A man lightly touched his temple before letting out an exhausted sigh. A nearby coworker noticed his depressed mood and proceeded to ask what was wrong.

"Well, I've been having nightmares recently," the man replied.

"Oh? I didn't think you would suffer from nightmares, Tehu. In fact, I thought nightmares would be scared of you!"

Tehu groaned before standing up from the bench.

"What made you think nightmares would be afraid of me?"

"You always seem to have a grip on yourself, you know? Like, the sky could fall down and you'd merely let out a mildly discontented sigh. You would probably worry more about your wages than the end of the world!"

Tehu smiled faintly and walked over to a nearby pile of construction tools.

"Come on, we've lazed around enough. Let's get back to work before the supervisor catches us slacking."

"US slacking? Be real, you were the only one loitering on the bench!"

The other man grumbled some more as he lifted up a sledgehammer. He sauntered over to a brick wall that was already half-demolished, before landing the final blow that brought it all tumbling down. Through the dust and rubble one could catch a glimpse of broken pieces of pottery and shards of glass scattered on the ground.

"Say, Tehu, do you have any idea what we're tearing down? Was it a residential home or something? Why was it almost fully demolished before we even got here?"

Upon his coworker's words Tehu placed down a drill that was in his hands and jogged over to a wooden table close to the bench. He began to flip through some papers on the table while the coworker watched. After a few moments, Tehu let out a small laugh.

"What's so funny, tough guy?" demanded the coworker.

"Look, come check this out."

The colleague walked over to Tehu, and glanced over at the document he held in his hands before bursting out in uproarious laughter.

"Ha! You really can't be serious! The original building was a 'Haunted Slaughterhouse' and the reason for demolition was 'Unusual Sightings?'"

Tehu grinned brightly and for a while the two seemed to be caught in a wave of giggles, each discussing with one another how ludicrous the situation was.

After their brief period of chuckles, they decided to just finish the job early and head back home. The two were independent demolishers who had met two years ago during some demolition work. They had struck up a friendship and were now in a sort of a cooperation. Two heads were better than one, and two demolishers could complete a job in thirty minutes which would originally take more than an hour for an individual.

As the two were clearing up the scene, dumping shattered bricks and crumbling concrete into carts, a strange shudder went through both of them simultaneously. They both chose to silently ignore it, although Tehu was slightly confused. Wasn't it the middle of summer? The sun's glaring rays were beating down upon him, and he was absolutely drenched in sweat. So why did he shiver?

Tehu then noticed something odd; the surroundings were eerily quiet. The forest they were located in released no songs from the birds, no melodies from the winds and leaves, and no cacophony of insects vying for their mate. The land was blanketed in a thick atmosphere and even the noises they produced seemed muffled. As if everything was layered under a pile of cotton.

Frowning, Tehu turned to his coworker to ask if he noticed anything strange as well, but when he looked back, he found nothing but some demolition tools and a wheelbarrow half-filled with miscellaneous drudgery. Tehu was startled and began loudly shouting his coworker's name.

"Landal, where are you! Where'd you go? You can't really expect me to finish all the work by myself do you? Damn! At least tell me if you're going into the woods to urinate or something!"

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Tehu perked his ears, yet all he heard was dead silence. Tehu was slowly growing anxious, and he began to realize what a disadvantageous situation he was in. Their vehicle was parked in a location that was nearly fourteen minutes away from here. They had even jokingly cursed at their client while walking over here with their tools in their wheelbarrows saying how it was weird that anything in this god-forsaken forest required demolition. This place looked as if it hadn't been touched by humans since the dawn of time!

Tehu pondered for a moment if he should try and search for Landal, or if he should head back to the vehicle and alert his employer of the unusual turn of events. A partial breeze flowed through the open stretch of land, and the sound of fluttering paper reached his ears. A white shape filled his vision and he quickly snatched at it. It was a piece of paper detailing the outline of the work he was currently executing along with Landal. He peered over at the contents before reaching the end of the page. At the very bottom, he found these words scribbled with black ink, and it appeared as if they were written in haste.

