Dead End/Issue 1

This is Issue 1 of Dead End and is titled "A Good Day". It is the first issue of volume 1 and was released on 12th April 2016. Its total word count is : 9277

Issue 1 - "A Good Day"
It was a good day.

A good, warm day with the sun high in the sky.

However, it didn't feel right, it felt like there was something wrong but as Benjamin Shepard drove his family's RV down the empty road towards his destination of Coracre Town, multiple signs along the way telling him how close he was getting to their destination, Ben just couldn't put his finger on the reason why he felt that something was wrong.

He then sighed, keeping one of his hands on the wheel while he used the other to reach into his jacket pocket and pull out a tissue, quickly raising it too his nose and blew his nose, inwardly groaning at the cold that had been hitting him over these past couple of days despite the warmness of the days themselves.

"Already blowing your nose again?" he heard the teasing voice of his wife, Benjamin briefly turning to watch as the woman herself Nicki walked the short distance inside of their mobile home and joined him at the front, sitting on the seat next to his own.

"Yeah, I still don't get where it came from. I mean it's the middle of April" was his reply, another groan of annoyance escaping him as he shoved the tissue back into his pocket and returned both hands to the wheel, looking back out to the empty yet peaceful looking road ahead of them.

"Yeah, trust you to get a cold at this time of year"

"Hey, it isn't like it's my fault"

"Oh i'm sure it is somehow"

That turned the frown upside down on Benjamin's face as he turned his face to look at his beautiful wife again as Nicki herself bent down to begin stroking their pet dog Buddy once he had come over to greet them both, Benjamin about to do the same before he suddenly let out a loud sneeze, Ben feeling as if his head was going to jerk off at how heavy his sneeze was, a polite "bless you" coming from his daughter Alice in the back.

"Jeez Ben, do you want to get your snot all over the front window?"

"Yeah, it's my new objective to try and get the entire window covered in snot before we get to Coracre Town" Ben replied, giving his wife a playful smirk which earned a laugh from her before she got up from her seat and patted his shoulder.

"I'll get more tissues" she told him before walking out of his view again, Nicki being careful not to step on Buddy as he laid himself down next to his ill owner, a worried look on the dog's face as he seemed to be intently watching the human.

"Hey Bud, sorry about scaring you" Benjamin whispered softly to the dog as he reached down with a hand to stroke the pet, Ben failing to notice Buddy himself flinching away from his owner's touch for a moment as he turned his attention back to the road he was driving on "I'd say about a half hour before we get to our new home love, what time do the kids have to get to the college by?"

"1pm. They'll have about a half hour to get from our house to the college but our house is basically just around the corner from it so they'll have plenty of time"

"I'm glad, Alice would never forgive me for her being late"

"And Robert would complain for, like, ever because he didn't get the chance to flirt with all the ladies before college studying started"

"Hey, I heard that" Robert called out from the middle of the RV, a shared smirk on the pair of adult's faces as they both turned their heads to look back at their son as he sat with a Mini-Console in his hands.

"You were meant too" they both told him, Bert playfully glaring up to his parents while Alice, currently sitting at the back of the RV with her beloved laptop in her lap and one of her headphones in her ear, smirked at the teasing of her twin brother.

The Shepard family were lucky to always be like this. The four of them all shared different hobbies and mostly different everyday lives but still they stuck together like glue, the four of them had never faced anything that had managed to break them apart and not a single one of them had ever had a fight with another. They were the perfect family.

It was then that Buddy barked, interrupting the small moment and causing Ben to turn his attention back to the road just as they passed another sign, telling him and Nicki that Coracre Town was just a few roads away which led to Nicki reaching over and laying her hand on top of his, the pair sharing a smile as they were prepared for their new life in a new home.

Ben was just extremely grateful that he had managed to get a month off from the military in order to be here with the people he loved the most.

"This is going to be a great fresh start" Nicki commented, her fingers interlocking with her husband's as she leaned her head over and laid it on Ben's shoulder who in turn leaned his head on hers, both of them looking forward and down the road towards their future. However before Ben could make a comment in reply, his head jerked forward again as he sneezed a second time, laughter coming from his wife as she watched her husband grab the tissue from his pocket to, yet again, clean his nose.

"Well that ruins the moment" Nicki playfully commented, the smile remaining on her lips as she awaited Ben to clean his nose before leaning forward and pressing her lips to his in a kiss, a smile immediately returning to Ben as he kissed his wife while he shoved the tissue back to his pocket.

Both husband and wife failing to notice the small amount of blood that had dampened the tissue as Coracre Town appeared on the horizon.

She was sad.

That was the only thing that crossed the little girl's, Tracey's, mind as she sat on the stairs and stared at the front door, able to hear her mother pacing around in the nearby kitchen as she called each and every one of their neighbors to see if any of them could look after Tracey while the mother herself was at work.

However her mother just kept getting the same answers, the same reason Tracey's babysitter was unable to come today, they were feeling sick and both they and Christine were worried that with the way illness seemed to be spreading around town, Tracey might catch whatever it was.

