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

There was a pause on the other line, and (f/n) gulped. If her presumption was right, she would have a trail to follow. She might find a weakness of the creature's that wasn't her. Vincent held out his right hand to her left, and she took it. He helped her climb down some steep rocks, and she had to avert her focus to that momentarily.

She hopped down, and they continued down the mountain. A sigh sounded, and a chair creaked. "No one had been able to obtain a clear identification of him; however, he had been wearing all black clothing. A hood had covered his head too, and his left hand always had seemed to be in one of his pockets." (F/n)'s heart paused, and her mind stopped. Her theory was proving to be truer. "According to one account, someone had seen a few long strands of nearly white hair, but the man had quickly hid them back in his hood. A glove had been covering his right hand at that time."

"Then, it's possible," she muttered too softly for Nick to hear.

"What?"

"It's possible." Her words halted, and she exhaled lightly. "It's possible that those two had been the creature's parents, right? You had mentioned that her father had disappeared a year later, but had it been exactly a year?"

"Well, no, and I had come up with a similar theory." Nick took a moment to catch his own breath. "When her father had vanished, it had been ten months since Jiselle and that man had gone missing. We could both be wrong, however. The creature might not age like us. Jiselle could've been a past lover of his, and she might've been forced or deceived into that roll before it had moved on. We can't be certain."

"What's the name of the ghost town?"

"What? Are you actually thinking of going there?"

"Yes, something to kill the creature might be there. I need to learn more, and I need to find that cabin. It's close to the town after all." Her voice grew desperate again. "Please, tell me. After that, you can hang up, pack and move far away. I won't bother you again."

A pained and puzzled laugh escaped him. "I think that you're more of paranormal investigator than I am." She smiled slightly. "It's Dunnuuna. From your town, it's going to take you about thirty-two hours of heading northwest, but you'll have to drive there without really stopping much. Then again, you wouldn't want to due to the creature."

"Thank you, Nick. Really." (F/n) didn't know how she would manage to find a car, but she would figure it out and reach that town. "Is there anything else that you had managed to find?"

"Well ... yes." Her silence pressed him to continue. "I didn't only research old missing persons' reports and such. I had looked into myths, tales, etc. to see if there had been something like the creature in any of them, and I had happened to come across a certain page. It's not ... Well, it's ..."

"Nick, please just tell me."

"It won't help you against that thing, (f/n). If anything, it'll only slow you down."

"Nick." Her voice was stern, and impatience began to eat at her again. Terror crept through her veins too, and her mind developed dreadful stories. (F/n)'s stomach turned. Nick didn't have to say anything more for her to understand that the information would chill her to the core, but she didn't desire to remain ignorant of it.

"Before I tell you, what is your exact relationship with that thing? I know that you want to kill it, but you had been captured three weeks ago. You're still alive. Not just anyone would be breathing still unless they were being tortured by it."

Releasing a long sigh, she practically whispered, "H-he's ... He's in love with me, Nick." She heard him suck in a breath. "He knows that I wish to kill him, but he only thinks that ties us together more. Even though he understands that I'll never return his feelings, he remains in love with me. He had told me that he'll still be happy."

"Sh*t." A chair creaked again, and she thought that she heard pacing. "Has he mentioned anything about ... Well, anything about ..." His voice was rushed and embarrassed. "About sex?" Blood drained from her face, and whatever information he was holding became all the worse. "(F/n), yes or no?" Nick's voice grew in volume and became more hurried.

"Y-ye-yes." Her voice quivered, and she sounded like a mouse. "B-bu-but, he had said that he wouldn't rush into anything!" she whisper-yelled. She didn't know what the details were, but she felt like she had to justify that she had more time. (F/n)'s heart hammered in her chest, and Vincent looked back to her concerned.

Her eyes met his. Pure fear radiated from her orbs, and he nearly stopped walking. He swallowed his own forming terror and gripped her left hand firmly. Vincent faced away from her and continued walking, but he didn't loosen his grip. It wasn't painful but comforting in a fatherly way. She calmed down slightly and was grateful, but every pounding of her heart rang in her ears.

"I'm so sorry, (f/n)." Her voice felt frozen. What had he discovered? "D*mn." It sounded like Nick hit something, maybe a wall, with his back. Most likely, he was sliding down it. "That myth that I had discovered had talked about a being which had eaten humans. It only had been able to survive on their flesh and blood. No one had known how it had been born or where it had come from exactly. Only that it had dwelled in dark caves and had preferred the colder climates since that had made its prey more vulnerable."

On edge, she found her voice. "Nick, what does that have to do with ..."

"(F/n), that thing had required humans to live." His voice was firm and tried to be soothing. She felt like she was being prepped for a surgery that possessed a low survival rate. (F/n) could imagine the green surgeon's outfit, and her consciousness leaving her as her eyes fell upon a scalpel. It almost paralyzed her. "From its first day in this world, it had demanded that." Her lower abdomen tightened.

"In that myth, the creature had stolen one of women from a village that it had been preying on. Everyone had thought her to be dead from the moment that it had taken her, but they severely had been wrong. Exactly nine months after that incident, they had located her in a cave that they had been planned an attack on to rid their village of the thing." Her stomach turned.

"She had been dead, but she had died that day." Nick stopped, and he sighed horribly. "It had been awful, so d*mn awful. (F/n), I ... I really don't want to speak of what I had read."

Gripping Vincent's hand harder, she used his support to keep herself standing. "Nick, just get it out, or we're both going to be more miserable."

He released a shaky sigh. "Sorry." Every letter of the word came through genuinely, but that didn't ease her one bit. "That woman's heart had been pierced with five puncture wounds. But, she had born other injuries, and they had been more gruesome. Her ... Her ... F*ck, I just can't say it, (f/n)."

"Nick, please." Her voice was soft and begging, but it was filled to the brim with fright.

"D*mn it, (f/n)!" He shouted into the phone, and it caught her off guard. His next words, though, were raised even more and were piercing like the most dreadful scream on the planet. "It had looked like a baby had eaten through her!"

Almost, the phone fell from her hand. Her feet stopped, and Vincent paused to look back at her. She appeared as though she would drop dead from horror. Vincent closed the distance between them and rested his hands on her shoulders. Steadily, she peered up at him, and she could feel tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "I don't know what you just had heard, but you need to keep moving. I'm here for you right now. Lean on me if you need it, but you can't stop and give up now."

Shakily, she nodded her head. She swallowed back a sob, and her voice stuttered. "N-nick, what about the creature in the story and the baby?"

Now, his voice was steady again and calm. "They hadn't been there when the villagers had arrived, and the villagers never had seen the creature again. Their village hadn't been attack again either." His sympathy and terror for her came through. "(F/n) if that myth really is that thing, I hope that you can kill it." There was pause, and his voice grew softer. "And if you do, come find me. As repayment for Laura dragging you into this mess, you're welcome to join my paranormal team that I'm reforming. Or some hot chocolate might be just as good."

Quietly, a laugh escaped her, but it didn't mask her alarm. "Yeah, maybe. Thanks Nick. I'll let you know. Bye." He returned the parting and hung up. She tapped the red button and handed the phone back to Vincent.