The sun sat with just the slightest part of it remaining over the top of the mountain at the foot of the town, casting a large shadow across all that sat below it. Any other part of the country, or even just the state, would consider it night time. Not here though. This was dusk in the loosest sense of the word.

Kyle had jogged slightly so that he and Oscar could catch up with Jess, or at least keep her in sight. Once he'd spotted her again, he'd immediately slowed to a crawl. He didn't want her noticing him, the fact that following someone in the dark of night in this town was more than a little suspicious, only dawning on him now.

Thankfully Oscar, who despite always wanting to say hello to every person he saw, was feeling his old age tonight and had no desire to bound after Jess, instead quite content to trot alongside his owner. As long as he was getting to do natures calling, he wasn't that fussed about much else.

The more and more that Kyle stalked (for lack of a better term) Jess, the more concerned he became. Where was she going? There was no sort of social gathering point on this side of town, unless there was one that he'd never been invited to. Part of him wanted to call her name, and give her some company during a clearly stressful time. Would she even want to talk?

He was almost ready to turn back and give up on his hero mission, thinking that this was a waste of time. He could always sit by his window and wait for her to come home and check on her then. But just as he was reaching that conclusion, Jess started to run.

Without any warning whatsoever; it was like she was running from some inaudible alarm.

"What the hell?" He whispered to himself before running after, much to the aging dog's dismay.

Kyle was no longer checking his surroundings, just darting forwards as fast as his legs would take him. So far he hadn't seen another soul aside from his neighbour, but he still wanted to make sure nothing happened to her. If he was unsure about something being wrong with her before, he sure wasn't now.

He quickly found himself catching up with her, despite being slowed down by his companion. His athletic side was starting to show as he gradually built up speed and was almost back to the same distance from her as he'd been before when suddenly, Jess turned off to the left abruptly and began running towards the trees.

Things were going from weird to worse.

"What is she doing?" Kyle asked aloud, receiving an unhelpful groan from his dog as a reply.

There was no way he couldn't go in after her.

He slowly crept in, careful not to let his feet make any noise as they shuffled along the barely visible path.

"Jess?" He called out, thinking it was the only logical thing to do at this point. "It's Kyle" He called again. "Your neighbour, Kyle Brennan. I'm not trying to hurt you" He couldn't comprehend how weird it felt saying these things. Anyone who's ever seen any movie knows that when someone says that they don't want to hurt someone, they're lying.

Jess wasn't answering his calls, and the silent responses made him feel as though the trees that were ominously looming over him were closing in and turning an already dark forest into pitch black nothingness. His feet continued to carry him though, more out of habit than desire though. How Kyle wished that he could be as oblivious as Oscar seemed to be right now.

It was in this moment that Kyle realised that a forest is the only place on earth that is truly transformed at night. Everywhere else is exactly the same, only darker. A dark forest might as well be a different planet. Kyle didn't recognise any of this.

"Jess?" He called again. "Are you ok? I just want to help".

"You can help by telling me what you're doing" Jess whispered in his ear, appearing behind him like an unseen shadow.

"Holy shit!" Kyle jumped out of his skin, letting go of Oscar's leash as his hands flew to his now rapidly beating heart. "Why'd you scare me like that?" He asked.

"Why are you following me?" She retorted.

"I'm not following you! I'm walking my dog" Kyle pointed to Oscar who'd decided to sniff his newly fallen leash.

"In the forest at night? Are you nuts?"

"Are you!?" Kyle snapped back. "What the hell are you doing out here? This isn't safe"

"Why not? There's nobody out here except us" Jess smirked. "So why. Are. You. Following me?"

"I heard you last night. With Duncan" Kyle didn't see the sense in lying anymore. "Did you guys have a fight?"

"We broke up" Jess answered bluntly.

"And that's why you weren't at school today?"

Jess' silence after this question was all the answer that Kyle needed.

"But why are you all the way out here? This doesn't make any sense".

"It doesn't matter" She mumbled. "It's none of your business, Kyle. Just go home"

"I'm not going home until you tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help?" Kyle slowly approached her, hoping to console her if she needed it. The glare in her eyes quickly warded him off though.

"I told you, just take your dog and . . . oh shit!" Jess sighed.

Kyle began to ask what was wrong but noticed himself before he got the words out.

Oscar was gone.

"Fuck!" Kyle cried before calling for his dog and advancing further into the trees.

"Does he usually do this?" Asked Jess, her initial defiance had now wavered and concern had taken over.

"He can't have gone far" Kyle said, more to himself than to her. If he'd been in a better mood, he'd have pointed out that now Jess was following him.

They carried on going for a few hundred yards and then stopped in their tracks when they rounded a sharp corner.

Someone was slowly coming towards them.

