The Madness Within ✓

XVIII.

„We shouldn't explore more. Let's head back, the house is this way," Chris stated with a serious expression on his face. I sighed and nodded, clearly not in the mood to even disagree. We began walking back to the house.
On the way there I made sure to look around each few seconds, trying to see if the creature was still after us. Fortunately, I didn't see the creature anywhere. What I did notice instead was a strange, foul smell and a small pile of leaves next to one of the trees. Yes, there's nothing strange about a pile of leaves, but in this case it was strange, considering the fact that you rarely spot a human being in this forest. And the smell..

I stopped in front of the pile of leaves and used my foot to scatter the leaves around, trying to see what's hiding under them, in case there is something hidden there. I regretted doing that shortly after.
The realization of what the source of the smell hit me hard, especially to the stomach. I covered my mouth with my hand and gagged, taking a few steps back, away from the pile.
Under the leaves was a hidden hole, in which were rotten remains of a dead animal. I've never seen anything like this, and I hate the fact that I have now.

Chris frowned, confused from my sudden reaction, and looked inside the hole.
„Jesus Christ," he yelled out, blocking his nose using his fingers, „What the fuck?!'

Chris began swiftly walking away from the dead animal and I followed right after him. He slowed down and put his hand down again once we were a few meters away.

„Do you think the animal was killed by that.. thing?" Chris asked, looking back into the forest.

„I'm not sure," I responded and shrugged, „But whoever did that is a disgusting monster."

We walked back in silence after that. Both of us were probably too confused and disgusted to even say a word. And we were both exhausted as well, of course. So many things have happened in such a short amount of time, all of them leaving us more and more tired each second. I prayed that this would all be over soon, and Chris surely did too. We both wanted to just relax.

But the creature already had different plans for us.

A disturbing occurrence awaited us at the house. We thought it stopped following us. And it did. But instead, the creature decided to wait for us over at the house.

Its pointy back was facing us, while the creature faced the house. Its long, sharp index finger was covered in red liquid that it used to paint letters on the house. So it was the creature that used the red paint and wrote the threatening message on my house. Or was it blood..?

The creature finished writing the message on the house, then slowly turned its head to look at us. Its eyes followed us as the head turned, sending a chill down my spine. The creature revealed its smile the more it turned, then its head stopped moving. It stared at us for a few seconds. We both froze in place and stared back, unable to do anything else. Eventually, the creature hid behind the house and ran off into the distance.

What was left after the creature was a text on the side of the house that said,
'Last Warning.'
Next to it was a smiley face.

•

„Please, take me to the police station!" I begged Chris as we both walked to the car.

„Why? They didn't believe you last time," he responded, crossing his arms as he turned around to face me.

„But now I actually have the photo! It's in the gallery! Maybe it won't get deleted this time, please," I pleaded more, then took out my phone and searched for the photo in the gallery. Once I found it, I handed the phone to Chris to show him. „Here."

Chris looked at it for a while, then at the house, then finally at me. He grabbed my phone, placed the phone in my hand and smiled.
„Seems like you don't want to give up. But we already know who did it, so why do you want to go there?"