There are many creatures who can cause humans to suddenly become lost in the woods. Aside from Pukwudgies, there's Will-O-wisps, Leshy, Skogsra, Hidebehind, and more. Sometimes there are ways to avoid their tricks, but I didn't do enough research before running off with Vernon and Hillary. I thought it would be safe if I used the car and made sure there was enough battery in our phones so that we could use our maps.
I tried to call Joon, or Annabelle with Joon's phone, to let her know we were coming, but no one would pick up. I know his phone was full and if Joon caught up to her, he had a spare battery charger in his phone. It added to my stress when we went to my car to follow the route on Hillary's map.
I drove for only a bit, until we got to one of the places that lead to a usual hiking trail, and I noticed Enzo's car parked near the side of the road. Empty.
They didn't take the car; they just ran into the woods, or so that's what I guessed. At first it didn't make sense, because having a vehicle could add a form of protection and specially makes it easy to just run something over. But then I understood when Hillary pointed to the trees that had no rooms for a vehicle to drive through. A car would be useful but inconvenient, until Vernon came up with an idea.
"I can try to move the trees, shift the ground, and I'll hopefully make enough space so that we can drive through."
Dove thought to herself, before her eyes caught sight of Hillary running past them, into the woods.
"Alana!!" She shouted, as if she just saw a mirage of her sister and went chasing after her.
"Alana come back! I'm here!"
Out of reflex, Dove called out for Hillary and ran after the woman before she could get hurt. Vernon went after Dove, and they too ended up running into the woods without a vehicle. Vernon went ahead and moved the trees as best he could, or as much as he could focus when running so that they wouldn't have to worry about bumping or maneuvering.
A few minutes prior, when Annabelle ran, Enzo managed to catch her, and reasoned for her to slow down, since there was no way in hell he was letting her drive. She didn't have a license anyway.
That didn't stop her from jumping out as soon as they got to the area where one of the hiking trails began. The area Dove would soon find. She jumped out, still holding Joon's phone and made her first step into the woods. Enzo was about to shout for her to slow down, until he realized that Annabelle already became still, stopping right at the edge of the woods, not daring to step foot inside. Something was stopping her.
"What's wrong? Do you feel anything?" He asked.
Joon stepped in front of her, getting his phone back and going on a whispered rant of how he's going to keep a better eye on his device next time. Then, he too got a strange feeling when he looked deep into the woods, the part with no trail, and squinted his eyes.
Enzo quickly understood as he stepped in front of both of them, holding a flashlight and patted the weapon strapped at his side. It was pitch dark when they began walking inside, like walking into the woods you'd find in a kid's scary bedtime story, or more like this part of the forest was not supposed to be like this. Joon handed his phone to Enzo so he could see the route they needed to go.
"Do you think we should expect to find a bunch of nightmares here?" Joon asked out of the blue, trying to lighten the mood.
"Not likely, we might bump into creatures from Indigenous folklore, but not nightmares. Those only appear in places with people."
"But don't a lot of people come to these woods to hike or walk? Isn't that enough to incur a nightmare appearing here?"
Enzo shook his head.
"Not these parts of the woods. I'm sure you can feel it already, but these parts are not like the rest. It's like an illusion." He said as he widened the scope of his flashlight, lighting up more of the area.
He noticed piles of leaves here and there, and it wasn't autumn yet. He knelt down, took out his baton used it to move a pile of leaves, checking underneath the piles.
Nothing so far.
He stood up and they kept moving. He also took his own phone out and handed it to Joon.
"Just in case anything happens, be ready to call or text someone." He told the boy.
The boy immediately went to check Enzo's contact list and typed in Dove's phone number. But when he tried to send a text, it wouldn't go through.
He then opted to just call her, just to text, that didn't work either.
"Uh, Enzo? There's something wrong with your phone."
"What's wrong with it?"
Joon began walking faster instead of answering yet, doing that usual dance of trying to get a signal. He power-walked past Enzo, waving the man's phone around, as if trying to both get signal and show Enzo what was wrong.
"Joon wait! Get back behind me!" Enzo shouted.
The boy of course didn't heed the man's words fast enough, or at least he didn't choose to listen to him immediately. He walked backwards while facing them, thinking it was fine as long as he could see them, and kept raising the phone up, hoping for something.
Then-
*CLANK* *SHNK*
They stood still, Enzo cautiously made his way over to Joon, as the boy stood still. Very still. Annabelle's smile faltered.
She held the flashlight Enzo handed to her, to keep shining the path so that Enzo could go safely help him.
