Terryville was one of those peaceful, boring old neighborhoods that people rarely knew or cared about.

Located just west of Hartford and right next to Bristol, the small village had just over 5000 people in total. No one expected exciting news around these parts.

Although there has been an increase in reports of bear sightings in the woods, it was just a little more common than usual; they usually started preparing for hibernation around this time of the year. It was actually quite common for bears to show up randomly in people's backyards looking for food, only to be quickly chased off by dogs or an angry owner with a rifle; just enough time to run off with a mouthful of seeds snatched from the bird-feeders. Other than such, there wasn't anything extraordinary going on in Terryville any time of the year.

A lone teenager taking a late afternoon walk around the outskirts of town with her pet dog was certainly no extraordinary thing. She thought so herself, too.

It all changed after she decided to take a bit of detour into the woods without reason. The weather at this time of the year was never too cold, yet she could not help feel an occasional chill, that irresistible shudder you get when a particularly cool breeze blows through your jacket. It even felt like as if she was being watched by someone sometimes, the mere thought of which sent uneasiness running down her spine.

The only comfort was her trusty canine, who was happily strolling along with her. Showing no sign of distress, her partner was still chugging along with the enthusiasm of a child in a playroom, turning over leaves with his wet nose and eyes, darting up and down and all around.

‘Surely, he would realize if something was lumbering about’, she thought. So she continued walking, walking aimlessly deeper, into the dense woods.

Besides for the hushed trickling of the river somewhere in the distance, she was only accompanied by the sounds of her boots crunching over leaves, and the steady panting of her amiable dog. So it was only after dusk had completely fallen down and the moon began to shine that she finally decided to head back home. I it wasn't for her parents calling her on phone to come back home, she probably would have continued walking deeper into the woods.

‘Strange’, she thought, ‘how in the world did I end up here?’ She wondered after hanging up from the phone call.

Her daily routine was to walk down the road for half an hour and run the way back. She never planned to walk this long, and neither would she have thought to stray off this far into the woods, either. The more she thought about it, an unsettling feeling begin to creep up on her body.

“...gotta go back” she muttered to herself.

The forest was dark now. The old sun had gone down below the horizon but the young moon was still hiding behind the clouds. Only few streaks of dimmed moonlight eerily filtered down through the empty branches. Not even a single sound of insects or animals could be heard. In the sea of leaves, there was nothing but dead silence. Her uneasiness slowly escalated, reaching a pinnacle when she thought she caught a glimpse of something moving from the corner of her eye.

Slowly, she started walking back.

In few seconds, walking became pacing.

In a minute, pacing became running.

Before she could realize, she was running at full speed.

“Run boy, Run!”

Dragging along the dog that also knew not what they were running for, the girl ran as she had never before. Soon her heart was pounding and her whole body sweating, it felt like her leg would give away anytime, but she couldn't stop. She dared not stop, for her instinct was yelling at her that something was wrong. Something was horribly, horribly wrong.

She ran and ran until she could no more, until she accidentally tripped over a tree root sticking out of the wet, cold dirt.

“Agggh!”

More than the pain of the falling, she felt nauseated. She was already short of breathe but the fall sucked the remaining air out of her lungs and sent the world spinning round and round. She was gasping desperately for fresh air like a fish out of a bowl of water, clawing at the dirt and never minding breaking some of her nails that broke in the process.

When she finally managed to regain her breathing, she hurriedly got up to walk again, only to freeze right away.

“ I-is somebody o-out there?” she shouted, still panting.

A tall black figure stood away at some distance in front of her. She repeated her question but no reply came back. She squinted her eyes to make sense of who or what it was, but couldn't make out anything.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the moon uncovered itself from the clouds, sending down beams of light that pierced through the sea of trees. The dark veil was lifted and she was finally able to somewhat see the lone figure standing in by a pine tree.

“Is that...a bear?”

Standing on its two hind legs was a black bear. Its head was directed toward the girl and her dog but the animal was still as a statue. Strangely, it was only then that her canine started barking and thrusting about, lowering its body, ready to shoot out if need be. It was as if he was able to notice the bear just now.

“shhh! calm down boy, calm down!”

Afraid of agitating the bear, she tried to calm the dog. Yet, the bear was absolutely still, almost as if it had no life. Her guts told her something was wrong about this bear but she couldn't make out clearly what it was because of the distance.

“Come on boy, lets go.” Whatever it was, she knew all to stay away from it and back away as soon as possible, as quick as possible. But it was too late.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Ahhhhhhh!” right when she took the first step back to leave she felt a tremendous force throw her violently to the side.

