(Ben’s POV)

My body froze from what I saw. 

My feet won’t move. 

I saw the horrible state of Jenny.

Because of the fear I felt and the smell of the dead body, I threw up. 

I ran away from that place and tried to catch a deep breath. I was crying while walking away and still thinking of what I saw.

As soon as I reached the shelter, I saw the adults and kids going inside. I shout aloud.

“H-HELP! HELP!!” That’s the word that comes out of my mouth. 

The adults got alerted and saw me. Mrs. Abby saw me too and they ran towards me. 

“Ben! What happened? You look pale!” Mrs. Abby said while holding my face.

“J-Jenny… Jenny!” I said while tattering

“What happened to Jenny?” One of the adults said

“I-I found Jenny.” I said while trembling.

“Where? Where did you find her?” Mrs. Abby asked

“What’s the ruckus here?” Ms. Joan appeared and asked us.

Mrs. Abby stood up and faced Ms. Joan.

“Ms. Joan, Ben said that he saw Jenny.” Mrs. Abby replied

“Really? Where is she?” Ms. Joan asked

They looked at me..

“I-In the f-forest.. near the s-secret tree.” I said

“Ms. Joan, I think we need to see where Jenny is.” Mrs. Abby said

“I understand what all of you felt. But remember the rules. The curfew is drawing near. If you want to look for Jenny, expect that you're not gonna stay here.” Ms. Joan firmly said.

I panicked and I don’t want to waste the chance that has left. 

“But it’s still 45! It’s 5:45 pm!! We still have 15 minutes left before the curfew!” I shout at her while crying.

“Ben, calm down.” Said the adults

“Just give us 15 minutes and we will be back!” I plead

“Ben was right, wait for us and we will go back before 6pm.” Mrs. Abby agreed to me.

“Yes, we will promise to come back!” The adults agreed with me too.

Ms. Joan sighed.

“Fine! But if all of you are not here before 6pm, I will close the door for you. Even if you knock at the door no one will open it.” Ms. Joan said

We ran hurriedly from where I saw Jenny.

The adults were shocked at what they saw.

“Unbelievable! How did this happen?”

“Oh my! What on earth happened to her?”

“I think it’s not ordinary animals. Animals can’t do something like this!”

That’s what the adults were saying.

While I cried seeing Jenny’s body, Mrs. Abby hugged me. 

“Don’t worry Ben, we will find out who did this horrible thing to Jenny. I promise you that.” Mrs. Abby said while crying

The adults helped each other and hurriedly made a grave for Jenny. After that we went home.

When we got home to the shelter, I didn’t leave my room. I was lying in my bedroom and didn’t eat dinner with them. I was so sad about what I saw and I had a lot of thoughts.

‘It’s my fault! If I didn’t leave her at our secret base, she'd still be alive! But who killed Jenny? Is it an animal or a human? If it is a human, why did he kill Jenny? But that’s not the kind of thing a human would do. Am I missing something? Something that I need to know?’ I cry while thinking about this.

My thoughts stopped when I heard a knock.

The door opened and it was Mrs. Abby.

She carries the tray with food.

“Ben my dear, I know you're sad but you need to eat.” Mrs. Abby said

I didn’t reply nor do what she said.

“Ben, you have to eat. Do you think Jenny would be happy if she saw you like this?” Mrs. Abby continued

I didn’t reply to any words she said.

“I will leave this here. Eat this before it gets cold. Tomorrow, we will ask the officer in charge of this shelter to help us find the murderer behind this.” She said

That word made me move into her.

“Y-you’re gonna help me?” I asked

“Yes. For Jenny and for you too.” She said

“So you need to eat and sleep early because tomorrow we will go there. Ok?” She added

I nod at her in response.

She smiled at me and she said ‘good night’.

********

The next day, Mrs. Abby together with the four adults and I went to the office of the shelter. I was nervous because I'm the only kid in this group.

*Knock knock

“Come in.” Said the voice inside the office.

They opened the door and we went inside. 

I saw a man sitting there while writing something on the paper.

“Hi sir, good morning! Umm we didn’t mean to disturb you but we have to tell you something.” Said the male adult

“What is it?” Said the officer

“In the past 2 days, a kid whose name is Jenny didn’t come home early. Her friend Ben, who's here now worried because he knew that Jenny won’t break the rules. She is a good girl. But because of the curfew, we can’t find her right away. We searched for her the day after and we found her body in the forest. She was horribly killed by someone! We don’t know who was the culprit behind this and we want an investigation about this. Please officer. Let us find out who did this to the child and give justice for her death.” Mrs. Abby plead

The officer was silent for a minute. 

“I see… but I want to tell you that we can’t help you.” The officer said

“But why?!” I asked

“The crime scene took longer in the original investigation. If you report something like this, it should be right now or the day after the crime. We can’t be sure if the clues would still be there because Ms. Joan said that you buried the body of the kid. We won’t know if there is still any information that would give us if the culprit cleaned the mess he left. So I’m sorry to say but we can’t help you.” He firmly said

My hopes went down and a tear fell from my eyes. As soon as he finished his sentence, I ran out of the office. The adults called me but I didn’t stop running.

When I ran, my feet brought me to the secret tree. 

I can’t believe that the most treasured place we love, now the most horrible place for me. 

Staying in this place was hard for me to breathe. I feel like I would die in this place.

As I was having a hard time breathing, I went inside of the tree and suddenly, I lost consciousness. 

*****

I heard someone talking, I thought it was in my dreams but it was real. 

I opened my eyes and my surroundings were dark. 

I was startled.

‘Don’t tell me I fell asleep here until it gets this dark?’ I thought to myself

This darkness means I break the curfew.

‘Oh no… To think that I would spend my night here!’ I thought

My thoughts end when I hear voices. I focused on what they were saying and carefully hid inside the tree. I thought that this is a chance to know if those people were the ones who killed Jenny, so I took a peak to see which voices that came from.

At first, I couldn't see those people because of the darkness but suddenly, the moon’s light shone. Because of the moon’s light, I saw a horrible thing that I never saw in my entire life.

A big hand and long finger with its nail is sharp like an animal's claws.. 

Its face was like a horse shape, and its teeth were sharp like a lion.

Its eyes were like a cat’s eye but the color was like blood.. all red..

Something unexplainable..

And something non-human… 

A creature that I have never seen before..

A monster…