The boy's chest rose and fell rapidly, waiting for the ringing in his ears to go away. His whole body shook except for one of his legs, because that was caught in a bear trap.
The metal on metal created a ringing sound and stayed stuck in the boy's mind. Enzo knelt down as Annabelle shined the light so he could see.
"It's okay, just stay still. You're ok." Enzo told him in a hushed tone as he figured out the bear trap.
It was a very rustic, old kind of bear trap. He could see the chain linked to it, also hiding in the leaves. He just had to look for the springs to undo the pressure.
"Are you in any pain?"
"It was just my fake leg." Joon said, eyes unfocused, still trying to control his breathing.
"Nit my real one." He responded again, but more so to himself.
Enzo had him sit down for just a bit as he searched the spring of the bear trap. They didn't bring any spares and he'd rather the boy didn't have to lose a leg, real or fake, on this trip.
"Yes. You're fine. You're fine, just-" He groaned, helping Joon release his leg out of the trap.
Annabelle stepped in to help Joon out by offering a hand on his back as he stepped away.
As soon as he did, the bear trap was pulled away, slipped out from Enzo's grasp, catching everyone's attention as they looked to where it was being dragged to. Something was pulling on the chain of the trap, but they were in the dark.
Annabelle shined the flashlight in the direction and jogged after the chain.
Enzo quickly grabbed her shoulder as soon as a silhouette emerged in her light.
It looks like a goblin, shorter than the average person, a back covered in greasy yet bristly hairs.
It snarled when looking up, its beady eyes darting to the bear trap's teeth marks on Joon's prosthetic leg.
Enzo pulled open his bag.
*BANG*
Shot the creature dead before it could move.
Joon was busy popping his ears, tired of all the ringing noises as Annabelle went to inspect the corpse. Enzo was at ease even though he still had his gun out, she didn't see a problem.
"What if that was a person?"
"Then the bullet wouldn't have hit them. These bullets were designed for nightmares. They'd have gone through people."
She whistled a high note as she got a good look at the nightmare's face.
"So, this is what a Pukwudgie is supposed to look like?" She asked, nudging the corpse with her foot.
"Don't touch it." Enzo said as he and Joon stepped closer.
He pointed out the shadowy vapors around its dark body.
"This is what a Pukwudgie is supposed to look like, from what Ursa has told me, but they aren't supposed to do that." He said, then pointed out as the creature began to dissipate into a sort of smoke.
Smoke that you would get after cremating a corpse, and the ashes fly away out of the oven.
"But they can do all sort of illusion magic and stuff. Maybe it's tricking us?" Joon thought out loud.
"Even then, these things would've put up more of a fight. So, either these types aren't normal, or..." He paused, looking down at the bear trap that was being pulled by the chain, and followed the rest of the chain with his eyes first. Further into the dark forest.
"They are imitations created by someone else. Are you alright?" He asked the boy. "We can let Annabelle lead and head back to the car."
"I'm alright. It didn't do much." Joon said, lifting up his prosthetic and turn it upward to look at the teeth marks better.
Some holes in a curved line on either side, but when he put it back down and gave a few testing stomps, there didn't seem to be much wrong with it.
"Missed all my joints. I can still walk just fine. Heck! Maybe I should walk in front since half of me can't get hurt by bear traps!"
"Don't."
They spotted some other eyes in the woods, Annabelle pointed the gun she took earlier, but Enzo signaled for her to lower it.
"They aren't worth it. And don't even think of chasing them."
The chain line acted as a path. Enzo put his gun away and took out his baton.
It transformed into a long whip, already coiled up in his hand against the handle. He raised it above his head, making a hard, big strike against the ground in front of them.
*THWACK*
*THUD* *CLANK* *THUNK*
Dead leaves flew everywhere, other bear traps on the ground in front of them flew up. Their mouths snapped shut as soon as they landed. There must have been about ten that were found in that one crack of Enzo's whip to the ground.
"Someone put these here."
"So just follow the chain, got it. One of my legs still won't get hurt if I stepped in one."
"Do not walk in front." Enzo strictly told him as he recoiled the whip. The carbon black material transformed back into a baton and then extended itself. He used it as a stick to place to the ground, like a blind man's cane, but in this case, it was to be used for hitting anymore bear traps before their feet could.
