"Maggie, get up! Are you ok?"

My eyes fluttered open at my name. Though my vision was still blurred, the shape over me looked familiar. I mumbled unintelligibly.

"Maggie?"

Mumble.

"Can you hear me?"

Mumble. Even I could understand what I was trying to say.

"Oh Maggie don't die on me now!"

That's when I noticed that my body was wet, cold, and shivering, and my face was stinging. I sat up, panicked.

"Why am I wet and cold? And why does my face hurt?" I questioned, rubbing my cheek. I was embraced in a full on bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, Maggie! I thought I had lost you!"

'That didn't answer my questions.' "Dat dint anser ma keston," I mumbled into the shape's chest, for my face was squashed and I couldn't shape my mouth around the words.

"What?" it asked, letting go of me and leaning away, most likely in an attempt to see my face.

"Mom! Oh no...."

"What did you say Maggie?"

"I said 'that didn't answer my question.'"

"Oh right. Well...while you were out you got rained on and -- "

"Tell me the truth mom." I had seen right through her lie; she wasn't looking me in the eye and she was biting her lip.

"Fine. I saw you under your bike when I was driving home and I panicked. I ran to you and took your bike off of you." I looked around and noticed that my bike was strewn on the side of the road. "When I called your name and you didn't answer I ran to the Patty's house and filled up a bucket of water, then came back and dumped it on you. When you still didn't wake up I slapped your cheeks in an attempt to wake you up. That didn't work either so I got another bucket of water, freezing cold that time, and dumped it all over you." 'Well that makes much more sense.' "But, would you like to explain why you were heading out of the Patty's driveway?"

"Ummm...Mrs. Patty called...and...you should have seen the rest on your way to get that water."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you see...her...lying on their lawn? Or the...river...of...blood...coming from the barn?"

My mom's eyes opened wide and she looked up towards the house. "No I didn't notice! Honey what happened here?"

"Well," I started. Then the whole story - minus the part about Jen possibly being a vampire and the part where I saw something attack the cat - flowed from my mouth in a river of panic and sadness. I started to cry and my mother cried along with me. The Patty family were our friends, our closest neighbours. We made a great bond with the older couple, sharing bread and milk with each other if our own bread and milk supplies were running low. The idea of them being gone was hurtful, but them being an older couple, we knew that they would pass one year or another. But we never expected them to be murdered by a fluffy white cat of all things!

"Oh sweetie, what are we going to do? This animal is killing all of our neighbours and I'm scared; what if we're next?"

"I don't know."