Leo Winfield trudged along the winding path that led into the Angeles National Forest, his breath coming out in short, visible puffs in the cool winter air. The forest was far quieter than the city, with only the occasional rustling of leaves and the soft crunch of dirt beneath his feet. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows across the trees. It had been a full day since he had fed, and the gnawing hunger in his belly was growing unbearable.

He had left Los Angeles behind, fleeing the noise, the chaos, and, more importantly, the people. Each passing pedestrian had made his stomach churn with hunger. Just being around them triggered something primal in him—an urge he didn’t understand, but one he feared. It was getting harder and harder to resist. The farther away he was from humans, the better.

Leo stopped in a small clearing deep in the forest and looked around. The place was untouched by LA’s snowy winters. Leafless trees surrounded him, branches twisting around in every direction. He remembered bits of his time in the Boy Scouts, long-forgotten survival lessons that now seemed like they might save his life. He needed a place to rest, some place he could hide if he couldn’t resist the hunger. Setting his backpack down, he went to work, gathering sticks and fallen branches to form a makeshift shelter. He built a crude lean-to against a tree, just enough to keep the rain and wind off him for the night.

His stomach growled, reminding him of why he had come here. He needed to hunt.

Leo crouched down and sniffed the air. His senses were sharper now. He could smell animals nearby, faint traces of prey hidden in the underbrush. His body felt lighter and more agile, and as he moved through the forest, he noticed something strange—he could blend into his surroundings. His form shimmered and faded, becoming almost invisible. It was a new ability, one he hadn’t understood until now.

He tiptoed through the trees, his eyes darting around for any sign of life. A squirrel darted across a tree trunk, and in an instant, Leo lunged forward, grabbing it with ease. His claws dug into its tiny body, and with a swift bite to the neck, it was dead. He devoured it in seconds. The hunger inside him wasn’t satisfied, not yet, but it was enough to keep him going for a little longer.

He continued hunting, picking off small creatures—snakes, lizards, whatever he could find. Each kill made him feel a little more in control, a little more like he could manage this... thing he had become. His body felt less awkward now, more natural. He was understanding how it worked. He didn’t need to cook the meat—his fiendish body could digest it raw. But when he tried to eat some wild plants, ones he remembered being edible from his scouting days, the taste was so foul that it nearly made him vomit.

“Guess fiends don’t like veggies,” he thought to himself, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

As he wandered deeper into the woods, he spotted a deer grazing in the distance. Finally, something more substantial. He crouched low, his body fading into the shadows once more as he stalked his prey. The deer’s obliviousness to his presence made the hunt almost too easy. Leo crept closer, his muscles coiled like springs, ready to pounce. In a blur of motion, he leaped onto the deer, his claws sinking into its neck. He tore its throat out in one swift motion, and the animal collapsed to the ground, dead.

Leo wasted no time. He feasted on the deer, drinking its blood, which surprisingly quenched his thirst. The warm liquid was a strange comfort in the cold forest. He dragged the carcass back to his camp as the rain started to pour. He decided to take a nap in his modest lean-to, but he couldn’t fall asleep.

Leo shifted uneasily on the floor, his sharp senses attuned to the unnatural quiet around him. He remembered the stories he had heard about these woods—stories of people vanishing without a trace, tales of creatures lurking in the shadows. Back then, he had brushed them off as urban legends, ghost stories meant to scare kids around the campfire. But now, after hunting and living like a fiend himself, he knew better. Those stories were real. The forest was alive with dangers, creatures far more terrifying than he had ever imagined. He could feel it in the air—the auras of fiends, pulsing like dark beacons, far deeper within the woods. They were powerful and insidious, and their presence made his skin crawl.

When he explored these woods as a human, they seemed like a refuge, a peaceful escape from the chaos of the city. But now, as a fiend, he sensed the truth. The forest was a battleground, a place where predators lurked and fought for dominance. He could hear it in the distance—the faint ripping and tearing of flesh, the pitiful screams of weaker fiends as they crossed into the territory of something far more dangerous. It made him constantly on edge, his body tense, ready to flee at any moment. Even as the rain fell, soaking through the gaps in the lean-to onto his body, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched, hunted. Every time he tried to close his eyes and rest, the overwhelming presence of those fiends—those unseen monsters in the darkness—kept him awake, his mind racing with dread. His time here was limited, and he knew he wouldn’t survive long if he stayed.

