Survive the Monster (Hamilton fic)

CHAPTER 01: THE DARE

It started with a dare, as most of these kind of stories do. What stories you ask? Stories that involve a dark scary forest nobody comes out of, a flashlight with batteries that don't last long, and friends that don't care if you die.

James Madison, a young boy in the village who sneezed a lot and was awkward any time he was alive, had been hanging out with his friends at the festival in town. Every year their village had a festival to celebrate good crops, no deaths, and other boring stuff. Celebrating about having no deaths didn't happen very often, especially because of idiotic people going into the forest that surrounded their village.

They weren't a small town, but the tall endless trees that surrounded their village made it seem small and isolated. There were no other villages in the world, as far as they knew, but some people tried venturing into the forests to find these other towns. Instead of assuming they found a town and going after them to get there too, they assumed that the monster within the woods had killed them.

The monster that lived in the woods and was very, very powerful. Some said it was Satan, some said it was God, others said it was some type of freak of nature that crawled up from the depths of the underworld.

Whatever it was, it protected the woods like a hawk, and also had lots of different things in the woods to trap whatever human walked in. Tempting sirens, always calling and singing in the cold moonlight. Bear traps and nets and axes that will swing back and forth at the slightest little noises. And the monster itself, always lurking and aware of whatever came into the woods.

Every year at this festival, the village would sacrifice something. George Washington, the mayor of the town, would go to the edge of the woods with the sacrifice, leave it there, and then hide. They would wait and watch to see the monster appear.

This was the only time the town was ever silent, and James enjoyed those few minutes of sacrifice. He had never seen the monster, but others had. You had the option of going to watch the sacrifice, but people quickly stopped watching when one civilian didn't hide in time and was dragged into the woods along with the offering.

James was friends with the mayor's son, Alexander Hamilton. He was also friends with Aaron Burr, John Laurens, Lafayette, and Hercules Mulligan. Or, so he thought. But his friends had been planning this prank since the start of the month.

They were going to dare him to go into the woods with nothing but food and water to last him the night, a box of matches, a flashlight, and a recorder. Then, they expected him to come running out in about three minutes crying like a baby.

But of course, they were horribly wrong.

They were all behind the bakery, packing Madison's bag while he stood there awkward as usual. "Matches to start a fire for the night." John smiled, tossing the box into the bag.

Lafayette added, "Or to light something or someONE on fire."

Madison bit his lip and shifted uncomfortably. He hated the idea of this, but they all started making fun of him right when he said no. So now they were just ten feet away from the edge of the woods, and James was about to go inside with this bag of stuff. Hercules finished the bag up by closing it tightly and handing James the flashlight. It was sunset, so he wouldn't need it this second, but if he was really going to stay in there all night like the dare said, he wanted to have one on hand.

"Alright Mr.Brave!" Hamilton smiled, "Go in there and have fun!!"

James took a deep breath and held the backpack handles tightly. He slowly walked closer to the woods, scared and shaking a little. But he always cared too much about what his friends thought of him, so he kept on walking in.