This caused the little girl to sigh as she reached to her side and grabbed her notepad, beginning to randomly flick through the pages to look at all the things she had been drawing over the past few days, from flowers to dinosaurs. She kept doing this while Christine herself came out of the kitchen, on the phone to the tenth and final available neighbor, to check on her little girl.

"You okay?" Christine mouthed to Tracey who mutely nodded in response while she watched her mother wince, clearly this neighbor was feeling just the same as all the other neighbors.

Sick.

Tracey felt guilty for her mother who has been forced to make excuses for the past week to stay out of work due to her being unable to get anyone to look after Tracey who, being mute as well as being a child, couldn't exactly look after herself alone.

Tracey wished she could look after herself though.

"Okay...yeah...thanks" Christine said to whatever neighbor it was on the other end before she sighed and sat down on the bottom step, head in hands as she looked forward to the front door in defeat. Chris knew she had to go to work today, the hospital staff was getting overwhelmed due to the amount of them who had been calling in sick but she also had no idea what she was going to do about Tracey, she couldn't take her to hospital as it would be too dangerous and all the teachers had called in sick as well. Christine, like all doctors, were beginning to get worried about what was going on with everyone but not a single one of the doctors could figure out what it was. Everyone just seemed to be getting the usual bugs.

Suddenly there was a tugging on her shirt and Christine turned to see her daughter, holding up a sticky note that read "Are you okay?" which led to Christine offering a soft smile as she reached out one arm to wrap around her daughter while she also leaned in to press a kiss on top of Tracey's head.

"Yeah, i'm okay Tracey." was the adult's reply as she went back to looking towards the front door.

Truth be told, she was lost on what to do. She wanted to make sure her daughter would remain safe throughout the day but she also needed to go to work.

However just when Christine was lost for ideas, the sound of a vehicle pulling up on the house next door could be heard and Chris's head jolted up in sudden realization. She had one more neighbor that she could ask to look after Tracey, the new neighbors that were moving in next door today.

"Hey Trace, you stay here for me, alright? I've got one more idea" Chris told her daughter as she killed her forehead before she got up from the stairs and quickly headed out of the door, still in her slippers, to go and meet the new neighbors. Chris knew that one of the new family had been hired as a teacher in the school her daughter went too.

She just hoped they would be nice enough to look after Tracey on their day off. - "I told you it would be nice" Nicki said, gesturing to the house before her, their new home, as she turned to look at her son Robert as he came out of the RV, carrying a large box in each arm, while he himself gave the house a quick look over before shrugging.

"Looks no different from the old home" was his response but Nicki didn't take anything to it, the boy was homesick, she knew that. She understood that.

"Spoil sport" she playfully told him, giving his shoulder a pat before she stepped out of his way to allow him to pass and head towards the house with the heavy boxes as Nicki called out after him "and don't you dare drop them" she teased him further, only a grunt coming from her son this time before Nicki turned around to see her daughter Alice coming out of the RV next, Buddy the dog following her from behind.

"You know he's grown out of being teased, right?" Alice asked, pushing her reading glasses up her nose before she bent down to place her own box on the ground for a moment so she could reach behind her and do her hair up into a ponytail "I mean he won't say anything but i'm pretty sure he's growing out of it. Probably won't appreciate it for much longer" she said just as she finished her ponytail, earning a raised eyebrow from her mother before Nicki gave her daughter a pat on the shoulder too as she gave her reply.

"My children shall never be too old to tease and prank"

"Uh-huh, just don't tell me that I didn't warn you"

After that, Alice bent down again to pick up her box, continuing her small trip to carrying it over to the house while Nicki allowed herself to smirk as she leaned back against the RV, watching as her daughter walked towards their new house "Just don't drop that sweety, wouldn't want all the pretty boys and girls at school to see you bruised on the first day, would we?" she teased, earning a similiar grown from her daughter, the sound Nicki had come to love earning out of her children.

However the smirk would soon fade from Nicki's face when she turned and realized her husband Ben wasn't coming out from the RV after their children with his own box which instead resulted in Nicki narrowing her eyebrows together in confusion and begin to head back into the RV. That was until she heard someone from the outside calling her and turned to see a unknown woman jogging up towards her from the neighbor house, leading to Alice assuming she was their new next door neighbor.

"Hey, are you the new neighbors?" Christine said to Nicki as she came to a stop before her, offering her hand which Nicki accepted and shook, Nicki in turn giving a nod as the two women shook eachother's hands.

"Yeah, i'm Nicki. We're just moving in from Lorham and...you are?"

"I'm Christine, you can call me Chris, and I live next door, just over there" Chris replied with a polite smile, pointing back behind her to the house she had just came from.

"That's cool" Nicki said, letting out a little laugh as their hands parted "It's nice to already be welcomed by one of the neighbors"

"Haha, yeah well...I like to make new neighbors feel welcomed. Get friendly with each other right off the bat, you know?"

