Are You Sure It’s Not A Monster? Part 1

“Keep unauthorized personnel out of this building,” a police officer says as more officers clear a crowd away from Mulford's office. Lucy Quan makes her way through the crowd, “Lucy over here!” the officer waves to her.

    “Maze, how bad is it?” She asked him.
    “Bad, but you knew that didn’t you?” he looks at her.
    “I wouldn’t have asked if I did” she looks at him eyeing a broken window on the third floor. She looks down to see a small black spider crawling on the wall behind Maze. Lucy nods and rushes up the stairs. She comes to Mulford's office where it’s blocked off, she notices a necklace on the ground, it has the letter D on it “Deb” she sighs. Lucy takes a deep breath and touches it and her eyes glow, she sees Deb going into Mulford's office.
    “Who are you?” someone calls out to her shocking her, but she clutches onto the necklace and stashes it into her pocket. “I said, who are you?” she stands up to see a man in a long trench coat.
    “I’m Lucy Quan, head journalist, and field reporter for Fallen Oaks Media. I was working on the Mulford case until the judge let him go” she said as he just glares at her.
    “I’ve heard of you, and I bet you’re happy he’s dead,” the man said to her.
    “I wanted the bastard brought to justice not dead,” Lucy said as she sees another spider.
    “It’s still Justice isn’t it?” he asked her.
    “No, he died an innocent man in the eyes of the law and the people, that’s not what I call Justice,” she said to him as she walks into Mulford's office. She covers her nose to avoid the intoxicating smell, “My God” she looks all over the office and sees web covering the walls. She steps on something, it was like she was stepping on rubber. She looks down “Oh my god” she turns her head quickly stopping herself from throwing up as she sees Debs skin on the floor.
    “That’s not even the worst part” the man walks in behind her and points her over to the corner. Lucy goes to the corner to see Mulford’s mauled body covered in web. She can’t look, as she can see the horror in his eyes, but she does not feel sorry for him, but at the same time she does not feel any relief. “We found Mulford’s computer, a lot of interesting and sickening evidence one might say enough to get him to put in prison or on the electric chair”.
    “It wasn’t enough or else he would be rotting and dying in prison instead of here” she goes over to see a broken flash drive and she notices Mulford’s printer was used and his computer was connected to it. “Have you guys examined the computer yet?” she asked.
    “Nah, but someone left the password and everything for us to find,” he said to her.
    “Thank you…”
    “Detective Jeckle, I was just moved here and this was my very first assignment, nice welcoming gift” he chuckled as Lucy rushes to the door. 
    “Keep me informed, I work with Officer Maze” she takes out a phone.
    “What monster could have done this?” the detective asked himself as Lucy paused.
    “It wasn’t a monster” she leaves and the door closes behind her as the detective looks at Mulford's body again.
    “Are you sure it wasn’t a monster?” he said as a spider crawls from out of Mulford’s mouth.

Vincent King Radio Station
“Alright guys it’s hitting midnight, and I want to leave you all with these beautiful words which can only be translated through song. I am Ripley Stephens and goodnight…” Ripley plays, Fly Me To The Moon as he puts down his headset and smiles at a picture. He almost cries, but he soon hears a knock on his door he pulls himself together “Come in” he clears his face as two people walk in.
“Ripley is it okay if Ridger uses your set for the night, his is still under construction,” an old woman says as Ripley just rolls his eyes.
“Whatever, just don’t mess anything up and leave it how you found it” Ripley shoves Ridger out of the way while Ridger just nods at the old woman and rushes out to follow Ripley.
“Rip wait!” he grabs him.
“What do you want Ridger?” Ripley avoids eye contact with him.
“So, I’m back at Ridger now?” he says disappointedly. 
“Pretty much yeah” 
“You’re acting like, I let that bastard go!” Ridger said to him, “I know what happened to your cousin, and if I could have stopped it I would have, but me interviewing that monster did not have a hand in it” he takes a deep breath while Ripley just ignores him leaving the hallway.
Ripley makes it to his car where he notices he has four missed calls, “What is it Laurie?” he says to himself as he cranks up and drives away.

Lucy & Debs Apartment
    “Maze, I just don’t know why she would do this?” Lucy paces herself around her living room.
    “Maybe she slipped for a moment” Maze tries to calm her down.
    “Mattie, the last time she slipped up like this, she didn’t kill someone. I mean if you could have only seen what she did to his body, it was horrific” Lucy covers her eyes recalling what she saw in Mulford's office.
    “I would have liked to” Maze cracked his knuckles.
    “Mattie….”
    “No, Lucy, she did what countless others wanted to do, kill a pedophile!”
    “That doesn’t make it right” she pulls her long black hair back while taking a deep breath “And the people out there don’t even know the limits or the cost Deb possibly paid by doing that” Lucy looks at him pausing.
    “What the hell would have we done then, Lucy!? The evidence we had should have been enough to have him locked away for life, but he got off. Who knows how many other children he would have gotten to if she had not killed him” Maze tries to fight back tears. As Lucy gets up to hug him.
    “I know” Lucy said to him, “But I still gotta find her and figure out what she printed off his computer. Knowing Deb, it can’t be good” Lucy lets him go.
    “I can help”
    “No, I’ll call when I need you, but until then let me handle this” Lucy said as she pulls out Debs necklace and she clutches it. 

