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Untitled II

II.

     The group woke up early next morning, deeply disturbed by the events that had just occurred. They had buried Jack yesterday, making him a modest gravestone of whatever materials they could find. No one spoke as they sat down for breakfast. Suddenly, Julian stood up. He looked at Daren and Bryn, not sure of what to say. Finally, after an awkward minute, he spoke.

     "We've got to get out of here or something." He declared, placing his hands around the table. "We need to get some help."

     "But when we get back the thing might be gone!" Bryn retorted.

     "Yeah, but how are we going to fight it without any help?"

     "Will you guys just shut up?" Daren exclaimed. "Arguing about this isn't going to get us anywhere. I say we split up. Julian, you go to the car and get help. Me and Bryn will venture out into the woods to find this creature."

     "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Bryn added.

     "Ok, once I reach the car, I'll stay in the car until you guys get back, ok?

     "Sure." Daren said simply.

      At noon, the group separated. Daren and Bryn went in the direction that the shadow was heading before he killed himself. Julian headed back to the car, determined to get help. Julian couldn't help but notice that today was significantly colder than it was yesterday. The forecast, however, said that temperatures would be up today.

     "What is happening?" Julian muttered under his breath, frustrated. "Everything is going wrong on this trip! Gia must be glad that she couldn't come!"

      As he walked, he couldn't help but think of Jack. He didn't deserve this. At the same time, he was dumb enough to venture out without informing anymore. That was just asking for creatures to attack him. Julian suddenly realized that he was travelling alone, subject to anything or anyone and he had no one to help him.

     "Jack was alone, too." He muttered.

     Paranoia began to set in as Julian feared for the worst. He constantly looked over his shoulder, sure that he would see a black shadow tailing him. But he saw nothing. He quickened his pace, attempting to outrun whatever he thought was behind him. He eventually slowed down, his paranoia settling down. He was going to be alright, he assured himself.

     Meanwhile, Daren and Bryn set off in the general direction of where the shadow was headed. They had planned to figure out the location of the shadow, but it left no traces. As they were walking, they both noticed that it was starting to get uncomfortably hot. The weather forecast, as Daren remembered, had only said it would rise a few degrees. This, however, was not a few degrees.

     Daren suddenly became hypersensitive, paranoid that the shadow was making him hallucinate. But when he confided with Bryn, she told him that she felt the heat, too. This eased Daren, as he was certain that this wasn't a hallucination anymore.

     "If Bryn is feeling it too, then it must be real." He muttered.

     "What?" Bryn asked.

     "Nothing." Daren said, just realizing that he had said that out loud.

     As the hours pasted by, they became frustrated as it was evident that the shadow or whatever it was had not left any clues behind. Finally giving up, Daren and Bryn started to head back to camp a few hours after they had started, defeated. They had no idea what was in store for them.

     As they approached camp, they realized something was horribly wrong. Everything was torn into pieces and scattered randomly around the campsite. Julian was in the center of the site, his chest torn open and blood was splattered all over him. He appeared to have broken bones and his legs were twisted in extremely uncomfortable positions.