Nicki nodded to that in understanding, giving the woman a curious look before she noticed her twin children out of the corner of her eye beginning to walk down the street away from the house, giving them a wave which they returned after she had looked down to her watch and realized it was time the pair of them should be heading to the college, Nicki grateful to have children who could keep track of time.

"Hey...you're the new teacher at the school in town, right?"

This brought Nicki's attention back to Chris who then earned Nicki's confusion as she observed Chris nervously toying with her own fingers, as if she had something important on her mind.

"Yeah. I'm supposed to be starting in a couple of days, why's that?"

"Well...I know we've literally just met and it's your day off but, could I ask you to watch my little girl?" Chris asked, stopping her movement of toying with her fingers to look up to Nicki "I know it's a lot to ask but I work at the town hospital as a doctor and all the other neighbors are sick, all the babysitters I usually hire are sick. I have no one else to ask but you"

This came to a surprise to Nicki. Not the question being posed to her but the fact that it sounded that a lot of people were turning up sick which had gained Nicki's curiosity. However by the way that she noticed Chris looking down to Nicki's watch, she could tell that the doctor was in a rush so Nicki decided not to hold the other woman up as she gave a soft nod.

"Yeah, sure. I can do that...I mean, my husband has a bit of a cold but i'll make sure he stays away from her" was Nicki's reply and she could tell by the way that Chris's face lit up that she had just lifted a heavy burden off the doctor's shoulder.

"Oh thank you so much. I'll just go get her, seriously you have no idea how much this helps me" Chris frantically told her new friend, not even giving Nicki the chance to say "It's no problem" before she was jogging back to her house in order to collect her daughter, Nicki chuckling and shaking her head for a moment before she then turned to look as her husband finally came out of the RV, Ben looking a little bit sicker than he did earlier.

"...Jeez Ben, you sure you're feeling okay?" Nicki expressed worriedly as she approached her husband again who in turn just gave a nod and leaned down to kiss her cheek, Nicki noticing that he was now purposely avoiding her lips as he held a large box in both his arms.

"Yeah, I promise i'm doing okay. Just going to need to have a lie down once we have all the boxes in the house, alright?" he told her, giving a soft smile before chuckling as he winked at her "and don't worry, I'll stay away from the little girl, no chance i'll be passing whatever I have onto her as long as I can help it" was the last thing he said to her, giving her a certain look when she began to open her mouth to speak up further.

Nicki decided to let it go. If he said he was okay then he was okay. She trusted her husband to be honest.

However that didn't help lighten Nicki's mood as she turned her attention to look at all the neighboring houses while she awaited for her new friend to return with her daughter. Now the woman was giving her surrounding a good look, she noticed that it looked very empty, too empty. All the houses around her looked pretty lifeless as no lights seemed to be coming from any of the house's windows and all the cars on every driveway were still parked there.

She couldn't shake the bad feeling she had inside of her, that something was terribly wrong.

It was impressive, that was the first thought that crossed Alice's mind as she and her twin brother Robert came to a stop just outside their new college's gates. It wasn't an overly large building and it didn't look like the coolest building ever but Alice, being a fan of architecture, could tell that work was put into this building and quickly she was getting excited to learn here.

That was until her brother interrupted her daydreaming.

"You done drooling over the architecture, sister?"

"I'm surprised you even have the brainpower to say that word, brother"

Robert pretended to do a mock expression of hurt at that statement, Bert playing clutching at his chest in a dramatic show as if he was acting the part of a character from Romeo and Juliet while Alice herself just playfully glared at him the whole time.

"Your words wound me, oh dear sister"

"Yeah, whatever. Shame you lack the memory to remember your lines. Otherwise you'd be good over reacting on stage"

"Are you trying to kill my feelings?"

"Nah, just reminding you of who is better"

"You're rude, you know that?"

"Mhm, now come on. The principal is waiting over there" Alice said as she gestured over to said man as he stood by the entrance, greeting one of the other students before Alice began walking towards the same entrance, making sure she was ahead of her brother when she reached up to her lips and made sure she hadn't actually been drooling.

"Ah hello there you two, the pair of you look like rather bright students" the principal observed, finishing shaking hands with the other student before he then turned his attention to the twins, grabbing his pencil while he looked over his clipboard "I'm principal Nicholas Combs and welcome to Coracre Town college. Names?"

"Alice Shepard and Robert Shepard" Alice replied to her new principal, watching as he looked through his list of names and crossed through their names when he came across them, Alice noticing her brother looking off towards the gate as two more people came in. A good looking guy and a beautiful girl.

Alice couldn't help but roll her eyes and refrain from embarrassing her brother in front of their new principal.

"Alright Ash, remember what I said and please don't embarrass yourself in front of the whole college" the girl was saying to the younger male as she walked with him into school, the "Ash" rolling his eyes as he gave the girl a little nudge on her arm, a cocky smirk on his lips.

