To Jen

CHPTR 2

I woke up panting and sweating head to toe in an unfamiliar forest clearing. Snow on the ground, a blood red sky. I didnt know where I was but all of the trees were ten times taller and thicker then the forests anywhere near where we were.

"BLAIR WHERE ARE YOU!"

I screamed panicking, terrified for my daughters safety but no response came to accompany my plead. After screaming I looked around me and noticed the same figure that was staring at me and Blair through the passengers window but much further away, around forty feet. Then I suddenly heard a sound behind me and turned seeing another one. Exact same appearance but one tree closer. Same fingers and same eyes. Without the window seperating us I could notice more details about the figure. I couldn't see a colour in the pupils just a void where they should be, making it feel like I was being stared at by darkness itself. It was also apparent that they were extremely bloodshot. Underneath the staring eyes were purple bags making it seem like they hadn't been shut in days, perhaps much, much longer. The face of the figure looked like it was a rotting corpse. Rough grey decaying skin with cracks, cysts and blisters covering each surface. Small patches of oily black hair dangling off the top of the head. Yellow long and sharp nails accompanied the seemingly rotting fingers.

Suddenly more noises, more figures, and more, and more, and more getting closer each time. Then I turned around and saw Blair standing infront of me with her eye sockets empty. Black fluid leaking out of her sockets and her mouth dangling in an unatural way, like an invisible creature was pulling her mouth in different directions to mock the victim. I couldn't muster anything but I quietly sobbed at the sight of the most important person in the world to me standing before me mutilated. The embodiment of failing the final promise I made to my deceased wife, protecting our daughter. Suddenly she mumbled something but I couldn't hear it, then I heard shouting and woke up, for real this time, shaking.

"PAUL"

I screamed and looked over at Don. It was just a dream, thankfully. I was palpitating and shaking, still tense from the image of Blair. Then I looked back at Don still partially panicked.

"Where's Blair!"

He put his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down, he then arched his head towards the house infront of the car.

"She's already inside, are you okay Paul?"

I nodded and reached to grab my bag but stopped realising everything was already brought in, I then opened the door and went outside.

"Just a bad dream."

I was still half asleep so Don put his hand over my shoulder and walked me up to the door. The snow wasn't raining down anymore and what was on the ground hadn't gotten any higher so I assumed it must've settled not long after we took off from my car. I was just realising how dumb of an idea it was to leave the car behind but I trusted that Don would take me first thing in the morning.

Each step we took made a loud crunch as we both crushed the snow under us, I looked up and faced the house, It looked the same as it had every year prior we had come for Christmas. The brick walls decorated with red and green lights dangling off of nails that me and Don had hammered into the wall a few years prior. A few small trees infront of the yard decorated with sparkling ornaments and battery powered lights.

As we walked up to the door I saw the only new addition that year. A ring of holly covered with red fake roses surrounding a picture of me, Jen, Blair, Don and Millie smiling. I cant remember when we took the picture but we all looked so happy there. Blair looked much younger in the picture, maybe seven or eight years old and looking at it gave me a sinking but warm feeling in my chest.

"I cant believe she's already 16."

I mumbled to myself. Don wheezed a little and pat my back before opening the entrance to his home and pushing me in.

I was expecting to see Blair on her phone or tucked away on the couch with her headphones on but I was pleasantly surprised to see her in the kitchen talking to Millie and laughing. Don pat me on the back to get my attention and pointed at my bags which were thrown on the side of the hallway. Don then went to go join the girls while I took my bags and carried them over to the spare bedroom. I chucked the bags at the first chair I saw and jumped onto the bed with the full Intention of sleeping. I checked my phone and saw it was almost two in the morning. I forced myself up, went over to the kitchen and told Blair to go to sleep soon and kissed her on the forehead before heading back to the spare room. I bid everyone a good night before shutting the door and collapsing onto the bed and closing my eyes too tired to bother putting on covers or even taking my clothes off.

I 'woke up' in the clearing again. I was back in the dream, but this time I felt alot more lucid and could tell more details, alongside that I was also aware it was a dream and not reality. I was in the center of a clearing surrounded by tall trees reaching and clawing into the sky. Despite the blood red void that was the sky I could clearly see everything around me in its own shade of colour and not a red hue. The trees were all shades of grey. This time I focused and saw a path of gravel that seemed untouched by snow in contrast to the rest of the floor, leading deep into the trees so with nothing to do I decided to follow it. Just a few steps onto the gravel and I heard a sound coming from my left so I looked over already knowing what to expect but being taken by surprise.

The figure wasn't peaking behind the tree anymore it was standing fully straight. I looked up at the ten or eleven foot tall bahemoth of rotting flesh and decaying skin. It had a long, grey, wet gown on and the more I focused the more I could see movement under its clothes. Then I saw one of the small moving things come out of one of the sleeves and crawl down the slender arm that seemed to have no flesh at all, just bone and skin. I saw a centipede crawl down the arm and stopping at the wrist and prying itself into the skin disappearing into the rotting flesh with a moist squelching sound to accompany it. I was disgusted by the sound and terrified by the sight ahead of me but I stood my ground and mumbled out a sentence.

"What do you want from me."

After I said that it seemed like it tried to speak but failed. Moving its mouth but making a raspy crackling noise instead of a voice. Black liquid leaked out if its mouth.

Then I woke up, far more peacefully then how I awoke in the car from the similiar previous dream. I glanced over at my phone and powered it on reading the time, '13:47'. I hopped up off the bed still fully dressed from not changing the previous night. I straightened the bed and changed my clothes from a polo shirt and work trousers to a pink t-shirt with a cat on it, black sweatpants which I wrapped a black turtleneck around incase It got colder later on in the day. I exited the room and saw Don sitting down drinking a coffee and Millie cooking something in a pot in the kitchen. Their entire house had that feeling of a textbook cozy cabin. Every single thing had a homemade feel to it. Each surface being the same soft brown wood that somehow had the appearance of being candle lit despite the current light source being the exterior white sky. I walked over to the table and sat down beside Don.

"What time did you guys fall asleep?"

He looked over at me with bloodshot eyes which brought the image of the figure into my head. He then smiled before responding.

"Oh we put her to bed more or less right after you went, but I stayed up setting up your surprise"

I was obviously curious concidering what he had just told me but before I could question him Blair opened up the door while yawning. She sat down and said good morning while I looked over at her and laughed about it already being evening. Millie put four bowls on the table and poured poridge into them and we all dug in.

After we finished Don told me and Blair to wait there as he ran off into his garage. Millie rolled her eyes and went into the sitting room seeming like she didn't agree with whatever Don had planned. Don then came back and threw a rusty .12 guage shotgun, a silver revolver, and a hunting rifle onto the table alongside an old dusty book.

"We're goin' monster huntin'."