Monster in the closet? What a joke, the only monsters to be seen here are in this forest, dreamlike mist filled the air, floating through the fallen hollows of dead trees that littered the forest. There had been a few murders rumoured to have happened in the area, hand-drawn pictures of a man with odd, amber eyes had filled the spots of wanted posters located throughout the town. Though the locals still doubted the murders were even real, as only one victim was ever found, as a pile of bones buried beneath the dirt. And as small towns go, the police department could not afford fancy technology to identify the victim, so they stuck to the rumors of odd townsfolk, drawing up eyewitness pictures of the so rumoured murderer, though these were associated with a bad reputation coming from the people that told them, causing doubt to spread that he was even real.
However, one night, John, the son of a nobleman, a wealthy and well-respected figure within the town disappeared. His last known appearance was in the woods, as though the son had immense wealth, his father demanded discipline and routine. This resulted in him getting a part-time job at the local apothecary, though the owner had no need for an assistant, she was bribed to hire him and because of the son being employed she kept him busy with trips to the woods for herbs, just to stock up and make him feel useful.
One trip to the woods went wrong one day, as though John lacked discipline, he was no fool, he was aware that there were wild animals in the forest, and he held some belief to a theory in the town that there was no murderer, but rather a pack of wolves roaming the forest. And because of this, strived to make as little noise as possible while gathering said herbs. Though his intentions at causing little sound were nearly successful, he ultimately failed and stepped on a single fallen branch, giving a loud crack. At that moment, everything went silent, the once dreadful cawing sounds of the birds amongst the treetops stopped and John’s face went pale, a chill sent down his spine, feeling something behind him, he spun around.
However, no monster was to be seen, so he just stood there, waiting for something to happen, for wolves to attack, but nothing came. Cautiously, he took a step forward and at that moment something flung out of a bush, something that had been watching with glowing amber eyes and in the span of three seconds John was gone, drained and devoid of blood, in what he thought was his last minute that John was alive, he could see a large backed, furry creature, digging a hole at a blinding speed, dirt hitting the ground and accumulating a hefty pile within about ten seconds.
And as the creature turned around to drag John to what he assumed was his grave, he saw that there was a scar through the creature’s right arm and remembered he had seen a man with a similar design. The man in the town was thought to be an avid user of contact lenses for unknown reasons and was considered an odd townsfolk. John knew there and then that the rumors were true and that there was indeed a murderer. Trying to crawl away, John moved his arms and tried to lift himself up to run, this worked and John ran like he had never before, desperately hoping to warn the town and more importantly preserve his own life. But this was futile as the creature ran to him on all fours and tackled him, he then felt a slicing through his skin and realized his heart had been stabbed by the creature’s now unsheathed claws.
As John lay on his stomach he let out a scream, going against all of his conditioning done by his father to be a tough man. As he did that he felt regret and guilt, and fell down and died. The scream, however, was heard by the entire town, and rumors spread like a wildfire about the mysterious disappearance and scream of the nobleman’s son, with John, becoming immortalized in a myth that would haunt the town for generations to come