Chapter 2

The sun slithered through the blinds of the Daily Moon club room. Alley sat at one of the desks with several research papers and books opened before her. She had made sure to arrive at school earlier than usual so as to begin her research into the recent developments of the murder cases. She spent a good half hour raiding the library for books and research papers. The head librarian was not pleased. She had stated that the library opened once school began. Alley had to practically beg her to allow her inside. She was lucky she was so persistent, otherwise Miss Lane would have turned her away faster than she did broccoli.

She was so nose deep in a book that she didn’t notice Phillip who walked into the room, bag slung over his shoulder, “Doing research?” he asked.

She looked up, “Phillip, hey,” she snapped back to reality, “Yeah, I’m trying to find the uses of neurotoxins.” She closed the book in her hand. Another useless one.

“Why would you need to find that out?”

“Let’s just say an inside source gave me a bit of information.” she reached for the next book.

“Who?” he asked as he picked up a book, Venomous predators, stood on the cover. He smirked, casting his eyes back to her.

“I can't tell you, that kind of ruins the notion of an inside source.” she shifted in her seat to be a bit more comfortable.

“Well, then I’ll hazard a guess and say it was probably found in the victims, let’s say, near their neck.”

“How did you know that?”

He smiled, “Inside sources.” He dropped the book, “Neurotoxins can be found in snakes, jellyfish, and bats.”

“So my research tells me. It doesn’t explain how it got into the victims.”

Phillip placed his hands into his pockets in thought, should he help her? Give her something to look into? It couldn’t do much harm to give her some kind of direction, right? “Have you heard the story of the Midnight Predator?”

“No, what is it?” she flipped a page.

“Not what, who.” Alley looked up, her eyebrows pulled into a frown making him chuckle, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” he turned and left.

What was with everyone wanting her to figure things out? She dropped her book and rolled her chair to the computer on the other end of the room. She opened the web browser and sighed. What did she have to lose? The printer bleeped to life and pages rolled through.

Diego had had enough. He was tired of the adults telling him to mind his own business. This was his tribe too, and he had to do something. He knew his tribe wanted to stay anonymous, but how did they expect to find the killer if the authorities couldn’t do their jobs. If the Elders weren’t going to take action, he would.

He walked out the school building to the large field behind it, “Highmore!” he called out upon seeing Liam on the field tossing a football with his friends.

Liam excused himself from his friends and made his way over to him, “Hey, Diego. What’s up?”

“You tell me.”

He chuckled nervously, “I’m not sure what you mean, man.”

“What do you know about these murders?”

He blew raspberries, “As much as you do.”

Diego grabbed him by the collar, “Don’t play with me, Liam.”

“Dude, chill.” he raised his hands in surrender.

“You think I don’t know what’s going on? Huh? I know more than you think,” he sneered.

“Dude, I have no idea what you’re talking about,”

“You can play dumb all you want Liam,” Diego pulled him close, “But you better find out what’s going on, or someone might spill your secret.” he shoved him and walked away.

Daphne saw the commotion from the benches and quickly made her way to Liam. She arrived the moment Diego shoved him before leaving, “Are you alright?” she asked Liam.

“Yeah, Daph, I’m alright.” he straightened his shirt, “The Atawi tribe is getting impatient.”

“They must know we’re trying our best.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think our best is enough at this point,” he sighed, “The council will be convening soon. Why would Diego come at me and put the meeting at stake?”

“Because he’s an impatient pup who doesn’t know any better,”

“Yeah, well, he better watch out. Next time I won’t be so nice,” he replied and turned to return to his friends.

Daphne knew her parents were working hard to find out who was behind the murders. Her father was a detective and her mother was a nurse. Behind the scenes they were working with the other families to figure out what was going on. Someone was wreaking havoc in Moon Lake, and if it wasn’t brought under control, things were going to get very complicated.

With the council convening soon, hopefully some answers would be provided. If only her parents would let her help. She had skills and resources to contribute to the council, but she was too young. Well, in their eyes, that is.

Looking for comfort, Daphne walked into the Daily Moon clubroom where she found Alley reading an article.

She looked up, “Daph, you won't believe what I found.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” She made her way to the coffee machine and poured herself a cup of already brewed Brazilian blend.

“About forty years ago, there was a serial killer who used to kill their victims by cutting their throats and draining their blood.” Daphne froze, “Doesn’t that sound familiar? Like our current killer perhaps?” she licked her lips, “Listen to this,” she held up an article to read,

Police are stumped by recent developments of the Midnight Predator. After the murder of twelve citizens and five council members, the state declares a curfew to ward people off the streets and warns them not to go out past nine in the evening. All the victims had lacerated throats and appeared to be drained of all blood. Whether this be an act of barbarism or something more, police officials urge citizens not to pry any further. Any other details concerning the murders are sealed under commission and are not permitted for public viewing.”

“How did you find this?” She took the article from her.

“Phillip gave me the tip. Told me to look up the Midnight Predator. What if the person killing then is killing now?”

“Al, maybe you should stop playing detective and leave this to the authorities.”

“Why are you discouraging me?” she snatched the article back.

“I’m not discouraging you, I just” she sighed, “what do you expect to find?”

“I want to help catch this murderer. People are being ,murdered Daph.”

“All the more reason to leave it to the authorities.”

“Fine.” Alley grabbed the rest of the articles and shoved them into her bag, “See you in history.” She left.

Daphne plopped down into the couch against the wall. If Alley kept digging, she’d find something. She knew her. She wouldn’t stop until she did. The only way to stop her was to not encourage her, which meant Daphne had to have a chat with someone.

She spotted Phillip scanning a bookshelf and made her way to him.

“What have you told Alley?” she demanded.

“Excuse me?”

She looked around to make sure no one could hear them, “About the Midnight Predator.”

He smirked, “Just that it might be something worth looking into.”

“Are you crazy!?” She yelled, only to be hushed by someone nearby.

Phillip sighed as he picked a book from the shelf, “Look, Daphne, we both know who’s behind these murders—”

“No, we don’t! You just assume you do.”

“I’m waiting to be proved wrong.” he walked past her.

Daphne groaned and grabbed her hair. Someone shushed her again. She shot the person a glare before turning on her heels to leave.