Cross Bitten

Is it me you’re looking for?

Olivia’s POV

Annie took the phone from me and disappeared into her room, but I knew her too well. She was my best friend, more like a sister really as we had known each other our whole life’s. Annie was beautiful, smart, tenacious. She was fearless, literally anything the news station threw at her she would take and run with.

Annie was so good she had become somewhat of a celebrity in our small town, she had no fear, and knew how to adapt on the fly and think on her toes. The only thing that she lacked was confidence in herself, she lacked the ability to see what an asset she was, driven by her fear of change, fear of the unknown.

Yup I knew what I had to do, I would let her continue her fake conversation on her non existent phone call, and I was going to e-mail the HR department for her.

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Annie Levay I am a reporter for TZXY in Bellvue I am writing in regards to your open position. I have 5 years of experience in a variety of situations, as well as a Masters in Communications. I know without a doubt I am the perfect fit for the position. I have attached a resume for you to review. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time and consideration. Annie Levay.

And send.”Perfect timing”, I say to myself as I hear Annie finish her fake phone call.

“There, I called, are you happy Olivia?” Annie says with a hint of playful annoyance.

“Very.” I respond while smiling to myself before hearing Annie’s phone ring.

“Hello, yes? Where do you need me to go? Ok is the whole crew coming? Be there in 15!”

Annie starts rushing around changing, throwing her beautiful long curls up into a clip, and applying some make-up. “Where are you off to at this hour?” I look at the clock it’s just past midnight.

“One of those strange white bats was spotted downtown near Club O. The station needs me on it ASAP want to ride with me?”

She reported at all hours, but this late was usually breaking news, and any time I had the opportunity to tag along I was so in! “Yes please, just let me get a bra on.”

Annie’s POV

We raced out the door, my heart was pumping, my hands were clammy and slightly sweaty, I had a big knot in my stomach. I always had the worst nerves before reporting, even though I have done it nearly 600 times. To me every time was a adrenaline rush.

However, even with all these nerves the moment I started I knew I would become focused at what ever was going on. That is why I was so good at what I did, I was always getting answers, I wasn’t afraid to push anyone, or myself.

I was sharp, and had the ability to adapt to whatever I was faced with. No matter what I would get to the bottom of it.

Only this time my nerves seemed a little more heightened. Maybe it was my fear of bats, or maybe it was the fact no one knew much about these bats other then this rare breed was vicious.

For weeks there had been sightings of them and some story’s of their attacks, but no one had been able to catch one, nor had they been studied to see what caused them to be so rabid and vicious.

In fact one had yet to be caught on camera, but I had high hopes that we could be the first to capture it.

We pull up to Club O and park on the street. I scan the area looking for my camera man Phil and my sound guy Tony, but they haven’t arrived yet. Normally I wouldn’t drink right before getting on camera but what the hell, I could use one tonight, besides Olivia was with me and she knew most the staff since she used to work here. It might even be an opportunity to get some information from someone.

The club is packed when we walk in. It’s half past midnight and everyone is looking pretty sweaty, and very drunk. The DJ is playing some dance music and I can feel the cool air from the smoke cannons going off.

“JUAN!!!!! OH MY GOD! I AM BEYOND HAPPY TO SEE YOU!!” Olivia squeals before running over to the bar.

Juan was her work husband when she worked here, but shortly before Olivia quit Juan had to leave to take care of his sick father. They had been in touch but hadn’t physically seen each other in months.

Juan runs up and grabs Olivia in a tight hug spinning her around. “My beautiful Olivia, oh my gosh and the bombshell Annie is out tonight, come here girl!” I give him a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.” It has been too long my lovely’s. How are you!?”

“We are good, just keeping busy with work you know how it is. I’m sorry to hear about your father’s passing. I wish we could have been at the funeral,he was a good man.” I tell him somberly.

“ It is ok, once I got home he declined pretty fast, but you know what he’s in a better place, I didn’t want him to suffer. Besides now that he has passed I have finally convinced my mom and my sister to come live with me here and I couldn’t be happier!”

“ Oh my gosh that is fantastic news! You have to let me know when they arrive I love your family I’d love a lunch or dinner date with them.” Olivia says with a big smile.

Olivia had such a great relationship with Juan’s family, his mother told me one night after a few too many tequilas that she always prayed for Juan and Olivia to become something more, and honestly you could sense there was more than friendship there but they were both always too scared to take that leap or cross that line.

“So what are my two favorite girls doing out so late, and so underdressed for the occasion.” He looks up and down at our clothes, we didn’t look bad, but we also were not dressed for the club.

“I got a call from the station apparently one of those white bats was spotted nearby, they wanted me here to try and capture it, and you know do what I do. Which speaking of doing what I do, have you heard anything?”

Juan smirks. “Let me get you girls a drink and we will head to the V.I.P. to talk.”

Perfect, I think to myself. We grab our drinks and head up stairs.

“EVERYBODY IT IS ABOUT THAT TIME I WANT EVERYONE TO JUMP” the crowed starts jumping. “NOW LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAMMMMM!!!” Everyone screams.

