I was hunting a wolf like monster, when it happened.

I had lost my gun in an earlier scuffle with the beast, but had managed to deeply wound it before it escaped. So with just my blade in tow I went after it.

And suddenly I found myself someplace else, deep in a dark forest surrounded by abnormally tall trees.

I could still see the tracks left behind by the beast so without any other direction I could take, I simply followed them.

Everything about the forest felt, wrong. 

As I was moving it felt like reality itself was displaced somehow. Every other step I took felt as if I was moving in place, yet I still arrived at my quarry, only to stop in bewilderment of what I saw.

The beast was thrashing and clawing at the air, its body bloody and nearly torn apart.

I thought it had simply gone mad until I looked to the ground and saw what I assumed to be mere shadows at first.

There was no moon or stars in the sky, just pure darkness. There was no torch or beacon to give light. Yet there were shadows.

It made no sense, how did I see the tracks left by the beast? How did I follow them?

How was it possible for me to see in this place at all?

The shadows surrounding the beast were, unnatural.

I could not make sense of what I saw. Just by looking at them I felt sick and nauseated, my head throbbing in pain.

I could only make out the vague shapes that attacked out of the shadows, tearing at the beast.

Tendrils of flesh and insect like claws. When they moved, the air moved with them, it was as if they were tearing at the fabric of space itself.

But I noticed something else about them as well.

Whatever these monsters were, they were not simply hunting for prey or attacking in hunger. They were toying with the beast, they wanted their prey to suffer.

To fear.

I felt lost in the strange forest, but I knew if I stayed there with the shadows I would be dead soon after the beast. So I ran.

I did not know where I was heading, or how long I was running for. I simply ran through the forest. There was nothing to help me tell apart one tree from another, or if I was even moving at all. I kept running until finally I arrived, at a building.

It was a square shaped grey building with crackled stone walls. It looked out of place. No roof, or windows, just one empty doorway that stood before me.

I’m not sure what I was planning to do at the time, maybe to just keep running, but I was certainly not planning to go inside that place.

I had already made my mind to leave when I heard it. Crying.

It sounded like the cry of a young child, and it was coming from inside the building.

I stood in place long after the noise had stopped. I knew it was likely to be some kind of a trap, or perhaps just a figment of my imagination. But I could not leave without finding out. If there truly was someone who needed my help, I had to help. Perhaps it was the fact that I was uncertain if I could even survive this place no matter what I did that gave me the bravery to go forward, but either way I entered the building.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to find inside the building, but what I found was just quiet nothingness.

Stone hallways leading to dead ends and empty rooms with no doors, and a stairway leading underground in the middle of it all. It reminded me of an abandoned storage building or a prison some kind. There was no furniture or even dust on the floors that I could see as I made my way through.

With no place else to go I went to the stairway and headed underground. The stairway was small and compact, curving in on itself as it went down deeper and deeper. I’m not sure how long I spent walking down the what seemed like endless stairs but eventually something changed.

I could hear noises. The rattling of chains being scraped across the floor and the skittering noises of insect legs.

The stairway ended and I arrived at a large room. In the middle I saw what seemed to be a small box or a coffin, being held shut by chains surrounding it.

And besides it I saw another one of those shadowy monsters, only this one seemed more, physical. I fought past my nausea to observe it.

It was not simply a shadow stuck to the ground, it had a form. A crawling mass of insect parts and shadows stuck together, with numerous unnaturally glowing eyes peering from beneath the shadows.

It paid no attention to me as it dragged more chains on top of the box, seemingly trying to secure it tighter.

And then I heard it. Soft weeping coming from inside the box.

I knew attacking the creature was foolish and more than likely a death sentence, but I was a hunter. Killing monsters and facing death is our duty.

To deal with the nausea looking at the creature caused I kept track of it with my peripheral vision, keeping it at the corner of my eye.

The creature seemed unaware of my presence as I slowly approached it. Nearing it I quietly took out my blade, its jagged edge was painted with dried blood from old hunts. I holding my breath I raised my blade, and struck down at the creature.

As soon as I struck it dropped the chains and started flailing wildly, and I quickly jumped away from its reach. My blade didn’t seem to do any damage, but as I looked at the creature swiping the air around itself in confusion, it was then that I realized something crucial.

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It could not see me. I walked around, circling the monster and took another quick strike at it. It screamed, it’s voice unnatural and horrifying. It seemed to be panicking as it madly sliced the air with its tendrils, yet my blade had not done any damage once again.

