Young Writers Society

There is indeed one more spot! I'll reserve it for you.

Tell me if you'd like me to change anything.

Name: Korina Moonlight (I just realized problems with using my username)

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Appearance: She wears glasses, has jade green eyes, and earlobe length short brown hair. Korina is 4'11', and she tends to wear black slacks and white collared dress shirts.

Personality: Determined, stubborn, brainiac. Patient. Squeamish when it comes to blood and gore. Fairly antisocial.

History: Her parents are completely normal people, a teacher and a salesman. As a prodigy, she skipped two grades in elementary school. In eighth grade, five years ago, her sister, Isa, disappeared. Her parents concluded she was dead, but Korina found a statue that looked exactly like her. She remembered a myth she had read recently about the basilisk, and thought it to be more then coincidence, resolving to save Isa. Throughout high school, her every spare moment was spent researching mythical monsters and magic. (Even if it doesn't work in this, she had to separate fact from legends. This lead to her being antisocial. She's just graduated high school. Isa is still stone.

Special talents: She can shoot a bow (archery in middle school), and has extensive knowledge about mythology, biology, chemistry, general science and mathematics.

Other: She doesn't have many friends due to the years searching for a cure for Isa.
She overworks.
Korina always carries around a big book about mythology or archaic magic and beliefs. She would sell her soul to save her sister.
There. Now she's fixed while keeping the character original.

Name: John Moore

Gender: Male

Age: (between 16 and 22) 19

Appearance: John is relatively short for his family, standing at 5’8 though he makes up for it in width. He is mostly muscle though it has a layer of fat over the top, giving him a stout figure. His brown hair is shaved at the sides and kept short on the top. Usually wears thick clothing with lots of pockets though he almost always has his Grandfather’s khaki foldaway hat on him.

Personality: John is formal, having spent most of his life working, carrying himself with an air of stoic professionalism that his father drilled into him. He carries the expectation that on a hunt others should act the same, finding people who bring their emotions with them a liability and a threat to the safety of the others. Ever since his injury [detailed below] John has refused to flee from a monster, preferring to stand his ground than die with his tail between his legs.

History: the Moore’s are a family of hunters, if something has the ability or strength to kill a human the Moore’s have tried to kill it. It started over a two hundred years ago with a Moore taking on a bear or tiger with a musket, though now days they prefer more heavy duty weaponry. Eventually it got to the stage where members of the family could no longer gain prestige from simply killing a tiger, so they began hiring themselves out to deal almost exclusively with man eaters. Littler did they know that a fair number of said animals were actually monsters. John made his first kill of a man eater at the age of 14. From then he has spent most of his time travelling around the world with his father (his mother dislikes the hunting and is separated from his father), taking up hunting contracts and on occasion to make extra money taking tourists on safari. When he was 16 he was attacked by a Dobhar-chú. His rifle jammed and the monster managed to maul his leg before John was able to kill it with his knife. He still has limp, making running hard. Two years later while on a hunt something unknown dragged both John and his father into the water and attacked them. John made it to dry land, his father did not. The incident left him with a deep seated fear of water. He spent the years after following in his father’s footsteps – footsteps that lead him into a meeting with the Academy while on a hunt.

Special talents: Great aim and reflexes that come with a life of hunting as well as skills in tracking and knifework.

Other: Carries a CZ 550 Elephant gun and prefers to be addressed by his last name

Here's my late profile! '>.> Let me know if anything should be edited.

Name: Alexander (but just call him Alex) Johnson

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Appearance: Alex is average height and, although he isn't exactly skeletal, he's not very built. He has green eyes and blond hair that he likes to keep short. He usually wears a jacket unless it's really warm.


Personality: Alex generally tries to be an easygoing and adaptable person, and succeeds usually. He enjoys sarcasm and bantering with friends, because his friends understand that he doesn't really mean any of the teasing comments he tosses at them. He gets really sensitive about what other people think of him, which can be really un-good since he studies monsters, something that earns him ridicule when normal people find out. He's intelligent and generally able to handle situations with reason, unless things get really bad and he panics. He's relatively fine with most monsters and cryptids; however, he has a phobia of sorts of the Fear Liath, due to an unpleasant encounter with it two years ago.

