I looked at my fellow scientists as we walked into the abandoned park, with the moonlight showing out path and the wind to a comfortable minimum; but the fog was starting to pick up and make it hard to see what was in the place. I looked at Danielle as she raised her silenced pistol and asked “Are you sure that it’s best to go looking for this creature in the middle of the night? Maybe we could wait until morning and research it some more…” Danielle glared at me, forcing me to stop talking as she said “Simon, we’ve been though the plan a thousand times; if we did it in the day, then we would be needlessly putting civilian lives at risk trying to capture this creature. Besides, we’ve been promised a bonus if we get it to base by tomorrow morning.”
I could hear Jacob sigh as he upholstered his silenced pistol and said “As much as I want to have that bonus, I really don’t want to go into here right now… But she’s right, Simon. We may as well get this over and done with since we’re here. Are we going to stick with our usual formation?” Danielle nodded, saying “Yes we are. So Simon, we’ll need you to get to the centre of the park and set up the satellite dish while Jacob and I set up the computer systems to pin-point all life forms.” I nodded reluctantly as I pulled out the coil of wire in my back-pack and said “Alright then… I’ll see you lot in a few minutes then, if all goes to plan.” Jacob rolled his eyes at my subtle suggestion, before grabbing the loose end of the wire and sarcastically saying “Please, Simon; we’re professionals. Everything always goes to plan for us.” I rolled my eyes at his suggestion as I started to walk towards the centre of the park, leaving a trail of electrical wires behind me as I pulled out my silenced pistol.
As I walked deeper into the centre of the park, the trees and bushes seemed harder to get though, and the fog around me was definitely getting thicker. But I pushed myself on, not wanting to spend a moment that I didn’t need to spend away from the others. As I walked I finally reached a flat clearing that was ideal for the satellite dish, so I finished uncoiling the wire and pulled out the miniature satellite dish setup. I started to assemble the dish setup, but I stopped what I was doing when I heard a noise. A twig snapped behind me. I turned to look at the source of the notice and raised my pistol at the area, but I calmed down as I saw Jacob stumble into the clearing. I shook my head as I looked at him and said “Man, you should know not to scare me like that.”
Jacob nodded at me as he said “Danielle told me to check up on how you’re doing while she gets the laptop and stuff from the van. She said something about not wanting any of us to be alone for too long.” I rolled my eyes as I continued to set up the dish, before saying “I’m fine. By the sounds of it, you better help her out before she gets pissed at you.” Jacob nodded, before walking down the path and saying “I know, I know… but you better head back soon, otherwise you’ll get lost in this fog.”
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I sighed as I looked down at the wire back to the others, silently cursing myself as I walked through the fog for walking so far away from the others. Soon, I’d managed to walk out of the main fog area and towards my friends as they finished setting up near the half-pipe, and they seemed to be talking about the things they normally talked about. They silently greeted me and invited me into their discussion, so I walked over to one of the folding chairs that was set up and sat in it. Jacob nudged me as he got up from under the folding table and asked “So what scary stories have you heard the locals talking about the area during your stake-out here, Simon?” I sighed in frustration as I thought for a moment, before remembering what he meant as I replied “Well apart from some people acting strangely and then disappearing, not much really.”
Jacob shook his head as I spoke, and Danielle said “This is useless! How are we going to be able to find this creature if no-one has caught a glimpse of it?” I raised an eyebrow in confusion as she continued to talk, before turning to Jacob and asking “What are we looking for again?” Jacob looked at me with his ‘that’s a stupid question’ look, before saying “So you did fall asleep during the meeting; I knew it!” Danielle raised her hand to slap him, before he raised a hand in defence and said “We’re looking for the creature that is attacking the people in this town. From the reports that we have gotten, it is most likely a shape-shifter of some form.”
Suddenly, we heard footsteps coming from behind us, and we all instantly turned to face it with guns drawn and pointed at it. Due to the fog it wasn’t easy to see what was walking towards us, but we were able to see the silhouette of someone roughly my shape. It raised a closed fist and pointed it at us, but it took me a moment to realise that the figure in the fog was pointing a gun at us. I froze in shock, unable to understand what was going to happen to any of us, or how the shape-shifter managed to get hold of a gun. Suddenly Jacob narrowed his eyes at the figure in the fog and pulled the trigger, shooting a dart into the fog. The figure suddenly lowered the gun for a moment as he fell onto his knees, before raising the gun and taking a shot at us as he fell.
