"Claire look," Brent began as he spun and faced the woman in the back seat of the police car. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to come with us."

Claire gave a frustrating sigh and then glared at Brent.

"I've told you Brent," she hissed. "If you're trying change my mind, you're wasting your time."

"Wasting my time?" Brent turned and faced her fully now. "Claire, you're putting yourself in danger. I mean, we don't even know what we're gonna find out there."

Claire said nothing. She just kept staring at the windscreen ahead, averting Brent's worried gaze.

"Claire, Listen to me, please," Brent leaned in closer to her and gave a heavy whisper. "You've got kids."

"And so do you," she fired; with her eyes suddenly darting and piercing into his.

"That's a different thing Claire, I'm a Co-."

"Brent," Claire faced him now with eyes that were burning with rage. "I swear to God, if you don't start driving right now, I'll....".

"Okay...Okay...Okay," Brent said as he tilted his gaze forward, raising his hands in surrender.

Claire just noticed Larry sitting beside Brent on the Passenger seat because he had started at chuckle at the entire situation.


"What's so funny?" she fired again.


Larry's smile suddenly disappeared as he spun to face the woman beside him. "Um-Nn...Nothing," he stuttered and sunk in his seat like a child that had just been called to order.

Claire moved her gaze away from him and faced the screen again as the Car engine roared to life. She heard Brent muttering something under his breath that obviously had to do with her, but she ignored him.

They drove for almost six minutes. Claire was about to ask why it was taking so long, but then she remembered what Liam had said the last time they saw after the meeting with the police officers.

Their meeting point was going to be at the outskirts of the town since the forests out there were thicker and that meant if there was any hiding place for the animal, it was definitely somewhere out there since the town was thier feeding ground. She immediately felt the hair at the back of her neck stand when she had that thought.

She looked out her window into the impending darkness. She could see the green fields of Wilson farm slowly passing by. She remembered how it was before all this started. There would be sheep roaming about the fields along with the horses; grazing about, but now, the farm was like a haunted house, or. a haunted farm at least.

As they drove along, the road began to get even more deserted as the cars that passed them by were beginning to reduce in numbers. The woods were beginning to thicken and Claire was beginning to question her reason for coming along.

After a while, they came to a stop on a path about a few metres off the main road. The headlights focused on a large group of men gathered at the side. They all had thier uniforms on, so Claire could make out the fact that they were all officers.

When Claire got out of the car, she saw Liam walking over to them, but then he stopped short and froze when he saw her.

He immediately spun to face Brent. "What the hell is she doing here?" she heard him hiss.

Brent raised his shoulder and walked past the man to meet Chief Kent at the other side were he stood with the Rangers. He was obviously not going to discuss the issue again.


Liam immediately turned his cold eyes to face Claire and then he began walking over to her. She pushed the door shut and straightened up as she saw Liam approach.

"What are you doing here?" Liam hissed as soon as he reached her.


"I came to help," she said as she raised her chin to him.

Liam's jaws clenched as he kept glaring at the woman infront of him. He was seething. Claire, on the other hand, was surprised at his concern of her safety.

"We don't need your help,Dr. Hayes," Liam whispered heavily. "Go Home."



"I'm not going anywhere," Claire fired back. "What if one of these men need medical attention?"


"That's why the paramedics are here," Liam hissed as he pointed to a van a few yards away but his eyes were still on her.



"It doesn't matter," Claire shrugged. "I'm staying. You'll need someone with medical expertise."

Liam didn't really do a good job at holding back his rage now as it was clear to the woman that Liam wanted to lift her up and stuff her in the trunk of the car or something.

"Miss Hayes," Liam started. "You don't understand, it's not safe here. You could get hurt. Hell, your not even armed."


"It's Mrs," Claire uttered as she walked past him. "...and I can take care of myself, thank you very much."


She suddenly felt the strongest human grip she had ever felt in her life. It was like she had caught her hand in a vice. Claire spun to face Liam whose eyes were a cold as ice.

"Let go of me," Claire demanded.

"No", Liam hissed.

"Okay Doc!," Kent called from far. He and his men were off loading ammunitions from a particularly dark-blue van. "We're ready to get this show on road."


