The Weeping Daughter

Chapter 2 - A Creature From the Shadows

I know its a little hard to understand what the creature looks like so I made a rough sketch of it. Hope you like it!

Ethe (Eee-th)                                                   
(Deh-Voh) - Devo

                                                                      - Ren
Published: June 30th, 2020
Word Count: 1665
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The girl whimpered and cautiously stepped away from the teens, clutching her stuffed toy. The group of teenagers saw that the girl was scared of them, so James stepped forward.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. We won't hurt you. Let's start easy, ok?" He kneeled in front of her and held his hands out to try and calm her down. "What's your name?" He smiled kindly.

   The girl lowered her head and whispered, "Ethe."

"Uh, we should like, probably call the cops or child services or something like that. Take her out of the forest and back into the city or wherever she used to live." Tiana said, crossing her arms and gazing down at the child with concern.

As Tiana was talking, Ethe dropped to the ground and crouched down, letting out the most intimidating growl she could muster.

     As the group of teens argued with each other, she slowly stood up. She stepped backwards cautiously, trying to get away from them and accidentally stepped on a stick, alerting the others. They all looked at Ethe.

"Hey, come here, uh.... kid." Ace said. It was very clear that none of them, maybe other than James, knew how to handle a child.

Ace walked towards Ethe as she tried to run and picked her up, carrying her bridal style. Ethe immediately started thrashing in his arm, trying to get out of Ace's hold by hitting and biting.

"Ace! Let her go she doesn't like that!" Jessica yelled at Ace, as James moved to help Ethe out of Ace's hold.

Before James could help her, she let out an ear-shattering scream. Ace quickly dropped Ethe, but James caught her before she could hit the ground. He gently set her down and she ran a few steps away from them, crouching down once again and let out a loud growl at them.

*At the cabin with Lina*

Lina woke up with a start at the sound of a deafening high-pitched scream. She looked around, still in bed. She rubbed her eyes and looked around once more.

"What the hell... must've been my imagination." she let out a heavy sigh and went back to bed.

*Back with the 4 teens and Ethe*

"Alright, we clearly need to get this kid out of here and back to her home. Something doesn't... feel right. She needs help." Jessica said, concerned at the child's unusual behaviour.

"Yeah, I think so too! But clearly she does not favour being carried, or human contact at all, for that matter." James exclaimed.

"Then we'll call the cops and tell them where we are. If we stay a good distance from her, then maybe she'll stay put instead of running away. Hopefully by that time, the police will have found us." Tiana reasoned.

"Yeah, because the cops are gonna know where the middle of nowhere is..." Ace muttered under his breath.

As the teens were contemplating on their next move, a low sounding growl came from behind the trees. The group immediately froze in terror, and looked wearily at one another. Again, the sound came and the ground began to shake beneath their feet as it made heavy steps towards the group.