"Sister Kayla, don't you worry. I'm going to show how awesome I am, not be an embarrassment"

Kayla just rolled her eyes at that but before Alice or Robert could hear further into their conversation, the principal managed to gain both of their attentions again.

"Okay, you're both marked down as attending, the main hall is just down this corridor and to the left" Nicholas commented as he turned and pointed down the exact corridor behind him before he faced both the twins again and offered his hand to them, shaking hands with both of them one at a time "and I look forward to seeing how you two work out here at our college"

Both twins then gave their thanks before they walked past the principal and entered through the door, Alice finding the inside of the college looking just as impressive on the inside than it did on the outside, all kinds of art and sculptures were being shown around the entrance, decorations had been placed around in order to welcome the new students but it wasn't these things that caught Alice's attention.

It was the way the walls were built, the way the surrounding columns made the inside of the college that made it look as if it was built based on old greek architecture and even her brother was impressed by the inside water fountain which was too surrounding by columns.

Although her twin brother wasn't really happy when his sister started rambling on about how well built said architecture looked and how much work it must have put into building it. Robert was at least glad she was having a good time looking around on their way to main hall though. - The main hall itself wasn't any less impressive as the rest of the college that Alice had seen so far.

As she and her brother both walked into the main hall, Alice felt as if she was in a mini gladiator arena. In the middle of the room was a podium for where the principal would soon be speaking, if Alice's watch was correctly timed, and all the chairs where the students would sit were in a full circle around the middle of the room, placed perfectly raised so everyone can clearly see where the principal would be standing.

"Okay...Okay, i'm impressed" Robert whispered to his sister, among all the talking of the other students, which earned a smirk from Alice before she noticed he was looking towards a group of good looking girls nearby, Alice rolling her eyes yet again as she gave him a nudge on the shoulder.

"Go on i'll meet you by the entrance after. Just don't come begging to me when they deny you"

"Thanks sister"

And with that, Robert was moving through the students and heading towards his goal, Alice instead turning her attention to finding a free seat as she gently moved through groups of students, thankfully finding a free seat in the no time at all before she then took a seat on it, another student who looked as if he was trying to avoid contact with everyone else, it being clear that the fellow student was uncomfortable when she sat next to him.

"I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else?" Alice asked him, cautious as she didn't want to cause trouble with anyone but the student silently shook his head, keeping his eyes down at his jacket zip as he pulled it up and down, Alice looking at him curiously for a moment before she decided to introduce herself as she held out a hand.

"I'm Alice"

However the student remained silent for a moment, not even looking up to her and instead keeping his attention back down at his jacket zip while Alice heard the college's principal walking past all the students, calling for people to take their seats as he walked down to the middle of the room, Alice pulling her hand back as she sat back on her seat. Although just when the principal was starting to speak and Alice had given up on introducing herself to the student, he spoke.

"Nico"

Alice didn't a chance to say anything else to him though as the principal coughed into the microphone, gaining the silent attention of everyone in the room while he adjusted his tie and looked down to the papers placed down on the podium for him, while the principal liked to make things more personal, he was never good with coming up with speeches on the spot.

"Students of the next generation, first of all I welcome you to Coracre Town college and I hope, from what you have seen so far, you are liking the look of the building you will soon be preparing for the rest of your lives in. I, as you have all probably guessed already, am Principal Nicholas Combs"

He then paused in his speech as he had to raise a tissue to his nose and sneeze, rather loudly. The principal or anyone around him not noticing the small amount of blood on the tissue as he placed it back into his pocket and placed his hands back on the podium while he continued to give his speech, none of the students fazed as they continued to listen to his prepared speech.

"I, as your new principal, am looking forward to seeing the great progress my new students make as you.." Nicholas paused, both students and fellow teachers in the main hall looking at him curiously as he leaned over his podium. There was something wrong, he didn't look too right but despite this he continued to speak as he reached up and wiped his forehead with his hand "and I think everyone here has a great...future ahead of..."

The principal collapsed, knocking the podium down with him while everyone in the room gasped as the principal hit his head on the floor hard, the man beginning to throw up suddenly as blood trickled from his nose, multiple numbers of the other teachers moving to support him as one of the other teachers took hold of the microphone and directed their attention to all the students as she began speaking, everyone staring as the principal began to violently shake and throw up on the ground.

"Okay...we ask that all students please escort themselves out of the main hall and off school grounds in an orderly fashion, our receptionist will be getting in contact with your parents or guardians to arrange another date for college introductions" the teacher nervously said, looking down to the principal as he seemed to throwing up too much blood before she then gestured to the main hall's entrance "all students please leave now"

The teacher didn't need to ask a third time, quickly but politely getting off their seats and heading to the exit of the main hall, Alice quickly losing track of the student she had met earlier while her brother came over to her, giving her a sad look which made her raise an eyebrow, trying to make light of the situation despite the sounds of their principal throwing up in the background.

"Did they deny you like I said?"

"Nah, they said if I had paper and a pen I could write their names down...I didn't have either"

That caused Alice to smirk a little as she wrapped one arm around her brother and walked out of the school along with him, although it didn't take long for Alice to lose her mood again, turning her head to look towards the college worriedly as both twins started to walk back home.

