Chapter Text
'Why am I even here' Chance thought to himself as he walks through the woods, trying to avoid getting hit by low hanging branches.
'I never agreed to do this shit' , just as Chance has that thought Andy happens to yell at him.
"Why the hell are you that far back, Jesus if I didn't know any better I'd say you were trying to stalk us."
Ah yes Andy Anderson, [Ironic I know], a senior who's already been held back once- might happen again,
[Hey- ma always said honesty is the best policy, and Imma be honest Andy's slower than a 8th grader].
"Why the hell are you so far up huh?! Why are we even here?" He replies with a voice crack mid sentence. God I hate my voice sometimes.
Andy stops his 'walk of pride,'
[or whatever his lame ass calls it], and turns to face Chance.
"Well if you weren't taking your sweet ass time trying not to fall and break your Itty bitty weak bones, then you'd know, wouldn't you."
Andy happens to smirk as he replies with this confident yet patronizing tone.
Chance hates that tone, it makes him feel vulnerable, like he hasn't known this guy for most of his life.
[Hey I may be a Junior, but that motherfucker has been "haunting" my life since I was 10].
Andy knew he hated it aswell, thats why he used it oh so often...you know because he thinks its comedic.
And It works, because it makes his girlfriend laugh.
If I didn't know any better I'd say she's forced to laugh, because that wasn't funny AT ALL.
"Whatever, prick" Chance says under his breathe, knowing he was far enough away that Andy wouldn't hear him but close enough to reach him in 7 steps.
"Now that you've stopped stalking us" Andy says gesturing to himself and Stacey, his girlfriend, "You can know what we're doing I guess."
"Oh geez really? What an honor" Chance sarcastically remarked while rolling his eyes.
Andy ends up hitting him lightly in the middle of his shoulder blades
"Don't get an attitude or your ass can stay clueless."
"Can you two stop congregating and hurry up, its creepy as hell here."
'Oh so you can talk', Chance grimaced as she spoke. He wasn't in the mood.
"Yeah yeah, hold your horses" Andy replies while making a 'go away' gesture with his right hand.
"Okay so the plan is to find this cave-"
"CAVE?!" Both Chance and Stacey exclaimed at the same time, turning to Andy in shock and frustration.
"No, fuck no, its too cold and you'll 100% just get us lost" Stacey says quickly, "I'll be waiting in the car YOU-" She points at Andy's nose "drove us in, walk me back."
"Walk you back? Why the hell do you need me to walk you back?"
"Oh so you WANT me to get lost?"
"fine..Fine I'll walk you back. Chance just wait here."
'Did he just say-'
"Dude, did you just tell me to stay HERE?! By myself. In the dark. A mile away from the road, in the woo-"
"Yeah I did tell you to stay here, I'll be right back, don't be a little bitch about this."
Andy says over his shoulder, one hand holding Stacey's, while the other clutches a flashlight.
"Whatever....ASSHOLE!" Chance yells at him before they officially vanish from him line of sight.
"I hope his box shaped body trips and falls over a God damn tree root"
Chance begins to take in his surrounds, to his left is a tree that looks like it was split in half just to connect again at the top. To his right is a boulder that was fully flat on top, kinda looks like a table.
'I wonder if I can climb that...yeah I totally could'
As Chance is thinking this, he hears a twig snap and the rustling of leaves about 10 feet away.
He turns his head toward the source of the noise so fast he could've gotten whiplash.
"Great just the timing, who wouldn't wanna be murdered in a dark woods all by yourself" He happens to whisper out through gritted teeth.
..wait why am I thinking of murder?
Its probably just an animal.
As Chance is about to fully turn towards the source of the sounds, the movement of leaves and steps stop...
Wait, steps? Why was there steps? Oh its got to be Andy trying to scare me I bet.
"You've got to be kidding me"
"Andy this isn't funny man" As Chance says this, its like the world around him stills, all noise stops.
It's like his words were consumed into a void as soon as they let his mouth.
"Okay, totally not creepy at all" Chance whispers, trying not to freak himself out as he slowly starts walking the direction Andy went.
.
Yeah it was this way, or was it the way behind me?
Chance starts to breathe heavier clutching his fists, desperately trying to seek comfort that he couldn't get anywhere else.
Crap, okay stay calm, look for the split tree.
He thinks as Chance stumbles back trying to find the 'marking' point he identified.
But something starts to rustle in the leave behind him again,
oh no. Its actually coming my way,
Why is it getting louder?!
Does it know I'm here?!
Its like he can feel someone watching him from all angles, like if he turns around now he'll be ambushed.
Chance reaches up and grasps his cross necklace, hoping that this is enough to keep him grounded and safe.
He holds onto it with cupped hands, almost like shielding it from what could happen.
"Yo Chance! I thought I told you to stay where we left you" Chance hears Andy call out right behind him.
Chance begins to turn around slowly, trembling from fear that was instilled into his body not to long ago.
As Andy finally stops right infront of Chance, he can see the fear mixed with tears swirling around Chance's eyes.
"Dude I was only gone for 30 minutes, why the hell are you about to cry like a little baby?" He said with a mocking tone.
"I-" as he begins to reply to his friend's mocking question, he hears something running.
Running incredibly fast towards the two teammates.
"What the hell is that?"
"How should I know?! You were here alone, you probably pissed off something again, you seem to be good at that"
The rushed footsteps? It sounds really heavy for it to be a human but clearly you can only hear 2 thuds at a time. No animal in these woods runs at you with only 2 paws touching the ground.
This fact shoots terror up Chance's spine.
"Andy, we need to leave"
"Why, the only problem is that you're going crazy"
The stomps are getting closer. faster.
