at the table now and couldn't see what the fuss was all about. All she saw was a large map of the county with Cherrywood included, and then red X's Brent had obviously written down with the marker.

Tate pointed to the areas Brent had marked. His gesture were quick and urgent. "Look," he said. "The markings."

Liam stared for a while, then a look of realisation filled his features.

"Shit," the word seemed to drop from Liam's mouth.

"What?" Brent asked as his eyes darted from Liam to Tate and then the map. "What's wrong?"

"Patrick look at this," Liam said as he pulled Patrick closer.

Patrick narrowed his eyes at the map.

"Each point is at least a few metres between the woods and the town," Tate said. Realisation also hit the zoo keeper in the face after he stared at the map for a while.


"Jesus," he whispered heavily. "Why didn't I see this before?"

Claire was confused now. She had never been so curious about anything like this before.

"What is it?" she asked.

Patrick looked at her and then looked at Liam. "But how can we be sure," Patrick asked. "They may just be random."


"Nah,"Tate shook his head. "These are anything but random. Think we should tell the Mayor?"


"Tell the Mayor what?", Brent was becoming very impatient now.


"No need." Liam said as he pulled back a little and crossed his hands on his chest, with his eyes still on the map. "He's already made up his mind."


"Oh, this is bad," Patrick said as he rubbed his neck. "This is really bad."

"Is Someone gonna say something?" Claire couldn't take it anymore.


They all looked up at the blonde woman as if they had not seen her stand there since and that they had just noticed her now.

"The markings on the map", Liam said as he tapped his finger on the map. "They show the points were the killings took place."


"Yeah", we know," Brent said impatiently. "But why does that seem to freak you all out."


Tate slowly turned to the deputy. His eyes were cold."....Because it means Cherrywood is in deep Shit," The young boy said.

"What?" Brent spat in confusion.

"How?" Claire asked.

Patrick came forward and started to explain. "Each points of the killing seem to get closer than the last."

"West point. The Wilson farm." Tate said the words separately and glared into thier eyes to see if they understood.

Claire and Brent exchanged puzzled glances.

"They are getting closer into town," Liam's voice made Brent and Claire face him with slightly widened eyes.


"Your little town is now thier feeding ground," the scientist added as he raised a brow.

Thanks for the update. Wish u could update more often. Nice work.

nice work