The silence was haunting Sam’s ears. The stares that were heading in her direction could make anyone go crazy. They all looked like beasts, ready to charge at her at any second. Although Sam knew it was impossible of them, their voices could still charge at her. They were rebellious creatures that could do things you never thought possible. Sam felt as if she was shrinking under their stares. Although they were much younger than Sam, she still felt like the child here. Like a baby foal thrown into the lion’s den., she was waiting for them to attack. And then the voice came. The voice that introduced Sam to her predators.

“Class, we have a new student. Her name is Sam Hambrick. I hope you make her feel welcome.” By welcome you mean fattening me up before eating me? Sam asked in her mind.

“You can go sit next to Joshua. Raise your hand.” The teacher of the beasts said, a boy raising his hand. This boy had black hair, styled to his right side. He was wearing a camouflage shirt with a black jacket over it. A blue jean and black sneakers. Sam hesitantly made her way over to him and sat next to him, feeling nervous. In her 940 years of living, this was something she thought she never had to overcome. High School… Although it would be just for a while, Sam still hated it. The Gallifrey Academy couldn’t possibly compare to this. The suspense. The tension. The stares .The curiosity. It was eating Sam from the inside out.

“Alright, we better continue, I suppose.” The teacher said, looking quite lazy as he spoke.

“We were busy talking about Hitler. So let’s continue.” He continued talking after that but Sam’s ears couldn’t register. The Silence was still buzzing in her ear. Literally. She had a small earpiece in her ear that was invisible.

“We all have started our parts of the investigation. If it goes according to our plan, then we’ll find them in under a week. Poor you, having to go to investigate the school.” Allen’s voice chuckled in Sam’s ear and she frowned slightly before calming herself. She obviously couldn’t answer him. As soon as that hurtful bell ran, Sam jumped up and out of the class, as did the others. She stood outside, leaning against the wall as she watched everyone walking about, going to their lockers, talking. There were so many students, Sam couldn’t help but feel a little claustrophobic.

“Hambrick. Strange surname. It’s like a ham that’s a brick. Is your house made out of hambricks? Because that will be cool!” Sam suddenly heard as two human teenagers appeared at her side. The one was ginger with circular glasses. His outfit consisted of striped black and blue trousers and a Batman shirt, along with blue converse. The other one was a girl with blonde hair in a high, neat ponytail. She wore a purple sundress with a white knitted sweater over it. She also wore white flats.

“Um…” Sam was at a loss of words.

“I’m James!” The boy said, taking her one hand in his in a rough shake.

“I’m April!” The girl said, shaking her other hand. Sam pulled her hands back and stared at them like their mad.

“Um…well, I’m-.” Sam tried introducing herself.

“Sam, we know. What’s your next subject?” April questioned. Sam took out her schedule.

“Math.” She said and James smiled.

“Alright then. Let’s go.” He said, taking her wrist and pulling her along while April went in another direction. He pulled her into the empty classroom and went to the back of the classroom where he forced her to sit with him.

“We still have 5 minutes before the bell rings. He informed her.   

“Then why are we so early?” Sam questioned.

“To get a seat at the back of course.” He told her with a roll of his eyes. Sam examined him up and down.

“What’s with the staring? Am I really that attractive?” He questioned. She shook her head.

“Who are you? I’m new in this lion’s den and you, a lion, just pulled me along? Is this the way the lion’s feast? By pulling them along?” Sam asked with scrunched eyes.

“I’m a lion, hey? That’s cool. No you see, I just wanted to befriend you before you fall into the real lion’s den.” He explained, a little sarcastic in which Sam didn’t pick up on.

“Real lion’s den? What’s that?” She asked, rather gullible.

“That guy you sat next to, Joshua? He’s a part of that den. Those lions control the entire habitat you see, and they force others under their command against our will.” He said, stroking his imaginary beard.

“If it’s against your will then why don’t you start a trial?” Sam questioned and he frowned.

“It’s not that simple, you see. The republic don’t notice what those lions are up to, and when cubs like us try to complain about them, the republic doesn’t believe us because their actually being controlled by those lions.”

“Then why don’t the cubs fight back?” Sam asked, clearly interested.

“Because the lions have cubs as hostages. Not only that but they can hurt you without even you knowing it, and then the entire den laughs at you. Lions and cubs. Cubs are also in these packs you see, and they don’t help cubs in other packs.”

“Where do I fall in then?” Sam questioned.

