Prologue

As he ran, full pace through the forest, fighting against the exhaustion that sweep throughout his body. James, felt the chill of the impending doom that followed closely behind. The creature covered by darkness, neither closed the distance nor fell behind any further, it was playing a game, and he was its prey.

James, knowing that he was reaching his limits, began to lose his willingness to continue on, as his lungs burnt like they were under an inferno, and his muscles at their utmost limit, he knew that soon he would be as good as dead. This thought, shook him to his very core and he could feel energy welling up from deep within his very being. With this new found burst of energy, he found himself propelling through the foliage, darting around the trees with ease. The adrenaline rush filled him with the feeling of being more powerful than ever before.

His euphoria was short lived, as the creature now tired of this game of cat and mouse, quickly closed the gap between James and itself within the span of two breaths. James could suddenly feel a chill run down his spine. All the nerves within his body fired off warnings, telling him to drop to he ground ,and so he did, just in time to avoid a fatal wound to his back. Luckily, due to the adrenaline pumping throughout his veins, James was unaware of the near fatal wound on his back. But his troubles had just begun, as blood continuously flowed out of the the four gaping claw marks in his back, James felt the ground become wet as his body slowly went limp. A feeling of cold, swept throughout his body, followed by fear as the creature's maw seemed to form into a sinister smile. It seemed to be scanning James, inspecting his condition, checking to see if it's sick game could be carried on. Realizing that the end was near, and resigning himself to his fate, James stared into this creature's eyes which seemed to be death incarnate. It's glowing red eyes, seemed to carry a hint of sadness,but no remorse for the lives it has taken, but a sadness for the game which was abruptly ended due to its carelessness.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It inched closer to James, its body slowly meeting the beams of moonlight shining through the trees, but James' vision became blurred by the copious amount of blood steadily flowing from his back. As he began to take his last breaths, the creature lunged forward, and with a swipe of it's claws, James' short life had come to an end. The creature slowly devoured his corpse at the spot, for it had no worries, seeing as it is the apex predator in it's little neck of the woods. No one dared to challenge it.

As it finished its meal, it took a few bones along with some of his belongings as trophies. James was just the latest of its many victims, and with each kill it took trophies back to its den, which was a cave in the center of the forest with a near by stream which could be heard from within his cave.