During a dark and stormy night, a group of hooded men wearing grey tunics were carrying a bag, with a person inside.

She tried anything, wiggling, screaming for help, it was all for nothing.

They entered inside a catacomb, lightened only by torches.

Other members of this “cult” were waiting in a circle, with a pentagram at the centre.

Two other men brought the bag on the pentagram and, while they tied the girl to stakes.

The girl was a beautiful young woman with black hair and blue eyes and wearing a white summer dress.

“Where am I…?! Who are you, people?!?!” the girl demanded, panicking.

Everyone there ignored her and continued with their business.

“The tribute has arrived, we may begin with the ritual.” One of the cultists said.

“Ritual?! What ritual?!” the girl panicked.

The cultists surrounded the poor young woman and started chanting ominously in Latin.

“ O domina Lustaht, te vocamus.

Ad potentiam et prosperitatem nostram detrahet.

Hanc tuam virginem pro tributo offerimus

Dabo tibi avatar ad ambulandum in terra nostra.

Hic vocamus, o magne Lustaht .

Mortalium regere terram

Cum fidelibus catulis!”

While the cultists kept repeating the chant, the girl's mind became fuzzy, making her in a drunk-like state.

"What's going…On…?" This was the last thought her mind processed before shutting down.

Thus, the transformation began, grey fur started growing all over her body, wolf ears and tail appeared.

Other than that, her height increased drastically, from an average 162 cm to a monstrous 245 cm.

That process was utterly painful for her, with her body abruptly changing, especially with her muscles and curves becoming much, much more pronounced and her face stretching, forming a snout.

And with her sclerae turning red, her transformation was finally complete.

Silence fell, one of the cultists approached the girl-turned-Hellhound to free her from the chains: A very fatal mistake…

Naturally the instant her right arm was freed, the Hellhound ripped with her claws the cultist's stomach in a slash, grimly making him a blood fountain.

The other cultists couldn't even elaborate what just happened that the Hellhound freed herself and started massacring everyone in the room. Slashing, ripping limbs with brute force, even biting heads and spitting them away, resistance was completely useless and in a matter of minutes, the walls of the catacomb were painted with a crimson colour…

That night, a noise echoed to the town nearby, but it wasn't the painful screams of the cultists, but just one, monstrous howl.

----------------------------------------

A couple of years later, the TARDIS materialised at the entrance of a taiga forest, near a village.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

The renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor, regenerated into a child with medium-length wavy brown hair with emerald eyes and freckles on his cheeks. He was wearing a dark green frock coat with a waistcoat, blue cravat and a silver fob chain and shorts with suspenders, knee high socks and black shoes.

"Another small village, I see…" he thought, "I hope I don't find cannibals that live in a cabin in the forest this time…"

He took a pinch of dirt from the ground and sniffed it.

"Northern United States, probably near the border with Canada…" he said, "The year is…1955! Well then, time to explore!"

The Doctor, succumbing to one of his new childlike instincts, Naruto-ran towards the small town.

The town was exactly as the child-looking Time Lord expected: A small, idyllic relaxing place, with children playing around and the merchants trying to attract customers.

However, it was a different story when he arrived at the centre, near the City Hall. There, tons of policemen were patrolling the streets.

The curious creature the Doctor is, he went to investigate, hoping he could eavesdrop on the policemen.

"Have you found anything in the forest?" An officer with green eyes said.

"Not at the moment, sir." The other officer said, "Shall we keep looking there?"

"Yes, all the clues lead there, he must be somewhere in that accursed forest."

"Don't you think sir that child might have been taken…By them?"

"Nonsense, Smith, that's just a simple legend to scare children. That poor woman had hallucinated due to the shock."

"Excuse me!" The Doctor interrupted their conversation with a voice more high-pitched than usual, trying to pass like an actual human child, "What are you talking about? Oh! Oh! I've got it! Someone got missing!"

"Well, spot on, kid." One of the officers said, "Now, go play with your friends, this is stuff for grown ups."

"But I can help! I wanna become a Detective when I grow up, plus, I'm pretty smart! So, can I help you with the case, please~?"

The Doctor's innocent charm managed to convice the two officers to tell him. After all, he's just a child, right? It's not like he could do something dangerous.