History: Alex grew up as a normal kid in Michigan. He never believed in cryptids - he tolerated people who did, but generally thought it was all a load of hoaxes... until one day, when he was mountain-climbing on a vacation in Scotland. He was stalked by and actually saw the Fear Liath twice - it tried to get into his car once, while he was driving, and although he wasn't hurt, he was understandably traumatized and gained a very sudden interest in monstrumology, largely to keep himself and others safe from monsters. As a consequence of his encounter, though, the one monster he's truly terrified of is the Fear Liath.

Special talents: He's intelligent and able to think on his feet. That's really about all he's got, other than his drive to learn and protect.

Other: Up for love (straight).

Nathaniel,

I have just drifted off to sleep in my cramped room in the Society's headquarters when the alarm goes off. I groan. Yesterday, I, along with seven other students, was pulled from the Academy to join in the fight against the monstrumological occurances in the city. We'd been briefed as to what the alarm bell meant: a definite monster attack. We had a Society member in the police force and he got us access to such attacks.
I stumble out of bed, slipping into jeans and a shirt, and stuffing my feet into my Doc Martens without bothering to do up the laces. I grab my knives and my iPad, which has all my files on monsters. Then I rush downstairs where everyone else is waiting.
I know most of them, though none of us are close: Anton, Miranda, Jaeger, Korina, John, and Alexander. John gives me an irritated look at my minor tardiness, but the rest are all yawning just as I am. I realize that I forgot to tie my hair back and quickly do so. Just as I finish, the head of the Society strides into the room. Gregor Torrance, an imposing man, even in his fifth decade of life, tall and wide-shouldered. His face looks like it was carved out of a granite boulder. He gives a cursory inspection and then speaks.

"There has been an attack in Chinatown," he informs us, "You are the only group we can spare, as our main investigation team is currently tracking down a pack of hellhounds elsewhere in the city," I glance at Anton, who's fists are clenched at the mention of the beasts who killed his parents. Torrance continues, "You will take the Range Rover over to the attack site, collect as much data as possible, and report back here. You will not, under any circumstance, begin tracking whatever made this attack. Is that clear?"

We all nod, but inside, I know what we're thinking: if we get the chance, we will track this creature and bring it back. It's as much about our honor as about keeping the people of New York safe. We all gather up our things and head to the garage. Torrance hands me the keys, and we all pile into the car. I start up the engine and we drive off I to the hustle of a New York night.

Darcy

She liked the Chinatown so far.
It wasn't so mechanical, the buildings weren't so high and straight, and it was really late, so no one was really walking the streets. There's been a monster attack too, though, so perhaps there payed a part of the reason as well.

House attacked was a restaurant, and Darcy took a fortune cookie someone left in some bowl.
Rely on your friends. She smirked. Of she had any friends, that could make some sense. Even if she wanted to have any friends. Shaking her head, she climbed over the desks into a hole in the wall. Sitting on the edge, she could see the whole neighborhood from it - it was a pretty big hole. Wondering what could have done it, she explored the hole a bit. The wall was thick enough for her to stand and walk on it, and the hole had an irregular shape of something with wings flying through it. She bent, finding a gray hair. It was soft and not very long, pretty thick but still easy to bend. Darcy frowned.

Could it be what she though it was? A giant bat? She's never seen one before - they supposedly lived on the other side of the world, and she didn't know of anything related to China about them. They could have just been hungry, though.

Hearing a noise down at the restaurant, she turned in a second, firing from her crossbow and adding another arrow in almost the same moment.

It wasn't a giant bat. It wasn't, really, a monster at all, but something she loved less - a group of people, around her age. From the Society, without doubt.
"What the hell?" A girl with long red hair and not enough clothes for Darcy's taste, next to whose foot the arrow has landed, seemed angry. She took the arrow out from the ground, observing it, as six others squeezed their own weapons tighter. Darcy sighed, finding her way back from the hole.
A guy with claw marks on his face and the other, wearing Doc Martens, put down their weapons first.
"Who are you?" Asked the girl again, and Darcy reached her hand to get the arrow back.
"You guys were sent from the Society?" Her European accent was there, just as whenever she'd speak, and the Doc Martens guy's eyebrow furred.
"Yeah. Are you from around?"
"I'm here to kill you", Darcy stated with a straight face, and they raised their weapons again. Very smart, get yourself killed, she told herself. At least they were skilled enough. "Oh, man, I'm not serious." She smirked again, this time with an audience. "I'm your eight member. The name's Darcy. Aislinn if you can pronounce it." She waited a moment for them to make strange faces. "I thought so."