*cough cough

Rolling to the side and hitting her back hard on a nearby tree trunk, the young girl coughed violently for the air that was taken forcefully out of her lungs once again.

Her left shoulder was aching with indescribable pain that she has never felt before and her arm was numb, not moving. But she couldn't think about it long.

“just what did-”

When she raised her head to look at the attacker, her eyes grew larger and terror filled the space. A menacing black shadow was blocking her view entirely, she saw the black bear now just few feet in front of her . Assuming that was exactly where she was thrown away from, it seemed as if the gigantic beast appeared out of thin air and had thrown her to the side. But that was not what terrified her.

“..eyes...”

No, she finally realized what was wrong about this monster..

“.. where are the eyes?!”

No matter where she looked it was the same, there was not even the faintest speck of light reflecting off where the eyes should be. Instead, the eye sockets contained nothing, nothing but black holes that devoured light and spat out darkness.

Nevertheless, the ghastly bear was looking at her. It was staring at her.

Grrr Woof! Grr Woof! Woof!

Her dog was moving around her, trying desperately to keep the monster away. Unfortunately, her courageous friend was clearly no match for this frightening creature. Worried, she turned her head toward the dog for a split second, and looked back in front for the bear. Somehow, the terrifying black wall was gone. Not knowing why, instinctively she ducked her head.

Krack!

After the deadly wave of wind passed above her head, the sound of the tree trunk bursting open sent splinters raining down on her hair and shudders down her back. Fortunately, no immediate attacks followed from the ghastly creature. In fact, it did not seem to care even about the dog biting down and wrestling with one of its hind legs. It just stared blankly down at her with those empty holes.

She was desperately crawling backward with her only good arm now, away from those terrifying stares.

But it was not long before she felt empty air on the palm of her hands and before she could even realize what was going on, the ground gave away suddenly below her. The world started to spin out of control as she painfully rolled down the rocky hill.

“Aaaaagh!”

When she finally reached the bottom, she was a complete mess. Covered in dirt and bruised from head to toe, her clothes were torn with small cuts. There was blood running down from the side of her forehead, obscuring her vision. Luckily, no bones seemed to be broken or she just couldn't differentiate it from the intense pain that she already felt. Despite the intense pain raining down all over her body, she had to get up, she had to get up and move. Again, the monster was nowhere to be seen.

“Heeelp! Anyone! Please help me!!!” Frantically limping forward, she desperately cried out for help in the vast sea of leaves but no one answered but her own voice echoing off from somewhere.

Perhaps half an hour has passed when she could not advance further.With the dog whimpering at her side, she collapsed onto the ground out of exhaustion. Barely leaning on a tree, her vision was blurry, entire body numb, and her mind barely sane. What was most terrifying was the irresistible coldness that slowly crept up on her.

She shuddered...the bear was back.

woof! woof!

”..no boy..don't..”

To save his master once more, the loyal dog shot out, courageously leaping forward in an attempt to bite the bear's neck. However, he was effortlessly thrown to the side by the beast and she heard a sharp yelp as her friend hit something few feet away.

Her canine was moving no more but she had no time to worry about him. The bear charged toward her, estrange shrieks were coming out from its mouth.

A great mass of death, the monstrous beast ran toward the girl, whom closed her eyes for the seemingly inevitable end.

When she lost all hope, a dark shadow suddenly engulfed the bear and a black figure crashed onto the heavy bear, and sent it flying several yards through the air. Even before she could comprehend, her body automatically tried desperately to run away from it all. Now was the only chance she will have of escaping. and whatever that new thing was, she needed to get away from it as well.

Her instinct was screaming and yelling at her more than ever to flee, but despite her struggle she only managed to crawl a few feet away before losing strength entirely. Her body did not listen anymore, it was already past its limit.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

“....!”

From behind her she heard a low growl, a growl lower and deeper than any sound she had ever heard before. As the sound resonated slowly through the forest she felt as if all life in it including herself came to a complete freeze, blood instantly turning colder than it ever was. When she finally managed to turn her body toward it she felt terror take her breathe away, her mind flushed into pure blankness.

“!!!!!”

Tidal waves of shadow were washing over her, engulfing her into its nothingness. Darkness vanquished even the smallest light and the girl felt her consciousness being washed out along with it, sinking into the unknown abyss.

The last thing she thought was the terrifying white fangs that shined eerily in the remaining moonlight.

A yellow eye looked coldly into her soul.

Alas, she could think no more.