He nodded at the chief of police. "Give me a minute!," Liam shouted before he turned his glare back to the lady before him.

"I said let go of me," Claire struggled a little. She had seen, from the little fight that he put up, she was no match for Liam.

"Larry!" he called with his eyes still on Claire.

Larry spun and jogged over to meet them beside Brent's car.

"Yeah?" Larry uttered in confusion at the sight of Liam's grip on Claire's arm.


"Stay with Mrs. Hayes in the car," Liam said before he shifted his gaze to Larry. "Make sure she doesn't go anywhere."


Larry's eyes darted from Liam to Claire and back. "Okay?" Larry made his uncertainty about the matter obvious. They spun when they heard footsteps, and then they saw Tate walking over to them.



"Kate," Liam called out with a worried look on his face. "What's wrong?"

Tate walked up to them and that was when Claire noticed he was sweating.

"I don't feel so good," Tate uttered. "I-I think i'll just seat this one out."


Liam rolled his eyes as if he was expecting Tate to say that. He then shifted his gaze to Claire and noticed she had lowered her guard while she was studying Tate curiously. He knew there was no way Larry would be able to get her in that car alone with out getting his ass kicked,so he suddenly had an idea.

This was his chance.

Suddenly, he opened the back door of the car, pulled Claire close to him and flung her into the back seat.


"Hey!," Claire shouted. "How dare you?!"


Liam slammed the door and pinned it down fast to make sure she couldn't get out. "Open this door now!,"Claire shouted as she struggled with the car door.


Liam faced Tate and Larry as he ignored Claire's protests. "You three are gonna have to stay behind," Liam uttered.



Then they heard an unfamiliar voice scream out an African sentence. They spun and saw a shirtless Jelani beckoning for Liam to join them at the gathering. Liam raised his hands and shouted another African utterance that Tate and Larry could make out as an "I'm coming" or a "Hold on".

Liam spun to Claire and winked at her with a smirk.

"Oh screw you," Claire growled.

Then Liam jogged off to meet the group and Larry watched him with admiration as he smiled. "He's awesome right," Larry said to Tate in an excited tone as he watched Liam leave. "Like India Jones Kinda Awesome."

Tate said nothing. He just turned and gave the young deputy and incredulous look, before he made his way into the car.

***

The forest was a shade of black and green. Crickets chirped everywhere and fire-flies were the only source of natural light because even the moon wasn't out.

Liam climbed a near by rock and stopped. He spun to see long rays of light produced by flashlights dancing behind him. That was a sign that they were still on his trail.

He spun and looked forward in the distance. Jelani was the only person infront of him, but it was clear now that even he wasn't fast enough to catch up with the Kenyan warrior.

"Holy shit," Brent appeared from nowhere, panting heavily.

He stopped and threw himself on one of the trees nearby. "I-I think i'm gonna pass out," he said with heavy breaths.

Patrick walked passed him. "You're a cop Brent," Patrick mocked. "Act like one."


"Exactly," Brent said. "I'm a cop, not Indiana-fucking-jones."


"It's funny," Liam chuckled as he kept moving. "You're not even in an African Jungle, and you're complaining."

"Nah," Patrick uttered. "He wouldn't last a day in an African Jungle."


Liam turned to face Patrick. "Neither would you."

Patrick stiffened and nodded in agreement as Brent chuckled. Liam was about to say something when Jelani's voice cut him off.

"Nyumba ya shetani!", Jelani yelled.

Everyone froze in confusion. No one understood what he was saying, no one, except Liam.


"Where?!" he shouted in response as he increased his pace, following the sound of Jelani's voice.


"What is he saying?" Patrick asked as he ran after Liam.


"The devil's lair," Liam said as he kept running. "He's found the devil's lair."


***


The men finally got to an open space in the woods. There were no trees, just rocks, grass and dead leaves all over the ground. Jelani immediately came into view, scaring some of the men with the way he walked out of the darkness with his bow and arrow across his back.

No one dared ask how he had found the place so fast because they figured, that was probably what he was brought here for. This was what he was good at.

"What did you find", Liam asked his African colleague.

Jelani raised his hands and pointed to what looked like a cave a few metres from them. "The devil's lair," he said.

