A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Silence dominated the room, except for the quiet sipping of a hot cup of coffee. The ceramic mug was set upon the brown particle board table. Hands wrapped around the cup and warmed themselves since just looking outside made one cold. Snow fell lightly outside, and some snowflakes hit the small break room window. Light green optics stared into the caffeinated beverage and watched the steam rise up from it. Everything around him looked calm, but it all felt somber. Earlier in the station at around six thirty, there had been a call to their station from another to look out for four middle school kids who might be in the area or who might have been there earlier in the morning. Apparently, the parents' son had sneaked off with three of his classmates to Castle Lake, and to get there, they would've had to come through Thomas's station's town.

His parents' hadn't found out until the evening since they had presumed him to be angry at them still for grounding him for leaving the house unannounced on another occasion, so they hadn't bothered to open his room door until they began to think enough was enough. The only reason, though, that Castle Lake had been disclosed as their location was because the police in the parents' town had managed to get a hold of the school's principle, who had recalled seeing the kid with the other three one day at lunch and suggested to check with their families. Having managed to contact the parents of the other children, they had learned that the kid was with them on a trip.

Thomas, though, doubted that much effort was being attributed to looking for the kids since the one kid Oliver hadn't been kidnapped and most likely was safe, but his parents wanted him back home sooner than later, so he figured that the police in the parents' town had called the other stations to ease the parents' minds. There was some cause for concern, however, and that was the fact that when the park had been called by Thomas's station since they were the closest to the park, the employee at the front stand had mentioned only seeing three of the kids and their adult guardian when they had left about four hours earlier. Since that employee hadn't been working the morning shift at the stand, he hadn't known if a fourth kid had been with them in the morning.

When the employee had been asked if they had driven off without a fourth kid in the group, the employee hadn't been able to recall since he hadn't paid any more attention to them, thinking them not any more important than other park guests. Hopefully if the kids were spotted, there would be four of them, not three. If there were only three, he hoped that they knew where Oliver was. Otherwise, there would be a problem on their hands unless the kid was found to have stayed in his town the entire time.

Tapping his fingers against the particle board, he wondered about another worrying point. Oliver's parents had mentioned the group's objective to hunt down the creature that had been in Cankerfell Tunnels even though no one had heard about the creature after those two girls, (f/n) (l/n) and Haley Zeen, had gone missing. Most had presumed the girls to be dead, and the creature to have moved on or dead itself. These kids had trespassed into the (l/n) home, however, believing that the creature and (f/n) were still there. Had they traveled to the amusement park to track down the creature and possibly even (f/n) too if they couldn't find the creature?

After another sip of coffee, Thomas wondered how they would've made that jumping point until his mind returned to the news about Greta, Rick, the truck driver and the teen. There had been fingerprints not in the system at the diner and on the back of their CSU van, but they had attributed the ones on the van to those two drunken individuals. Both the diner and the Speedy Sandwiches had been clean too, indicating no instance of a struggle at either place. All they had to go on was the mystery prints from the semi as well as Greta's car.

It was possible but somewhat unbelievable that those prints could belong either to the creature or to Ms. (l/n); however, there was something found nearby the diner that added weight to the theory of Ms. (l/n) being there and possibly even the creature. Close to the diner, Mr. and Mrs. (l/n)'s car had been found. The passenger door seemingly had been ripped from its hinges and found some distance away from the vehicle while the car had a hole in the top of it as well as the front window. No blood had been at that scene, but glass pieces from the window were missing, like someone had cleaned up after themselves.

Neither of the (l/n)s knew their car had gotten stolen and ended up in that condition, and they hadn't been able to handle talking about their lost daughter, so they hadn't been talked to anymore on the subject out of respect for their loss of their daughter. Unknown prints had been all over the car, but those prints were a match to two sets of the prints found at the diner. With all of that in mind, it was possible that the creature and (f/n) could have been at both locations. Thomas took another sip of his coffee and continued to watch the snowfall as his thoughts put pieces together all the more. Besides, it was reasonable to assume that no human could've ripped a car door off of its hinges or made that hole in the roof. Something bizarre had happened at that diner.