With Dove's group, it was less orderly. Not only did they realize too late that none of their phones worked and so Joon was unable to give them a warning about the bear traps, but they became lost much more easily.
when Vernon paused in his actions of moving the trees, he turned around to check the path he had made to see how far they were from the car. And suddenly it was as if he didn't make any path, despite knowing that he indeed moved the trees to make space for them to run. Behind them should've been a path of trees moved to help mark their current trail, but it was as if he didn't do anything.
"I don't like when my work is undone like that." He said, honestly more upset with all the trees appearing as though he didn't do any magic the entire time they were running after Hillary.
Dove gently patted him on the back.
They had finally gotten Hillary to stop chasing after whatever mirage she saw. It happened when Vernon sensed bear traps scattered across the ground, and had a tree bend its branches to catch the woman to make her stop.
He had the roots in the ground uproot themselves to bounce the traps out of from the leaves disguising them. They watched as the traps all snapped on reflex after being tossed into the air, falling back down, snapped shut. They made a path on the forest floor, right where Hillary was about to run into. Everything was dark, but even then, there was just enough light to see those.
"Whatever illusion you saw, it was used because something knows you're desperate, and they are taking advantage of it." Dove said as she helped her out of the branches.
Hillary huffed, and when freed from the branch, she dusted herself off.
"Then what am I supposed to do? So I'm thinking irrationally, should I just go back?"
"No, mostly because whether you go back or keep moving into the forest, we're already lost." Vernon blankly responded.
"And we weren't going to ask you to give up, just be careful. Whoever took your sister is a serial killer too and,," Dove pointed to the traps laid out.
"He's very good at catching prey."
Suddenly they heard a gunshot, and Vernon quickly grew vines to create a barrier around them.
"What was that?" Hillary asked.
Dove signaled for her to be silent as they continued listening for whatever sound would come next.
Next were these loud metallic sounds, and then nothing else.
"Where did that sound come from?"
"Deeper in the forest most likely. Our other teammates also have guns, and they were ahead of us. It would make no sense for the killer to have made that shot, especially if he was hunting any intruders of his woods."
"We are in a forest. A forest is a large, dense area with trees that have grown close together. The woods are a small, more open area with less trees, or at least ones that have grown farther apart."
"Ah. Right. Thank you. If a serial killer noticed intruders in his neck of the forest, surely a smart one would try to be stealthy.
"Unless the killer just didn't care, because he's a monster who wanted to be heard, and he already shot them!" Hillary assumed.
Dove kept a blank stare, not letting her emotions show, but her eye did twitch.
"If you believe it, then it will certainly happen. So, kindly shush for now until we know for sure." She willed herself to say in a tone that sounded similar to Bence's formal tone.
Remembering how Bence usually acts, his professionalism, the way he always seemed so in control of himself, his mannerisms, actions, and tone. I don't know much about myself, my preferences and how I should be acting. I only know the things I hate. I don't know much about things I like or would like. But what I prefer in terms of practicality is the ability to remain controlled and formal. It makes me feel proper. It makes me feel tethered together, and it usually helps me be heard.
Bence is just one of the references I like to mirror, Ursa is a close second with how easily she can command any presence around her. I don't know enough about Enzo to see what actions or tones of his that I can use as a reference when speaking or moving.
I don't know how to will myself to act as such without thinking of references. I like observing people and I liked when Laurence gave me this assignment of just observing others when I can. It helps me learn what styles or techniques I can take and copy in certain situations.
My first reference, I never want to remember him. I feel disgusted just knowing that memories of him still occupies my mind. I feel hatred for myself when I find myself unconsciously mirroring the way he would speak. To me, he's like a demon who can possess me every once in a while.
They continued trekking on after the wall of vines were brought down. Vernon first gave Dove his plant pot of dirt to hold, then knelt down and placed both his palms on the ground. The forest floor shook, not enough to feel alarmed, but enough to feel, whether you were standing or sitting on the ground.
The rest of the bear traps popped out of the ground, and they could tell it was not just the ones in their radius, but every other bear trap placed by the serial killer in this forest. The clanking sounds echoed around them, with more traps being heard snapping shut.
Thanks to that, all they had to do was walk around them, push them aside, or simply step over them.
Dove had her suitcase, along with one gun filled with ghost bullets. She had not needed to use them yet but kept it in her hand as they walked. Footsteps could be heard, along with the bantering noises of what could be described as goblins.
Hillary was holding a flashlight that Dove took from her suitcase, and it was just traveling through darkness for a while.
Vernon was walking slower and Dove paused, being the one to lead the group, and went to check on him. Hillary lashed out due to impatience and frustration.