Now that the faint moonlight wasn't penetrating the hidden path thanks to the trees, the figure before them was shrouded in complete darkness, making it impossible to tell who it was. Or what it was.

"Oh my god" Kyle gasped.

"Who is that?" Jess asked him, but he didn't answer. He didn't know.

The shadowy figure, continued moving towards them, almost looking like the surrounding trees with its thin figure and large top, and the closer it got, the more human it seemed to become.

"Kyle?" It spoke in a surprised tone, forcing Kyle and Jess to share a worried glance as both of them stopped breathing for a minute. "I thought it was you!" Laughed the figure as it sped up towards them, revealing it to be none other than Matt Maguire.

"Jesus Christ" Sighed Kyle. "What the fuck are you doing out here?"

"You two know each other?" Jess asked them before Matt could answer Kyle's initial question.

"No" Kyle quickly added, hoping (and failing) to stop Matt from saying anything else.

"I'm Matt Maguire" He stretched his hand out, offering it to Jess.

"I know who you are" She condescendingly told him.

"Oh. Yeah. Right. Are you two dating?" Matt retracted his hand.

"Have you seen a dog? He's run off" Kyle asked, ignoring Matt's questions again.

He likened this somewhat to the story of Alice in Wonderland, where chasing Oscar was dragging him further down the rabbit hole.

"Sorry, I haven't seen anything" Shrugged Matt. "But if you want I could help you look? I'm good at finding stuff" He made a show of switching his flashlight on and off repeatedly.

"We'll be fine, thanks" Kyle shoved his way past him and continued his walk into the darkness.

"Hey, wait up!" Matt said, chasing after Kyle. Meanwhile Jess continued at her slowed pace, wondering what was going on between these two. "I can help! I'm going in this direction anyway, and no one knows these woods better than me. You don't want to go off the path and get lost at night"

"Not creepy at all" Jess rolled her eyes suspiciously.

Kyle continued shouting and whistling, trying to attract his pet back to him, while Matt seemed to be narrating the journey from behind him like the worst tour guide ever.

"Guys, maybe we should get out of here? It's getting darker. Maybe Oscar has already run home" Jess suggested, looking around the forest and the millions of unseen shadows.

"He's close" Kyle feigned confidence.

"Maybe your dog's found the Falls Peak Beast!" Matt cried excitedly.

"Can you not?" Kyle asked, unwilling to even think about what would happen if those two did cross paths. That's if the beast was real of course.

"Not what?" Matt asked, unaware of the frightening image he'd planted in Kyle's mind.

Suddenly a rustling sound shattered their argument.

"Shhh. Guys, listen" Jess panicked. They didn't need to be quiet. They all heard it. A noise to their left.

"Oscar?" Kyle spoke louder than Jess would have preferred.

"I don't think that's a dog!" Matt gaped, his excitement still high. He ran towards the sound, prompting Kyle to chase after him.

"Matt, don't! You'll scare him!"He cried.

"Oh for god's sake!" Jess seethed, not wanting to be left alone, following them felt like her only option. Now she was regretting her walk.

Matt and Kyle crashed through the brush almost simultaneously, with Jess slowly following behind. Little did she know, she wasn't the only one who was angered by the boys' antics.

"Jesus fucking Christ!"

As they reached the other side of the bushes, they were met with another girl who looked to be their age.

"You're not the Gorgoya" Matt sighed.

"No shit, Sherlock" The girl grinned.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Jess asked her.

"Yeah, we're looking for my dog" Kyle told her. "What's your excuse for being out here in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?" Kyle didn't like asking questions in this manner but recent events in Falls Peak had left everyone on edge.

"Not much, just praying to Satan and waiting for some unwitting virgins to come along so I can drink their blood. Any takers?" The girl winked after her sarcastic answer.

"Are you serious?" Matt gasped. He was the only one who believed her.

"No, genius. I was out having some smokes with my friends and we thought you were the cops so everybody bolted".

"You're Katie right? We all have history together?" Jess asked, gesturing towards the boys as well.

"I'm surprised you noticed" Katie said.

"Why?"

"Because nobody else does" Katie shrugged.

"Look, I'd love to stay and chat but have you seen a dog or not?" Kyle asked. He'd just checked his phone to see that it was coming up for nine-thirty and his parents would be home soon. Initially they'd be impressed that Oscar was getting this much of a walk but if Kyle returned home without the dog, there'd be hell to pay for sure.

"No, sorry. I haven't. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go and find my friends. Wait till I tell them that they thought you guys were the cops" Katie laughed, flicking her black ponytail as she bounced away from the baffled trio.

"Wait!" Matt called after her, chasing her down even though she'd only moved a few yards by this point. "You didn't see anything else did you? Anything that looks like a giant hairy creature by any chance?" He asked, his hands clasped together as if he was praying.

