Dead by Midnight

SEVEN

   The sun is no longer out. It's completely gone, and there's nothing but darkness around Kit.

Kit is still sitting on the stump, just waiting and watching for Pierre to come find him. Pierre told him not to move, so that's what Kit should follow. After all, it's easy to get lost in these trees.

But time was passing, and the further he stayed out here, the colder it becomes, and the more sounds came from around him.

Kit held his phone out, using it as a flashlight. He let out a small shiver and slowly moved the flashlight around, still checking and looking for any signs of Pierre.

All he got was a text that Pierre would be arriving to help him out. Kit couldn't do anything else since his phone had such bad service and his texts were no longer sending through.

So, now it's just him.

Well, not just him. There were things coming out of the forests.

He hears things from time to time. Kit would look over his shoulders or turn around completely to see something hopping out of the darkness like a small group of rabbits. If not for them, other small animals like an occasional fox or a couple of squirrels that disappeared up into the trees.

But he sees antlers in the distance. The deer are always hidden by the dark, slowly stalking around before stilling. Kit thinks they'd stare back at him through the darkness before they eventually turn away, moving to another place where there wouldn't be any humans.

Kit sighed.

He'd like to get up and move around too since it was freezing, but he's unsure to ignore Pierre's text. He doesn't want to end up completely lost.

Still, he's been out here for a long time.

It's just him.

Kit hears another rustling in the bushes and he sighs, thinking it was yet another animal when something jumped out with a growl. It startled him, nearly making Kit topple off the stump when he finally takes a good look at the... tiny thing of black, knotted tresses.

What the actual hell is it?

Kit watched it run around the stump, yelping and whining before eventually diving straight into his left leg and stumbled back. Kit winced. It's kind of painful, he won't lie. The size of this thing reminds him of a small dog, so he perks up a little and carefully reaches out to pat it on the back.

It's a dog, isn't it?

He can't see the face very well, so it's hard to make out what kind of dog it is, but he hears it growling louder and it seems to be a little bigger than he imagined. He wishes the fur wasn't so matted though, and it feels rather coarse than he thought.

"Where'd you come from?"

Did it have an owner? Probably not with how scraggly it seemed, and it was hostile towards Kit. It bared its teeth, showing sharper and jagged canines. Kit managed to pull his hand back just in time before it bit down on him, though he did have to get out since it keep snapping at his legs.

Accidentally, Kit tripped over another stump and practically fell on his butt. His phone dropped on the ground in return, so the dog was able to take it in its mouth and ran off into the bushes.

Kit immediately got up, going after it and calling it back.

"Come back!"

It kept running from him, still holding his damn phone. Kit bent down just close enough to where he was able to grab hold of its tail, but it jerked out of his hold and ran even faster.