The Whispers

Chapter 6

Tristan's house was small and rickety, like most of the other houses on Longfield Avenue. So far, there was nothing unnatural about the house. Then they walked inside. It was full of weird artifacts and pictures. Clumps of fur and hair littered a table, African tribal masks lined one wall, pictures of children with a strange figure behind them were hung on the wall, and a photo of a strange footprint that looked like a cross between a hoof and a paw.

"My parents are cryptid hunters", Tristan explained. "If that's even a career." He smirked. Skylar looked closely at one of the photos of children. She could've sworn she'd seen that girl in the picture before. She was about to ask about the photo when Tristan suddenly dragged her upstairs. He opened the door to his room and shoved her inside.

His room almost looked like the rest of the house- filled to the brim with strange artifacts and pictures of children with the same figure behind them- but surprisingly neater. On a desk in the corner of his room, a laptop sat silently. A bulletin board hanging on the wall had posters of missing children and pictures of the same children with a figure behind them. Pieces of red string connected the posters, pictures, and other pieces of paper with small, neat handwriting, some Tristan's, some not Tristan's.

The strings all connected in the middle of the bulletin board, and in the middle of the board was a photo of a tall, black figure with what looked like deer horns protruding from its head. It had long arms that reached down behind the bush that it was standing behind, and it didn't seem to have any facial features at all. The picture was very blurry and hard to make out. Skylar stared at the picture of the creature, but suddenly her eyes grew heavy, and she hit the floor.