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Description
A loud beeping suddenly started. I woke up with a start and threw off my covers and ran into the kitchen. I scanned the area to see a small fire in a pan on the oven. I sighed, grabbing the nearby fire extinguisher and put out the fire. I then went to look at what was in the pan. After rubbing my eyes a couple of times, I couldn't figure out what it was and shook my head.

A bang and a cry of surprise made me jump again. I ran over to the back door and sighed again. My twin brother, Zephyr, was working on his project for the Thunder Lake City Council. As far as I knew, it was for the power plant to help lessen the use of coal and it was going to be one of the first machines to be almost fully clean energy. Zephyr was scratching his head. I opened the sliding door and asked, "What happened now?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't have enough power stored up. Maybe if there was a big storm....," Zephyr mumbled. He looked at his machine up and down and sighed. He looked over to me and asked, "I guess you don't have any ideas, would you, Alex?"

I shrugged and said, "I don't know, man. You're the industrial engineer here." Zephyr groaned, "I know, today's the day I present this thing over at the plant and the power storage is the only thing I'm not sure about."

A ding from inside the house interrupted us and I went back inside to get my phone. There were four notification that popped up when I opened up my phone. Two were from the National Weather Service, a severe thunderstorm warning and a flood watch for this afternoon. The other two were a news alert about some fire at a Hilton hotel in the next town over and a text about a strange animal sighting from my boss, Malcolm, at the Thunder Lake National Forest Park Rangers from a couple hours ago. He also said I needed to call him when I saw the text. Zephyr wandered in, deep in thought.

"Well, it looks like you got your wish, Zeph!" I exclaimed, showing Zephyr my phone. He gasped and took my phone to look at the notification better. Something in his grey eyes unsettled me, but I shook it out of my head.

"I better get my project over to the plant and get it set up for this afternoon," Zephyr said excitedly, handing me back my phone. I nodded and I watched him start getting his machine ready. I stared at him mindlessly for a moment before I remembered I needed to call my boss about the animal sighting from earlier.

I looked through my contacts and clicked on Malcolm's name. I continued to watch my brother absentmindedly as my phone rang. I noticed something strange in the bushes in the corner of the yard, not far from Zephyr. I was about to go to the door to get a closer look at it when I heard Malcolm pick up his phone.

"Alexander, I'm glad you finally called," Malcolm said; his serious demeanor was always palpable no matter if you were talking to him in person, over the phone or email.

"I'm sorry, sir. I was asleep and then my fire alarm went off-,"

"I really don't care what the issue was, I'm glad you finally did," Malcolm interrupted. There was a hint of worry in his voice, which was strange to hear from someone like him.

"Is something wrong, sir?" I asked, slightly nervous about Malcolm's tone. I heard him sigh and I could almost see Malcolm rubbing his eyes before speaking.

"I don't know how to put this delicately, so I'll just give it to you straight. Our animal sighting isn't a animal sighting like we were lead to believe. We think it's some kind of monster or maybe even some kind of spirit. But we're leaning towards the monster," Malcolm said.

"Oh, I see," I said, unsure of how to reply to what Malcolm just told me. I remember when I just graduated with my Parks and Rec law enforcement degree with some other people, there was some government people who were above Malcolm that came by to tell us about the strange things that are in the National Parks. Due to what they told us, I hoped it was just a misidentification.

"I know it's a bit.... strange, but since our little troop is the only one close enough to deal with something like this. There's going to be another ranger troop and some higher ups coming in a couple of days to help transport whatever it is out of town. Meet us over by the plant in 30 minutes, okay? The family who saw it said it ran off in that direction," Malcolm told me.

"My brother is heading over there, so I'll hitch a ride with him," I replied. I heard Malcolm mutter something under his breath.

"I... It slipped my mind that the board members will be at the plant for his presentation. So, it's probably for the best to keep this expedition quiet. If your brother asks-"

"I'll tell him there was a surprise drill at the lake, and I agree with you. We don't want a panic."

