AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

26| THE ARTICLE

Sometime during the night, Callas managed to fall asleep. The police file—that she was certain was Reed's—was tucked away in one of the drawers of her desk. She would have to return it at some point, but she probably wasn't going to be home before Reed, so that posed as a problem. She had woken up sometime before her alarm went off, her hand turned the alarm off before it was ready to go off. Callas sat up, immediately staring at her desk, maybe she had imagined the whole thing. But she knew better than to assume that. She checked the time, 'five fifty-four a.m.', and pushed the covers off herself, walking over to her desk. The desk draw was locked, she picked up the small key from underneath one of her school books and opened the draw slightly. The file was still there. When she pushed the draw back in and locked it, a small huff left her lips. Her eyes flickered to the computer screen—she hadn't exited any of the documents, she needed to look at them in more detail.

When she walked over to her wardrobe and opened it up, she noticed Embry's jumper was hanging up. Anya must have assumed it was hers, or Reed must have told her it wasn't and that it wasn't his either. Callas unhooked the jumper from the hanger and folded it up, placing it on the chest at the end of her bed, noting to put it in her bag before she left. When she picked out her clothes she walked over to the bathroom, getting dressed, her eyes constantly moving back and forth between the doorway and the mirror. She placed her pyjama's in the washing basket and walked out. Knowing that she still had a few hours before she would have to be at school, she moved over to her desk, turning on her computer screen. A shaky sigh escaped from her as she clicked onto the document about her mother's death. It would be the first time that she read it, she wasn't sure what she was going to find. Callas was only around two-years-old when her mother died, the article was just over fourteen-years-old, and her father had died barely a year ago, so she had to brace herself for what she would read.

It comes as no shock to the people of La Push, Washington, that the recent bear attack activities have risen in the last few months more than it has in the last century or so. It's hard to determine why these levels have spiked, or what might have caused the sudden shift, but it's clear to those working on these cases, and the professionals at the nearest hospitals, that the victims of these unfortunate and devastating events have, in fact, been drained of their blood. Although there isn't much evidence to suggest that these attacks were, in fact, foul play and left for the bears, it's obvious that the bears were not able to drain these victims almost completely of their blood without there being large pools surrounding the victims. Callas sat back with her eyebrows furrowed before she scrolled and continued reading. The blood drained victims have been found with bruising around their wrists and necks, although it's hard to tell what might have caused those injuries due to the conditions the bodies had been left in, but we do know that they were injuries sustained prior to the post-mortem autopsies.

Callas quickly left the page and looked onto the other document. One of the tabs on the folklore spoke about 'blood suckers', but that was all that it was, folklore. She clicked back onto the article and continued. A few of the bodies, that were examined, also showed two puncture wounds around the base of the neck. That could suggest that someone had placed two tubes into the holes to remove the victims blood before transporting the bodies away to a different location, as the neck is known to have the cardiovascular system that has veins and arteries that return deoxygenated blood to and from the brain and other organs. The article then went on to explain about blood flow and the functionings of the human bodies. Callas continued to scroll until her mother's name popped up. Her lips parted and her heart began to pump quicker, her palms sweating.

One victim, identified as Freya Quinn, was also found deep in the forest. The coroner's report claimed that she had been drained of blood before her body had been mutilated by claw-like blades—or what was later revealed as bear claws—and her heart was removed surgically, most likely before her body was dumped. Callas froze. Her mother wasn't just killed. Her mother was murdered. By a human. Not a bear, a human. No one had told her that, although she couldn't blame them. What child would want to hear that their parent was murdered and left out for an animal? It dehumanised her mother. Wanting to know more, Callas scrolled down again. It is unclear as to why Quinn's heart was removed, while the other victims still had remnants of their organs left behind, including their hearts. But it is safe to say that Quinn's family can rest easy as a suspect was taken into custody earlier this morning and confessed to the murder of, one, Freya Quinn. For safety reasons of the suspect's family, we will not reveal any names. For more information, or if you have any information regarding this article, please contact—