City of Witchcraft

Whistle

2/30/25

Richard stumbled out into the alleyway so drunk he likely shouldn't have even been conscious. But he had spent many a night out in the streets of Tucupita drinking until he couldn't feel a thing. Any other man would be unconscious after drinking as much as he had -if not dead- but not Richard Sosa.

He had just been kicked out of a bar -the third one that night. He had been visibly intoxicated and had been harassing a younger woman, so the owner had thought it fit to throw him out. Richard disagreed, but he always disagreed with getting himself thrown out. So now he was out on the streets, stumbling his way through back alleys as he tried to find his way home. But this drunk, he had no hope of getting home, whether he knew it or not.

As he walked, he noticed the shadows seemed to be moving above him, like there was something moving in the alley above him. He convinced himself it was just a trick of the light, but he could also hear the sound of bones rattling accompanying the perceived movement. And the sound was haunting.

Eventually, as he walked, he caught a glimpse of what was likely the cause of the strange movement of the shadows. What appeared to be a large, skeletal creature was present at the top of the alleyway, moving from rooftop to rooftop. Richard convinced himself that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but it still scared him enough that he made his way out to the main streets of the city.

Richard continued to drunkenly stumble along the streets of Tucupita, now choosing to ignore that unsettling feeling that he was being watched. He was always being watched by someone, whether they were on the streets with him or through the windows of the buildings surrounding him. But even then, this felt different. This felt far more ominous.

Richard eventually made his way over to the outer limits of the city, where he could see the forest just beyond it. The forest seemed especially eerie tonight, and Richard could've sworn he saw some large, thin creature moving in the forest like the one he'd seen in the alley. So, despite knowing it was all likely his drunken imagination, he chose to stay away from the forest and remain in town.

But eventually, he found himself in the forest anyway.

He had no idea how he'd gotten there, but now he was surrounded by trees. The city was nowhere in sight. And around him, he could sense something moving. Richard still believed it to be his imagination, but now he wasn't so sure. But he only caught glimpses of the thing in the deep shadows that the forest cast around him.

Then, Richard heard it. A series of seven ascending notes, being whistled by something. They sounded far off, something Richard hoped was a good sign, but he wasn't certain. He began spinning in circles, searching for the source of the whistling when he saw a man walk out of the forest's shadows.

The man remained hard to see in the shadows -in fact, Richard wasn't fully convinced the man wasn't a shadow- but he seemed tall and thin, and appeared to be wearing a straw hat. Something about this shadowy man didn't seem right to Richard, and he began to slowly back away. But the man continued to walk towards him.

And then he began to grow.

The shadowy man had likely been over six feet already, but now he grew taller and thinner, and his hat seemed to dissolve. His skin seemed to vanish, instead just becoming a creature made of bone. It had to be at least fifteen feet, likely more. And it kept coming towards him.

As Richard walked back, he stumbled, falling on his back. From the ground, this thing seemed even larger than it had before. It reached him within only two strides, and it reached down toward him.

Richard began to scream, at first in terror, and then in pain. This thing was pulling out his bones.