"For the last time, you're not going to find Harambe here, ok!" Kyle snapped. He'd had enough of this topic for one day.

"Harambe was a gorilla. This is something totally different" Matt retorted, clearly offended.

Before anyone else could say anything, a high pitched yelp made itself heard before Oscar returned, darting out of the nearby bush with his tail tucked firmly between his legs.

"Oscar!" Kyle cried in relief. "Where the hell have you been?"

The dog didn't respond with anything other than another whimper. He was clearly more relaxed now that he was back with Kyle, but only slightly.

Uh . . . guys?" Jess whispered.

"What?" Kyle looked up from his kneeling position, struggling to calm Oscar down.

"What is that?" She panicked; pointing into the tree's where Oscar had just come from.

They all turned their attention to the rustling sound that Jess must have been referring to.

There was another shadow looming over the top of the plants and trees, darker than the rest of the night and twice as big as what Matt had looked like when he'd been approaching Kyle and Jess.

"Please tell me one of your friends is a giant?" Kyle said to Katie, fearfully.

"And has red eyes" Matt added with a gulp.

Before Katie could answer, the shadow growled a low sounding hum, turning the kids' blood to ice.

"I think we better get out of here" Katie sobbed before turning and running away from the sound. Kyle and Jess didn't need to be told twice, following her instantly. Matt however, was another story.

"No way . . . " He gasped to himself, edging slightly closer to the mysterious figure.

"Is he fucking crazy?" Katie screamed.

"I actually think he is!" Kyle replied, shaking his head. He handed Oscar's leash to Jess before charging back towards Matt and the very thing he was running from.

He reached Matt and, grabbing him by the shoulder, spun him round to face him.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked.

"Don't you see what that is?" Matt asked excitedly. "It could be what I've been searching for this whole time!"

Kyle couldn't believe that Matt was this delusional. He realised that there was no way he'd be able to reason with him in this discussion so he decided to simply lift Matt off his feet without any warning.

"What the hell are you doing to me? Put me down!" Matt cried as Kyle ran as fast as he could with Matt on his shoulder.

At least his athletic nature was good for something.

He reached the girls again and dropped Matt, almost right to the ground. Looking back, he saw that whatever had scared them hadn't moved an inch. Still, they took off running again, not wanting to take any chances. Reluctantly, Matt followed this time.

Kyle didn't know how long it'd taken to get to where they were but it seemed to take no time at all to get back out. Something about fearing for your life must quicken your pace. Once out of the woods, the group kept running until they reached a more residential area, illuminated by a group of streetlights, where they stopped to catch their breath.

"What the hell was that?" Jess demanded an answer.

"I'm telling you, that was the Falls Peak Beast!" Matt cried with enthusiasm that no one else shared.

"It wasn't the Gorgoya" Kyle scoffed.

"What makes you say that?" Katie asked. It seemed that out of the lot of them, she was the least fit one. She'd doubled over and was struggling to breathe.

"Because the Gorgoya isn't real! It's just some bullshit story people made up to scare kids. They had nothing better to do so they made up this fairytale".

"What was it then?" Jess asked.

No one spoke.

The truth was, whatever theory anyone came up with, was going to sound crazy right now.

"It was probably just our imagination" Kyle finally offered.

"If my imagination was that good, I wouldn't be failing English" Katie joked.

Once again, they all fell silent. The ordeal had clearly taken everything out of them.

"Well whatever it is, I'm going home before it comes out here after us. Later" Jess said before walking off. Kyle called her back but she ignored him and continued her trek.

"Are you sure you two aren't dating?" Matt asked, receiving a cold stare for his troubles.

"You're girlfriend's got the right idea" Katie shrugged, somewhat recovered now. "I'm gonna go see if I can find my friends that you so rudely scared off".

With the girls gone, it was just Kyle and Matt, just like that morning at school.

"You should probably get going too" Kyle told him.

"Do you realise that I was this close to getting proof that it existed?" Matt groaned.

"You were nowhere near proof" Kyle argued. "That thing, if it was real, would have you for lunch. Now go home before you hurt yourself".

Matt stammered, ready to argue back but backing down when he realised that there wasn't a point. As much as he hated to admit it, he was exhausted too.

As he left and headed home, he looked back at Kyle who was looking longingly into the forest.

Meanwhile, inside his head, Kyle was beginning to doubt everything that he'd just said.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Phew! That was a long one which I feel I need to apologise for. Once I got going, I really couldn't find a suitable place to stop. But don't worry, we can all catch our breath now! What did you guys think?

We've finally got to meet Jess, albeit under strange circumstances. And Katie too! Do you guys like them? If not, hopefully once we see more of them in the next chapter then you might.

And of course what about the monster!? Was it a monster!? DESPERATE to hear your thoughts on what it might have been so hit me up! All comments and votes are appreciated so keep them coming!