"That sounds good. I'll see you there and I'll call the others," Malcolm said, hanging up. I put my phone on the table and looked up at Zephyr. He was almost done putting his machine in his car. I opened the door and said, "Hey Zeph, I need a ride."

"Umm... Sure? But I can't take you really close to where ever you're going..." Zephyr said confusedly.

"I know, there's a surprise drill over at the lake. I'm sure we'll be done before you're done with your talk," I told him. He nodded and said, "Well, you better get ready. I'm almost done."

I ran to my room and put on my work clothes. As I put on my raincoat, I heard the back door slide open.

"Hey, Zeph?" I yelled, I could hear him rummaging around in the living room closet.

"Yeah?" He yelled back.

"Are you looking for your rain gear?"

"Yeah!"

"Have you seen my rainboots?"

"Umm, no... Wait.... no, these are mine...."

"How do you know?"

"Yours are black, aren't they?"

"They are....."

"So, yeah, these are mine...."

I sighed and was about to call it quits on my boots when I found them behind some boxes of my old supernatural books. I was about to head out when I decided to get my duffle bag and put some spare clothes in case it got bad after hunting for the animal or whatever it was the troop and I were looking for.

Just as I grabbed my phone from the table, I heard a honk from outside. As I ran to Zephyr's car, I noticed the dark clouds. Something about them unsettled me. I was about to mention my feeling to Zephyr, but I saw the same look in his eye from earlier and decided not to say anything to him.

The car ride was quiet and uneventful due to the fact we lived fairly close to the lake. As we turned onto the long road to the lake, I saw there was lightning around the mountains. The lightning was making the clouds look purple.

A ringing broke the silence in the car, making us jump. I fished my phone out of my pantspocket, seeing it was Malcolm again. When I accepted the call, I could faintly hear screaming coming from the other end. Zephyr must have heard it too, since I saw him look over at me.

"Hey, Malcolm. Why are you at the hospital? I can hear the people from the top floors," I asked, hoping the troop hadn't been attacked or been in an accident.

"Sorry, I should have told you earlier we were meeting here at the hospital. There'll only half of us starting at the hospital. I sent the other half to start around the other side of the lake so we could meet them at the plant for the presentation," Malcolm said, talking a little louder due the screaming.

"Oh, ok. We're almost there. I can see the roof from where we're at," I replied, noticing the domed roof of the hospital and mental institution peaking out from the treetops.

"Good, I'll brief you once you get here," Malcolm told me and hung up. Another minute and the hospital was in full view, with Malcolm and Madison, one of the women in the troop and apart of my college graduation class. She waved at me when we pulled up.

"Thanks, Zeph. Good luck on your presentation. I hope I'll be able to see a little bit of it," I said to Zephyr as I got out of the car.

"Thanks, it would be cool if you saw my machine in action," Zephyr said, looking up at the clouds and lightning. I nodded and was about to shut the door when Zephyr suddenly looked over at me.

"Be careful out there...," he told. I stared at him, taken aback at his words for some reason. Zephyr leaned over and closed the passenger side door while I continued to stare at him. I could have sworn I saw him smiling. I watched as my twin pulled away and saw that Madison was walking over to me, leaving Malcolm talking to a doctor. She seemed to know something was bothering me as she was about to say something before looking behind me. I turned around to see a car driving up to us. A man leaped out the car and sighed happily. He looked kinda of familiar.

"I'm so happy I caught some of you guys before you left!"

"Umm, sir, what do mean?" Madison asked, playing with her braid.

"My wife and I were the ones who told you guys about the... creature at our house. My son and I want to help out!" I looked over at the car to see a high-schooler sitting in the front seat.

No wonder the guy looks familiar, it's Mayir and Eli's dad! I thought. I remembered Madison and I hosting a class for Eli's pre-k class a couple months ago and I helped Mayir with college applications.

"Oh, ok. That's great and all, but we have the situation under control. Plus, there's-" Madison was cut off with Mayir's dad shaking his head.

"You don't understand! We think it-it's trying to Eli! My wife was the first to notice it came back. We just don't want Eli to get snatched a-and this thing isn't the only time it's been at the house! It tried to get Mayir as a kid too!"

