Kris hears my voice and goes rigid.

Slowly, he pivots towards me, a stunned expression on his face.

Yeah, he better go rigid. What the heck is he doing out here, spattered with blood and magically flying off trees? It's creepy.

I feel a chilly wind blow by and shudder. This entire situation is bizarre and unsettling. 

“What happened to you?” I ask quietly. Fallen leaves crunching under my mud-smeared saddle shoes as I slowly move towards him.

Kris still hasn’t turned around to face me.

I snap my fingers to get his attention.“Hey. We get back to class in like half an hour-,”

Suddenly, a low hiss interrupts the otherwise silent forest.

I squint and peer into the tenebrous darkness above Kris… and then I see it.

My eyes are greeted with a seven-foot tall monster, grunting, foaming at the mouth, and leering at Kris with murky, pupil-less slits. Its bloated, toad-like body is dripping with scarlet liquid in several places, while its mouth is hanging wide open. There are unnaturally pointy yellow-brown teeth growing here and there, like some prosthodontist tried refit this demon's mouth with a set of teeth but gave up halfway.

No. No way. What... is this? It feels like a clamp has latched itself onto my windpipe. I can’t scream. I can’t breathe.

I can only stand there in shock.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Kris shouts. His expression of shock has turned into one of pure anger. “You- how did you even find this place? Who are you?”

I don’t reply. I just stare at him in awe as he glowers at me. Meanwhile, the vile being behind him gathers its oversized body up and raises its long arms- which are equipped with dagger-like nails- and lets out a triumphant bark as it swings its right arm around.

That one motion snaps me out of my frozen state of shock and I screech, “Look out!”

Kris turns around just as the monster's arm whips around and slams straight into Kris' stomach, sending him flying in the air until he slams into a tree. His sword is knocked out of his hands by the impact of the blow. It skids on the grass and finally lands a few feet away from me.

I watch, horrified, as Kris slowly sinks down to the ground, his eyes closed.

Is he dead? 

I slowly bring my hand to my mouth. Judging by the force of the blow and the way that he's lying right now... he's dead. 

Tears begin to form in my eyes. I just witnessed a death. Even though Kris was a snobby, annoying stranger that was as bratty as the rest of these Websters… he didn't deserve to die! 

It strikes me that this was my fault. 

I’m the one that distracted him when he was fighting that thing. He was probably the one that caused all those gaping wounds on that terrible monster, and now he's gone. 

And speaking of that terrible monster…

It's looking at me now. 

Slowly, it dawns on me. Now that this frog-monster's overpowered Kris, it’s going for me now.

My short and sadly pathetic life flashes before my eyes. This is it. It’s my first day at Webster Academy and I’m going to get ripped to bloody shreds by a gigantic toad monster. This is like something out of a crappy low-budget sci-fi movie; not something out of real life! 

I should have never, ever, ever, gone into the forest. What was I thinking?!

Now I’ll never see Amy or Key or Jon or Emily or my sisters again.

No. I have to see my sisters again. No matter what.

Trembling, I slowly slide over to where Kris’ sword is lying in the dirt.

Its too-shiny, plastic-looking exterior doesn’t betray that this is a weapon of deadly force; no, it’s the crimson liquid dripping off of it that shows what this thing's capable of.

I’m careful not to make any sudden movements in front of the beast. I really don’t want to be toad food.

The frog isn’t looking at me anymore, though. For some reason it’s looking up at the sky, making strange gurgling noises from the back of its throat.

Why? I don’t know.

But I quickly close the gap between Kris’ weapon and I, and I pick up his sword.

As soon as my fingers make contact with the sweaty hilt of the sword, sparks of light begin crazily whizzing out of the thing. I bite my lip to stifle my terrified screech as I try to fling the sword away from me. But it’s like my hand and the blade are opposite ends of two magnets; they won’t move away from each other. Worse, I feel the blade begin to get hotter and hotter in my hand. I’m about to start shrieking and running all over the place in a panic, but then I hear a noise come from the frog-monster.

It’s no longer looking up at the sky.

Nope, now its eyes are definitely trained on me.

You’d be great for lunch, its expression seems to tell me.

Peachy.

Quivering, I turn and face the monster, steadying myself.

There’s no backing out now. Even though I know I’m going to be killed by the hands- or teeth- of this thing, I can’t give up without a fight. It killed Kris. And it's going to attack the school next, isn't it? I picture all the kids being scraped to shreds by the monsters' vicious claws, or being crunched like popcorn-

Okay, maybe I shouldn't think about that.

Raising Kris’ sword, I charge at the beast. 

A/N: Feedback and comments are much appreciated! :)