She hoped the principal would be okay.

Finally, Christine was pulling her car to a stop outside the hospital, Chris herself letting out a sigh as she turned off her car's engine and looked up to the entrance of the hospital, watching curiously as both a police officer and one of the nurses were working together to carry a, clearly new patient, person through the doors as they threw up along the floor, Chris wincing a bit at the sight.

She wasn't squeamish. It just gave her a bad feeling.

Of course that bad feeling only got worse when Chris looked around the outside of her car and quickly came to notice there were only about a handful of cars parked in the parking spots reserved for the staff while the rest of the car park was nearly completely full to the point that Chris was pretty sure that if there would be just a couple more people that needed to come to the hospital, there would be no spaces left to park.

Chris let out another sigh as she tried to shake this feeling of worriedness out of her mind while she exited from her car, locking the vehicle behind her, before she walked the short distance from the staff parking spots towards the entrance of the hospital, Chris noting that one of the ambulances were missing as she entered the waiting area, only to see that inside was a lot more packed than she thought it would be, even after seeing all those parking spaces filled.

Literally the entire waiting room was packed.

All of the waiting chairs had been filled, the staff were forced to step over legs of waiting patients, who were forced to sit on the floor, as they tried to see to everyone. No wonder the majority of the roads Chris had driven down were empty, it looked like most of the town's population were all here in this one hospital.

"Yeah, it's pretty packed" Chris heard from behind her, the doctor turning to see her friend and police officer Aaron Robinson standing behind her with a worried expression on his face, Aaron not even looking down to his friend as he studied each and every patient in the room as if he was just waiting for something to go wrong.

"Yeah...what the hell happened? I heard it was bad but...I didn't know it was this bad"

"As far as I can tell, the majority of the town is falling ill with...some kind of illness. I overheard some of the other doctors talking about it, sounded like its pretty weird. A lot of people are showing signs of something going on with them then you have others who are showing no signs at all...like its some kind of disease targeting certain people"

This caused Chris to give her friend a look of disbelief "Diseases don't just target certain people Aaron, it has to be something else" Chris told him before she began to move forward into the overcrowded room in order to sign in at reception, Aaron following closely behind her as he leaned in to whisper so only she would hear him.

"Something else? as in a possible terrorist attack?"

As quickly as she could, Chris gave him a glare to tell him to not talk like that around so many civilians who could already be at the stage of panic, Chris finishing writing her name down at reception before she gestured for him to follow her around the corner where they could speak more privately, without any risk of anyone else listening in on their conversation.

"Don't be quick to assume Aaron, it could be anything. Quickly assuming it is a terrorist attack is what causes all the conflict these days"

"So what else could it be?"

Chris opened her mouth to reply, she wasn't even sure what she would say but she knew that the last thing she wanted was a good friend of hers to be worrying about Coracre Town being the site of a terrorist attack. However, before the doctor could say anything in response, there was suddenly a lot of commotion filling the waiting room as one of the waiting patients suddenly began throwing up a lot of blood while the rest of the waiting patients frantically tried to get away from the sick patient, pushing and climbing over each other to get to the other side of the room.

"Help me" Chris called out to the doctors at reception before she quickly sprinted into the waiting room, nearly coming to a sliding stop as she knelt beside the patient as he continued to throw up, a lot of blood beginning to come out along with the vomit but before Chris could even do anything the patient's body started shaking uncontrollably and, before anyone could have guessed it, he collapsed to the ground, not breathing.

"Get me a defibrillator, NOW" Chris called out as a nurse came over and knelt on the other side of the patient, the rest of the patients clearly panicking from the other side of the room, while Chris quickly ripped the patient's shirt in half, exposing his chest for her too see just as the defibrillator was brought over to her.

"Try and get a pulse" Chris told the nurse who immediately got to work on pressing his hands on the patient's chest and pushing at the correct rhythm of one, two, three while Chris was quick to get the machine working, rubbing the two paddles together before she held them above the patient, giving the nurse enough time to move to a clear distance.

"CLEAR!"

Zap.

"CLEAR!"

Zap.

"Still no pulse" the nurse reported while Chris got the defibrillator ready again, the nurse working hard to get the heart back into actions with his hands until Chris got into position again. This was it. Either the patient would wake up or Chris would have to give up by the rules of defibrillator usage.

"CLEAR!"

Zap....nothing.

This caused Chris to sigh as she placed the paddles of the defibrillator down to the ground before looking up to the nurse who was clearly looking sad down to the patient "Call the time of death and then get him transferred to a private room" she told him before getting up off the floor and heading back over to Aaron, who had been watching her sadly this entire time, whispers passing around the other patients as they exchanged worried glances.

There was a moment of pause between the two friends as a few of the nurses lifted the dead patient onto a bed before transferring him down the corridor, Chris watching them disappear around the corner before she felt Aaron's hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention back to him.

