Predator - The Banished

Chapter 2 - Samantha

Samantha crouched there, terrified at the sight of this...thing. What was it? Was it even human? Before she could decide, the figure was gone. 

She stood up slowly. Must have been a hallucination. She was very tired, after all. Deciding to head back to her dorm before other monsters showed up, she rubbed her eyes and got up. 

*time skip 12 min* 

She heard the sirens before she saw the lights. Police cars swarmed the gas station that Samantha had walked by. The officers were all standing in a circle, staring at something she couldn't see. 

It had clearly stumped all of them. They weren't conversing or anything. 

What the hell could be so bad it terrifies police officers? Samantha thought to herself. Walking over to the station, she went over to the nearest officer. 

"Sir? What's going on? What's happen-" her own horrific expression went into display on her face, and she fell abruptly quiet.

There was a body. The old man's body, that she had seen filling up his truck. She only knew it was him because of the clothes lying on the ground beneath him. 

The guy himself, well, he was hanging from the ceiling, upside down. The steady drip, drip, drip, of blood hitting the ground was the only noise audible. He had been skinned. Alive, too, by the look on his mutilated face. 

Samantha couldn't look away. She desperately wanted to, but she just couldn't. Who could have done this? Skin another human being like it was an animal ready for slow cooking? It was a monstrous thing to do. Only a maniac would do something like this. There wasn't anyone in this town who she knew who had a grudge against anyone. They were all so nice. The prison didn't even have any inmates. 

Finally, after a long period of utter silence and shock, one of the police officers said shakily into his walkie talkie, "Umm, sir? W-w-we are going t-to need an ambulance and th-the fire d-department on 1215 b-Blake Street. Something's happened." 

Samantha tore her gaze away from the gory sight, and sprinted back toward the direction of her dorm. She had to tell everyone what had happened. Eliana, first. She ought to tell Audrey too. Something to make her look up from her phone once in a while. 

As she ran, she thought she saw a glint of silver flash from the rooftop of the gas station. 

*time skip 4 minutes* 

Samantha threw her ID card against the scanner, and it took a minute to recognize the bar code. The scanner beeped, and she threw open the door. Audrey, hearing the loud slam, opened her door and looked at Samantha. 

"Will you cut the shit out? I'm trying to sle-" 

"Not now," Samantha said quickly, in a shaky voice. 

"What? Is something wrong?" replied Audrey, in a surprisingly soft and concerned tone. 

"I said not now, Audrey," Samantha said as calmly as possible. 

She flew into her room, closed the door, and leaped onto her bed. Grabbing her phone, she clicked the home button a numerous amount of times to get it to hurry up. 

After it decided to wake up, she jabbed the phone button. Dialing Eliana, she held the phone up to her ear anxiously. After a couple buzzes, Eliana picked up.

"Sam, what the hell are you doing calling at 2:45 AM. Some of us actually try to sleep at night, ya know?" 

Samantha hesitated, then replied.

"Eliana, something's happened."