Fallen Oaks Park
    “You can’t be mad at him forever Ripley” Preston, his sisters says as she tosses a ball back to a child.
    “He should have never interviewed that sick bastard” Ripley said as he checked his phone.
“It’s his job, and you’re acting like he let him go” Preston said as Ripley just tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Look, I know how close you were to this case, but Ridger was only doing his job” Preston said as she noticed a young child venturing off. “Hey, Pete stay where I can see you!” she said as Ripley just took a deep breath.
“I’m just so pissed that he got off and is walking around this town free” Ripley said while Preston looked at him confused. “What?”
“Didn’t you hear?” she asked him as she pulls out her phone, Ripley takes it from her and reads headline, Mulford Mauled by Wild Animal in Office. “It’s been all over the news, there were some pics showing his body whatever it was ripped him a new one, literally” Preston said as Ripley just read the article.
“What he deserves” Ripley said as he noticed Pete go into the center. “Hey, I’ll be right back, Pete wandered into the center” Ripley gets up and goes after him.
“Thank you Rip” Preston said as she tosses another ball.
In the center, Ripley was moving inside it very carefully as it was under construction. Ripley finds Pete standing in a doorway, “Pete what are you doing in here?” Ripley picked him up, but noticed that he was pointing at something, he looks to see that it’s a mirror. Ripley puts him down and looks into it taking a deep breathe. He looks to see his reflection, but the lights begin to flicker on and off and Ripley looks away from it for a quick moment, but as soon as he looks back he sees some type of black creature looking back at him. It’s mouth dripping saliva, its eyes glowing red, Ripley could not look away as he examined the creature more. It had a large tail, and it’s skin looked like armor with scales, it’s head was large and its mouth full of teeth. The lights flicker again and the creature is gone from the mirror. 
“Pete! Ripley!” Preston enters the building calling them. Ripley picks up Pete and leaves.
“Sorry it took so long, I thought I saw something” Ripley said as Pete just smiled at him and ran back off to play with the other kids. Ripley could not get the image of the creature out of his head. It felt like he was looking at himself.
“Are you okay?” Preston asked him.
“Yeah, I’m fine, hey I gotta go and get ready for Laurie to come” Ripley said to Preston.
“Oh that’s right she is arriving today” Peston said as she rolled her eyes.
“She’s our sister” Ripley said to her.
“Half-sister, and why is she coming here, miss accepted into 5 HBCUs” she said sarcastically.
“For school and to be with us, mom and dad want it this way, what time will you be home?” Ripley asked her as he takes out his keys.
“I have an audition, so I’ll be home late tonight hopefully she will be asleep by the time I come home” Preston smiled aggressively then frowned.
“WE’LL see you at home” Ripley hugged her and got in his car and drove away.

Kingdom Manor
    Ripley arrives home and he sees Ridger sitting on his doorstep, “Ridger” Ripley begins to speak, but before he could say anything else Ridger stops him mid-sentence.
    “Look, I’m sorry for doing the interview, but I never meant to give that sicko any positive notes, Nora, persuaded me to do it, saying it would be best and that everyone deserves a chance to defend themselves and…” before he is able to conclude his thought Ripley stops him.
    “I understand, I got some perspective and was able to think about it, you were only doing your job. I was the one not being professional” Ripley sits down on the porch and Ridger sits next to him.
    “That’s what makes you so great, you put emotion in your work”
    “Yeah, but sometimes we need to take the emotion out of it to see things clearly” Ripley takes a deep breath and looks at the sky. “I’m sorry I was so hard on you,” Ripley says as Ridger puts his hand on top of his.
    “No need to be sorry” Ridger says as he leans in.
    “This isn’t one of those types of moments Ridge” Ripley chuckles as Ridger just grins, but then something hits Ripley's thought pattern “Wait did you say Nora convinced you to do the interview?” Ripley said as Ridger just nodded and began to speak, but something yanks him away into the sky. He screams, “What the hell!?” Ripley was caught off guard as he noticed a string of thick web on the ground. He then starts to see red as he leaps up into the air. Landing on the roof, he sees Ridger being wrapped in a web by some large and gigantic spider-like monster.
    “Ripley run!” he hears Ridger speak before his mouth is covered in web.
    “Let him go!” Ripley jumps into the air only for the spider monster to throw a branch at him knocking him into the trunk of a thick tree and landing on the ground. The creature then leaps away taking Ridger with it.