Panic beginning to settle in her heart from the music, Rita had tossed off her blanket and dropped her mug and it's contents as she stared with wide eyes at the radio. The sounds of a banjo playing that's appeared again and again these past few days plays once again from a simple radio, uninterrupted as it hits the dirt from the folding chair being overturned in her haste.
Her breathing going out of rhythm as she tries to regain her composure, she tries to focus on the cold air in her lungs to center herself. Her panic worsens as she holds her hands together and realizes just how cold she is and tries to correct her action by stepping near the fire and feels no heat coming from the flames. "W-w-what th-the f-f-ffuck, why am-m I s-ss-so cold!?" She stammered to herself, as her mind began to race faster than she can cope as her fight-or-flight kicked in. Trying to think of what to do while ignoring the idea of throwing herself into the fire she looks around erratically before seeing the tent and begins to make a jagged rush for her blankets and sleeping bag.
"Go-got to..." she began as she opens the flap to see the inside of a tent she doesn't recognize followed by the sick and disgusting smell of rotting meat as it hits her senses. Trying and failing to fight her gag reflex as she stumbles, her eyes begin to water as she falls to her knees. Trying her best to keep hold of herself as she looks around for the source of the offending odor, she begins to realize the tent is much bigger than it should be. Her eyes go wide in horror as she sees what could only be described as a nest of corpses in the center of the tent.
The beginnings of hyperventilation take hold as tears of terror begin to fall down her face, as her eyes focus on the human remains piled neatly together. With mounting desperation, she retreats from the tent, begging to no one in particular that the sight of many half eaten limbs, shattered skulls, various bones, and so much flesh in every stage of rot was all just a bad dream. Fighting the shock, she turns toward the fire where her bag of small necessities are. Her thinking erratic, she stalls mentally jumping between calling the police, running into the wilderness and hoping she can find her way back to the diner, or simply breaking down in tears and falling to her knees and praying to whichever god who might be listening to save her.
Her movement, her mind, even her heart stops to a halt as she notices the light of the fire shining on the antlers of a deer skull before her. The skull slowly tilts to the left followed by the sounds of bones rubbing together for a few moments before shifting to the right in a quizzical fashion. A slow speaking androgynous voice, that sounded like someone speaking from the bottom of a well emanated from the skull, overly pronouncing it's speech as if trying to reassure itself of it's vocabulary "Ae... guess-t?"
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Cold grips even tighter to Rita as she stares uncomprehendingly at the skull, with her arms beginning to shake furiously in panic, fighting to control her breathing as she rasps out what little she can, "what?" The skull tilt to the other side again at a slightly different angle as if in thought for a moment before speaking. "ye-oou... were-ent... in vit-ed? Bu-t yoou... did-ent... break inn... ei-ther..."
Rita barely feels the wet of her tears on her face as she she tries to comprehend the mysterious figure through the firelight, but before she can properly focus, a loud popping of bones erupted as the head snaps direction to face her. A loud groan between a person's last breath and a wolf's growl is uttered as the figure begins to slowly rise, "If...iif hyou ARE nieh-ther... eyou muest be a mate!"
Rita's breathing returned erratically to try and supply blood faster through her body as her instincts short-circuited her vision to tremble after hearing it's words as she watched it stand to it's full height. The light of the campfire revealed a severely emaciated, vaguely humanoid figure, that rose to at least 3 meters in height without the aid of it's horns. "Do nnot worry my... dar-ling gristle..." it said as it began to circle the fire, lowering to make use of it's 4 limbs, "Youu, have... ye-t to trans-fhorm in-too..."
Unable to take anymore, her body simultaneously bent down to gain traction as her legs fully erupted with motion to increase the lessening distance, in a desperate attempt to flee as a her body fought between squeals of terror and hyperventilating. In the spontaneous attempt to run, dirt flew from beneath her uncoordinated feet as she tumbled to her side on the ground. Trying to use her hands to right herself, she tried to control her legs to get up and begin a dead sprint in any direction this monster wasn't.
Sadly, her chance had left her as she felt a wet grip that covered most of her lower right leg that made her panic further as she screamed in fear, "Let go of me!." Failing to flee she tried to fight, and with each kick to the hand that grabbed her she heard a squelching noise but her leg began to hurt after 4 solid attempts in quick succession. The monster, having grabbed her and began walking into the tent towards the nest said, "Do no-t be a-fraid my-y... s-wee-t car-cass... I will ma-ke y-you beau-ti-ful... and we-e... shall make... many be-au-ti-ful children... together."
Trying escape by kicking it's hand had failed and so she was being dragged to a terrible fate, desperate, she tried everything she could immediately think of from screaming for help at the top of her lungs as she broke her nails in an attempt to grip the dirt to slow it while continuing to try and kick her assailant. With bloodying fingers she continued desperately to grab for anything as her eyes became bloodshot, her nose runny, her breathing erratic, and her body weak as the smell of death invaded her senses once again.
As the dirt she tried to grip in vain turned to blood covered plastic, she was in the tent now, and as she looked up from the floor of the tent as the flap was closing she saw the light of the campfire and realized that she wasn't cold anymore.