"Sir, you need to go home. We have everything under control." We all jumped as Malcolm appeared. I saw the doctor he was talking to was now talking on his phone.

"Malcolm, please. We just don't want something to happen...." Mayir's dad trailed off, seeing Malcolm's face. He shook his head and got back into the car. As the car drove away, Malcolm turned to us.

"The doctor told me they haven't seen anything suspicious in the hospital. We have permission to check the grounds and the abandoned cabin. Once we're done here, we'll head down to the plant. The other group should be close to being done. They'll keep an eye on the people coming for the presentation with some of the cops for a bit, so we better get started. But since the hospital grounds are small, I think one of us should check it out and catch up with the others."

Madison and I nodded absentmindedly. There was a moment of silence and Madison gasped. I looked at her, with her then asking, "Wait.. Who's going to check here at the hospital?"

"I guess we could see who can make their knife stick in a tree without it falling?" I asked. I heard both of them chuckle. Before I knew it, there was two knives in a tree a little ways away from us. I glared at them and readied my knife. I threw it and it hit the tree under Madison's knife. I put my hands on my hips and smiled, but I noticed that Madison and Malcolm were trying not to laugh. I looked back at the tree just in time to see my knife fall to the ground.

As I stared at the tree, I heard Madison say with a smile, "I guess that means you get to check the grounds!" I shook my head as Malcolm pointing up in the directions I needed to go to after I checked the hospital grounds. As we grabbed our guns from Malcolm's car to head out, Malcolm gave us a slip of paper. It had a drawing of what looked like a lanky-looking Bigfoot with long nails and fingers, white fur, and horns that looked a bit like a sheep's.

"Is... is this what we're looking for?" Madison asked, seeming dubious.

"Yes, I know how insane it looks but we need to check it out anyway," Malcolm replied. She just sighed and Malcolm shook his head. A roll of thunder broke the silence, causing us to look up. The clouds were getting dark and lightning was jumping all around the clouds.

"Well, we better get started. We don't want to get caught in this," Malcolm said, gesturing to the storm clouds. We both nodded. I watched as Madison headed across the road to check the area around this side of the lake and Malcolm headed down the road to the plant. I looked up to see more of the purple lightning flash by and a raindrop landed on my head. I shivered as the air cooled and as I looked by the hospital entrance, I saw something in white.

A ghost! I knew this place was haunted.... I thought as I glanced back at the ghost and waited for an ambulance to drive by the door. But it was just a nurse with platinum blonde hair, as she was talking to the doctor who was on the phone. I shook my head again and headed off to the abandoned cabin.

The cabin was a bit of a walk, so I ended up trying to remember some of the strange stories Madison had heard from her tribe. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember any of them, the only ones that popped up were ones from other tribes in the States. I sighed and looked up to see the cabin.

"It doesn't look so abandoned," I mumbled to myself as I walked around the perimeter. I noted that the back attic window was broken. Once I got back to the front, I went to open the door. As I turned the knob, I heard a twig snap behind me. I whirled around to see nothing there. I sighed and opened the door. The ground floor was as I figured. One side was a living room, complete with a TV, and the other was a kitchen. I noticed a door across the way by the attic stairs.

A back door? I asked myself as walked over to it. I opened it find some beds and a restroom. I sighed and turned to head up the stairs to the attic. But something stopped me.

Don't go up there.... I thought to myself. I shook my head and scolded myself for being so childish. I looked up through the darkened staircase and tried to go up them again. The same thought ran through my head again, almost screaming at me this time.

"Come on, just a quick peek. That's all..." I mumbled to myself as I trudged up the stairs. I finally got to the top and cracked open the door. A rotten odor hit me, almost making me puke and fall down the stairs.

I put my shirt over my nose and mouth and peeked through the opening. All I saw was the broken window. I sighed and swung open the door. I jumped as I saw a looming figure standing there. I sighed in relief as I realized it was just a mounted deer head above a statue covered with some kind of animal skin. As I turned around, I said to myself, "Someone did a terrible job preserving that deer." I started walking down the stairs, but stopped as I heard creaking behind me.