"How long has it been since we were in these woods dammit?!" Said a frustrated Hillary.
"Forest." Vernon corrected.
"Whatever! It feels like we've been walking for hours now!"
Dove pulled out her phone to check the time and then frowned. Not only was there no signal but it seemed the clocks stopped working as well. Her phone screen was showing the time she previously read when they left the inn.
"Whatever is causing the signals to go bad is also freezing our clocks." She said as she frowned at her screen.
"Perfect!!" Hillary was near shouting.
She kicked a pile of leaves and groaned out loud, pacing in a little circle.
"It's dark! We're lost! No service! No working clocks!" She began to rant, even checking her own watch the confirm, and her own watch was indeed frozen as well.
"I'm such a fucking idiot for just running into these woods! Alana's probably already dead and we're next!" She leaned back against a tree, knocking her head against it as she cried out.
"Wait, Hillary get away from that tree." Dove looked up and said.
"Why?! Why bother anymore!? Do you think we need fire now?!" Hillary responded not moving.
"Please. I just need you to move-"
"And I just needed to find my sister but clearly I've overestimated my preparations!" The woman slid against the tree to the ground. Knees to her chest.
"I did so much research, and speculations, and even met multiple times with the conspiracy guy in town! But he knew nothing and neither did the cops and-"
*BANG*
The woman yelped at the noise and let out a scream when a body fell to the ground.
A goblin or troll, it looked to be about half of Dove's height. It's back similar to that of a hedgehog, if a hedgehog had longer quills, almost like wild, spiky, black hair.
"You could've shot me!!"
"I asked you to move," The girl checked her gun, and then the body that fell, watching it dissipate into shadowy vapors.
"You got down instead, which was close enough. Had I not acted sooner, this Pukwudgie was going to jump down and grab you."
She pointed to the hands of the Pukwudgie that haven't disappeared yet.
Claws out and everything.
The girl then knelt down in front of the woman, a respectful distance but close enough for the woman to hear her even as she spoke in a hushed voice.
"This is no time to panic and regret, especially not out loud. You have been trying and stressing your best, that much is clear. There are people who can help you now, actually help you. all we need, is for you to cooperate with us and not go off like a bomb. That's what this kidnapper and his little minions are depending on."
Hillary nodded, quiet now, and still. She then finally let down her walls of a strong face, and showed a sad, near-glossy-eyed face of a woman desperate, stressed out, and afraid.
"I really thought I knew what I was doing." She said in a breaking voice.
"I couldn't depend on anyone because no one was doing anything, so I did my own research, figured out things myself, and then when my sister was taken, I just- I don't know." Tears began to leave her eyes.
"It's okay. Desperation is one hell of an irrationality inducer."
"I guess I just got cocky, thinking I was like a detective in a movie."
"Can't blame you, things like these typically only happen in movies anyway. It's good to be aware, but for now," She stood up and held a hand out for her. "I think cockiness will actually help you in this situation. Not too much to just charge in but, it would definitely motivate you to keep on trekking. We have to end up somewhere; this illusion can't just keep us in the middle if there's two groups."
Hillary took her hand, but her mood wouldn't budge. She held her head down as she sniffled and wiped her tears with the back of her sleeve.
"What if we never get out?"
"We'll find a way." Dove told her.
Vernon observed Dove's face. He could tell she wasn't very sure herself.
The boy had been holding a hand over his forehead, trying to push away a headache.
His magic is applied to nature, and so when an illusion or some sort is cast to where nature cannot easily bend to the boy's will, it becomes disorienting. If they were in a house that had a maze-like illusion, it wouldn't be a problem, but something that conflicts with his magic is something else.
"I know a way. But I might not be able to help anymore after this." He piped up quietly.
The two looked at him, and Dove frowned, noticing he wasn't feeling good, still holding his hand up to his head, shoulders slouched.
"It's okay, you should take more time to regain your strength."
He shook his head and looked around.
"I need to do this for myself too. We need to get out of this maze, otherwise we'll be stuck, and I won't be able to think straight soon. I can feel it, whoever put up this strange magic purposefully made it where anyone trekking through would eventually give up, or go insane."
He paced forward and then found a spot. Kneeling down again, Vernon planted both palms on the ground again, but this time, he took a deep breath.
"Show me where the farmhouse is." He whispered into the air like wish or command.
"What is he doing?" Hillary asked as she watched him.
She'd seen a lot of things today, but well, as a normal person who only began seeing abnormal things recently, it would still take her time to get used to.
