Exton

Thursday, December 2nd, 10 PM. Marjorie Gold cursed the icy wind and her thin jacket when she stepped outside the university library. The temperature seemed to have dropped a good twenty degrees in the last two hours. The short skirt she was wearing didn't help much either, and the wind contrived to blow straight up it every now and then. She couldn't spare a hand to keep it down because she was clutching a stack of books to her chest. Thank God the dorm was only a couple of blocks away…!

The attack came out of nowhere, things with glowing eyes and a mouthful of sharklike teeth. She screamed, dropped her books and took to her heels, but the monsters had no trouble keeping pace with her and then pulling ahead to block her path. She turned to run another direction - but another thing was there, crouching to bar her way. She screamed again, and that's when the rescuers arrived - four or five of them. Her blood was up, adrenalin pumping, and maybe that's why some of her saviors didn't look all that human, either. At this point, she couldn't care less if she was rescued by Freddy Krueger, so long as it was a rescue.

The things that had been chasing her, faced with a superior force, bolted into the woods, and though the rescuers gave chase, they returned empty-handed. One of them had remained with her, a serious-looking guy, maybe early twenties, brown hair and eyes, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt and a jean jacket. "Are you okay?"

Marjorie clutched at him. "Oh God, did you see those things? What were they?"

"I didn't get a real good look… things were happening too fast. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

She did a quick but thorough inventory. "No, I'm fine, they just scared the shit out of me. Thanks for the rescue… what's your name?"

"I'm Daniel. A lot of people have been attacked right around here lately and some friends and I have been doing the Neighborhood Watch thing, hoping to catch them at it." He looks at her gravely. "I'm glad you're okay. If you're up to it, I'd like to take you to a safe place where you can talk to us, maybe save someone else." His brown eyes probed hers keenly. "Do you think you can talk about it?"

Fear was fading, to be replaced with anger. "Damn right I'll talk about it! Campus fucking security is worse than useless. If it wasn't for you and your friends, they could've done anything they wanted to me."

"Yeah." He gave her a crooked grin. "There's a van parked just over by the library. At least you can get warm…."

"Hell, yes! Lead the way."