'Don't look back. Now, read these words carefully. If there is one it does not exist. If there are two all hope is lost. Leave this place immediately.'

Suddenly, footsteps were heard from behind him. They seemed to be bounding towards him. Tehu dropped the paper in a cold sweat before leaping straight ahead into the forest. Those did not sound like Landal's steps. It almost felt like a human was madly dashing towards him on all four limbs.

Tehu ran and ran until he reached the small clearing where he had parked his truck. He swiftly entered the car after almost ripping out the door and hurriedly dug into his pockets for the keys. The footsteps were getting closer and Tehu took this moment to look towards the noises to see what was chasing him. He squinted for a bit before growing deathly pale.

It was Landal.

He was on all fours rushing towards the truck in a maddened frenzy. His limbs were spasming and flying all over the place and he was frothing at the mouth, a macabre grin on his face.

At last, Tehu procured the keys from his pocket and deftly plunged it into the keyhole before giving it a solid turn. The engine roared to life and he slammed on the gas pedal. However, the truck merely moved a few inches before slipping for a bit, crankily jostling up and down.

Terror struck Tehu, and he desperately escaped the car, fleeing wildly from vehicle. He looked back, and saw that the tires had been slashed! He gazed in horror as Landal, with his twisted arms and legs, clawed forward with fierce strength, hurtling after him.

Tehu ran deeper and deeper into the woods, and all the while he could hear the beastly Landal getting closer.

Then, due to frightful carelessness, Tehu tripped and fell head-first into a large bush. His head was spinning, and it took him a few moments to reorient himself. Realizing that running away was hopeless, he decided to stay put and shut his mouth. He hardly dared to breathe.

Mere seconds later, he once more heard the stampede of Landal. Tehu could only watch through the overgrown leaves as Landal approached. Landal abruptly stopped nearby the bush and started snorting, sometimes even choking on his own saliva. With a crazed look in his eyes, he would dart here and there, looking for traces of Tehu. In the end, Landal picked a direction and lurched and leapt forwards.

Soon, Landal left Tehu's sight, and not long after even his footsteps died down as well. Tehu tensely waited for any sign of disaster, but an hour passed, then two, but still nothing had occurred. Tehu slowly began to unwind, but he was still on guard. Thoughts disorganized and unhindered ran rampant in his mind. What was that? Was that even Landal? If it was, what had happened to him? Was he always that crazy or did something happen?

Although he had a thousand questions, nobody was there to answer it. Tehu lied in that well-hidden bush for what seemed like several hours. Every conceivable moment seemed to crawl at a dreadfully slow pace. The shadows soon darkened, and evening fell upon the gloomy landscape.

When Tehu was wondering how he should spend the night, he thought he heard sirens. Wait. Those WERE sirens! He leapt to this feet before letting out a stressed groan, he had stayed dormant in a single position for far too long and his muscles and joints were aching. The sirens seemed to be getting closer, and when he felt it was near enough, he jumped of the bush, nearly spraining his ankle in the process, before running towards the epicenter of the sirens with a slight limp.

Sure enough, close to a full ten minutes of running later, he witnessed a police cruiser parked next to his truck. An officer appeared to be inspecting the slashed tires when he noticed a disheveled and dead-tired man emerging from the wilderness. The officer was shocked before telling him to stay where he was. Tehu mumbled incoherently, blabbering on about Landal, his empty stomach, and the strange warning on the piece of paper. The officer told him to calm down and asked if this truck was his. Tehu languidly nodded his head, and the officer inquired why he was in this mess of a situation. Tehu gathered himself as best he could before opening his mouth.

"O- officer, you see, what happened was..."

"Don't worry officer, I'll be able to tell you what went on nice and clearly."

Tehu whipped his head around in a state of deranged fervor, and there he saw Landal coming out of the woods, walking on his two legs. He was covered in various scrapes and bruises, foam covering a part of his lips.