"Concentrating." Was all Dove said as she watched. She surveyed the perimeter, gun in hand to ensure nothing would bother Vernon as he began working up a spell.
Vernon's pupils dilated.
"Found it." He murmured.
The ground shook again. Stronger, visibly, louder. Dove let Hillary hold onto her for stability and watched what Vernon was doing.
The boy was still, like he was the eye of a hurricane, or in this case a mini earthquake.
"Get down." He said.
Dove knelt down and so did Hillary, still leaning on her.
There was rumbling from the ground, metallic clattering and clinking of the bear traps littered across the forest grounds, the swaying and creaking of branches, and the rustling of leaves.
Something then erupted from the dirt. Tree roots, but bigger, multiple.
Multiple large tree roots, entangled together to create a space big enough for three of them to ride on as they erupted from the ground, picking them up and moving like waves.
Dove yelped in surprise, Hillary nearly screamed as she could feel the giant tree roots carrying them, clinging to Dove still as an anchor. Vernon was still calm, still in the same position he was before. The way his hands were placed made it seem like he chose the perfect sitting position when riding on giant roots that were moving through the ground like water.
The trees around them also cooperated with his wish, moving apart to make room, and also because he didn't want to hit them on the way. Sweat beaded from his forehead, like he was holding his breath. His eyes were focused on something; it just wasn't in front of them yet.
As they heard all sorts of noises around them, they also heard voices, just as surprised as them. Some sounded like surprised goblins, others sounded human.
It wasn't until the roots gradually slowed to a stop, and Dove opened her eyes, noticing it was quiet again, that they had reached what Vernon had focused his eyes on.
The farmhouse, in the large, open space in the middle of the forest. They had found it. There were a few wildflowers around the house, he managed to see where the farmhouse was through the flowers and brought them there by first locating the flowers.
They slid off the roots, winded and trying to shake off the vertigo as they stood up.
Dove noticed Vernon's exhaustion through the sound of him catching his breath. That and he didn't slide off as gracefully. Instead, he groaned, clutching his head as he sat back against the giant tree root, needing to sit.
"Headache."
Dove knelt beside him, about to ask if he was ok, before seeing his throat bob, and the rhythm of his chest becoming uneven. She gently dropped her items to the ground and held his hair back as soon as he nearly fell over to face the ground, vomiting.
"Vernon!" Shouted a familiar voice.
Hillary noticed first as Dove kept her focus on Vernon who was now heaving. Joon was running toward them, finally got his phone back and was waving it as he jogged toward them.
Vernon had one hand being held in Dove's, the other planted to the ground, just far enough away from the puddle of vomit in the grass. She kept a steady, heavy, warm hand on the middle of his back.
"What happened?"
"Motion sickness, I guess? Illusion magic messed up his magic or something. what happened to you guys? Where's Enzo and Annabelle?"
Joon placed his hands on his hips and huffed.
"Annabelle and her fae side kina helped up not fall for the illusion as much. When we found the farmhouse, she booked it inside, screaming 'I'm getting my phone back!' and Enzo told me to stay out here and wait for you guys."
He pointed toward the big farmhouse with his baton that had already shifted into a baseball bat.
Screams were coming from the building.
The house was all boarded up, no way inside aside from the door.
Hillary, still with bits of dried-up tears on her face, got up and looked at the farmhouse, taking a few steps towards it before Joon blocks her path with his bat.
"You don't wanna go in there."
"Why not?"
He leads her to the door, showing why had didn't go in despite his usual recklessness.
He opened the door, showing her what looked like a normal hallway, closed it, opened it again, and it then showed a living room. Hillary was quiet, watching as the door would open to reveal something different each time. The new scenery shown would always look like the normal entrance to a house, but different nonetheless, and architecturally impossible.
"How many maze illusions were set up here?"
"Enough to know that if any cops that were normal tried to search this place, they would turn up with nothing." Joon shrugged.
"That explains a lot, especially for a small town." Dove replied.
Vernon didn't say much after vomiting, she gave him some napkins, and he asked to be left alone. His head still felt dizzy, and he wanted to sit. She gave him space.
"Vernon is out of commission. Does your phone not work either?" She asked while holding her phone up.
He held his phone out too, showing all of text messages he sent that never went through.
One of the messages was a collection of spams, all caps and panicked words. Something that likely happened when Vernon caused every bear trap in the vicinity to reveal themselves.
They hear more crashes from the house suddenly. Dove walks up to the door next, looking at the hinges and then the doorknob. She held her arm for comfort.
