He got off the bed, and started picking out the items that he would have to take tomorrow when he went back home. He still had the key to the house where he used to live, and he knew that he would have to count on his mother not having the locks changed. In the years before his graduation from high school, there had been a number of mysterious deaths and injuries of and acquired by many of the citizens of the small Dousten community. He wondered if it had stopped.

When he had everything figured out, he packed it all in one bag, and sat it by his front door. Then he went back into his bedroom, and set his clock to go off at five-thirty am, so he could get an early head start. Then, he kicked his shoes off and crawled into bed. “Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep tonight, I need it.” he said to himself, and he closed his eyes.

He awoke the next morning to the blaring sound of his alarm. It took him a minute to realize where the sound was coming from, and he rolled over to smack at the clock. In doing so he fell off of his bed and onto the floor. With a moan he said, “I really need to get a bigger bed.” He got up off the floor and stumbled off to go change.

When he exited the bathroom, he grabbed his keys off the table beside his bed, went to the living room to get his bags from beside the door, opened the door, and left. He hoped it wasn’t a bad idea to leave, because if the troll did have mysterious abilities, then he might be able to track him to his mother’s house, and that might actually be putting her in danger. He hoped that God hadn’t decided that he wasn’t worthy and he prayed that the troll couldn’t find his mother.

Nicole Daie was always up with the sun. Mostly because she rarely slept. But the day before had drained her of all energy, and she had slept the whole night through. But this morning was a special one. The day before, she had called in all the people who were protecting the two girls they had found, and told them to bring them in as soon as they could. She had already had a plan for today, and she was going to be starting early.