As the smoke cannons go off, confetti begins to rain down on the crowd. At the same exact moment I notice a girl stumble through the door, blood smearing on the door frame as she does her best to keep herself up and she’s screaming. Not far behind her is my crew looking visibly shaken and panicked as they desperately try to get the bouncers attention.

I look around and can’t help but notice no one really seems to see this horrific scene unfolding.

Suddenly my phone rings causing me to jump.

“Hello?” I answer, a crack sounding in my voice. “ANNIE WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?!?” It’s my sound guy Tony and he is notably shaken.

“I am on the second level, I saw the girl, as soon as you can, come meet us here we are going to a V.I.P room to get some information.” I say before quickly chugging my drink, trying to calm my now overwhelming nerves.

“Wow, so we’re having one of those nights then?” Juan says before jumping behind the bar and making me another.

Suddenly the crew come up the stairs almost in a daze. I tell Juan we don’t have time to waste and he leads us to a V.I.P room. We walk through the doors and notice there are nice tall glass windows so you could get a full view of the whole club, and a private bar, 3 large screen t.v.’s mounted to the wall, and two large wrap around leather couches which we all promptly took a seat on. Immediately I turn to Phil, and Tony.

“What the hell just happened down there!?!?” I say concern, and panic evident in my voice. Olivia and Juan shoot us a sideways glance, having no idea what was just witnessed. Tony is shaken he doesn’t even appear as though he can speak, so Phil responds,

“Annie it was insane, we pulled up in the production van and something slams into our vehicle, we obviously slam on the breaks and jump out to see what it was. We notice a huge dent in the side of it, but nothing is around that could have hit us, I mean we surely would have seen something that size right? Anyways we hop back in and go park behind the club.“ he pauses, and takes a breath seemingly calming his nerves before continuing.

“ We are getting out of the van when we notice this white bat with deep blood colored red eyes across the road, and this thing is huge I mean almost a foot tall! As we moved, it almost appeared to be following us with its eyes. So we quickly started heading for the front of the club, but right as we turn the corner we hear a loud screech! Instinctively we put our hands to our ears and turn toward the direction of the loud noise.”

We hear someone’s throat clear, then Tony chimes in, and takes over the story.

“That f*****g bat was dive bombing us at an alarming speed, had we turned around a moment later it would have gotten us, but instead we dodged it, causing it to sink its teeth into the girl at the door! She never saw it coming!!”

After hearing this I start to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, “That is insanely terrifying, I am so glad you two are ok, but this makes me more curious about these creatures, we have to find out where they are coming from!!”

Everyone turns to me with wide eyes, staring at me like I am speaking a different language. “Annie are you out of your mind?!? You saw that girl right? That thing landed and sunk it’s claws into her back, while it ripped out a piece of her neck!” Phil responds.

Tony looks me dead in the eyes, “I am not doing this Annie I don’t care if I lose my job, I have seen a lot of things in my career but nothing like this. I don’t want to f**k with that thing.” Tony responds to me almost in tears.

I have never seen my team this shaken. Before I even have the opportunity to respond Juan clears his throat to chime in.

“I have to tell you something that happened when we first spotted this bat tonight.” I look at him expectantly.

“We all clocked in for the night, we were setting up everything and there was a knock on the club door, Beth one of our new employees in the box office opened it but no one was there. When she closed it something hit the building hard, so hard it shook! We all went to go look outside, and noticed the sky was red.” We all look at each other questioningly.

“We continued to look but couldn’t find the cause for the building to shake. So we came back in, and almost immediately the whole building went black, and the generator never kicked on, so Dan our maintenance guy went to check on it.”

He pauses again and lets out a deep breath, “When the power hadn’t started up and we hadn’t seen Dan I went to check on him.” Juan’s voice starts to crack and his hands start to shake. “Dan was laying, lifeless, with this large white bat drinking the life from him.” My mouth opens in shock at his words, my blood running cold.

“It snapped its head in my direction, I felt like it was going to attack, so I came back inside. Then the weirdest thing happened, it flew to the door and looked at me but it wouldn’t come in the building, as if there was an invisible barrier blocking it from entering.”

We all looked at each other shocked, and dumbfounded,unsure of what to say. After a moment Olivia finally broke the silence, snapping us out of our thoughts.

“Maybe we should go home, just tell the station you didn’t see the bat and there was nothing to report, and that you will come back in the morning.” I look at my crew and Juan, they all nod their heads in agreement.

“Ok guys let’s sleep on it I will give them a call on the way home.” I say, and they all give me a grateful look before we each say our goodbyes and head out of the door.

Before I can get out of the room Olivia stops me, “Annie I am going to stay the rest of the night and leave with Juan is that alright?” I smile, “No problem, enjoy your visit and drive safely, I will see you when you get back.”

I follow Tony and Phil to the lower level, before heading for the rear exit. I round the corner and suddenly bump into someone,

“Oh I am so sorry.” I apologize before I look up to see a tall handsome man who is dressed to kill. He has the most alluring deep dark brown eyes, light skin, beautiful full lips, broad shoulders and a dark thick brown bun on his head with no hairs out of place.

“Not a problem, Annie.” He replies as he flashes a beautiful pearly white perfect smile at me. He grabs my hand and kisses the back of it, which causes my stomach to flop.

Who is this man, and how does he know my name?