"Andy run, go back to the car please"
Chance begs as he starts to walk towards the direction Andy just came from.
But when he looks at Andy, he looks..scared? He isn't looking at Chance, no, he's looking at something right behind him.
Dread shoots through his body like a star shooting through the sky,
"Andy" Chance says in a hushed whisper "what are looking at?"
Chance doesn't want to turn around, no he is dreading the thought
But as he looks at Andy, who is now backing up slowly, he gets curious. What was his friend scared of?
His friend who wasn't even scared when the earthquake hit, was scared of something behind him.
Chance turns slightly to get a good look over his shoulder, trembling harder now from fear,
His eyes widened in shock when he saw, what looks around 12 ft, a creature that didn't even have a face.
"Andy. Run, we gotta run" Chance says as he turns back to Andy, just to find him further away then he was earlier.
"No shit dumbass! Run!" Andy replies in a frustrated yet scared ton. Chance has never heard that tone before, it made this situation feel much more real.
Before Chance could even take a step to catch up, he felt something hit full force into his side, piercing his skin and sending him straight into the tree near by.
As he braces for impact of being attacked, nothing else happens.
When he looks up, he doesn't see a single creature around him. Its like it wasn't after him.
"What the hell was that" he says with a wince and a pained grunt when he tries to get up. Using the tree trunk for support.
Grasping his side, he begins to go towards the area Andy was in, then he hears a scream pierce the air.
The scream was pained, furious, and weak.
Like it was someone's last attempt to be heard before dying.
'Andy, oh god ANDY'
Chance tries to hurry up only to almost fall due to a shooting pain coursing through his body.
When he reaches the area, he sees something that shatters his soul, his mind, his being.
He sees his bestfriend lying on ground, bloody and broken, as that creature is tearing through his flesh, eating like its been starving for years.
"no..no no No NO" Chance starts moving towards his friend, who is now staring at him, tears streaming down his face and he feels that creature's hundreds, if not thousands, of teeth pierce his torso.
At the sound of Chance's voice the creature stops, slowly standing up and turning to face Chance.
Its head was back in that flower bud shape, but not for long.
Chance stares in horror as the 'petals' bloom to show teeth, to much teeth, this isn't a normal amount of teeth for ANYTHING to have.
Chance stares towards the floor, using his arms to try and protect his head, as he expects being pounced on by that thing.
He hears running towards him, bracing for impact, just to feel...nothing?
As Chance looks up he doesn't see that thing anywhere, 'where did it go?'
"Andy..ANDY!" Chance remembers his friend, who's on the brink of death, and rushes as fast as he can to his friend who's hanging on to life by a thread.
"Andy..Andy, hey look at me please" Chance take his hand, squeezing it in a way that say "I'm here" and "its gonna be okay", even though it probably wasn't.
There was too much blood for it to be okay. Now that he was closer he could see all the damage done.
Andy's torso was ripped clean open, his large intestine was coming out of his body, while ribs were broken, like it was trying to reach his heart.
It made Chance nauseous to his core.
Andy tries to speak back, just for his words to come out pained and strained. "You gotta be careful, C I'm not going to make it."
"Don't say that" Chance replies trying to find a way to apply pressure to stop blood from escaping but it wasn't possible.
"C you will always be family in my eyes, you're my brother" as Andy speaks his grip on Chance's hand gets weaker and weaker. "Live your life for me-"
Chance tries to speak, but his words get caught in his throat, as he lets out a chocked sob. He feels Andy's grip slipping and breathe slowing.
Chance sees Andy smile one last time before going limp. "Andy...ANDY! No please don't leave me, please you're all I have left." Chance begins to cry hard, harder than he's ever has before.
"First it was Chrissy, then Pat and Jason, now you too, you all were family to me, please don't leave me" he says as he drops his head on Andy's shoulder, knowing it was too late, that he was already gone.
He sits there for what feels like an eternity before unclipping Andy's necklace and putting it in his pocket with shaking hands.
Shaking hands that were now covered in blood. 'I have to go and call the police' but they won't believe me.
As Chance slowly gets up, he tries to make his way back to the road, only to remember Stacey.
If she saw Chance covered in blood that definitely wasn't his, and no Andy anywhere is sight, then she's gonna freak out.
She won't believe me about the monster, no one will, I'll be blamed as the monster. But she's gotta know, tell her it was a bear or another animal.
That explanation stuck in his mind as he clutches the bloody necklace is his jacket pocket. "I'm sorry Andy" he whispered to the night sky.
After an hour Chance finally reaches the road, just to see Stacey sitting on the hood of Andy's car.
"Finally you guys show up, was starting to get worried you were murder or something" She says lightly laughing without looking over.
"Oh god Stacey" Chance says in a pained voice. That gets her to look over, horror and disgust crosses her face. "Stacey something killed Andy, I heard a scream and when I got there he was lying lifeless"
Her face drops "what do you mean, what do you mean something."
Her facial expression tightens into furry "Why weren't you with him?" She says in an accusatory tone.
"I wasn't with him, I was trying to find my way back when I heard a pained scream, Stacey..Andy never made it back to me" he lies with a heartbroken tone.
Her face drops of all emotion, looking numb. "We have to call the cops"
"I know we do, Stacey go get the cops, I'll wait here"
"Why would you wait here?!"
"So when they get here I can lead them to the right spot without getting lost, Stacey please" he says with a voice crack.
"Fine Chance, but you better remember, because if this is a prank both you and Andy are dead." She says while getting in the car.
Chance watches as she drives off, going over the speed limit just to race and get back to town.
He can't help but think about that hell sent abomination.
"What the hell was that thing"