“Oh, you’re in the ‘Newbie’ Pack. But don’t worry, you’ll soon be a part of April and my pack.”  He said with a nod.

“And what’s your pack?”

“The Weirdoes.” He said with a smile before the bell rung and other people started to full in.

“Morning. Let’s begin.” The teacher said, rather hastily when she entered.

“Owen said he found something. One tick for if our busy, two if not.” She heard Allen say in her ear. She lifted her hand to her ear and ticked on the earpiece once.

“Alright then. I’ll let you know what he found later.” Allen finished and Sam lowered her hand and stared forward at the board where the teacher was talking about Trigonometry. Sam knew all of this, it was taught at the Gallifrey Academy.

“Jacob. What type of triangle would this be called?” The teacher asked a boy at the front.

“Equilateral.” He answered and she nodded, going back to explaining and asking every now and then a question to a random child.

“You, new girl, how many degrees would  corner A be?” She asked Sam, bringing her out of her thought zone. She took one look at the triangle before answering.

“76°.” She answered and the teacher nodded, going on with explaining.

“You a calculator or something?” James whispered to her.

“What do you mean?” She whispered back.

“You have no book or pen, and you’ve been spacing out for quite a while now. The teacher only just now drew the triangle and she stood so that you couldn’t have seen the numbers. You gave it one look and answered correctly.” He told her in a hushed voice.   

“Calculator. Sure, let’s go with that” Sam said, not feeling the need to explain anything. Although, she did feel a little suspicious about him now. She only now noticed how his eyes darted all over the place, examining things. He had deduction skills. The bell rung and she stood up, following James out, examining him strangely.

“What’s with the look?” He asked her with a frown. She shook her head.  

“What do you have now?” He asked her and she checked.  

“Science.” She answered.

“I have Art, but April has Science. Art is in the same direction. Come on.” He said and they started walking down the crowded halls.

“How many of these are lions?” Sam sked, indicating to all of the crowd.

“There’s more cubs than lions, but lions have control. Say about 1/5.” He said an she nodded. 

“Still a lot more than hoped for.” She said and he nodded, chuckling.

“Here’s your class.” He said, indicating to the door.

“And there’s April.” He said, pointing down the hall and Sam turned to see her heading their way.

“Hey. You have Science now?” She asked Sam once she reached her. She nodded.

“Great! Come on!” She said, pulling her inside and to the back of the room where they sat together.

“So tell me, how do you like Lime High as far?” She questioned and Sam grinned.

“To many lions.” She said, causing April o frown.

“What?” Sam raised an eyebrow.

“Lions. Taking over the den.” She said and April just slowly nodded.

“So tell me, what was your school before this?” She asked.

“Uh…Coal Hill High.” Sam said, quickly remembering the name of the school where she crashed prom.

“But that’s a school in London.” April frowned, seeing as they were in America.

“Well yeah. We travel around all the time.” Sam said with a nod. The teacher then entered and class started.  

“False alarm. It was nothing. We aren’t doing good so far, but don’t worry we’ll find it. One tick if you haven’t found anything, two if you did, and three if you think you found something that might possibly be connected.” Allen’s voice rung into Sam’s ear. She lifted her hand and ticked four  times, thinking of how James could deduct that. Of course, that might be normal. Maybe he’s just smart, but Sam made the four ticks to indicate she might have found something, but it’s closer to nothing.

“Alright then.” He said before his voice disappeared. The teacher was explaining how to correctly read the periodic table of elements and explained all their groups. It was rather boring. As Sam stared at the large periodic table on the board, she started to think about all the elements that weren’t on the table, but will be. It kept her busy the entire class time before the bell rung. She stood up and along with April they went to the cafeteria. April pulled her to the backside of the cafeteria and sat down where James was already waiting for them.

“Yellow.” April said as she sat down, Sam on the other side.

“Blue.” James answered before looking at Sam.

“Uh, red?” She asked sceptical and they chuckled. They both took out wrapped sandwiches from their bags and started eating.

“You know. Your strange new girl.” James commented.

“How so?” Sam questioned.

“You keep comparing everyone to lions.” He said with a nod.

“Well, yeah, it’s the closest that I can think of.” Sam said with a nod, the other two chuckling.

“You just suddenly appeared, and your reactions are the best.” April said with a laugh.

“Are you free to talk?” Allen’s voice came.

“No their not.” Sam said with a frown.

“Yeah they are! You look like a scared puppy when we introduced ourselves outside of history!” James said with a laugh.  

“There’s people there?” Allen asked in her ear.

