So engrossed in tickling the pickle, John and Shelby missed the creature that lumbered past their tent. The following screams, crashes, and bangs were not missed though. The couple stopped their game of patty cake and rushed from the tent in the skivvies they quickly threw on.

They took in the scene. The ground was caked with blood and viscera. The creature standing in the middle of the scene was similarly caked. The grayish brown creature had a titanic upper body with an emaciated lower one. As a result, it stood and walked on its hands.

After several moments of everyone taking in what happened to the pious couple, the creature slowly turned towards the still alive couple.

“RuN. rUn. LeT’s HaVe SoMe FuN.” the creature growled out tauntingly.

And with that, the couple scrambled away. The creature waited a minute then gave chase.

After an hour of the couple tripping over roots, cutting their feet on rocks, and listening to the monster’s laughs accompanied by trees being thrown around the pursued humans were getting tired. thus, less entertaining to the monster. Which was bad news for the pair and especially bad news for John, as Robby crushed the boy in his meaty hand. That gave Shelby a second wind, something fierce.

Unfortunately, that second wind could not last forever. Shelby’s body gave out within ten minutes. She laid on the group paralyzed by burning lactic acid and cramps. She felt every step as the creature approached both due to its weight shaking the ground and the fear shaking her heart.

Shelby looked up at her executioner and really took in its face for the first time. The face was that of a young boy’s permanently locked in fear. That made it somehow worse as seeing something so human drove home how inhuman the creature truly was.

_

Robby Jenkins

“A copy of a cat”

Grade D

_

With a will that truly surprised even herself the young woman spoke, “I’ve lived my life how I wanted. Drank when I wanted. Smoked when I wanted. And f*cked when I wanted. Sucks that the party ended so soon, but hey, most people’s do.”

And with that the creature wrapped its hand around her skull.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Robby wanted to see fear, hear screams, smell p*ss, and feel the blood run down its hand. Shelby refused to give those to it. Well except for the last one as it was understandably outside her control.

Robby did not like her refusal. Not. One. Bit.

It decided that her death would be agonizingly slow. She felt her skull slowly compact one fraction of an inch at a time.

She knew that the only revenge she could ever get was to refuse to give the monster what it wanted. Even if that meant that it would be slow.

Shelby, the young woman who many saw as nothing but a sl*t, never lost her edge nor the steel in her eye. Not even as her mouth overflowed with blood. Not as her skull pierced her brain. Not as the last breath lost her lungs. She never broke eye contact with her killer.

She died a victor, and the creature knew it. The creature hated it.

As it was taking out its anger on the corpse of the woman who got the better of him, in a way, golden threads flew out of the shadows and wrapped around its throat. Afterwards the creature’s throat was set alight with gold flames.

“Sooooo, whatcha up to?” A smooth baritone voice followed the beads out from the darkness.

“Night… is… falling…” the creature croaked out.

“You know this whole situation is really ringing some bells inside my head.” the voice reiterated.

“Night… is… falling…” the creature croaked out again.

The voice then stepped from the shadows. The masked man dressed in a crimson dress shirt with golden pinstripes, brown slacks, and brown leather shoes. He crafted his apparel out of a spartan uniform he picked up along the way.

The man sighed and then in a mocking tone said, “Well, that’s still not very helpful, but as those seem to be the only words in your vernacular as well lets draw this conversation to a conclusion.”

***

I decided to see if the corpse would be enlightening this time around. I pulled the thread made of faith essence to behead the creature.

I spent some time looking through its soul. It was hard to read in places due to its twisted and corrupted nature. This resulted in the information contained becoming twisted and corrupted as well. All I could get out of it was that an impulse to spread death and destruction around the area while heading towards a town by the name of Slaughterville was implanted.

On the Brightside, I got a look at the energy signature that caused said implantation. It was not enough to track, but I would know the perpetrator when I saw her. And I knew it was a her. I could not get much more from the signature, but I had learned that the falling night was not a natural event and had immediately cut my suspect pool in half. So that was at least something. I even had a direction to go. Things were really starting to look up.

As I was later driving to Slaughterville, I could not help but think back on what the creature said and what I had learned from its soul. I still had no idea what night falling exactly meant, but I did learn something very important. That someone who caused Olivia’s death still drew breath. For now at least.