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The beautiful countryside of Bright Falls, Red Bird stares over the Caldron Lake and marveled at its beauty. His fellow Angry Bird team stood beside him and watched as the sun was hovering above the horizon, ready to set soon. Black Bird, Yellow Bird, White Bird, and Blue Bird had voted well, this beats home where they had to defend their eggs almost every single day.

This is beautiful, thought Red Bird, I wish I grew up here.

After being harassed by the pigs in order to get the bird's eggs, they decided to take a break from it all and come to the Pacific Northwest in a small little town of Bright Falls, Washington. Words cannot describe the nature and beauty of the forest and land of the region, for the birds, Caldron Lake was the most beautiful.

As lovely the scenery was, settling camp away from humans was an important priority. Poachers and legal hunters were a hazard to look into, hearing that they take no sympathy for what they hunt had them worried a bit. Luckily, they were in an area of Caldron Lake less frequented by human beings. Out of sight and out of mind was the idea, and it was helping them well.

Since living off the land was a skill they dearly cherished, the birds fare well in this environment. Lots of room to roam around and enough room to play. Of course, they gotta protect their eggs as always. Three eggs, laid a couple of weeks prior, was brought with them. Thinking that there were no pigs nearby, they had their back turned and left their eggs unwatched in the nest behind them. All it took was a small oink to get their attention.

Pulling away from the iconic view of the lake, they turn around and saw the nest empty. All the birds screamed, this wasn't good at all. In their disbelief, they saw what appear to be King Pig and several minions running off with their precious eggs. They were all laughing, the familiar laughter bounce around inside the birds mind like a rubber ball.

Red Bird felt the familiar rage build up inside him as the other birds follow suit, King Pig had a great distance ahead of them and they were already getting away. Seeing that none of the birds were running off to chase them, Red Bird made the first move and ran after them. Seeing Red Bird chasing the pigs, eventually made the rest of the birds follow behind.

Seeing that they were being chased, the pigs get a move on. And after running at least 100 meters, they reached the safety of their castle. A small medieval-style castle, crudely made out of stone that probably came from Mirror's Peak nearby. The birds just wanted a nice and quiet vacation from their enemies, now they had followed them there, to keep up the pressure. Filled with rage, the birds set to work in building a slingshot.

The work took the remainder of the day, a remainder that the birds wanted to enjoy with sleep. Attacking a pig stronghold at night was nothing new, they had done it several times in the past. Even without the presence of most of the night-time stars, the birds found themselves at a disadvantage with a waxing crescent moon up in the sky. The moonlight was enough for anyone with night-vision to see them from a good distance away.

This doesn't matter since the pigs already knew exactly where the birds are, they had set up their slingshot out in the open as always. The giant slingshot was soon set up and the birds all lined up behind it, Red Bird got on first since he was the leader and pulled back on the elastic band.

Here goes nothing. thought Red Bird as he let the slingshot's elastic band propel him forward.

"Gnahh Yee-Haw!" he roared as he soared through the air and slammed into the stone wall of the castle.

Red Bird bounced off of it as if it was nothing, and landed on the ground in a world of hurt.

"Ooh." said the pigs inside with pity.

"Ha ha!" laughed King Pig.

As Red Bird crawled back to his friends, Yellow Bird made his turn. He got onto the slingshot and shoot himself at the castle, even using his speed ability didn't crack the stone walls of the castle. When he fell back to earth, Blue Bird gave it a go. He launched himself into the air, and somehow multiplied himself into three identical clones before impacting against the castle.

This time, they were able to make a crack, nothing more. As the blue bird trio returned to the group, Black Bird got onto the slingshot and pulled back onto it.

Out of nowhere, a loud mournful cry roared across the land. Causing Black Bird to miss fire and slammed against the base of the slingshot, he groaned as he flopped onto the ground with every molecule of air knocked out of his lungs. He didn't feel the pain from the blow, all the other birds soon forgotten the ache they received from kamikaze themselves at the castle from the terrible sound.

The pigs were also scared by the sound, both sides froze in place and listened. The wind was blowing, odd, it wasn't suppose to blow in the weather forecast. That's not all, dark clouds move en-sync with the wind, partially blocking off the moonlight. All the birds gathered in a tight ball and held each other, they all shivered as unnatural shadows engulf the castle.