"I'm sure the stairs...," I started to say as I heard steps and Malcolm whisper a distorted "Hey.." from behind me. I felt something stop behind me and felt hot breath ruffle my hair. I didn't bother to look behind me to know what it was.

Skinwalker! I thought as I ran down the stairs and out of the house with it howling behind me.
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I just got done checking the lake area when I got a group text from Malcolm saying he was done checking out the area between the hospital and the plant. It also said that the other group stopped by and was going to head home due to the meteorologists saying the storm was getting worse and wanted me and Alex to hurry up.

I replied that I was on my way and headed across the road. I looked over my shoulder and noticed that it looked like it had started raining over the mountains. That made me start jogging to our meeting place. I was starting to feel a little worse now, ever since I saw Alex earlier today.

I was almost to the place because I saw Malcolm but I slowed down because I realized my phone never binged with Alex's reply. I started to walk over to Malcolm as I searched for my phone and I heard him say, "Darn, I was hoping Alexander was with you....."

"So I was right, I knew I didn't hear a ding...," I replied. I sighed as a roll of thunder sounded. It was quiet until I heard the wind howling.

"Something's not right...," I mumbled to myself. Suddenly a shot fired out and the wind stopped howling, causing us to jump. Malcolm and I exchanged worried looks and started running to where we heard the shot. We didn't have to go very far as we saw Alex break through the treeline in a panic. He got to us out-of-breath and shaking. He collapse on the ground and kept looking over his shoulder.

"Dude, what's wrong?" I asked. He didn't answer me and he kept scanning the treeline.

"I assume you saw the creature?" Malcolm asked. Alex gulped and said, "Not exactly."

"What do you mean? Either you saw it or you didn't," I replied.

"I... I think it was a skinwalker...," Alex said. I shook my head.

"I don't it could have been that... Not even the right area!" I exclaimed. Not even the right tribe! I thought to myself.

"I know, I know. But it looked just like how a lot of people claimed it to look like," Alex told me. He got up and looked one more time at the treeline. A snap of thunder shook us and Malcolm looked up at the clouds.

"Come on, you two. Let's go. I don't think we should stay here anymore. It looks like the storm is about to hit," Malcolm said. As the two of them left, I looked at the area Alex came out off. I gasped as I saw a tall, thin figure with what looked like a deer skull and on it's head and a deer skin covering it's shoulders standing there. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I stared in shock at whatever I saw and hoped it wasn't a sign of worse things to come.
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I relaxed a little bit before we got to the plant. It was starting to sprinkle and I hoped Zephyr was close to being done with his speech so everyone could leave. As we got close to the plant, we noticed a small group of people on the roof and I saw a little bit of Zephyr's machine. When we opened the front door, there was two bolts of lightning that hit the roof. We all gasped and rushed inside.

A security guard was already motioning at us to follow him. We ran up the some stairs and busted onto the roof to see shocked investors, cops, and board members with Zephyr standing up. He was now wearing his yellow poncho and boots that he bought a couple months ago.

"I'm sorry that happened. But with those two bolts of lightning, I should be able to show everyone how my machine works...," I heard Zephyr said as he went back to it. I looked up to see some cloud rotation and that purple lightning dancing around it.

"Umm.... Zeph? Maybe you should finish this presentation later...... or hurry it up," I said, walking between some of the board members to be closer to him.

"No, no, i-it's all good! Really!" Zephyr replied, fixing some things and then climbing up on top of his machine.

"Now what are you doing?" I asked, walking up to the machine. I could hear some murmuring from the board members. They seemed a little worried and Zephyr noticed it.

"Please, don't be worried! You'll see, it'll be great for the town!" Zephyr said, sounding a little frantic and using the lightning rod to stable himself as he stood up.

"Zephyr, please come down. You shouldn't be holding onto that in this kind of weather!" I said. I glanced up to look at the clouds again while holding out my hand so I could help him down.

"It'll work!" he told me with a big smile. Right as I grabbed his hand, lightning struck.