What bothered him still, though, was how clean all of the places had been. Reports of what had been in the tunnels indicated that the creature liked to make a mess of things. Thomas hadn't been able to stomach some of the reports of what had been found inside the tunnels. To even think about being in close proximity to that thing sent near intolerable chills up his spine. His hands even shook as they held onto the mug of coffee.

Concern didn't fade away when he remembered the reports of how easily the creature had taken down armed forces and some of the police force back in Oliver's town soon after Ms. (l/n) had escaped from the tunnels with Nick Calamiss. Mr. Calamiss likely wasn't involved in any of the present events, however, since he had returned home before up and moving without telling anyone but his landlord one day. That probably had been to get away from any more attention directed at him from media or those curious about the creature. Then again, he had moved around the time that Ms. (l/n) had disappeared. Had he been worried that the creature was after him next? That wasn't too unreasonable to assume.

During all of that time, the creature's location hadn't been detected, except for the incident at the mausoleum and later the two kidnappings. No one, though, actually saw that the creature had taken the two girls. That only had been presumed to be the case. So, it wasn't completely implausible for the creature to be clean, and no one, except probably those who had encountered it, knew how intelligent it actually was. And, there were only two, possibly only one person, left who had that information. It was possible that Mr. Calamiss was dead too, but his death hadn't been reported. "You're thinking too much again," Dan spoke, interrupting Thomas's thoughts. The younger officer glanced back and noted that his hands still were shaking. He clenched them a bit to get a better control over them. Dan leaned against the doorway to the break room. "What about?"

"Everything that's been going on." Dan motioned for him to continue. "Those kids ... They wanted to find the creature and potentially (f/n) (l/n) too. What if they're right?"

Raising an eyebrow, Dan looked surprised. "Why do you think that?"

"Think back to the diner, the (l/n)'s car, the missing people, everything can be tied back to the creature returning. Even Ms. (l/n) might still be alive. It would make sense given how strange all of this is." Dan sighed, but Thomas didn't stop. "I put the pieces together even if it sounds crazy. Right now, we may need that."

Holding up his right hand, he indicated for his partner to calm down. "I'm not saying you're wrong, Thomas." Another sigh left the older officer, and he closed his brown optics for a moment before he reopened them. "At the mention of the creature, I'm sure everyone tensed up here. That thing is basically a walking, unstoppable deathtrap. But," he crossed his arms, "we can't go shouting that theory around and stirring up panic. We just make sure we're ready to fight and run for our lives if we encounter it out there, but we hope that we don't face off with it."

Hanging his head some and looking tired, Dan released a brief chuckle in disbelief. "Honestly, this whole thing is like some sh*tty Halloween prank, and we all might be worrying ourselves too much." Dan pushed himself off of the doorframe and headed into the break room before he took a seat beside his partner. "So, stop thinking about theory and think about what we're going to do. We're going to go about our jobs, keep an eye out for those kids, continue looking for the missing persons and be prepared for the worst."

Tightening his hold on the mug, Thomas released a sigh himself. "Right." His light green optics met Dan's brown ones. "But, how smart do you think the creature is?"

"How smart it is doesn't matter if it's attacking us. What does matter is us being able to defend ourselves properly. If that means hauling our a**es out of there, then we do that. If the creature is still out there and part of all of this, there's no reason to pretend to play the hero or try to get the glory of beating that thing." Dan leaned back on the chair and crossed his arms. "We need to protect the public, but we can't do that if we foolishly die." Staring out the window, Dan remarked, "If it's smart, then it's smart, but we don't know that. We do know that it heals, that it's incredibly fast and that it might even be resistant to light now. So, we come up with strategies when we're away from it using that knowledge." He got to his feet and headed over to make himself a cup of coffee too. "If it'll make you feel better, we can discuss that strategy now even if we're just being ridiculous about this whole thing." Even if it was true that they were over-thinking the situation and would never even encounter the creature, Thomas nodded his head when Dan looked back to him. A nod was returned to him, and the evening began to feel a little less terrible.