"Does that mean we don't have to go inside? It seems like Annabelle's got it."
"Yeah, but I don't know, I mean it feels like a trap, and it'd be idiotic to go inside, but I don't know how well Annabelle and Enzo are doing." He replied in a rare, worried tone.
Dove thinks to herself and then turns to Hillary.
"Old farmhouses, they have things like iron, right?"
"Well, I mean, the bear traps were made of rustic iron. The guy probably has more inside-"
"SHHiiiitt!" She hisses under her breath.
Her eyes close, like a soft wince when more screams are heard from inside. It almost makes her flinch. Joon sees her body language and puts his phone away, checking himself.
"It'll be okay. I'll go inside and check." He reassured her.
There are times when Joon reminds his friends that he's twenty, one of those times is now. When he's trying to reassure and eighteen-year-old that their coworkers are fine by offering to go check on them. Sadly, he doesn't know body language enough, for when another scream, that of a girl, erupted from the house, she ran inside before he could protest.
Joon couldn't leave a vulnerable Vernon and confused client, so he could only groan, deciding to keep the door open in the hopes she'll be able to come back out if the rooms don't change. Better yet, he opted to begin tearing the door handle off.
"You!" He called out to Hillary.
"You seem like someone with a lot of pent-up emotions. Step right up and turn your frustrations into strength." He tells her jokingly and also because he needed help.
It helped distract him from negative thoughts as he watched Dove run inside until eventually disappearing into the darkness of the house.
Inside was foggy at first, not dusty, foggy. I could see my breath; it was cold inside, like a freezer. Like the basement I once knew. I would've suffocated myself if I didn't keep my head on my shoulders and keep myself in the present.
I explored the house and quickly realized the answers to many questions.
The reason the moving camera was able to explore so much of the house without having gone in a circle, is because this house is also under an illusion spell. That also explains why the blueprint on the computer screen didn't match any routes that the camera took.
*BANG*
Next, was the Pukwudgies. They aren't actually Pukwudgies. The first one I found and shot inside the house dissipated like ink turned to smoke. They act and look close to the descriptions of them, but that's it. The article I remember pulling up, and the suspicions Laurence had, helped me piece together that these things must be nightmares. Imitations of the actual creatures, born from fear.
My first objective was to find the source of screaming. Thankfully the wood throughout the house was old and rotting. The door to the first room I found, it went down with a good swing from my briefcase.
By the way. There's a difference between briefcase and suitcase, and I only figured that out now. Dumb I know, but, a briefcase is the usual small case made for documents and a laptop, a suitcase is larger and actually meant for travel. Anyways-
The first room was empty, save for a chair in the middle. It looked dirty, covered in stains that appeared black in the dark. I knew it was blood. I thought of reaching for a flashlight before I felt the presence of something about to pounce on me.
I ended up having to use a lot of ghost bullets. It was my first time with a gun, so I didn't keep track of my bullets, nor did I know how many my gun was supposed to have. It was too late for me to know the model, I only knew where the trigger and chamber were.
The next room was the kitchen, and it was also filthy. There was a head in the flooded sink. Long, blonde hair. Were it not for the dyed hair streak, I would've looked to see if it was Annabelle's, even going as far as picking it up from the blood-filled sink and inspecting it. The oven was open, and it smelled like a body was just incinerated. There was a cutting board with an arm on it. I was guessing that it belonged to the same body that the head was from. The pantry reeked and just by stepping close, I could hear hundreds of flies inside.
I heard another scream and tried to follow it. Down the hall again, following the other noises of banging on the walls and just a growl. I began running in the opposite direction of that growl.
I stumbled into another door and kicked it open, running inside. I would say that the next room I found was the living room but, the figures there were anything but living.
Like Dolls, a couple of bodies that were sitting around on whatever rotting furniture there was in the living room. They all looked dead, but things were done in an attempt to preserve them. I gathered the courage to walk over and inspect one that was sat in front of a TV. The TV obviously wasn't working, and the first thing I noticed about the corpse I Inspected was that her limbs were tied into place. A Rod held her up, made her look like she was sitting upright, it kept her head from lolling too.
More sticks of some kinds were tied to her limbs as well with just the feet nailed down, and the hands covered in glue. I shined a light from my phone to confirm that it was indeed a lot of glue that had since hardened. There was some odor in the room, but aside from that, the bodies were pretty fresh.
I left that room soon after. There was no one left to save there.
There was more screaming and with no other leads, I did the stupid thing of going toward the noise.
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