Description
A loud beeping suddenly started. I woke up with a start and threw off my covers and ran into the kitchen. I scanned the area to see a small fire in a pan on the oven. I sighed, grabbing the nearby fire extinguisher and put out the fire. I then went to look at what was in the pan. After rubbing my eyes a couple of times, I couldn't figure out what it was and shook my head.

A bang and a cry of surprise made me jump again. I ran over to the back door and sighed again. My twin brother, Zephyr, was working on his project for the Thunder Lake City Council. As far as I knew, it was for the power plant to help lessen the use of coal and it was going to be one of the first machines to be almost fully clean energy. Zephyr was scratching his head. I opened the sliding door and asked, "What happened now?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't have enough power stored up. Maybe if there was a big storm....," Zephyr mumbled. He looked at his machine up and down and sighed. He looked over to me and asked, "I guess you don't have any ideas, would you, Alex?"

I shrugged and said, "I don't know, man. You're the industrial engineer here." Zephyr groaned, "I know, today's the day I present this thing over at the plant and the power storage is the only thing I'm not sure about."

A ding from inside the house interrupted us and I went back inside to get my phone. There were four notification that popped up when I opened up my phone. Two were from the National Weather Service, a severe thunderstorm warning and a flood watch for this afternoon. The other two were a news alert about some fire at a Hilton hotel in the next town over and a text about a strange animal sighting from my boss, Malcolm, at the Thunder Lake National Forest Park Rangers from a couple hours ago. He also said I needed to call him when I saw the text. Zephyr wandered in, deep in thought.

"Well, it looks like you got your wish, Zeph!" I exclaimed, showing Zephyr my phone. He gasped and took my phone to look at the notification better. Something in his grey eyes unsettled me, but I shook it out of my head.

"I better get my project over to the plant and get it set up for this afternoon," Zephyr said excitedly, handing me back my phone. I nodded and I watched him start getting his machine ready. I stared at him mindlessly for a moment before I remembered I needed to call my boss about the animal sighting from earlier.

I looked through my contacts and clicked on Malcolm's name. I continued to watch my brother absentmindedly as my phone rang. I noticed something strange in the bushes in the corner of the yard, not far from Zephyr. I was about to go to the door to get a closer look at it when I heard Malcolm pick up his phone.

"Alexander, I'm glad you finally called," Malcolm said; his serious demeanor was always palpable no matter if you were talking to him in person, over the phone or email.

"I'm sorry, sir. I was asleep and then my fire alarm went off-,"

"I really don't care what the issue was, I'm glad you finally did," Malcolm interrupted. There was a hint of worry in his voice, which was strange to hear from someone like him.

"Is something wrong, sir?" I asked, slightly nervous about Malcolm's tone. I heard him sigh and I could almost see Malcolm rubbing his eyes before speaking.

"I don't know how to put this delicately, so I'll just give it to you straight. Our animal sighting isn't a animal sighting like we were lead to believe. We think it's some kind of monster or maybe even some kind of spirit. But we're leaning towards the monster," Malcolm said.

"Oh, I see," I said, unsure of how to reply to what Malcolm just told me. I remember when I just graduated with my Parks and Rec law enforcement degree with some other people, there was some government people who were above Malcolm that came by to tell us about the strange things that are in the National Parks. Due to what they told us, I hoped it was just a misidentification.

"I know it's a bit.... strange, but since our little troop is the only one close enough to deal with something like this. There's going to be another ranger troop and some higher ups coming in a couple of days to help transport whatever it is out of town. Meet us over by the plant in 30 minutes, okay? The family who saw it said it ran off in that direction," Malcolm told me.

"My brother is heading over there, so I'll hitch a ride with him," I replied. I heard Malcolm mutter something under his breath.

"I... It slipped my mind that the board members will be at the plant for his presentation. So, it's probably for the best to keep this expedition quiet. If your brother asks-"

"I'll tell him there was a surprise drill at the lake, and I agree with you. We don't want a panic."