"You can't save them all Chris"

"I know...I know. Doesn't make it any easier"

Aaron gave a understanding nod to that, pausing for a moment to look over the waiting room as patients began returning to their spots, clearly being cautious of the blood stained vomit as they did. They both remained silent for a few minutes until Aaron finally broke the silence by speaking.

"I need to go. James and Alysha got called over to the town's college because of some problem over there so I have to get back to the station, although i'll likely take a long drive around town first. See if I can find any clues to what is going on....you stay safe, alright?"

Chris just silently nodded, looking down the corridor and not even fazing when Aaron leaned down and pressed a kiss on her cheek before he left her alone to her thoughts. The doctor leaning her head back against the wall as she let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

Today was going to be a long day.

"So...would you like anything to eat?"

Tracey shook her head.

"Anything to drink?"

Again, Tracey shook her head.

Nicki narrowed her eyebrows in curiosity as she looked at the young girl sitting at the other side of her kitchen table, Tracey herself just looking down at her book of drawings, yet again flicking through each and every one of the pictures, remaining very quiet.

"So, is there anything you do want?" Nicki asked her, moving to take a seat directly opposite from Tracey who seemed to pause in thought for a moment before shaking her head and returning her attention back to her drawings, Nicki pursing her lips together in thought for a moment as she studied the little girl.

The two of them had been like this for about an hour and Nicki, being a naturally good teacher, had been able to learn a couple of things from Tracey, even if the girl didn't respond in anyway but shakes of the head. For one she had learned that the girl was a very quiet person, reminding Nicki of herself back when she was young, which she assumed was due to Tracey being a natural mute.

Nicki had also learned that the child, not long enjoyed writing, but had a passion for art, more specifically outside art which was making Nicki curious as to why Tracey hadn't asked if they could go outside during the entire time they had sat at the table and finally Nicki decided to ask that very question.

"Why don't you want to go out?"

There was a pause from Tracey, the little girl looking up to Nicki with a bit of a surprised expression before she looked back down and took one of her sticky notes out of her backpack, beginning to write something down on it. That was another thing Nicki had come to notice, Tracey seemed to prefer writing on sticky notes and then use paper for other things, such as drawing.

Nicki couldn't help but feel sorry for the little girl, she seemed so bright yet her muteness had clearly taken its toll on herself, as if she saw it as a hinderance to do most of anything.

This thought process would then be broken when she noticed that Tracey was holding up a sticky note that made Nicki feel even more bad for her. It read "i'm scared of dogs"

"Ah" Nicki said as she turned her head to look outside into her garden, watching as her family dog Buddy happily ran around, ears flapping about as he chased all the butterflies that had gathered around. Nicki then allowed a soft smile to appear on her face as she turned to look back at Tracey, looking the nervous girl in the eyes.

"I promise Buddy, my dog, is completely harmless. He wouldn't hurt anyone. In fact i'm pretty sure he's too dumb too" Nicki said jokingly, trying to earn a smile from the girl but not too any success which caused Nicki to pause before she came up with an idea "I tell you what, why I don't I go out there and make sure Buddy stays away from you? He's a good dog and he'll remain on the other side of the garden from you, yeah?"

There was another long pause from Tracey, the little girl clearly thinking it over before she then looked back up to Nicki and gave a short nod which then led to Nicki smiling as she stood up from her seat again, reaching over the table to stroke through Tracey's hair for a moment before she headed outside, hearing Tracey getting up from her own seat from behind her.

Opening the door, Nicki smiled when she saw Buddy suddenly come to a stop in all his running when he saw her coming out to join him, Buddy's tail wagging behind him as he patiently sat down and waited for his owner to walk over to him, Nicki running a hand through his fur and stroking him the moment she had reached him and knelt down beside him.

"Hey Bud" she whispered to her dog as she stroked his fur, smiling at the loyal dog as she petted him, Nicki seeing Tracey standing at the back door, waiting to come out, out of the corner of her eye before Nicki focused fully on Buddy "I know you understand me and i'm going to need you to stay away from the little one, alright?"

Buddy was just tilting his head at her, Nicki was sure if another adult was watching her right now they would call her an idiot and say that animals don't understand humans, however Nicki knew that Buddy, while he was a silly dog, knew what to do and when to do it "I know you're a good boy but she is scared, okay?" she whispered to him and once she had gave his ears a couple of strokes and pointed to the other side of the garden, Buddy near immediately ran over to his assigned spot and laid down patiently.

"You can come out now" Nicki called out to a surprised Tracey who, while cautious of the dog, walked out into the garden and joined Nicki at the assigned part of the garden, multiple butterflies flying about nearby as Tracey sat down onto the grass beside her, Tracey holding up another sticky note that read "Thank you" before the little girl then opened up her notepad and looked to the butterflies gathered around them as she began to draw.

Nicki just smiled and ruffled the girl's hair before silently sitting next to her, letting out a short breath as she observed Tracey's drawing, Nicki quickly becoming impressed at the skillful drawing she was watching before she then turned her head to look over to Buddy who had began to just happily roll around in the grass causing Nicki to shake her head in amusement.