Something growled, the earth began to vibrate as the shadows covering the pig's castle's outline grew. Realizing this wasn't good, King Pig shot out of the entrance as a couple of large pigs and a couple of armor pigs followed behind. The front doors slammed shut as whatever entity was present roared with the sound of thunder, the birds just stood there in shock, their beaks dropped open as they hear the screams of helpless swine trapped in the very stronghold that was suppose to protect them.

The castle crumbled, but gravity played no role. The pieces of the castle hovered mid-air, twitching and groaning for a moment, before hurling themselves at the birds.

"AAHHH!" screamed Red Bird.

He took off, and his friends quickly followed him as the rubble of the castle try to bury them.

. . .

The roar was faint when Fred Dominican heard it, the sound was all to familiar in his ears. He sat up from his bed and grabbed the MagLITE flashlight on his nightstand, then grabbed the 9 mm he kept underneath his pillow.

Fred was in his early-fifties, he was a former electrician in Bright Falls Power & Light, and he was also a writer. He written many books in the past twenty years, mostly about the supernatural. Strangely, his books seem to depict similar events that happened all over the United States, its what happens when you write anything near Caldron Lake.

Just when he realized the power of the lake, he soon made an encounter with the Dark Presence. It didn't touch him in an effort to take over his mind, if that happened then another Alan Wake would happen all over again. Seeing how the town was in danger from this Dark Presence, Fred took up arms and turned his trailer near Mirror's Peak into a safe haven of the light.

First he put nightlights that turn into flashlights during a power outage in every room, next he lined each and every room with blue-white LED tube lights. This made sure that not a single corner had a "shadow" for the Dark Presence to take a foothold in. Interestingly enough, he kept finding caches of supplies around Caldron Lake that are suited in fighting the Dark Presence. He managed to gather some battery-operated work-lights and placed them behind every window of his house from the inside, since there was enough room for them.

With the inside secure, Fred installed the same LED tube lights design on the outside of his trailer, making sure that he got every edge of it. With that done, he managed to build a garage to house his Bright Falls Lights & Power utility truck. He always kept the internal lights on when not using, so the Dark Presence won't take possession of it. He knew that wasn't good enough, so the garage was fitted with a ceiling lamp that illuminated the inside of the garage 24/ 7.

Realizing that the power grid would be a target by the Dark Presence, Fred installed an energy storage unit in his property's cellar, then connect it to the fuse box in his trailer. He had all the cables buried, in order to protect them. He then installed a small vertical-axis wind turbine on his roof, it had a magnetic base, making it friction-free when the slightest wind blows on it. Last, he covered whatever empty space on the roof with state of the art solar panels, completing his off the grid project.

Fred managed to buy himself some light-sensitive paint at the hardware store, it remained invisible when applied but glows bright orange when a direct lightsource hits it. With the pain, he painted the Bright Falls Lights & Power logo on the face of his trailer, just next to the front door.

The back of his trailer had thick woods behind it, blocked off by a chain-linked fence. The front however, was an open clearing that stretch no more than 50 square meters. Beyond that was more trees, and hidden shadows.

Fred opened the door and walked down the hall, the LED tube lights that lined the corners and door frames of each room illuminated the place with a blue glow. He approached the front door and disengaged the door chain, hotel security latch, a dead-bolt lock that activates latches that springs out into the door frame like a safe door, the regular lock on the doorknob, a steel crossbar that sits on hooks next to the door frames, and finally, a door bar that pins itself between the doorknob and floor.

He opened the front door and looked past the custom-made screen door and looked out into the darkness beyond. He turned off the specialized out door lamp above the door and waited, whatever was out there won't show themselves with the light on.

Nothing outside moved, nor did he sense the supernatural's warning signs. The Dark Presence must be focused on something at the moment, probably capturing more unsuspecting creatures to use as puppets. He had no neighbors living nearby, but he could tell that the Dark Presence was after something other than him tonight, there was no reason it would roar if not.

"Whatever soul is being chased this night," said Fred to himself, I wish them good luck."

Something shift in the bushes and Fred turned back on the porch light in response, the bushes stopped moving almost immediately. Fred shut the front door and re-engaged all of its locks and latches, then heads back to bed to retire for the night.

TO BE CONTINUED...