“A puppy? You said I was a cub, not a puppy.” Sam argued.

“I’m taking that as a yes then.”

“I was sarcastic.” James said with a chuckle.

“Lions. Did you pick that up in England or something?” April questioned.

“Are those people who you suspect?” Allen questioned.

“I guess you could say that.” Sam said with a nod, keeping up with both conversations.

“Alright then. I’ll talk to you later.” Allen said before leaving for good. That afternoon after school, Sam made her way to the TARDIS which looked like a door on the side of the building, again. She entered, seeing all of her companions comparing what they found out.

“Anything?” Owen questioned and Sam shook her head.

“Not really. I thought there was but it’s not.” Sam said, disappointed. See, they were on a hunt for a Krafayis, the invisible hunting beasts. One got lost, and TORHWOOD requested Sam to search, seeing as TORCHWOOD was in Cardiff, United Kingdom, not in America. The next day they all went to their stations where they had to investigate, Sam at Lime High. And so, they did this for the entire week before they finally found something. Simon had found its tracks in mud from the rain this week. He started to have a mini panic, not sure what to do. He had no way of communicating to the others, so he settled on following the tracks. It went out of town and to the countryside. Simon kept following the tracks until they just stopped, no longer mud but instead were grass. Now he was stuck on a dead end. So he sighed and turned around, attempting to go back to the city. Attempting. He was suddenly thrown high into the air, caused from the Krafayis’s horn. Simon yelled in surprise before falling back down to the ground. But, he didn’t hit the ground. He fell onto the Krafayis’s invisible back. Simon could do nothing but hold on as the Krafayis ran in a random direction, but back to the city. He ran into the streets and bumped into a car, sending it flying. Everyone screamed when they saw this random man, floating, but looks as if he’s holding onto something. The Krafayis ran forward and down the street, and Simon knew well what was down this particular street. It was Lime High. As the Krafayis ran, a few of the companions spotted this and followed. Owen, Allen, Toby, and Vincent. Roni was somewhere else where people have not yet heard of this incident, and Sam was in school. The Krafayis ran straight towards the school. Hating the feeling of someone on his back, he ran into the building, but in a manner that his back went first and Simon was forcefully thrown off. In the process it did, however, make a large dent in the building and broke the windows. The children inside sprung up in fear, backing away and into the hall. Simon was on the ground, groaning in pain. The Krafayis slowly climbed through the broken windows, the glass breaking under his invisible feet, causing to panic to arise in the humans as they ran out of the room. The Krafayis tried to follow by going through the door, but he was too large and wasted time. Inside, other classrooms began to evacuate as well. Sam had Cooking with both James and April at the time. They were creating muffins and Sam was overdoing it on the chocolate bits.

“That’s way too much!” April argued.

“You can never have too much chocolate, my dear April.” Sam told her with a nod, throwing more into the mixture.

“Sam! The Krafayis! It’s inside the school!” Allen suddenly yelled into her ear, surprising her enough to make her let the bowl fall.

“Oh look at what you’ve done now!” James argued before the door suddenly opened, revealing the math teacher.

“Everyone! Evacuate immediately!” She yelled and everyone did as ordered in an orderly fashion, confused. Once Sam exited the room, she managed to slip away from the crowd and went in the direction everyone was running from. But of course, James and April just had to notice her leave and follow. Sam ran in the direction as fast as she could, but was suddenly stopped as she ran straight into the invisible beast.

“Sam!” April yelled as they caught up. Sam was already on her feet, backing away.

“Why do I always make the stupid decisions?” Sam asked herself.

“I don’t know.” James said, following Sam in backing away.

“What are you two doing? There’s nothing there.” April said but there was suddenly a growl from the Krafayis, causing her to jump back in surprise.  

“W-what?” She let out a gasp as she followed Sam and James in backing up.

“Krafayis. Their invisible.” Sam explained.

“Kra what?” April gasped. Sam bit her lip.

“We’re coming!” She heard Allen yell. Sam could hear the Krafayis breathing and it’s slow steps towards them. James and April heard it as well.

“Sam, what-?” James was cut off.

“Sh!” Sam shushed him.

“But Sam-!”

“I said SH!” She practically yelled at them, but in a hushed tone. Sam knew the two humans were scared .The two humans she had spent a week with. The two humans she considered as friends.

“Hurry.” She whispered, hoping Allen would hear. He did. Which made him and the other companions run even faster down the halls, in search of them. They suddenly made a right turn and saw the three backing up, their ears taking in the growl. Vincent ran past them, his fist clenched.