And then, he heard voices. Faint, but unmistakable. Leo’s eyes snapped open. He could hear people, foolish people approaching, their footsteps squelching in the wet leaves. His senses told him they were close—two people, a man and a woman. He could smell them. And that smell stirred something deep inside him, something he had been fighting to suppress.

Hunger.

Leo’s mouth watered as he forced himself to stand. He couldn’t let them find him. He couldn’t risk another incident. He darted into the woods, trying to get as far away from them as possible, his heart racing as the hunger gnawed at his insides. But then he heard their voices, clearer now, just beyond the trees.

“Look, a shelter. Someone’s been living here,” a man said, his voice tinged with curiosity.

“Yeah,” a woman replied, sounding uneasy. “But where are they now?”

Leo’s heart skipped a beat. He recognized those voices.

Richard and Kelly.

They were his friends—had been his friends—back when things were normal. They had been in the Boy Scouts together and had gone camping out here in the forest more times than Leo could count. And now they were here, standing just outside his makeshift camp, talking about him.

“Do you think it’s a mountain lion or something?” Richard asked, his voice low.

“I don’t know,” Kelly replied. “But look at this.” She knelt down near the deer carcass, her fingers tracing the deep wounds in the animal’s flesh. “These marks... they’re too big to be a mountain lion. It’s like a bear or something. But bears don’t kill like this. This was deliberate, straight to the throat.”

Leo watched them from the shadows, torn between wanting to reveal himself and the overwhelming urge to run. They would be terrified of him. Of course, they would. He was a monster now, a fiend. But it had been so long since he had spoken to anyone, so long since he had seen someone familiar. He wanted to say hi, to talk to them, but the fear gnawed at him. What if they ran? What if they fought back?

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They turned away from the camp, continuing down the trail, their voices fading as they walked. Leo followed them, staying just out of sight, but close enough to hear their conversation.

“Do you ever wonder what happened to Leo?” Richard asked after a long pause.

“I heard about it,” Kelly said softly. “His whole family was killed in a fiend attack.”

“Damn,” Richard muttered. “First his sister, then his whole family. Fiends must have an appetite for Winfields, eh?”

Kelly elbowed him sharply. “Don’t say that. It’s not funny. He’s dead, Richard.”

“Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood,” Richard said, sounding sheepish. “But yeah, that was messed up. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Leo’s heart pounded in his chest. They thought he was dead. Of course, they did. How could they know the truth? How could they know he had become the very thing that had taken everything from him?

He inched closer, his body moving on its own, despite the voice in his head screaming at him to stop. He could feel the hunger rising, his claws twitching with the need to tear into something, to feed. His friends—his former friends—were right there, within reach.

He didn’t want to hurt them. He didn’t want to be a monster.

But the hunger was so strong.

He stepped on a branch, the crack loud in the stillness of the forest. Richard and Kelly froze, turning their heads toward the sound. Their eyes locked onto him—onto the fiend.

Kelly screamed.

Richard grabbed his backpack and hurled it at Leo before turning and running. Kelly tried to follow, but she tripped over a rock, falling to the ground with a thud.

Leo’s body moved on instinct, his claws digging into the earth as he closed the distance between them. He didn’t want them to run. He didn’t want to hurt them. He wanted to explain, to tell them it was him, that he wasn’t going to hurt them—but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was a guttural roar.

Kelly screamed again, scrambling to get to her feet, but Leo grabbed her, his large hands tightly gripping her arms. He could feel his teeth nearing her flesh, the hunger driving him mad. He had to feed. He had to—

Something hard slammed into his skull, knocking him to the ground. Leo blinked, dazed, as Richard stood over him, a baseball bat in his hands.

“Stay away from her!” Richard shouted, his voice shaking with fear.

He brought the bat down again, hitting Leo’s head with a sickening crack. Leo could feel the bones in his skull fracturing, but the pain didn’t last. He was healing, regenerating faster than Richard could hurt him.

But Richard didn’t stop. He kept hitting Leo, over and over, until Leo stopped moving.

“Holy shit,” Richard gasped. “I... I think I killed it.”