Maybe she was wrong, maybe this was going to be a good day.

His head hurt as if it was on fire, his body felt uncomfortable and itchy no matter how he laid, no matter how much he scratched every part of his body. Benjamin just couldn't get rid of the strange and painful feelings he was having all over his body and as he raised a hand to his forehead, he could feel himself beginning to sweat.

Ben could also feel himself out of breath, as if he had been running around the entire town at the fastest speed he could go, while he frantically reached to his bedside table and grabbed a glass of cold water, accidently knocking the picture of him and his wife when they were teenagers to the floor, the glass smashing when it struck the floor.

Although Ben didn't pay no attention to it as he used his hand, which he had yet to realize was actually shaking as if someone was violently greeting him with a handshake, to lift the glass of cold water to his lips and drink as if his life depended on it, only for Ben to let out a growl and spit the water out, the liquid feeling as hot as larva in his mouth as he dropped the glass down beside him, it too smashing to the ground.

"What...wha-what the hell?" Ben said to himself, his voice barely coming out in a whisper and sounding all croaky as he stared at his shaking hands. He was pretty sure that water had been cold only three minutes ago when he took a sip.

He also came to notice that it was getting harder for him to breath and as he rubbed his eyes a couple of times with his shaking hands, his vision suddenly began to get blurry, blurry to the point that he could barely see right in front of him as everything turned to white.

"H-help...H-help"

Ben's begging came out more like whimpers as he found it hard for him to raise himself off the bed and get up into a standing position, the man seemingly not noticing the fact he stepped directly on all the glass he had knocked to the floor previously, as he walked out of his and Nicki's bedroom and headed down the corridor, calling out for his wife along the way while the glass pieces got stuck to his feet and dug in deep, drawing out blood.

"N-Nick-Nicki?"

Ben was having to lean on the wall for support now as his body felt heavy, felt as if he was carrying the weight of the entire world on his shoulders as he was barely able to walk a few more feet before he fell forward to the floor and hit his head hard onto the corridor's carpet while the rest of his body began to feel worse, hurting more and more as each moment went by.

"Nick-Nicki!"

He could barely hear his own voice now as Ben reached up and touched his head with one of his hands, luckily feeling no blood, however the itchiness around his body was getting worse and he couldn't help but begin to scratch himself, roughly scratching at every part of his body that felt unbearable itchy as he desperately wanted the feeling to stop. He didn't like it, whatever was causing himself to be like this.

After a few minutes of doing nothing but scratching, Ben finally stopped himself, letting out a groan of disappointment to the fact he still felt itchy, before turning his head to see that he was right next to one of the house's bathrooms, Ben managing to pull himself together just enough so he could crawl into the room, his legs feeling as if they were paralyzed but he didn't care, he just needed to get himself into the bathroom as he knew the floor would be much more cooler.

"Ah-Ah that's better" Ben told himself as he came to lay on the cool bathroom floor, the man resting his head back on the cold surface as he looked up to the tiled ceiling, as much as he could see through his blurry eyes anyway, most of his vision having become nearly completely white as if he was mostly blind.

Little did Ben know that blood was beginning to trickle out of his nose, slightly blocking up his nose passages as he tilted his head back. However his hard breathing became the least of his problems as he began to scratch at his skin again, hoping that the cold floor would help give him comfort if he could scratch until the itchiness of his skin disappeared.

However, scratching at his skin was the last thing Ben should have done, as he began to scratch at his skin until it began to tear off, not a lot but enough to cause him to begin bleeding from multiple places while the wounds he had received in his feet after stepped on the glass earlier were still causing him to bleed out, although not too heavily as the glass was also keeping the wounds mostly closed.

"Pl-please just l-leave me alone, al-alone!"

Unfortunately Ben couldn't even hear his own voice at this point and, unknown to the man himself, he wasn't even speaking any words anymore, in fact Ben hadn't said anything in this entire time. He had only thought he did. Just like the fact there was actually nothing itchy about his body, his mind was just telling him to scratch as if there was.

Unknown to Ben, he was becoming a victim to his own corrupted mind.

"LEAVE ME ALONE"

Ben screamed and screamed, he was so sure his wife should be hearing him by now as he began to kick with his feet in an effort to make as much noise as possible, only to bury the glass deeper into his feet and resulting in Ben letting out even louder screams, the poor man suddenly being able to feel all the pain around his entire body as he realized that he was beginning to bleed out, heavily now, and that it wouldn't be long before he lost consciousness.

However, it was too late for Ben to do anything now as he couldn't even lift himself up the cold floor, all he could do was keep on screaming and screaming in a desperate hope that someone would hear him, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks now as he got more and more scared, scared of how powerless he was to stop himself from dying.

This fear only got worse when Ben managed to tilt his head and look up to the mirror he had placed on the wall earlier, his eyes widening as he came to realize one seriously terrifying thing.