The dart flew towards us at a great speed, and for a moment I thought that it was going to hit me. Luckily the figure missed me and instead the dart hit Danielle in the chest, making her fall over as the drug contained in it knocked her out. I watched as Jacob dropped his pistol and ran over to her, just managing to grab a hold of her before she fell to the ground. I wanted to help, but I could feel strange memories of other people coming back. “Running…. Hiding from torch-light…. Seeing a small group of people armed with guns… fog… that man… that human.” He looked at me and said something, but I was too deep in thought to hear him or see him as he turned back to the female. I knew that I had to do something quickly, before the other two awoke.
I found myself surprised at the speed that I was able to grab the gun and point it at the man, prepared to shoot as he when stiff. He looked back at me, confusion in his eyes as he asked “Simon… what are you doing?” I glared at the man as I gripped the gun with both hands, before saying “You just couldn’t leave me alone, could you? I’ve done nothing wrong, and yet you three came here to hunt me down like a dog. Well, what if I don’t want to be captured and slapped onto a table, being dissected by all manner of scientists like a frog in a science class?!” He looked at me in fear as he realised what I meant, and that I was fully prepared to take him out if needed; I continued “Well, maybe you deserve to be put down, you Van Helsing wannabe! I don’t even care if the real Simon knew that you… were allergic to… the darts…” I stopped speaking when I realised what I had just said. No… I thought I am the real Simon! I have a loving daughter and son, both of which were adopted before my wife died! Jacob and Danielle are his work colleges, and they hunt down and capture any strange creatures in the region… but then, how come Simon managed to come over here and shoot at me?”
I looked at the man as he slowly stood up as I started to back away, a tear flowing down my eye as I said “I’m the real Simon! Tell me I’m the real Simon, Jacob! Just TELL ME!”I pulled the trigger, and the dart flew out of the pistol and struck him in the throat. I dropped the gun in shock before running over to him as he started to suffocate, grabbing him as he fell and leaning over him. A few tears fell from my eyes onto his twitching form as I said “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Why didn’t you lot just leave me alone? I just wanted to live a peaceful life, but you didn’t let me… now look at what’s you lot have made me do...” I looked at his body as he slowly stopped twitching before sadly looking over to the van with all of our equipment, including the tools used to make pit traps for the creatures.
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My name is Jacob Sanders, and I am part of a team of paranormal investigators who are dispatched to hunt down and capture creatures that need relocating from human settlements. I live in a house in the middle of the country with my close friend Danielle which can be a gift or a curse, depending on what mood she is in at the time. Simon and Danielle told me that when they awoke, the found me in a state of shock which was caused by my allergic reaction to the morphine in the knock-out darts. After they had managed to inject me with my Epipen, I had to spend a week of recovering in the hospital while they looked for the shape-shifter.
They’ve told me that there have been no reports of any strange behaviour in the area, which means that we may have missed our chance to capture it. They’ve also told me that the creature had taken some of the equipment that we stored in the van, likely so that it can attack anyone who goes searching for it.
I can tell that Danielle blames herself for what happened that night, and she often says to herself in private “I could have got him killed… if I wasn’t as greedy as I was and waited for sunrise…” I often attempt to comfort her, remind her that she was the one to save me as well… but it doesn’t help that much. It’s almost as if she doesn’t want to trust herself around me, in case that she accidentally puts us at risk again. I hope that she gets better before Simon’s daughter’s 8th birthday party; otherwise we may miss a rare opportunity to see Simon outside of a working environment.
However, caring for Danielle is starting to take its toll on me; I sometimes have an occasional identity crisis abut who I am and what my life is, and I would have to look in the mirror to say to myself… “I am certain that I have found a life to live peacefully, at last. When Danielle is better I am going to ask her on a date, for better and for worse. But no matter what, I am a creature who will never need relocating.”