#atobas

Monica had never seen a monster before. But like they say, there’s a first time for everything.

She shouldn’t have come outside she really shouldn’t have come outside. Why didn’t she just stay inside her tent? It was only a noise, nothing to be concerned about.

But it was.

Because now she was standing face to face with Deamhan.

What could she do? She couldn’t run, he would catch her, she couldn’t fight, maybe she could just, ignore him? Yeah, yeah! Just turn around and pretend she never saw the demon.

Maybe if she just didn’t attack him he wouldn’t attack her.

But as she slowly turned to go back inside her tent she felt something wrapped around her ankle. She paused, tilting her head down to see what had caught her ankle.

She strained her eyes to try and see in the dark, but when her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness her thoughts were only filled with incoherent panic as a wave of fear washed over her and seeped into her core.

There, wrapped around her ankle, was a hand, rooted like a tree to the ground. Now that she had looked down though she realized something.

The hand felt like it was freezing cold, yet burning hot, like someone was pressing a chunk of ice to her skin. It also was somehow darker than the night sky itself.

But she couldn't begin to think of what the other worldly hand was made of, for her thoughts were only filled with sheer panic.

As she looked up she noticed Deamhan had started to creep towards her.

She swung her head around wildly, trying to find some sort of weapon she could protect herself with.

She finally laid eyes on a thick stick.

Desperately, she reached her hand out towards it. She was just close enough for her fingers to wrap around it.

Using the little grip she had she pulled the stick towards her before she clenched it in her fist.

When she looked up Deamhan was just close enough for her to hit.

So, she swung.

It felt like time slowed down as she swung, and it fully paused when the hit connected with the grinning devil mask, and then unpaused as she heard;

Crack

She watched as a piece of the maroon mask fell to the floor. As she tilted her up to see what damage she had done, she paused.

She then screamed.

                                                         ∞

The Hunters have been told from anonymous tip that around eleven o'clock last night they heard a scream come from the woods.

After around five hour search, they finally found the person the scream came from.

But maybe it would have been better if they hadn’t had found her though.

He had been in the Hunters for years now, so of course he saw some messed up things, but even this made his gut churn.

In front of him a woman's body laid sprawled across the forest floor, her eye sockets were hollow as a black liquid flowed from them mocking tears as it made a puddle around her. She was dead.

“Hey! Look at this!” someone called, using their hand to signal the group over to a nearby tree.

As he made his way over he noticed something was carved into it. A message.

                                               NEVER BREAK MY

                                                                   MASK