His eyes were pure white.

"No, n-no, no. NO, NO, NO, NO" Ben began screaming again, after only a brief moment of pause out of fear, while he raised his hands to his face and began to scratch at his eyes, hoping to take away the terrifying image, get the thought out of his mind so he could pretend that everything was okay.

Ben didn't care that it hurt, he didn't care that he could no longer see anything as he scratched at his eyes, feeling blood spurt out from his sockets as he desperately stretched, he wouldn't stop until he could no longer see the image in his head.

It was only another whole painful minute before Ben finally bled out from his wounds.

"So, are you now gonna tell me what's going on?" Alysha asked James as the latter pulled their police car outside the college entrance, the two police officers noting the lack of cars around them in the parking lot while James himself shrugged and turned the engine of the vehicle off.

"I'm not sure exactly, all we know is the principal was giving a speech to the new students before he suddenly starting throwing up, throwing up blood. Everyone apart from a few of the teachers were sent back home, hospital of course sent an ambulance but.."

"The ambulance hasn't checked in with the hospital, has it?"

"No"

Both officers then fell into silence, considering what they know for a moment as the silence quickly began to get eerie, the streets and roads should have been filled with passing people and cars, the college should have been bursting with life.

Instead it was just complete silence, too silent.

"Hey...look at the side entrance" Alysha suddenly said, pointing over to a smaller door nearby the main entrance. At first James couldn't see anything that was out of the ordinary, however when he leaned in and squinted to look closer, he saw exactly what she was pointing out and it sent a chill down his spine, there was blood, all around the door.

"Be on guard" James told his partner, surprising Alysha when he reached to his side and drew his pistol before he exited the vehicle and began to cautiously walk towards the side entrance covered in blood, leaving Alysha to also draw her weapon before exiting the vehicle and following closely behind him, both officers on full alert.

"What do you think happened?" Alysha asked her partner as they both approached the bloody side door however before James could decide what he wanted to say in reply, they came around a corner and came to see the site around them was more bloodier than they both expected "Oh...god" was the only thing Alysha could say.

James himself remained silent as he crouched down and observed their surroundings. The door was, as they had already seen, plastered with blood and the door's glass was broken. On top of that there was blood over the floor at their feet "It looks as if something was dragged out here" was James's only comment as he reached down to run a finger along the blood, noting that it must have happened recently but he could tell by his partner's silence that she was already aware of that.

"Whatever happened here, whatever did this might still be here" James said bluntly, he had decided not to bounce around the truth, he decided that there was too much blood and adding that along with the fact the ambulance team hadn't reported in, it just wasn't possible for it to be anything else.

Something did this.

"Call the station, I think we'll need back up on this" James told Alysha as he turned the safety off of his pistol while he stood up from his crouching position before then raising his gun towards the bloody door, giving Alysha a nod of confidence before he turned his attention back to the door, slowly pulling the door open and peeking inside while Alysha went back to the police car in order to call in some support from the station.

Neither of the two officers noticing, or hearing, a small amount of blood dripping down from the roof and down into an, already large, puddle of blood.

Climbing into the police cruiser, Alysha got herself comfortable into the passenger seat and closed the door behind her, watching as her officer partner James entered the building out of the corner of her eye while she reached down and grabbed the radio, flicking in on before she began to speak into it.

"This is officer Alysha calling into the station, requesting support at Coracre Town's college, over."

Silence.

"I repeat, this is officer Alysha requesting assistance at Coracre Town's college, over."

Again, silence.

Now Alysha was getting confused. For the station not to answer on the first request is acceptable, someone might not be directly at the radio. However a second time? Either something was wrong at the station or every officer had been called out to the field because Alysha knew all the officers in the station, not a single one of them was lazy.

However, before Alysha could call out for James, there was a sudden slamming sound as something hit the hood of the car and hit it hard which caused Alysha to jerk up to attention and see the window screen slightly cracked but that wasn't the worst thing she saw ahead of her. The worst thing she had seen was currently sprawled out along the car's hood in a mess.

It was a dead body.

Alysha immediately reached for her gun, flicking the safety switch off as she tried to remain calm while she looked all around the car, not only trying to see what suddenly made the body slam onto the hood of their car but also to try and see where her partner currently was. Although something then caught her eye while she was looking towards the side door James had entered but it wasn't until she faced the front of the car again that she realized what it was.

Standing right in front of the car was principal Nicholas Combs, someone Alysha had known from her own days in college, back when she was there he was still a teacher but she had heard of his promotion, a promotion that he deserved. However it didn't take Alysha to be smart to realize that whatever was standing in front of the car wasn't him.

The principal was completely soaked in blood, some of it looked like his but Alysha was sure that the majority of it was from the body that, must have been, thrown onto the car. The principal's mouth was hanging open with both saliva and blood dripping from his teeth and lips but even that wasn't the most terrifying feature on the principal.

What made Alysha scream before the monstrous looking principal dived forward towards the car was his eyes.

His cold, white and dead eyes.