The girl introduced them all - Darcy knew she won't remember the names an hour later, so didn't even bother to connect them to faces - and as one of the other guys opened his mouth to speak, a loud HOOOOO cut through the morning's silence. Darcy set her crossbow ready, just as all the others. She was told that the monster got away. She was told there won't be a fight.

And, with this crowd, she won't even be able to make it stay still long enough to draw it. Darcy shook her head - this day really wasn't a good one.
*

Nathaniel,

I can tell that some of the others are irritated that I'm driving. Miranda keeps giving me little glares, John keeps sighing loudly, and Jaeger smiles when he knows I'm looking at him, but his face sneers when he thinks I'm not looking. Anton is just angry, as per usual, and Korina seems at turns anxious and bored. Alexander is the only one talking. He's sitting shotgun, so I can't ignore it. It's okay, though. It's good to have some normalcy before seeing the aftermath of a monster attack.

"How much field experience do you have?" I ask Alex, and I hear some of the others snort.

"I've got enough," he says, a little defensively, "I've been to Africa and South America, and I caught a death-worm in Mongolia last year."

"A death-worm, that's it?" Anton says, the contempt evident in his voice. Alex shrugs.

"Yeah, but I've also hunted chupacabra, anthropophagi, and outiko," he says.

At that, I roll my eyes, "Outiko don't exist. I mean, really, you might as well believe in vampires and werewolves."

"They do exist," Alex insists, a troubled look passing across his face.

"Whatever," I say skeptically. By this time, we arrive at the scene of the attack. It's a restaurant, and a huge hole is left in the wall. Forgetting our argument, we all pile out of the car, weapons at the ready. When we approach the hole, a crossbow bolt shoots out of the gloom, and embeds itself at Miranda's feet.

"What the hell?" She says, irritation rather than fear etched across her face.

A girl, of around our age, appears near the hole. She looks contemptuous.

"Who are you?" Miranda snaps, yanking out the bolt and handing it to the girl.

"You guys were sent from the Society?" The girl asks, ignoring Miranda's question, but taking the bolt. I frown at her Irish accent.

"Yeah," I say, "Are you from around?"

"I'm here to kill you," she says in a deadpan, and we all automatically raise our weapons, though I'm sure she's joking, "Oh man, I'm not serious," she says hastily, "I'm your eighth member. The name's Darcy. Aislinn, if you can pronounce it," she looks around, but none of us make an effort to do so, "I thought so," she says in a self-satisfied voice.
I remember Torrance mentioning that our last member would be coming from somewhere else, but I had not expected this. Darcy seems irritated by our presence. We all introduce ourselves, and I begin documenting the attack site. I turn on my iPad and record my notes.

"Hole in the exterior wall, irregular, approximately 1.5 meters at its widest point. A few thick gray hairs, flexible, line the opening."

I go further into the restaurant and find what's left of the victim, which isn't much. The others are already there.

"Skin peeled off in strips, and innards partially consumed," I say, keeping my voice steady, "Appears to be a middle aged man, but difficult to tell. Something with dexterous hands did this," I say to the others, and they nod. I think I know what it is, though I've only encountered it in reading.

"It's an aswang," I say, "A hominid from the Phillipines. Usually goes for children, but will eat almost any human. It's the only thing I know of that would eat skin and innards." I squat near the body, "See, it's eaten all of the heart and liver. Definitely aswang."

John scoffs, "But aswang are just like outiko or vampires. Legendary."

I shake my head, "No, they've been scientifically documented. There's nothing mystical about them."

As if to prove my point, at that moment, we hear a loud HOOOOOO, something I have heard in recordings of aswang. I pull my knives out

"Let's get this beast," I say, a grim smile on my face, and I see Darcy give an approving nod. Everyone else nods, save for John.

"But Dr. Torrance told us to report back to headquarters!"