I knew it must have felt my blade or it would not have reacted, it just meant my blade wasn’t strong enough to hurt it. I looked around the room. It was empty save for the box in the middle, and the chains scattered on the floor. I tried grabbing one of the chains and the creature reacted to the noise instantly. It lunged to my position and I barely managed to roll away with just a few scratches to my garb.

I noticed that although lunging at the chains the creature did not grab them, as a matter of fact as soon as it realized it was under attack it had not touched the chains at all. I assumed the chains must have had some kind of an weakening effect on the creature, as it also seemed much faster when not holding them.

With this information I knew what to do.

I threw my blade towards another pile of chains further away from me, and the monster once again lunged at the noise. As it did I quickly grabbed the chains on the ground near me and slammed them into the creature.

It fell down and screeched in pain. I held the chains and kept hitting it. It tried to crawl away but I did not let it get away from me.

I could see its tendrils and claws curl and twist as I beat it. Its many eyes looking everywhere wildly and slowly going dark, one by one.

I kept hitting the creature until I grew too tired to continue. I looked at the mass of fleshy darkness, not sure if it was dead or if it even could die, and threw the chains on top of it. As I slowly caught my breath I turned towards the box in the middle of the room.

It was quiet.

I looked at the chains covering the box and started tearing them away. Most of them simply draped over the box, and the few that were tied in some way I could break apart. It was tiring, but I managed to do it.

The box, or coffin, was before me. I felt around the side for a lid, and when I found it I lifted the box open.

Staring at me dressed in rags was not a human child, but a monster. It had mottled pale grey skin, and wispy dark hair. It looked vaguely humanoid, but its eyes were far too large and its mouth as wide as its face was filled with sharp teeth.

I don’t know for how long, but I closed my eyes and simply stood there in front of the box. I remember feeling, purposeless, after having defeated one monster just to face another.

Then I heard a whimper and opened my eyes. It was looking at me, in what I assume was fear. I realized that unlike the shadowy creature, this one could see me. I saw its eyes tearing up, and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt it.

Even if it was a monster, it was clearly still a child. Or at least had the form of one.

I told the child that it was going to be alright, not sure if they even understood me, and lifted them out of the box. The child grabbed on to me and I carried them out of the room, up the stairs, and outside the building.

When I walked outside, I immediately noticed something was wrong. We were surrounded by shadows. The quiet forest was making noise as more and more shadows slithered past the tree line.

I stood there holding the child, there was nothing I could do as the shadows closed in on us.

And then the child let out a loud screeching cry. I could hear it echo across the forest until it grew still again.

And out of the stillness I heard a loud screech coming from far away, and then a loud stomping noise, heading towards us. I could barely look at the shadows, but what I could decipher from their writhing is that they seemed to be panicking.

I stood still as the stomping got louder and louder, until I could hear the trees creaking and falling down near us, and a giant figure came in to view past the trees.

It was similar to the child I was holding. Its form was vaguely humanoid and feminine, but with limbs too large for its body and a monstrous visage.

It opened its mouth and roared at the shadows, I could see most of them shatter in to pieces, and the rest it grabbed and tore apart.

Then it, no, she turned to me. Crouching low to the ground she brought her face closer, glaring at me.

She saw the child I was holding, and I lifted them up towards her. She gently grabbed the child and I heard her start making screeching sounds quietly to the child. The child screeched back, and I saw what looked like a smile on her face.

I simply stood there feeling exhausted, unsure if any of this was even real, or just a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.

After confirming that her child was fine the monster turned back to me. I watched her held out her hand on the ground palm up, with her child on her other hand gesturing me to get on.

I’m not sure what possessed me to trust her, but it was not like I could do anything if she had wanted to kill me. So I simply walked onto her hand.

As she stood up, I had the chance take a top down look at the forest. It seemed to stretch on endlessly, with no discerning land marks or anything else but trees around us.

Suddenly the world shifted and the forest was gone, we were some place else. I could feel my stomach sink in as the world around me warped. I felt my it multiple times as the world kept shifting, from one strange place to another.

Until finally, it stopped.

I felt the monster lowering me to the ground and took a look at my surroundings, we were near the outskirts of a city. I recognized that it was not my home, but still, I was back to the real world.

I looked back up at the monster who brought me here, and she seemed to nod at me, before the air shifted again and she disappeared.

Although I’ve heard rumours of people disappearing or claiming they had been trapped in strange places between reality in the past, something like that has never happened to me before.

I’ve decided to study this phenomenon more and look out for these spaces between worlds, to see if I could learn to understand how they work. And why they even exist.

I’m leaving out this journal for others to learn of my findings.

I won’t take it with me in the case that I’m unable to return, it’s better to simply fill it up as I return with new findings and leave it at the hunting lodge.

This was the only entry found in the journal.