"Why are all these people crying?

Little child...

It comes and goes, but

Who's gonna be there when it's gone?"

-quote from the ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ Manifesto

"The Journal writes: this morning, at around 6:37, a dead man was found on the side of the road near the Lilies Park. His body was covered in large cuts and stab wounds, and his belongings were meddled with but nothing was taken other than a small penknife. I mean, ain't that something.."

Jane and Anna were walking side by side, bodies cuffed together by the pair of earbuds they were sharing. Listening to news is boring, but they liked tuning into a local podcast recently as there's some interesting stuff going on in the city; scary... more exciting. It's pretty popular with other people their age too, and they do it live like some kind of radio show.

"Also earlier today, at around 9:20, a person's headphones and grocery bag were found under the Ferro Bridge surrounded by some blood stains and no other remains or signs or who it might've been. This is kinda in line with some other similar findings recently, and reported disappearances, so what do you know... What you guys at home think, some kind of serial killer or something? Sounds like it to me.."

"Janana, slow down we should let them last longer you know."

They would call each other Janana and Bananna. They were sharing a bag of strawberry jelly gums. It was past 7 and the sun started setting, but they were just wandering around laughing together making the most out of the final days of summer. At least that's what Jane intended for.

"Hold on guys, we got an anonymous caller tuning into the show right now saying they have some kind of information about this morning's killing."

"Sh-shh let me hear."

"He-hello?"

"..."

"Hello, this is the LH Local Hunts Podcast.. can you hear me?"

"...I can hear."

"Alright. This is Louie Hunter. Do you have a name?"

"My name is..."

"Sir?"

"...Gerry. With a G."

"Alright Gerry. So, Gerry, you called in because you said you have some information about what happened to that guy earlier today? The killing?"

"..."

"Gerry, can you hear me?"

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"I SAID... I can hear."

There were rugged slow breaths before the caller would speak. He had a calm voice, but it was spooky to Jane.

"Alright sorry if I bothered you there Gerry you just take these long pauses. So you said you know about what may have happened to that guy who was found this morning? The Lily Park area?"

"...I know who did it."

"Oh yeah?"

"I also know who's killing all these people.."

"What people Gerry?"

"... you know like you said earlier about the blood stains. Those disappearances are connected you were correct about that."

"Wow! That's a lot, you know all of that Gerry? Who do you think did these things?"

"It was NOT ME, but I can say this... It was someone like me."

"Like you Gerry?"

"Other disturbed individual.... Disturbed by all the waves in the world right now... It's changing Louie. The world, it is changing... So many new shadows and mysteries appear out of nowhere... like me hihi."

The mosquitoes around were standing to get annoying and loud. It's normal for them to be around the river bank during summer, but there's a lot of them today it seems.. Dragon-flies too...

"What do you mean by disturbed Gerry? Are you disturbed in any way?"

"The person who smiles at the moon, who bathes in blood and is possessed by awe and excitement. She dwells in the shadows beneath the earth.. hihi it is so exciting to talk about this, THIS!.... I thought I'm going crazy but I'm not."

"What do you mean about the earth Gerry? You think you're going crazy, are you ok? Maybe we could talk about this more or somethin-"

"The world is not what you think Louie. Hunt, hunt, hunt... but you don't know what you're hunting. You're no 'Hunter'. There's real monsters in the dark... hihihi the world is finally awakening. New shadows... I'm the hunter."

"... The second one. The forest gets scary at night."

"Hold on Gerry, the fo-"

*click*

It's not that they had some silent understanding to shut up or walk slower so that they could pay better attention to the discussion, but both were captivated by it. As if by force.

Jane turned at her friend and saw Anna was sitting still just staring ahead. A sign of fear in her eyes, but the red in her cheeks gave away her excitement. She felt that way too. It's impossible not to be intrigued by something like that.

The buzz of the insects was getting more and more apparent and annoying.

She lingered on her lips. Earlier Anna was going on like she always does about how ugly she is and how no boys like her. And Jane like always was telling her that's not true and she's pretty. On the surface she was being nice to her best friend, but deep down she really believed that... she liked that. It's not like Jane liked girls, but sometimes she'd wonder how it would be if they were together..

Oof Anna if only you realized how cute you are you dummy.

Jane was knocked out of it when she saw her friend's expression change to actual terror, and then a loud scream escaped her. More and more screams, half of them like a little girl who doesn't like bees, the other half...

They were getting swarmed by a bunch of insects. Flies, mosquitoes, moths, dragon-flies, mayflies. Just a dark cloud wherever you could see and a deafening buzz.

When Jane opened her mouth to scream too, they started entering her. The terror and disgust grew deeper. For 1 second she wanted to puke as she felt them fly down her esophagus, but soon she forgot all about that as it was replaced by pain. A stinging and acute pain, like balloon with spikes expanding in her chest and throat.

She looked at her friend with tears in her eyes, the same happening to her. The shock was too much for Jane and she fainted.

Later, when it was finally dark outside, she woke up in the middle of some swamp, with pain all around her body. She looked down and saw herself slumping in a puddle of blood that reflected the silver of the full moon. She recalled hazy dreams of Anna sobbing and muffled screams, but it took too much power to remember anything concrete. She was utterly and completely defeated and devastated.

From between the other trees she heard thumps and felt their weight on the ground under her. She heard the voice of a person too. It sounded like the rustling of leaves. It sounded moldy and wet. It sounded high like the shriek of the wind, and low like the bass of insects buzz...