We all give him a withering look, and then move out of the restaurant in the direction of the noise.

Jaegar Pen

We all headed off to the restaurant, I rested my Ax on my shoulder, feet dragging, mouth set in a persistent scowl. My arm was stiff and creaked loudly when I moved the joints. It was too early to be up. Anton walked beside me and his anger radiated from his body in waves, it felt strangely relaxing. At least then I knew I wasn't the only one completely pissed off by this. Miranda looked over at me and I smiled, waved. John was talking to Nathaniel about something, but when his words reached my ear they all morphed into one continuous drone. I try to have patience with John, we all know what happened to him, about his leg, and I could respect that. I could understand. How far away was this stupid monster anyway?

I let out a groan and tapped my Ax against my right shoulder, the noise of metal against metal made a sharp clicking noise that echoes through the street.

"I wish we could just get this crap over with. I'm freaking tired," I growled. Someone gave me a strange look and I gave a breathless laugh.

An Aswang, already? My parents only caught two of those, ever. They were one of their prized possessions, hard to catch, harder to tame, but easy to get into the fights. Suddenly there was a flash of something in my peripheral vision and a tell-tale "tik tik tik".

"It's here," I announced while readying my Ax and position my weight to the tip of my toes, ready to chase. Gooseflesh raised on my skin and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I nearly forgot how much I missed this, the fight and chase, the killing. A wide grin spread on my mouth, insanely honest. I could nearly see the blood already.

'Tik tik tik.'

Another flash of something in my left eye. I could hear the sound of the rest of the team getting their weapons together.

"Let's go then," I prompted.

Then I took off in the way of the monster.

Miranda:

"It's here," the guy who's name was Jaegar said. I pulled my .44 out of the holster, pulled back the hammer, and slid it back into the holster. I pulled my katana out of the sheath, and held it at the ready. The .44 was just for emergencies.

'Tik tik tik.' It was close. I smiled, awaiting the fight.

"Let's go then," Jaegar said, and he took off in the direction of the monster. I took off in hot pursuit, easily catching him. We were both running towards it, the rest following behind us. We came into a large crowd of people, but I couldn't see anything that looked different.

"It's an aswang," Nathaniel's words echoed in my head. I tried to remember what I knew about aswangs. The first thing that pops into my head is they are Polynesian. How was that possible? We were in New York, there shouldn't be any aswangs. It was strange. Then I remembered something else. Aswangs were shape shifters. To hunt, they turned into people, and they. Oh my god. It was here. In this crowd.

'Tik tik tik.' The noise came from right in front of me. Everyone's heads whipped around and faced the noise. I took a step back and raised my sword.

'Tik tik tik.' There it was again. The rest of the group raised their weapons, and we prepared for the imminent fight.

Korina

"Tik tik. Tik Tik."

Aswang. Eater of the dead. Shapeshifters. As people they are quiet and shy. At night they transform into animals. Eaters of children with bloodshot eyes. They feed once every full moon, but they hunt every night. Bat hair. It must be a female. Generally from the Philipenes. What's one doing here?

Sometimes being a genius isn't a good thing. I remind myself that I'm doing this for Isa. I raise my voice, trying to catch the attention of my peers. "Aswag. The person she's pretending to be would have bloodshot eyes and she would be quiet and shy. There wouldn't be anything else to identify her unless she shifted into her true form in order to deal with us. The only problem is, when we kill her, we need to make sure to destroy her heart. Otherwise she will come back in two days and resume killing."

Alex grinned. "You always sound like you're reading from an encyclopedia."

I looked down, blushing. I knew he was joking, but it was true. I tried to hide my distaste for all this with a veneer of artificiality. Again, I reminded myself, for Isa's sake.

Miranda raised her katana. "Let's go, then. We're looking for bloodshot eyes."

I followed them into the crowd, one thought echoing in my mind. How exactly was this helping Isa?

Alex

A unfamiliar howling sound rose in the air. Nathaniel looked up, as did everyone else. We didn't have to say anything to know what we were all thinking: Aswang.

"Let's get this beast," Nathaniel whispered, smiling grimly.

"But Dr. Torrance told us to report back to headquarters!"

We all just looked at him, and then wordlessly moved towards the sound. John had a point, but we couldn't do as the doctor had told us. That thing could - probably would - kill more people. And none of us wanted that on our consciences.

