Prologue
The night sky hovered above the trees in the forest, and the owls hooted among the silent void. The fog reached its cold fingers through the abyss of dim light brought by the moon. It was the dead of winter and all the leaves were on the ground left to rot. Hurrying through the forest, was a man of his late 40's carrying a lantern. His warm breath hit the cold air, causing it glow as he continued to run. He stopped to catch his breath, putting his head in the palm of his hand. He shook his head and moaned.
"This cannot be happening. Why her lord?" he trembled to himself. His voice quivered as his body shook from the cold air hugging his body.
Foot steps began to creak through the forest. The man quickly yanked his head up as his face turned pale. He instantly took off through the woods once more, his breathing turning into heavy pants. The creature behind him growled as it edged closer and closer to the man. Never did he look back to see what the horrid creature looked like, but kept running in hopes the creature might give up on him. The man stumbled as the ground beneath him collapsed and sent him falling in what seemed like a bottomless pit. He hit the cold ground on his back with a loud grunt. He struggled to make any sort of movement, but he felt too weak to get up. He heard distant trampling of the creature, causing him to use the increasing adrenaline to force his aching body up. As he lifted his back off the ground, sharp pains shot through his back. He sucked in air through gritted teeth, muttering a few curse words out of sheer pain. He slowly stood up and he looked up to see if the creature was still there.To his luck it wasn't.
"Oh thank the mighty lord for my life." the man gratefully expressed, folding his hands together as if he were praying to the very lord he thanked.
He looked around where he fell to see if he could find his lantern. His eyes scanned the dark area, finding his gaze pinned on shining glass off in the distance. He shuffled over to the shard of glass, only to find his lantern shattered. He let out a long, heavy sigh and grabbed the broken lantern to see if maybe it was still usable; which it wasn't. After a long stretch of curse words, h e peered around the abyss in hopes of finding any sort of resource to create light with. Next to where the man hit the ground was a thick stick laying.
"Ah, perfect!" The man happily grinned as he maneuvered his way over to the stick.
The man inspected the stick, finding it to be dry and burnable. He nodded in approval, then gazing down at his shirt. He ripped a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it around the stick in a knot. He then grabbed a flask from inside his jacket pocket and poured it all over the shirt piece, then took a sip of his drink himself. It was vodka. He quickly put his flask away, grabbing a lighter from his other pocket and lit the newly made torch. It burst into flames and illuminated a small area around him, just enough for him to make his way through the cave.
"Excellent!" The man preached with a smile, turning his body in different directions in order to see further in each direction.
He saw a tunnel to the right of him, which caused him to start walking towards it. The tunnel grew more visible as he walked through the cave. The sides were lined with chipped stone and mold. The ground looked the same as the walls, only covered in dirt and leaves on top of the cracks. The further he walked through the quiet, dark tunnel; an eerie feel began to nip at him. The feeling became more intense as he continued to walk, only making him paranoid and cautious.
He slowly reached a small intersection where the tunnel split into two. One tunnel led to the left, which looked the exact same as the tunnel on the right. Neither expressed any natural light, only the little flame that lit the small area around him. Without much thinking, he took a left and continued his journey through the dead silent tunnel. A few footsteps could be heard, which caused the man to jump slightly. He was unsure whether there was something there with him, or if he was imagining things. He let out a deep breath and kept his eyes on the ground as he walked.
"Focus...Keep your focus..." He quietly muttered to himself. He attempted everything he could to keep his focus, however, the eerie feeling from before crept behind him and consumed his body as a whole.
The man struggled a little harder to keep his focus on finding an exit. The cold, eerie feeling tugged at his heart and sent shivers down his spine. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he made a few more steps against the cold, hard ground. He stopped after a moment, hearing a small thud and the sound of something rolling. His eyes trailed down to his feet, causing his heart to stop in horror. He gasped and clutched his chest, his eyes wide as he stumbled back with a whimper. It was the head of his wife that the creature had taken. Her pale face frozen on a scream and her eyes glued open. He covered his mouth as tears ran down his face endlessly.
"N-No...No..." The man began to sob as he clenched his teary eyes shut.
After a long ten or so minutes of him silently crying, he took a deep breath and passed his dead wife's head. He sniffled painfully as he closed his eyes and walked shakily through the tunnel. Now more than ever, he wanted to not only get out of the cave, but kill the creature that took the love of his life away. Anger and despair raged inside of him into one giant knot. He moved his cold, shaky hand to his still wet eyes and dried them off while the other hand held his torch. He began to walk faster through the cave, only to find himself at another forked intersection. He decided to take a right this time, edging down the cold tunnel with his heart pounding heavily.
His walk continued for what felt like hours. He began to think that there was no exit, but he was using every ounce of energy inside of him to continue on. He did not want to. He wanted to give up. He wanted to run back to the head of his wife and hold it while he sobbed. He wanted death to welcome him in it's embrace and walk him to the light. Right as those thoughts occurred, he spotted a small ounce of natural light. He jolted his head to where he saw the light. Beside him was a small crack in the wall, large enough for one full grown adult to squeeze through. Distantly, light shined it's way from the outside; allowing him to know it was dawn.
Gasping in delight, he scrambled to the tiny entrance and turned his body sideways to squeeze through. He slithered himself between the two stone walls, eventually reaching his tired, cold body outside. He dropped his torch and looked around, finding himself back inside of the woods like before; only this area he did not recognize. Nonetheless, he stood there for a moment to breathe in the fresh, cool air. His eyes scanned the area, attempting to seek out the creature that had killed his wife. It was no where to be seen. His tired body sparked to life as the blood inside of him boiled. He had his chance. He had the ability to kill the creature. After a moment he raced into the forest as he had done only a few hours prior.
"Hey! Wanna kill someone? Why don't you kill me!" he yelled in the forest in hopes to grab the creature's attention.
He heard twigs snap around him and leaves crunching. His heart rate grew fast from fear and anger. He grabbed a knife from the inside of his boot and prepared himself to fight the creature. The noises stopped suddenly stopped, causing him to peer around.
"Scared huh? Well you should be!" his voice echoed through the forest. A few birds screeched and flew away from the branches they were perched on. The trees had not a single leaf on them, the ground covered in dead leaves and a light frost as far as you can see.
The noises from before began once more, and the man prepared himself for a fight. The noises, however, only grew louder. A chill started to run down his spine now as he heard footsteps surrounding him. There were more than one creature. The man's anger grew less and less as the noises grew louder and closer. After a few moments he looked around, and he saw that he was surrounded by at least ten creatures staring down at him.
Each creature looked identical to the other one. They were around eight feet tall with six eyes on their face. Their mouths stretched across their entire cheeks with razor sharp teeth. They didn't have a single hair on their body, being covered in a charcoal-like substance. They had four arms on their torso, and their legs dipped back after the knee to represent that of a beast. Their nails pointed into long claws as they reached their arms out to the man while edging closer.
As each creature made it's way closer, the man backed himself into a tree. All the creatures snarled at the man as they stared down at their meal. He looked at them with intense fear, his body quivering as he shrunk. The creatures reached their long black hands at the man as he extended his hand out that held his little knife. After a moment, he finally built enough courage to ram the knife into the hand of one of the creatures. It let out an ear piercing screech and stumbled backwards. The other creatures slowly turned their attention to him. Fury showed on their evil faces as they snarled at the man. They turned and loudly screamed as reached for the man. He closed his eyes and all fear welled up to his throat as the creatures grabbed him.
"AAAAAAH!" A child shot up with a scream.