Kelly scrambled to her feet, tears streaming down her face as she hugged Richard tightly. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god... I thought we were going to die.”

Richard patted her back, his own hands shaking. “It’s dead. We’re okay. We’re—”

But Leo wasn’t dead.

His consciousness surged back to life, his wounds already closing. Within seconds, he was back on his feet, the hunger even stronger than before. Kelly screamed again, and Richard’s eyes widened in terror.

“Why won’t you stay dead?!” Richard shouted, raising the bat again. But Leo could see the fear in his eyes, the helplessness. They were prey, and they knew it.

Leo took a step toward them, his movements slow and deliberate. He didn’t want to hurt them. He wanted them to understand. But how could he show them without speaking? His voice was gone, replaced by the fiend’s growls and roars.

Then, it hit him.

He started to dance.

It was ridiculous, absurd even, but it was something only Leo did. During their middle school dance parties, Leo had always been the goofy one, busting out silly moves just to make people laugh. And now, here he was, a fiend, doing the same ridiculous dance.

Richard and Kelly stared at him, dumbfounded.

“What the hell...?” Richard muttered, lowering the bat.

Kelly squinted, her eyes narrowing as she watched Leo dance. And then, recognition flickered across her face.

“Leo?” she whispered.

Leo stopped dancing and nodded.

Richard’s jaw dropped. “What the fuck happened to you?”

Before Leo could respond, a blur of motion caught his eye. Another fiend charged into the clearing, slamming into Kelly and knocking her to the ground. The creature was monstrous—hunched over, covered in coarse hair, with multiple eyes and a wide, gaping mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. It roared, preparing to bite into her.

Without thinking, Leo lunged at the fiend, his claws digging into its eyes. The creature howled in pain as Leo ripped its eyes out, blood spraying across the earth. He grabbed Kelly and pulled her to safety, his heart pounding in his chest.

The fiend roared and charged at Leo again, but this time, Leo was ready. He dodged its attack, dragging his claws across its face and body in a brutal swipe. The creature staggered, but it was more durable than Leo had anticipated. It grabbed him, its powerful jaws clamping down on his arms, tearing them off with a sickening crunch.

Leo screamed in pain, echoing through the forest like a guttural howl. The sheer loudness of Leo’s scream had hurt it, making it recoil in agony as it covered its ear holes.

With his remaining strength, Leo lunged forward and bit into the fiend’s remaining eyes, tearing them out with his teeth. The taste of its flesh was revolting, like eating rotten meat, but he didn’t stop. He needed to finish this.

As he devoured the fiend’s flesh, he felt his body growing stronger, his wounds healing faster than ever before. He could even start remembering things, memories that weren’t there before. He learned of the forest and the fiends that inhabited it. He saw terrifying images of powerful entities so vividly, and the fiend in front of him right now was barely considered a light snack. The new memories disoriented him for just a moment as his arms began to regrow.

The hairy fiend took this opportunity to grab Leo and rip a leg off. The pain was immense as he saw his left leg get flung into the tree tops. Leo, with only one leg, collapsed to the floor and the beast was now on top of him, crushing him with its weight. Leo tried to retaliate by digging his regenerated claws into the creature’s chest, ripping it open. The beast was heavy, and its flesh was durable, but Leo put all of his remaining strength into his arms. Leo screamed with all of his might as he plunged his arms into the beast and tore it in half like opening a book.

The fiend let out one final, pitiful cry before collapsing to the ground, its body twitching and convulsing as it bled out. It tried to crawl away, as each half was limping pathetically, but it couldn’t escape its fate. With a final gurgle, it died.

Leo collapsed his body onto the wet floor, panting heavily. He had never fought a fiend before, and the exhaustion hit him like a wave. He looked down at his hands, covered in blood, his leg fully regrown now, and realized that his human form had returned. He wasn’t a fiend anymore—at least, not in appearance.

Maybe this was just a dream. Maybe none of this was real.

But the blood on his hands said otherwise.

He sat up and turned to look at Richard and Kelly, who were standing frozen in shock, their faces pale and their eyes wide.

Leo took a deep breath, the words tumbling out of him before he could stop them. “Hey, guys. I... I killed it. You’re safe now. I think.”

Kelly’s voice was barely a whisper. “Leo... what the fuck are you?”