After some walking, we came to a huge crowd of people - and the sound of the aswang was close, too close. It was in the crowd.

"Tik tik tik." It was feet away. Everyone turned, readying weapons. I shifted my gun, focusing on keeping my breathing smooth and calm. In, out. In, out. Everyone was staring, backing away from the crazy people with weapons. "Tik tik tik." Like a clock counting down.

Korina was talking. "Aswang. The person she's pretending to be would have bloodshot eyes and she would be quiet and shy. There wouldn't be anything else to identify her unless she shifted into her true form in order to deal with us. The only problem is, when we kill her, we need to make sure to destroy her heart. Otherwise she'll come back in two days and resume killing."

"You always sound like you're reading from an encyclopedia," I grinned, trying to lighten the mood for some reason. She blushed and looked down - had I hurt her feelings?

I was about to tell her that I was just joking, when Miranda raised her katana. "Let's go, then. We're looking for bloodshot eyes."

We walked through the crowd, and I cringed on the inside at how everyone was staring at us. We were fairly alarming, running through with swords and guns raised. I guess they thought we were part of some movie production or something, because nobody ran away or called the police that I could see.

Every girl or woman I saw made me feel uneasy. The aswang could be anywhere - it probably knew we were here for it. What if it was setting up a trap?

There was a woman in a hood who was backing away quietly - almost like she was hiding her eyes. I started towards her, and she looked up at me with green eyes. Clear white - no blood in them. Feeling a little bit guilty for scaring her, I started back the opposite direction and bumped into someone else.

"Sorry," I said, but she just stepped quickly away. Quiet and shy. "Excuse me, do I know you?" I asked, pretending to recognize her. I needed to see her eyes. She just shook her head, avoiding eye contact. "Well, you're not looking at me - how can you tell?" She just shook her head again. Exasperated and a little bit scared, I finally grabbed her head, turning it so I could see...

A hiss burst from her, and she clawed at my face, scratching me with her fingernails. I leaped back, shouting, and she ran off, disappearing into the crowd. But if the hiss and the scratching hadn't been proof enough, I'd seen the bloodshot eyes. It was the aswang.

"That's her!" I cried, running after her. I saw some others running too - hopefully the rest would follow.

Anton Wolf
"That's her!" Alex cried and ran after the creature.

I ran as quickly as I could too, with one dagger ready in each hand. I was going to stab it in the heart with one of them, and in case I missed I was ready to cut of its wings with my other dagger. Not that I would miss, but it didn't hurt to make sure. My heart was starting to beat faster, my excitement and rage fueling me and making my eyes glow even brighter than before. I pulled my hood down so I could see properly.

It didn't take long for me to catch up to Alex, and we were catching up to the creature. It seemed to sence that we were getting closer, so it shifted to it's winged form and took of. "Fuck," I heard Alex curse slightly behind me.

I snickered, I wasn't going to let it get away. I ran at ful speed after it, into an alley and used a wooden crate or whatever it was to jump high up in the air. I stuck one of my daggers deep into its lower back and hung on. With a quick move I managed to cut of one of its wings. It fell to the ground like a stone and I kicked of and landed with a roll on the ground. Before I had time to attack it again someone shot it in the chest.

"That's her!" someone cried. I turned in the direction of the voice. There it was, a small person running away. A few members of the group took off after it, the rest were just too shocked to move. I swore and took off after them. I quickly passed most of them, just two people were ahead of me. I was close enough I could see the beast. It transformed into its winged form.

Shit, I mumbled under my breath. I threw my katana on the ground and pulled the .44 out of the holster, and kept running. The beast jumped, and started to fly. One of my "partners" leaped into the air after it. I believe their name was Anton. He grabbed onto the beast and I heard it howl as Anton shoved his dagger into the creature. Before I knew it, the creature and Anton were both on the ground. I didn't give it a chance. I raised the gun and put a well placed shot into its chest. I sprinted to the creature, and was upon it in around 10 seconds. Anton just looked at me. I go back and retrieve my sword, and still beat some of them back. The rest of the team arrived about a minute later. The aswang did not appear to be alive. I step back as the girl genius Korina approaches the aswang to check for vitals, to see if it's still alive. She stands over the creature for a good minute before responding.