“Out of the way idiots!” He yelled and  Sam immediately went to action, grabbing James and April and pulling them aside. Vincent punched the Krafayis’s backside, sending him flying forward. A mini crater appeared where it landed. It could be heard as the Krafayis got to his feet and shook his head before turning towards Vincent. It charged at him, but he managed to grab the invisible beings around the head, holding him pack. It was like a wrestling match, between an Ood in human disguise, and a Krafayis who’s invisible. Vincent punched the Krafayis in the face, sending him straight into the wall. Allen raised his hand and send lightening into the invisible beast, making sure it won’t be pretending. Sam pushed away from the wall, still a little worry on her face. James and April? They were freaking out, panicking for the sight they had just witnessed.

“What the Hell was that?!” James yelled, looking between Allen and Vincent.

“Aliens, kid, aliens.” Vincent said, rather annoyed.

“Aliens? Are you joking? This must be some sick trick.” April said with a frown.

“Told you.” Toby said, looking directly at Sam. She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah.” She said, annoyed. Toby ‘informed her’ how humans would believe nothing that they weren’t grown up on, everything would seem a joke to them, even if they saw it in front of their own eyes. James and April looked at Sam strangely. She smiled, deciding to give them a little shock.

“Perception filters. Makes you see what you want others to see, if not ignore you. These guys, you would’ve looked straight past them if they didn’t do something that didn’t make them so obvious. But funny things, the Perception Filters. If you know it’s there, then you can’t see it, but it also consist from your beliefs. You’ll be able to see past the Perception Filter if you believe it’s there, and if you believe what he said is true. Aliens exist.” Sam said with a sly smiled. April frowned while James stared at the boys. He frowned before his eyes suddenly went wide. He fell onto the ground and scrambled away in a panic.

“W-what?! It-it looks like Slenderman!” James said ,eyes wide, causing Sam to frown.

“Oh James, you’re so geeky. Just drop it.” April said with an eye roll.    

“But you saw it, didn’t you? The sudden evacuation and the panic. The growling that couldn’t have come from anywhere. The craters created from something you can’t see but know is there, and big. How he threw around this massive, heavy being like it was nothing. How the lightening danced on his fingers before killing the invisible creature. Isn’t that proof enough?” Sam asked April as she neared her.

“And what about you? What do you have to do with this? The way you ran away from everyone earlier. The way you were frightened by a ghost. The way you talk as if you know what’s going on. And how you just suddenly appeared this week, in the middle of the second term, huh? What do you have to do with this?” April demanded. Sam took a step over to her, she hesitantly stepped back. Sam reached out for her hands.

“May I?” Sam questioned and April hesitantly raised her hands. Sam took them and positioned them over her two hearts. Time Lord hearts were a lot louder and more noticeable, so April could feel them immediately. Her eyes went wide and looked up at her face in confusion. Surprise. Fear. She hesitantly turned her head to the boys. Her eyes turned to one of absolute horror and she stepped away from Sam, her gaze moving from Sam to the boys.

“No, no, no…” She repeated over and over to herself. Sam slowly turned her vision to her companions.

“Where’s Roni?” She questioned.

“He was on the other side of the city, but he probably heard by now. Probably on his way as well.” Owen told her and she nodded.

“Alright then. Our work is done. We need to take the Krafayis to TORCHWOOD.” Sam told them and they nodded.  All of them went to the invisible body and positioned themselves to lift it, Vincent getting the heavy part.

“H-hey! Where’re you going?” James asked as he finally got his feet.

“Away. To the stars, James.” Sam said with a smile, causing confusion to cross his face.

“Did I just miss the entire fight? No fair.” They heard and looked up to see Roni coming from down the hall. James and April turned to look at him, more fear appearing on their faces.

“Well you can help carry this beastie. Come on.” Sam said with a chuckle. He ran over and helped them lift it.          

“Let’s go.” Sam said and they started to move, rather easy with 10 people carrying it, Vincent counting as 4. James and April were left behind against the wall in disbelief, not believing their own eyes. Sam and the companions managed to carry the entire thing without getting noticed, thanks to 6 Perception Filters surrounding them. They loaded it onto a TORCHWOOD private plane where it was flown away to TORCHWOOD base and flown out of their worries. Sam trusted TORCHWOOD to at least deal with this small beastie. They then made it back to the TARDIS, laughing about where Sam got the surname ‘Hambrick’. Let’s just say Vincent was cooking.