"That sounds good. I'll see you there and I'll call the others," Malcolm said, hanging up. I put my phone on the table and looked up at Zephyr. He was almost done putting his machine in his car. I opened the door and said, "Hey Zeph, I need a ride."

"Umm... Sure? But I can't take you really close to where ever you're going..." Zephyr said confusedly.

"I know, there's a surprise drill over at the lake. I'm sure we'll be done before you're done with your talk," I told him. He nodded and said, "Well, you better get ready. I'm almost done."

I ran to my room and put on my work clothes. As I put on my raincoat, I heard the back door slide open.

"Hey, Zeph?" I yelled, I could hear him rummaging around in the living room closet.

"Yeah?" He yelled back.

"Are you looking for your rain gear?"

"Yeah!"

"Have you seen my rainboots?"

"Umm, no... Wait.... no, these are mine...."

"How do you know?"

"Yours are black, aren't they?"

"They are....."

"So, yeah, these are mine...."

I sighed and was about to call it quits on my boots when I found them behind some boxes of my old supernatural books. I was about to head out when I decided to get my duffle bag and put some spare clothes in case it got bad after hunting for the animal or whatever it was the troop and I were looking for.

Just as I grabbed my phone from the table, I heard a honk from outside. As I ran to Zephyr's car, I noticed the dark clouds. Something about them unsettled me. I was about to mention my feeling to Zephyr, but I saw the same look in his eye from earlier and decided not to say anything to him.

The car ride was quiet and uneventful due to the fact we lived fairly close to the lake. As we turned onto the long road to the lake, I saw there was lightning around the mountains. The lightning was making the clouds look purple.

A ringing broke the silence in the car, making us jump. I fished my phone out of my pantspocket, seeing it was Malcolm again. When I accepted the call, I could faintly hear screaming coming from the other end. Zephyr must have heard it too, since I saw him look over at me.

"Hey, Malcolm. Why are you at the hospital? I can hear the people from the top floors," I asked, hoping the troop hadn't been attacked or been in an accident.

"Sorry, I should have told you earlier we were meeting here at the hospital. There'll only half of us starting at the hospital. I sent the other half to start around the other side of the lake so we could meet them at the plant for the presentation," Malcolm said, talking a little louder due the screaming.

"Oh, ok. We're almost there. I can see the roof from where we're at," I replied, noticing the domed roof of the hospital and mental institution peaking out from the treetops.

"Good, I'll brief you once you get here," Malcolm told me and hung up. Another minute and the hospital was in full view, with Malcolm and Madison, one of the women in the troop and apart of my college graduation class. She waved at me when we pulled up.

"Thanks, Zeph. Good luck on your presentation. I hope I'll be able to see a little bit of it," I said to Zephyr as I got out of the car.

"Thanks, it would be cool if you saw my machine in action," Zephyr said, looking up at the clouds and lightning. I nodded and was about to shut the door when Zephyr suddenly looked over at me.

"Be careful out there...," he told. I stared at him, taken aback at his words for some reason. Zephyr leaned over and closed the passenger side door while I continued to stare at him. I could have sworn I saw him smiling. I watched as my twin pulled away and saw that Madison was walking over to me, leaving Malcolm talking to a doctor. She seemed to know something was bothering me as she was about to say something before looking behind me. I turned around to see a car driving up to us. A man leaped out the car and sighed happily. He looked kinda of familiar.

"I'm so happy I caught some of you guys before you left!"

"Umm, sir, what do mean?" Madison asked, playing with her braid.

"My wife and I were the ones who told you guys about the... creature at our house. My son and I want to help out!" I looked over at the car to see a high-schooler sitting in the front seat.

No wonder the guy looks familiar, it's Mayir and Eli's dad! I thought. I remembered Madison and I hosting a class for Eli's pre-k class a couple months ago and I helped Mayir with college applications.

"Oh, ok. That's great and all, but we have the situation under control. Plus, there's-" Madison was cut off with Mayir's dad shaking his head.

"You don't understand! We think it-it's trying to Eli! My wife was the first to notice it came back. We just don't want Eli to get snatched a-and this thing isn't the only time it's been at the house! It tried to get Mayir as a kid too!"

