CHAPTER ONE.
( animal activity ! )

            REYNA'S SOPHOMORE YEAR was going incredibly smoothly, if she did say so herself. The weather hadn't been too cold or windy, she'd already gotten herself ahead of the curriculum in her biology course, and she had managed not to spill coffee on herself even once so far. As far as it seemed, her first week as a sophomore had been a raging success. Well, at least it had been—until a brutal mauling occurred on school grounds.

         "Jesus, could you move any slower?" Frankie whispered back towards Reyna, keeping her footsteps quiet as she crept towards the blaring red and blue lights. The Beacon Hills High School parking lot was bustling with activity, men in stiff blue uniforms walking cautiously around the bus with flashlights, while others in white coats hustled toward the inside. An ambulance stood alone off to the side, a few paramedics readying a gurney near the rear.

        Reyna pushed down her anxious nausea, cautiously following behind her friend. The bushes along the edges of school property could hardly conceal her alone, let alone the two of them. "Sorry that I'm trying to be careful! We are definitely not supposed to be here."

        "We're students, remember? If anyone asks, we showed up a little early for class and just wanted to see what the commotion was. " Frankie slowly manoeuvred her way towards the edges of the shrubbery, peering towards the open end of the yellow bus.

        Her friends half-assed excuse did little to lessen Reyna's nerves. "Five in the morning is a little early for classes, don't you think?"

        "Shush! Get over here, this is insane," Frankie muttered, her eyes glued to the dripping insides of the school bus. Reyna flinched away as she caught a glimpse of the gory inside. Her odd angle made so she could only catch a glimpse of the scene, but it was plenty in her opinion. The vehicle was washed from floor to ceiling with fresh blood, the rotting stench of iron mingling in the dewy morning air. Deep claw marks had engraved themselves in the plush seats and metal casing of the bus, standing out against the vibrant red of its interior.

        Reyna pushed down the nauseated feeling rising in her stomach. "Holy shit, my grandma is gonna kill me when she finds out I snuck out to go see a corpse!"

        "He's not dead, they wouldn't have the gurney out if he was," Frankie claimed, trying her best to sound sure of herself. She creeped closer, careful to stay out of eyesight, craning her neck to further inspect the inside of the mangled vehicle. "Damn, those claw marks are huge! Must've been one strong ass coyote."

        "How can you keep looking at that?" Reyna cringed, keeping her eyes fixed on the leaves in front of her. "A guy died, Frankie! Straight up died, done-zo, not coming back!"

        "I said he's not dead!" she insisted, sneaking another look towards the readied paramedics. "Probably just gonna have a few sick scars,"

        Reyna regarded her friend with a disturbed look, trying her best to keep her eyes away from the scene. She couldn't understand how Frankie seemed so unaffected by the gore of the incident, and it must have shown on her face since her friend soon rolled her eyes. "Once you've watched as much Walking Dead as I have, this is baby food, trust me. Come on, maybe we could get a closer look."

        Reyna had certainly been more than satisfied with the brief look she'd gotten before, but by the way she moved, Frankie definitely wasn't taking no for an answer. Begrudgingly, she followed the girl along the shadowed walls of the school, edging along yellow police lines.

        Frankie snorted at the scrunched look on her friend's face, giving her a quick nudge. "Come on, don't give me that look. You're the one always complaining that nothing ever happens in this town."

        "When I said something exciting needs to happen, I meant more along the lines of a nice outlet mall, or like, an amusement park. Not gruesome murder!" Reyna defended haughtily, pulling her dark hair behind her in a loose knot.

        Frankie squinted back towards the gruesome scene, examining it closer. "Eh, tomato, tom-ah-to. Besides, it's not murder, technically. Even though those marks are definitely too big to be a coyote, you think there's any mountain lions nearby?"

        "I think you're sick," Reyna quipped, concernedly checking the time. It wouldn't be long until her grandmother noticed her missing, and that was far more terrifying then any possible cougar attack.

        "God it's not like the guys dead, Rey," Frankie sighed. "Be a little adventurous."

        Reyna didn't know if she would label Frankie as 'adventurous', when the girl was more lethally curious. She had never known a puzzle that Frankie couldn't solve with the help of a few hours and half a dozen coffees.

        The sun was just beginning to rise behind them as three officers bustled around the rear end of the bus, swabbing samples from each and every corner of the tragedy. Frankie tapped her fingers to her elbow, eyes locked on the deep scratches in the metal. Her brow was set, forming deep lines on her forehead.

        "There's no way a mountain lion would do this much damage," she muttered, a few curls falling into her eyes. "Wild animals don't usually like to interact with people, especially this deep into the city,"

        "So then why would it attack some random bus driver?" Reyna stated, ready to turn on her heel. Frankie's obnoxiously red Corolla was just in view, and she was sure they could make it without getting caught if they moved quickly. "You want this to be a mystery too badly. Not everything is an episode of Scooby-Doo, Daphne,"

        "Ok, if anything, I'm more of a Velma and that's offensive," Frankie chuckled, not taking her eyes from the tarnished bus. The scene was haunting her, but not from its gore. She shook off the chill in her spine, turning back towards Reyna with a smile. "Alright, paranoid. Let's get you back before your grandmother throws a fit and tosses scrambled eggs at me, again."