"It's still alive," she finally says. I hear shocks from some, grunts from others. I'm not surprised. I fired from around 30 feet, I highly doubted I would have killed it. I step forward, and draw my gun.

"Well then, let's just finish what we started," I say. I pull out my gun and prepare to fire, when that chick who tried to kill me earlier jumps in front of me.

"Why do you want to kill it? We can study it, see what it's like. It's harmless anyways now."

"Don't you know anything about aswangs? If we don't kill it now, it will heal itself in two days and just kill more people!" She was being clueless.

"We don't need two days!" she says. "The academy must have some way to hold it!"

"We weren't even suppose to track this thing, what do you think will happen if we bring it back? Now," I grab her shoulders, "Get. Out. Of. My. Way!" I shove her to the side, and she falls on the ground. Nobody even interferes, they're all to shocked to do anything.

I pull back the hammer, take a good aim, and fire one shot clean into its heart, all the while, Darcy is just sitting on the ground, stunned. I blow out the smoke like a cowboy, put the gun back in the holster, and look at Nathaniel. "Let's go. And this time, I'm driving. He just grunts and tosses me the keys, and I just walk off.

The other girl grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to the ground.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Way!"

Darcy watched as they killed the creature, her lips pressed in a thin line. How in a million years did her uncle expect her to work with them? They were no better than robots, eager to kill without asking, following orders as if they're carved directly into their brains or something. After they killed the monster, returning back to their car, they never once looked up. How can one not look up, in a starry night as that one? Over the roofs of Chinatown, they were more visible than anywhere else in this town. Darcy recalled valleys and hills of her home, and green meadows with no light at all but the moon and the stars above, and sighed. She was on the other side of the ocean for a long time, long enough to miss her Ireland and the life she left behind. Legends there were part of her, part of who she was. Here? Legends were something that should have been killed.

"I'm not coming with you," she said, looking back down, as they opened the doors of the car to get in. They gave her similar looks, and the guy with red hair, who seemed to have got fired as the driver, looked a bit confused.
"You have your own car here?"
"No."
"How will you come home, then?" The other guy asked, the one wearing a hood. Darcy liked his eyes, maybe just because they were of unusual color.
"I will walk," she said. The girl smiled.
"You'll get yourself killed in some alley, and I'm not talking about monsters here." She said, with a look on her face that said I only care for the sake of the team. Darcy frowned - she didn't like them.
"You are talking about monsters", Darcy muttered. "Just not of the kind you'd kill. I can take care of myself, don't you worry. Go home to your beds, sweet dreams."

She turned away with those words, taking the less crowded, darker way home than the one they took by car. Of course it will take her the whole night to return. They will probably be having breakfast already when she returns to the Academy. She wondered if any of them will even say hello to her.
*

Jaegar Pen

Irritating. Basically, that word could sum up this whole trip. Everyone, aggravating, and that new girl made me want to tear my hair out - or hers. Did she not realize the dangers of walking all the way back to the academy alone? She could get mauled, maybe then she'd learn a lesson. I'll have to admit, though, it was pretty brave of her to suggest saving that thing. I exhaled loudly and climbed in shot gun, at least Nathaniel wasn't driving anymore, it felt safer to be in the front seat.

I let out a laugh and strapped myself in. My stomach grumbled loudly in the quiet car.

"God, I'm freaking hungry."

Anton got in with a huff, probably still mad that he didn't get to kill the thing. Well, he should get in line. Guns upset me. My parents never really approved of them, didn't even own one. They said that using a gun was an easy way out, that to really gain any satisfaction from killing or capturing a monster you had to work, feel your blade sliding into their bodies and the cracking of bones. I cleared my face, shook my head, and turned towards Anton with a small grin.

"It's okay, bro, maybe you can reserve dibs on the next one."

He gave me a strange look and I shrugged and turned to look out the window. My stomach grumbled again. I wouldn't be as hungry if I would have eaten something yesterday, but it was the anniversary of my grandmother's death and I just wasn't feeling up to much of anything.

It was a long way back to the academy. I was tired. I reached out and turned on the radio, volume low, and hummed along to some song I didn't know.