"Sir, you need to go home. We have everything under control." We all jumped as Malcolm appeared. I saw the doctor he was talking to was now talking on his phone.

"Malcolm, please. We just don't want something to happen...." Mayir's dad trailed off, seeing Malcolm's face. He shook his head and got back into the car. As the car drove away, Malcolm turned to us.

"The doctor told me they haven't seen anything suspicious in the hospital. We have permission to check the grounds and the abandoned cabin. Once we're done here, we'll head down to the plant. The other group should be close to being done. They'll keep an eye on the people coming for the presentation with some of the cops for a bit, so we better get started. But since the hospital grounds are small, I think one of us should check it out and catch up with the others."

Madison and I nodded absentmindedly. There was a moment of silence and Madison gasped. I looked at her, with her then asking, "Wait.. Who's going to check here at the hospital?"

"I guess we could see who can make their knife stick in a tree without it falling?" I asked. I heard both of them chuckle. Before I knew it, there was two knives in a tree a little ways away from us. I glared at them and readied my knife. I threw it and it hit the tree under Madison's knife. I put my hands on my hips and smiled, but I noticed that Madison and Malcolm were trying not to laugh. I looked back at the tree just in time to see my knife fall to the ground.

As I stared at the tree, I heard Madison say with a smile, "I guess that means you get to check the grounds!" I shook my head as Malcolm pointing up in the directions I needed to go to after I checked the hospital grounds. As we grabbed our guns from Malcolm's car to head out, Malcolm gave us a slip of paper. It had a drawing of what looked like a lanky-looking Bigfoot with long nails and fingers, white fur, and horns that looked a bit like a sheep's.

"Is... is this what we're looking for?" Madison asked, seeming dubious.

"Yes, I know how insane it looks but we need to check it out anyway," Malcolm replied. She just sighed and Malcolm shook his head. A roll of thunder broke the silence, causing us to look up. The clouds were getting dark and lightning was jumping all around the clouds.

"Well, we better get started. We don't want to get caught in this," Malcolm said, gesturing to the storm clouds. We both nodded. I watched as Madison headed across the road to check the area around this side of the lake and Malcolm headed down the road to the plant. I looked up to see more of the purple lightning flash by and a raindrop landed on my head. I shivered as the air cooled and as I looked by the hospital entrance, I saw something in white.

A ghost! I knew this place was haunted.... I thought as I glanced back at the ghost and waited for an ambulance to drive by the door. But it was just a nurse with platinum blonde hair, as she was talking to the doctor who was on the phone. I shook my head again and headed off to the abandoned cabin.

The cabin was a bit of a walk, so I ended up trying to remember some of the strange stories Madison had heard from her tribe. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember any of them, the only ones that popped up were ones from other tribes in the States. I sighed and looked up to see the cabin.

"It doesn't look so abandoned," I mumbled to myself as I walked around the perimeter. I noted that the back attic window was broken. Once I got back to the front, I went to open the door. As I turned the knob, I heard a twig snap behind me. I whirled around to see nothing there. I sighed and opened the door. The ground floor was as I figured. One side was a living room, complete with a TV, and the other was a kitchen. I noticed a door across the way by the attic stairs.

A back door? I asked myself as walked over to it. I opened it find some beds and a restroom. I sighed and turned to head up the stairs to the attic. But something stopped me.

Don't go up there.... I thought to myself. I shook my head and scolded myself for being so childish. I looked up through the darkened staircase and tried to go up them again. The same thought ran through my head again, almost screaming at me this time.

"Come on, just a quick peek. That's all..." I mumbled to myself as I trudged up the stairs. I finally got to the top and cracked open the door. A rotten odor hit me, almost making me puke and fall down the stairs.

I put my shirt over my nose and mouth and peeked through the opening. All I saw was the broken window. I sighed and swung open the door. I jumped as I saw a looming figure standing there. I sighed in relief as I realized it was just a mounted deer head above a statue covered with some kind of animal skin. As I turned around, I said to myself, "Someone did a terrible job preserving that deer." I started walking down the stairs, but stopped as I heard creaking behind me.