"You see, kid, another child, presumably around your age, got missing a week ago." The officer explained, "His name is Jack Sellers, this is a photo of him." He gave the Doctor the photo of a boy with blonde curly hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a brown shirt and a dirty salopette, presumably after playing in the park.

"Where was Jack seen last time?" the Doctor asked.

"He said to his mother that he was going to play outside, he would have returned for dinner, but he didn't."

The Time Lord nodded. "I see, I see…Where can I find her? I want to talk with her!"

"She lives not too far from there, just go right then turn left-"

"OKTHANKSBYE!" the Doctor didn't even let them finish the sentence that he ran away.

----------------------------------------

He reached the house and knocked on the door. A blonde woman with blue eyes, wearing a white dress opened the door, by looking at the eyes he could tell that she recently cried.

"Hello!" He said, in a Mario-esque tone. "I'm the Doctor, Are you Jack Sellers' mum?"

"Huh…Yes, yes I am." The woman said. "Come in."

"Thank you~!" the Doctor went inside, "I heard your son went missing, I wanted to help them find him!"

Jack's mum softly chuckled, finding the supposed-child's acting like a Detective very adorable, "That's very sweet of you, little Detective. Sure, I'll talk, what do you want me to ask?"

"Weeelll…Do you have any ideas of who might be the kidnapper? Someone that has a grudge on you? A known maniac? Stuff like that?"

Jack's mum thought about it for a couple of minutes. "I think I do."

"Really?!"

The woman nodded, "Maybe your parents haven't told you but, many years ago there was a massacre, around 30 people brutally murdered in one night."

"Oh…" the Doctor was even more curious by the story. "Who killed those people?"

"Nobody knows exactly, but that night we heard a noise, the howl of a wolf like we never heard before. We refer to her as the "Hellhound"."

"Cool…Did anyone see that Hellhound in person?" the Doctor tilted his head.

"Not from what I know…But I think Jack wanted to find her and kill her, he's a sweet boy and wanted to help our town. But now…"

"Hey, hey hey hey!" the Doctor held her hand, smiling "Don't worry, ma'am! I'm sure your son will return safe and sound!"

The woman felt relieved. "Thank you."

"Well then! I'll go looking for him-"

"Wait!" Jack's mum said, "The same day we heard that howl, a girl suddenly went missing, too."

"A girl?"

"Yes, if I remember correctly, her name was Heather Campbell."

"Hmhmm! Heather Campbell, got it!" the Doctor left the house as he ran towards the small library of the town.

As he entered, he went towards the desk.

"Good morning!" He quietly greeted the old lady at the desk, "Do you have any journals about the massacre of 6 years ago? I need it for a school project!"

The old lady smiled, "Sure, dearie, the journals are in the basement, they're catalogued by year. Follow me."

The Doctor, guided by the librarian, went to the basement, arriving at the journal room.

There, he took as many journals as he could about that night and the history of the last decade of this town.

According to the information he gathered, this town (named Walcastle) was an unknown town until one man with his family moved there in 1942: Daniel Campbell, an entrepreneur specialising in entertainment such as the construction of parks and zoos. In various photos depicting him at the zoo, there was always a little girl with him. That child was her daughter, Heather .

“Oh-ho!” the Doctor grinned, “Looks like Heather’s family was pretty famous, eh? I’m not surprised why she was probably kidnapped. I think I should check the forest, I might find something interesting.” the Doctor took the photo of a young Heather and went to the forest.

“If that Hellhound really existed, where would she hide? Is there a cave near-”

The Time Lord’s train of thoughts immediately stopped the moment he saw a potential clue: A pentagram formed by tons of smaller stars.

"A pentagram? Oh, maybe there's a cult involved in this mystery?" he thought, "There seems to be a path leading to somewhere."

He followed the various traces around the forest, leading to the deeper and darker parts of the forest.

Eventually, the Doctor arrived inside a cave. He scanned the sonic screwdriver around and found a lever under a rock, opening a secret passage.

"Oh joy, another dark secret path." the Doctor snarkly thought, as he illuminated the path with his sonic screwdriver. "Well then, here we go."

So, the Doctor marched downstairs, thrilled to probably meet this so-called "Hellhound".

<----To Be Continued next Friday-----