            WANDERING AN EMPTY LIBRARY had become near therapeutic for Reyna in the past years. Nothing could beat running her fingers along the cracked spines of the books, both old and new, each of them holding their own creatures and characters, a hidden world within a page. Strolling between the aisles, she allowed the sweet, musky smell of old paper fill her lungs, eyes taking in the various covers and authors.

        She could feel her tension melt away as she skimmed along various novels, stopping at a few that peaked her interest. She'd never found herself interested in much science fiction, finding her love in reality-based books. Those based on tragedy, hope, redemption—the stories of love and loss, passion and sacrifice, those had always been her favourites.

        Her phone buzzed periodically, and she promptly ignored it, knowing full well the name that would show itself on her screen. Frankie hadn't let up from her morning escapades, spamming Reyna's phone throughout the day with haphazard thoughts and conspiracies of the incident she'd dragged them to. Reyna shivered as the image of the destroyer bus stuck itself behind her eyelids once again. She didn't understand why Frankie couldn't just let it go.

         The library was usually deserted after school hours, in exception to the kind, elderly librarian that always greeted Reyna with a smile at the door. Reyna didn't mind, she quite enjoyed the peacefulness—it allowed her mind to wander as she scoured the shelves. Her fingers paused along a book she knew well, it's red cover familiar in her small hands.

        "Catcher in the Rye," Reyna startled as she turned to her left, gripping the novel tightly. A lanky boy stood not far from her, struggling to balance the thick textbooks in his arms. His hair was buzzed close to his scalp, and dark circles hung under his eyes.  "Wouldn't exactly be my first choice,"

        "And why's that?" Reyna pursed her lips, trying not to sound too defensive in her tone. She hardly recognized the boy, and had no intention of being rude to a stranger.

        "I, uh, did it as a freshman English project," the boy explained, readjusting his grip on the pile of encyclopedias. "Honestly, didn't live up to the hype,"

        "It's supposed to be a thoughtful story about identity and discovering adulthood," Reyna retorted, pulling the book close to her side.

        "If I wanted to watch some kid try to get through the woes of adolescence, I could turn on literally any Fox channel and I'd get my fill," he chuckled, turning to examine another row of novels. "It doesn't have to be all poetic."

        "It happens to be one of my favourites, actually," Reyna sniffed, squaring herself towards the boy.

        "Really?" he muttered, sending her a dry look over his shoulder. "Couldn't have thought of anything better? Like 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar?"

        "It's an iconic piece of literature." Reyna fumed quietly, doing her best not to be irked by the boy's sarcastic remarks.

         "The Very Hungry Caterpillar? I agree, it's fantastic."

        "Seems understandable, it's right at your reading level," Reyna's eyes widened as she took in the meaning of her own words. She pursed her lips in discomfort, the flare of her temper now replaced by a bit of embarrassment.

        "You do realize it's one of the most controversial books ever written, right?" the boy deadpanned, not seeming too bothered by Reyna's rude remark. She let out a deep breath, recollecting herself.

        "Maybe that's why I like it so much," Reyna inquired, sliding the novel back in its place. She wouldn't let herself be bothered by such a silly disagreement. With a furrowed brow, she faced the boy. "Sorry, was there something you needed from me?"

         "Um, do you work here?" the boy asked clumsily, leaning himself against the shelving unit. The aisle shook slightly, and he started, quickly straightening up.

        "No, sorry," a small wave of guilt tumbled over her as she recalled her earlier remark. Her grandmother would've scolded her for the childish way she'd acted. "But I can probably help you find something, I know the sections pretty well."

        "Ok, great, um, I just need something on general mythology. Is there like a monsters hand guide somewhere, or maybe like an instruction manual?" he paused, catching Reyna's bewildered gaze, and quickly rearranged his face to a sarcastic smile. "For an English project! I'm doing research, for that,"

        "Well, I'm not sure about a hand guide, but the mythology section is right over here," Reyna informed him, strolling towards a more concealed area of the library. She ran her fingers over the worn spine of a large hardcover, fishing it from the bottom rack. She delicately placed it a top the boy's already cowering stack of books. "That one's super old so it should be pretty authentic for your research. Then again, you could always just google it, like any normal kid."

        "Yeah, well, Wikipedia's always lead me towards horseshit so I thought, why not check out the source?" he laughed gingerly, straining to read the title of the book she'd placed atop his pile.

        "Well, hopefully that's a little less horseshit, though I can't guarantee," Reyna quickly disregarded the boy's odd choice of language, readjusting the row of books by her shoulders. "I'm Reyna, by the way."

        "Just call me Stiles," the boy smiled tightly, slowly moving backwards and nearly slamming himself to the metal frame of an aisle. "I'd really love to chat, but I've got a lot of reading to do,"

        "Good luck on your project!" Reyna called out, already turning back to the large row of classical novels before her.

        "Oh, right, the project, yeah thanks," she could hardly hear the boy muttering as he scurried away.

        She let out a deep sigh, letting herself once again be immersed in the peace of the quiet aisles. The tiresome buzz of her phone continued on, but she hardly gave it a thought. She wouldn't be thinking of that horrific view from the early morning, or any of Frankie's absurd theories. It would only be her and the books, and all of the tales they held.