"I'm sure the stairs...," I started to say as I heard steps and Malcolm whisper a distorted "Hey.." from behind me. I felt something stop behind me and felt hot breath ruffle my hair. I didn't bother to look behind me to know what it was.

Skinwalker! I thought as I ran down the stairs and out of the house with it howling behind me.
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I just got done checking the lake area when I got a group text from Malcolm saying he was done checking out the area between the hospital and the plant. It also said that the other group stopped by and was going to head home due to the meteorologists saying the storm was getting worse and wanted me and Alex to hurry up.

I replied that I was on my way and headed across the road. I looked over my shoulder and noticed that it looked like it had started raining over the mountains. That made me start jogging to our meeting place. I was starting to feel a little worse now, ever since I saw Alex earlier today.

I was almost to the place because I saw Malcolm but I slowed down because I realized my phone never binged with Alex's reply. I started to walk over to Malcolm as I searched for my phone and I heard him say, "Darn, I was hoping Alexander was with you....."

"So I was right, I knew I didn't hear a ding...," I replied. I sighed as a roll of thunder sounded. It was quiet until I heard the wind howling.

"Something's not right...," I mumbled to myself. Suddenly a shot fired out and the wind stopped howling, causing us to jump. Malcolm and I exchanged worried looks and started running to where we heard the shot. We didn't have to go very far as we saw Alex break through the treeline in a panic. He got to us out-of-breath and shaking. He collapse on the ground and kept looking over his shoulder.

"Dude, what's wrong?" I asked. He didn't answer me and he kept scanning the treeline.

"I assume you saw the creature?" Malcolm asked. Alex gulped and said, "Not exactly."

"What do you mean? Either you saw it or you didn't," I replied.

"I... I think it was a skinwalker...," Alex said. I shook my head.

"I don't it could have been that... Not even the right area!" I exclaimed. Not even the right tribe! I thought to myself.

"I know, I know. But it looked just like how a lot of people claimed it to look like," Alex told me. He got up and looked one more time at the treeline. A snap of thunder shook us and Malcolm looked up at the clouds.

"Come on, you two. Let's go. I don't think we should stay here anymore. It looks like the storm is about to hit," Malcolm said. As the two of them left, I looked at the area Alex came out off. I gasped as I saw a tall, thin figure with what looked like a deer skull and on it's head and a deer skin covering it's shoulders standing there. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I stared in shock at whatever I saw and hoped it wasn't a sign of worse things to come.
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I relaxed a little bit before we got to the plant. It was starting to sprinkle and I hoped Zephyr was close to being done with his speech so everyone could leave. As we got close to the plant, we noticed a small group of people on the roof and I saw a little bit of Zephyr's machine. When we opened the front door, there was two bolts of lightning that hit the roof. We all gasped and rushed inside.

A security guard was already motioning at us to follow him. We ran up the some stairs and busted onto the roof to see shocked investors, cops, and board members with Zephyr standing up. He was now wearing his yellow poncho and boots that he bought a couple months ago.

"I'm sorry that happened. But with those two bolts of lightning, I should be able to show everyone how my machine works...," I heard Zephyr said as he went back to it. I looked up to see some cloud rotation and that purple lightning dancing around it.

"Umm.... Zeph? Maybe you should finish this presentation later...... or hurry it up," I said, walking between some of the board members to be closer to him.

"No, no, i-it's all good! Really!" Zephyr replied, fixing some things and then climbing up on top of his machine.

"Now what are you doing?" I asked, walking up to the machine. I could hear some murmuring from the board members. They seemed a little worried and Zephyr noticed it.

"Please, don't be worried! You'll see, it'll be great for the town!" Zephyr said, sounding a little frantic and using the lightning rod to stable himself as he stood up.

"Zephyr, please come down. You shouldn't be holding onto that in this kind of weather!" I said. I glanced up to look at the clouds again while holding out my hand so I could help him down.

"It'll work!" he told me with a big smile. Right as I grabbed his hand, lightning struck.