"Just insane. One guy did all this." two officers conversed nearby.

"How many have we found?"

"Hard to keep track. Calling it 46, and that's the first four floors of the building. Haven't even gotten into the library yet."

"Jesus. And still no sign of him?"

"Nothing." Emergency responders had started escorting dozens of students from the buildings, some taken right to Ambulances. Maddie watched the scene unfold, still unable to believe everything she'd witnessed that night.

Her blank stare was finally broken by a surprise hug. Maddie blinked back to the present, finding Adam had appeared next to her. She sighed in relief, returning his hug as Sam rested against the cruiser and slowly slid to a seated position on the ground.

"You guys ok?" Adam questioned, holding Maddie close. Jess mustered up a slight nod, Sam staring back at the building with an unwavering expression of pure disbelief.

"I'm not." he muttered as he pulled himself back up off the ground, "I mean... What just happened in there? What the hell was that thing??"

"I don't know." Adam replied quietly, discouraged to not have answers. They reverted to troubled silence for a few minutes, until more familiar faces made their way out of the building to join them.

Emma, who was quickly met with a relieved hug from Colby, and Drake not far behind the rest. The seven of them took a moment to recover from the night's events, moving away from the chaotic scene to rest around Colby's truck.

"Has anyone seen Abby yet?" Maddie asked urgently.

"That thing... that was Abby." Jess spoke up, "The suit head...it...it just came alive....grabbed her...it turned her into ...that..."

"...w...what...?" Maddie stammered, fumbling over her words. Jess took a second, confirming her own memory before repeating the statement.

"That...was...Abby." Everyone fell silent. The thought of that horrible creature, such a twisted beast and such a dear friend being one and the same, it was unthinkable. The creature had acted with such violent drive, such an instinctual lust for killing. It couldn't be true; it couldn't be her.

"How...I mean...How is that even possible?" Emma questioned, "It's just a suit head..." The second part she mainly directed to herself, a pitiful attempt at reassurance after what she'd seen not long before.

"Then what was that thing?? Just an exotic pet on the loose?" Sam retorted sarcastically; a bit harsher than he usually was.

"I don't know!" Emma fired back, "All I know is that Sergals aren't real! They're...they're just...fictional...just drawings..." she trailed off, not even believing her own words.

"Well that was one seriously life like sketch." Sam muttered, slumping down again.

"It did look like the head. I mean exactly like it." Colby spoke softly, looking to Maddie, "...where'd you guys even get that thing anyways?"

"This weird little shop... place looked ancient, and the head was the only thing that looked like it was from this century." Maddie answered. She started thinking back to that morning, what the old lady had said.

'Syth will love you. In fact, I think she already does.'

"The woman that sold her to us... I don't know, something seemed off about her." Maddie explained.

"Off?" Adam echoed.

"I don't know...the way she talked about the head...the way it was kept..." Maddie rambled softly, piecing together a conclusion from her jumbled thoughts, "She treated it like a living thing."

"What, you're thinking she... knew?" Emma questioned, "That she wanted this to happen?"

"I mean, she talked about the thing like it was alive and now it is." Maddie responded.

"It's at least something to go on." Adam stated, "We should start there."

"Start?" Sam questioned, "I'm sorry, are we launching a full-on investigation now? Cause that's kind of the exact reason the police exist."

"If you'd like to go over there and tell them about the Sergal suit that came to life and slaughtered half the school, I won't stop you." Drake retorted.

He had a point, it wasn't likely anyone would believe such a crazy sounding story, and by the time they could get enough evidence to convince anyone, who knows how high the body count could get. They were on their own, for the time being.

"You remember the address?" Drake asked Maddie.

"Yeah, I think." she responded, "But we have to make a stop first. I have to check on Shel."

"That's another few minutes that thing gets to go kill happy on the town." Colby replied.

"So, go without me." Maddie responded, "I'll text you the address, once I know Shel's ok, I'll start looking around here."

"I'll come with you. No one should be going anywhere alone with that thing running around." Adam added, "Sam, you're staying with me."

"No arguments there." Sam mumbled.

"I'll call you guys if we find anything." Colby assured Adam, "You guys stay alive until we get back, alright?" Maddie nodded, heading down towards the street with Adam and Sam trailing behind.

The others got into Colby's truck as he drove them down to the street as well before pulling to a stop. A soft buzz caught Emma's attention, causing her to take out her phone and flick the screen on.

"Got the address from Maddie." she said, typing it into Google Maps and setting it on the console between her and Colby.

"Least there won't be much traffic." Colby commented jokingly, pulling the vehicle onto the road and driving off in the opposite direction the others were heading.

Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, still taking in the situation they suddenly found themselves in. In less than an hour they'd gone from enjoying a Halloween party to watching countless friends be taken away by medical personal or carried off in body bags.

"You think it's really her? Abby?" Emma questioned, breaking the silence.

"No. It can't be." Colby answered, "Abby wouldn't do this. She couldn't." Jess gazed out the window, lost in thought until something caught her eye. Something moving along the road beside the vehicle.

She focused on the thing as it gradually came closer, realizing what it was a second too late. Before she could even alert her friends, something impacted the vehicle hard enough to nearly knock them off the road.

Colby struggled to keep the vehicle steady as it jerked around unpredictably. The roof of the vehicle bent inwards, something crawling around the truck. Without warning, Drake's window burst inwards, a long grisly arm reaching for them.

He ducked away from the attack, Jess pulling him closer to her. Syth snarled in rage, groping around wildly with those razor talons and tearing the seats to shreds with each missed reach. After a few failed attempts, she retracted her arm, moving around on the roof and leaning over the side to get her head through the window upside down.

"Emma, glove compartment!!" Colby shouted frantically, swerving back and forth in attempts to shake the creature off. Syth let out her rattling hiss, an awful crackling sound filling the air as her neck twisted and mangled itself, turning her head completely around to reorient her sight to the inverted angle.

Drake and Jess pressed against the door of the truck, desperately trying to escape the repeated snapping of the Sergal's jaws. Emma dug through the glove compartment, knowing exactly what to look for.

Colby always kept his revolver stored there. She found the sidearm, frantically loading the cylinder. Syth made a few lunges at Jess and Drake, crawling further and further into the vehicle. Her shoulders crunched loudly as they dislocated themselves and buckled inwards to allow her to fit through the window.

Emma quickly located the sidearm and turned the weapon on the creature, firing a shot directly into the contorted neck. Syth yelped in surprise, retracting from the window.

The Sergal shuffled around on the roof, suddenly breaking through Emma's window in a single attempt, her snapping fangs digging into Emma's shoulder. The force of the unexpected impact knocked the revolver away from Emma, Syth thrashing Emma around violently, gradually pulling her out the window with her.

Emma screamed in pain and terror, thrusting her fists against the creature's snout helplessly. Colby kept one hand on the wheel and caught Emma's waist with the other, he and Drake struggling to keep her in place as Syth tugged forcefully against them, her fangs digging far enough to scrape against bone.

Jess recovered the revolver, pressing the muzzle against Syth's head and firing. Syth screeched loudly, slipping a bit but refusing to let go. Jess took no hesitation in cocking the hammer and pressing the muzzle harder against the beast's snout, firing again and causing Syth to recoil and release Emma.

Colby held Emma close, glancing ahead and noticing a parked van. He quickly swerved the truck to the far side of the street and jammed on the accelerator as Syth hissed and made ready for another attack. She pulled back to lunge at them, abruptly impacted by the van as the speeding truck brushed against the parked vehicle.

The twisted Sergal took a heavy blow, tumbling to the street and laying still as the truck sped off. After a few seconds, the driver's side door of the van whipped open as an older gentleman clambered out of the vehicle.

"Damn college kids..." he grumbled to himself, watching the truck disappear into the distance before looking over the damage to his van. An entire side of the rear bumper had shattered, a huge dent covering about a quarter of the vehicle itself.

He side-stepped around the vehicle, so caught up in the disbelief at the state of his prized van he failed to notice the mangled Sergal until his foot came down on her tail. Startled by the sudden uneven ground, he stepped back and took notice of the lifeless creature laying in a bloody heap behind the vehicle.

"What the hell...?" he murmured in confusion, examining the unfamiliar creature. He knelt beside the creature's head, reaching out and jabbing her snout with a single finger. The creature still showed no signs of life, which caused the man to lean in further, getting a closer look at her mangled corpse.

He again reached out, this time his fingers tracing one of her crimson stained fangs. Many thoughts ran through his mind as he stood back up and turned to return to his vehicle. He took two steps before the Sergal's tail jolted to life, sweeping his legs from under him and collapsing him to his back on the road.

Just as fast, the creature lurched towards him, her jaws clamping shut on his throat to silence his shout of surprise. Within a few minutes she'd drained enough from her victim to release him, her ear twitching sharply as she let out an angered hiss.

Her mangled form shifted around clumsily as she gradually stood. Her neck crackled and crunched to correct itself as her head rotated back to its proper orientation. Her limbs snapped softly, bones resetting themselves and mending the fractures from the brutal impact she'd just taken.

She stared down the road, growling softly to herself. She ran her long tongue across her lips and resumed her pursuit, stalking down the road.