Nocturnal Animals

Kenneally's Return

Nocturnal Animals
Chapter One
Kenneally's Return

thanks to @victoriapinkglitter  for the cover above
another thanks to @Dredge116 for the cast trailer !

☾☾☾

 The rain fell ever so slightly as it smashed against the roof of the library, making tiny little droplet sounds upon the water's hit. Lately, rain was all we had gotten. For the past two weeks, the sun disappeared completely- never to be seen once since it's departure. 

The people of Raven's Wood stood shocked, completely and utterly disturbed by the odd shift in weather. Rain was common here, but so was the sun. Nobody could decipher what unusual activity was all of a sudden happening.

The sun was only the beginning. After it's sudden demise, there's been several unexplainable deaths by 'animal attack's' in the thick, long layer of woods that surrounded our town. 'The Sleeping Forest' was what that vast bunch of trees was called. It was nothing but dark and deep- an ominous presence meeting you upon a glance with your eyes. You didn't dare step foot into those woods- especially after dark. 

The forest wasn't exactly on my mind. Neither was the sun's disappearance. These so called animal attacks, however, did spark my interest. Something about the way they were described stuck out to me. 'A brutal scene', 'claw marks across the chest', 'a chunk missing from the neck'. All excerpts seemed kind of odd. What animal would have the mind to do such a thing? 

Which brings me to my whereabouts now- the public library. With the most recent attack article pulled up on my laptop, I searched for common factors between screen and the four books I had sprawled out across the table. 'Hidden Danger's in Animals', 'Viscous Crimes by Species', 'Death by Animalia' and 'Lingering Threats of Animal Life in the Wild' had all been flipped through thousands of times. So far, though, not much has been found. Not one animal seems to take such a precise bite out of a grown man's neck- unless, perhaps, information was left out of these books.

The people around me think I'm crazy for putting so much time into these investigations. Not one person in my life fully understands my fascination for this kind of thing- well, someone did, but he's long gone now. 

Ever since I was a little girl, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to become and animal scientist, and a pretty damn good one as well. I wanted to be able to fully understand them in ways normal human beings could not. To be able to study those of the wild and learn their everyday patterns. 

I have a lot of friends- don't get me wrong- but I know for a fact that they all have their doubts about me. The perfect Seneca Crisco was secretly an animal freak- who would want to be seen with her?

The familiar sound of 'Purple Rain' by no other than Prince himself rang throughout the quiet atmosphere- earning me a couple of disgusted looks and deathly glares. With cheeks red with embarrassment, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my phone, sighing upon reading the caller ID. 

"What is it, Sven?" I huffed, mentally preparing myself for the crazy 411 of gossip she somehow stumbled upon. 

"Hey- you might want to come down to Sprout." Sven suggested, her attitude noticeably different then usual, "There's something I think you should see."

The fact that Sven wasn't hyper, or excited, worried me. Usually she couldn't keep her bubbly personality to herself. Her lack of enthusiasm only told me that what I needed to see wasn't good. Of course I had my assumptions, however.

I groaned, "Is Talia all over Sebastian again? I swear to God I told that bitch to back off-"

"No, Sen- just get down here. I don't think you'll want to hear this over the phone." Sven's voice fell, almost as if she had just lost her best friend in the world- which would be me, only, I'm still alive.