Liam spun to face Chief Kent and his men and then gave them a nod. When he did, Kent spun and gave a signal that had all ten police officers stick out their rifles.

Donovan and Brent then walked forward and stopped beside Liam and Patrick with thier AKs trained on the entrance of the cave.

Liam tuned to the men beside him. "Okay boys," he whispered. "You ready?"


"Yep", Brent whispered.


"Let's kill this motherfucker," Donovan whispered.


Liam gave the signal for the others to wait outside in case the creature wanted to escape. He pulled out a flashlight and nodded at the two officers. Immediately, they made thier way into the cave with Liam and Patrick following behind them.




"This place stinks", one of the officers who was fat uttered from out side as he watched them go.

"Shut up, Ronny," another officer said.





"Ugh", Donovan uttered. "It stinks in here".

The five men made their way into the cave and Liam tried to ignore the heavy putrid smell that filled the stuffy air of the vicinity. Even with their flashlights, they could feel the rocks and stones crack easily beneath their feet in the darkness. They kept moving forward with both lights and guns trained.

Liam could hear Donovan's breathing quicken. His hands were trembling on his rifle.

"Would you relax?," Liam said. "It's night time, it's probably gone out to feed."

"You sure about that?" Brent uttered.

"Guys!" Patrick called from the corner.

They all spun and followed the sound of his voice and soon, they had all gathered at the top of what looked like another smaller cave that slanted downwards into the ground.

Patrick had found a part of the cave that seemed to descend downwards into the ground. They pointed flashlights down into the hole, but couldn't see a thing.

"You think it's down there?" Patrick asked; his voice was uneasy.

"Well," Liam said as he dropped his flashlight and his dart gun before putting himself in place to enter the cave. "There's only one way to find out."

"Are you crazy?," Patrick uttered with surprise when he found out what Liam was about to do. "You don't even know if it's down there."

Liam ignored him and went in, legs first, sliding through the roughness of the small cave.

"Liam?" Patrick uttered.

Jelani appeared immediately and followed; sliding into the cave effortlessly then Patrick relaxed a little at the fact that Liam was not alone at least.

Liam crashed to the ground hard and then a tiny sharp pain cut across his elbow.


"Shit" he cursed as he staggered upwards in time to see Jelani crawl out of the hole behind him.

"Je,wewe ni sawa ndugu (Are you alright brother?)" Jelani uttered as he hurried over to Liam and held him.

"Mimi ni sawa Jelani (I'm okay Jelani)," Liam sighed with his hands still rubbing his elbow.

Suddenly, Jelani slowly raised his head to something he had seen behind Liam. Liam saw the eyes of the African native widen slowly as his grip on his arm loosened.

"Nini Jelani? (What is it Jelani?)" Liam said.

"Wafu(The dead)," Jelani whispered. "Tupo katika bahari ya wafu (We are in the sea of the dead)."

Liam slowly spun and saw what Jelani was looking at. The entire floor of the cave was covered with skulls and bones. Some of them blood stained and fresh, while the others were dry and dusty.

"My God," Liam whispered in horror.

To the corner, Liam saw an old and worn out torn t-shirt on one of the half eaten skeletons that was on the floor. Backpacks, flashlights and face caps that looked as if they had been hear for ages.

Liam was shocked at the horror before him. He had been dealing with wild animals all his life, but he had never seen anything like this before. Never.

"Even Lions and Tigers don't do this."

"Lions and Tigers don't feed like this."

For the first time since he started working on this case, Liam became confused.


"Hii si pangó la mnyama (This isn't the den of an animal)," Jelani said. "Hii ni nyumba ya pepo (This is the home of a demon)."


"Everything okay down there?" Brent called from the top.

Liam said nothing. He was too shocked to utter a word. He kept staring at the ground filled with bones and skulls around him for minutes without even blinking.

Liam looked at Jelani. The African was as lost as he was. The two men glanced at each other.

"Watu hawa ni katika matatizo (These people are in trouble brother)," Jelani said in a cold voice.


"Yes Jelani," Liam replied in English, as his eyes scanned the area slowly.

".....Big trouble."

For the first time since he came to Cherrywood valley, Liam felt fear wash over him.

Please note, the language Liam and Jelani use in occasional communication is the East African language called "SWAHILI".