#ectoberhaunt cryptid

“Jack, I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Vlad complained, eyes darting to and fro as they walked deeper and deeper into the cave.

“Nonsense,” Jack boomed, throwing an arm over Vlad’s shoulders while the other held their lantern aloft, “we’ll find that Man-Bat down here for sure! Just think, you an me getting the first ever evidence of a Cryptid. We’ll be famous!” Vlad sighed.

“Fine,” Vlad agreed, “but if you get hurt, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He held up his Polaroid instant camera, “lets go get some pictures!” Jack let out a whoop and, letting go of Vlad, ran forward into the dark, the lantern’s light bouncing across the walls.

“Come on Vladdie! Time’s a wasting!” Vlad let out his own laugh and ran after his friend.

“Slow down dude,” he called, “we need to make sure we mark the way back!” Jack skidded to a halt.

“Whoops,” he laughed, “almost got ahead of myself.” Jack shrugged off his backpack and dropped it to the floor with a ‘thunk’. He passed the lantern over to Vlad, who let his camera dangle by the strap around his neck, and started rifling through while Vlad made sure he got enough light to see by. “Ah ha! The Masters-Fenton Glow Spray,” Jack cheered, holding a spray can aloft. He offered the can to Vlad, who took it in his free hand, before grabbing a second can for himself. Once he had his bag closed and back on his back, Jack happily took the lantern back from Vlad.

“Okay,” Vlad hummed, “so an arrow points back the way we came. If we come to a split, we can put a circle at the entrance to the one we take and then, if it’s a dead end, we back track and put an X over the circle and go down the other one. Sound good?”

“Sounds good to me Vladdie!” Jack agreed with a wide grin, “Now lets GO! The Man-Bat’s a-waiting!” He started running forward once more, leaving Vlad to quickly spray down a neon-glowing arrow and chase after him.

-x-X-x-X-x-

“Jack!” Vlad called, pacing around his little circle of glowing paint, “Jack! Where’d you go!” The other man had just been there, but he’d obviously seen something if the loud, unintelligible exclamation and suddenly bolting into the darkness without Vlad meant anything. “Jack, you don’t even have the camera!”

Nothing.

Vlad groaned softly and sank to the floor. He’d be back. Eventually. He would have just back tracked, but there had been some pretty deep holes in the floor in the last large cavern area they had passed through. He fiddled with the camera around his neck. It had a flash— maybe if he took pictures every so often he could make his way out on his own?

It would be such a waste of film, though, and he didn’t make all that much at his job that he could afford to waste money on new film. Plus if Jack came back to look for him, he didn’t want Jack to think he had fallen down one of the holes or something. With a sigh, Vlad reclined on the ground, closed his eyes, and just listened to the sound of water dripping from the stalactites above.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there when a scuffing noise caught his attention. He cracked his eyes open to see if it was Jack with the telltale light of the lantern, but there was nothing there. He slowly sat up and glanced around, as if the black shadows of the cave would suddenly part and allow him to see what that was. His hands clenched around his camera as he sat up straight. He listen closely.

There! He turned, pulled the camera up, and snapped a picture only to shriek as the flash revealed a large, furry, humanoid creature standing not 3 feet from him. It was brownish-grey in color with a snout full of sharp teeth and yellow eyes. The light seemed to startle it, making the creature cringe back. Vlad took the opportunity presented to jump to his feet and run like hell. He just barely remembered to snatch the picture from the end of the camera and stuff it in his pocket before he lost it.

“And that concludes my presentation!” Wes announced, excitedly. “Are there any questions?”

Someone rose their hand, snickers drawing Wes’ attention, before asking. “So, if Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster got into a fight, who would win?”

“Bigfoot, as it can just throw things from the safety of the shore,” Wes answered, unamused. “Any real questions?”

Wes looked around the classroom, hoping for someone to ask something interesting. Reasons why these cryptids were so difficult to locate and photograph. Why would they hide in the first place. Even so much as a ‘why bring them up’ would have been welcomed. But no, with another snicker Dash asked if Sasquatch and Bigfoot were roommates.

Wes sighed, knowing that it was futile to make these dumb nuts understand. He took his flash drive from Lancer’s computer and started back to his desk, defeated. Yet, as he walked, he saw a flash of blue come from a certain loser’s mouth. Blue eyes flicked to his friends before they flashed green and the guy just vanished. Wes froze, not understanding what he just witnessed, but then the ghost alarms started up and he was shepherded out of the school with the rest of his classmates. All of this seemed to happen fast enough that no one but Wes and the freak’s friends knew that Danny Fenton didn’t follow his class outside.