The Madness Within ✓

XXVI.

„Are you sure you remember where it was?" I asked Chris while scanning the area. Chris mentioned that it should be around here, but he also said that a few minutes ago from now. There was no sign of a monument anywhere.

„It should be around here, I'm sure," he responded and smiled at me, to which I just shook my head in annoyance and continued searching.
The weather was warmer than the last time we've been here, which was a bit of a relief. I really didn't feel like freezing after everything that's happened.

I paused for a moment and took a few steps backwards while staring into the distance. There was something further away from us that looked like the monument that we've seen before. I squinted so I could see what it was better.

And I was right!

„Chris, I found-"

As I was turning around to face Chris, I felt two strong hands around me - one on my mouth, the other on my body - pulling me behind one of the trees. When I looked up, I noticed that it was Chris.

„Stay silent," he whispered to me, then looked behind the tree carefully. What's going on?

Curiosity got the best of me. I slowly turned my head to where Chris was looking and peeked from behind the tree. What I saw there made me immediately regret looking in that direction.

A tall creature, the one that my grandma looked like as well, stood by one of the trees, its back facing us. It was using its four limbs to stand, while its head moved up and down, almost as if it was stuffing its face with something. When I looked at what exactly it was stuffing its face with, I felt sick.
A dead deer lay dead on the ground, its blood was scattered all around it. The creature was somehow stuffing its face with it, eating the poor animal one by one.

I felt my stomach turn as I watched blood squirt all around the place. It was on the trees, on the creature, on the grass.. everywhere. My head began spinning the more I watched the creature mercilessly tear the deer apart. I felt myself lose balance, until Chris pulled me back in and brought me back to reality. I took a deep breath and covered my mouth with my hand, trying to control the vomit that I felt coming up my throat.

The creature suddenly stopped eating its prey, freezing in place. We both froze in place as well, trying not to alarm the creature. But it was probably too late for that.

The creature raised its head and began looking around, its head slowly turning our way. It couldn't see us, but it could certainly feel our presence. I tried to keep my eyes away from the dead deer and focused mostly on the creature. I was more worried about my life right now.
We both watched the creature in silence as it looked around, trying to locate us. It took a few steps closer towards us, which made my heartbeat race faster.

The creature took three more steps towards us, inches away from us. My eyes widened as I stared right into the large hole on the creature's head, still seeing blood and meat of the dead deer. I felt my stomach turn again, but I couldn't move this time. I couldn't do anything. I shut my eyes and stopped breathing, holding in my tears.
The creature stared at us for a few seconds, then returned back to the deer and finished eating. I let out a long sigh and turned to look back at Chris. He shook his head once I turned at him, telling me to stay still until the creature was gone.

I turned to look at the creature and watched it tear the poor animal apart for another few minutes. Then, once it was done, it stood there for a few seconds, staring at the ground. Suddenly, it let out a loud screech and spit at the ground. Its spit was dark green and slimy. Or was it vomit?
The creature then stormed away into the distance.

I frowned as I stared at the dead animal that was now covered in green goo, both disgusted and sad.

„Poor thing,“ I mumbled and walked away from the tree. Chris was now also staring at the dead animal, but it seemed like something caught his attention.

„Look at it,“ he said and walked closer to the animal.

„What is it..?“ I asked and followed him.

The animal was still covered in the creature's spit, just like a while ago, but this time, there was smoke coming out of it.

„What's.. what's happening?“ I asked and looked at the smoke, then back at the ground. The remains of the dead animal were slowly burning and disappearing.

„The thing that creature spit out, it's some sort of acid," Chris commented as he watched the animal slowly dissipate into the air.

Eventually, all of the animal, along with all the blood surrounding it, was gone. Everything was now back to normal, almost as if the animal never got killed in the first place.

„I think this is how all the blood and the animals disappeared from the ceremony. So the blood on your windows disappeared this way too. Sorry to break it to you, but the creatures spat on your windows," Chris said and smiled lightly.

„That's strange," I mumbled, „but I guess that does explain it all."

„I just wonder how it's possible that everything except for the remains was left unharmed. This could make a whole person disappear without a trace," Chris thought out loud to himself and sighed. Then he turned to look back at me and smiled.
„Alright, you were saying something before I stopped you, what was it?"

I smiled back and turned around, then pointed at the monument in the distance, „I found it."

•

We approached the monument while celebrating the fact that we survived the encounter with the creature. It was crazy seeing something so gruesome happen up close. We could've been its next victims.

„It's 28!" Chris yelled out as soon as he saw the number on the monument. I took out my phone and took a picture of the monument just in case, then smiled back at Chris and nodded to him to tell him that I took it.

„Well, back to the house I guess," I chuckled at the fact that we went through all of this just because of a number. We then began walking back to the house, praying that we won't come across another one of those creatures again.

When we finally arrived back at the house, we went straight down to the basement.

„Okay, so the code is '25163728.' You can enter it," Chris said as we walked to the door.

I walked closer to the number pad and entered the numbers one by one. Once I entered all the numbers into the number pad, I pressed the green button on the bottom right to confirm it. I held in my breath and watched if something's gonna happen.

Suddenly, an audible click was heard from the door. It opened.

„It worked," I mumbled and looked at Chris, then smiled. He smiled back and nodded, then walked closer to the door.

This is it. This is the moment where we might finally learn the truth. This is where all the answers are. The answers we've been looking for all this time. It's all hidden away here. And we'll finally learn everything about this finally.

Chris grabbed the door handle and opened the door. What stood in front of us behind the door was an open book.