- Case File - 001 - The Smiling Creature - 07 - Shaken

Alex awoke, half eaten, barely alive, his friends dead, or at least that's what Alex EXPECTED to wake up to but everything was fine. He wasn't dead nor were his friends, they were still fast asleep, Alex checked his watch it was an hour before the start of their day but Alex chose to not sleep, he was too scared that when he closed his eyes it would come and kill his friends and him, he was too afraid that 'it' HAD killed his friends and he just didn't notice half their bodies missing. Alex waited thinking who opened the tent?, why doesn't it want its body seen? and why did 'it' pretends to be slow if that thing wanted it could have killed Alex during their first encounter, why was it playing this sick game with him?

***

The monster smiled as it had done for the last 15 years. For the first time in a while it was genuinely happy. Out of the bright room where people looked at it and hurt it, out of the abyss of the the pit in the cave where it was blind and unable to eat, free to satiate its hunger, free to feast to its hearts content.

And feasted it had not the one it wanted to eat but it's hunger got the best of it and it had to settle for suboptimal prey, but the one he ate was fat and juicy, it felt the pain of being torn into and eaten alive, and that was good enough, after having its fill it had left him corpse in a tree for other's to find, but one had seen it in the act so he needed to make him disappear. And then it had gone to do another task.

According to the people who watched it in the white room, the ones who changed it to what it was now, it was there for eating people, a cannibal they called it, but it wasn't its fault they tasted so good, to it human's were the same as pigs or cows are to humans, livestock. And so as most humans felt nothing eating livestock, it felt the same.

***

One hour, Alex had changed his clothes to what he would be wearing for the day, and waited. It had been and hour since he awoke and he was feeling no less paranoid, what if I exit the tent to a blood bath?, Alex thought to himself.

Alex mustered up his courage and got up, while exiting the tent he heard the fair sound of Xavier yawning, he had woken up.

Outside Alex saw some of the early birds, even when they were in school these people would wake up early. And then the teacher began to scream to everyone to 'WAKE UP'.

Alex went straight to the eating area for some reason he was hungrier than normal and just wanted to eat as soon as possible. As Alex was sitting down at one of the wooden food tables, he didn't notice the figures approaching him from behind. Alex heard a voice that sounded like a combination of two.

[???]: "Hello Alex, we followed you from the cave."

Alex's body frozen, his mind began to race, his breathing picked up, adrenaline began to pump and Alex jumped up out of his seat, his leg lashed out hitting what ever had spoken.

A different voice called out.

[???]: "Ow, why is it always me!"

Alex then noticed that no one was staring at him or the thing that spoke, he noticed many people looked and turned away, some even giggled. Alex chose to look up at what he had hit. As he did this, an annoying voice spoke.

[Xavier]: "Why are you so feisty?"

Alex saw Xavier and Darius standing next to one another. Adam was giggling, Xavier was clenching his knee where the kick had landed.

[Xavier]: "Were you trying to invert my knee."

[Darius]: "You completely deserve that!"

[Xavier]: "Then you do too because you helped!"

[Darius]: "It wasn't my idea!"

Darius noticed something from Alex he heard, shaky, loud breathing, the kind someone would have after a close encounter with death, like almost walking in-front of a fast approaching car and having someone pull you out last moment.

Alex had been a little jumpy since he had come back from the cave, Xavier too had confirmed it that morning. So with concerns and a little fear, Darius asked the question that had been bugging him for a while. Darius sat down on the right of Alex and spoke.

[Darius]: "Alex answer honestly, I don't care how far fetched it sounds, what happened in that cave?"

Adam had an uncharacteristically serious tone, the kind of tone someone may expect when being told a family member was dead or they had an incurable disease and that's how Xavier knew this wasn't the time for sarcasm or stupid jokes he too sat down, on the left of Alex, ready, for once, to listen all the way through.

[Alex]: "Do you promise that you won't laugh or tell me I'm insane?"

[Xavier and Darius]: "Yes."

[Alex]: "Okay then here goes."

Alex spoke the talked about the fall, the stream, hitting his head, the pillar with the symbol, the lit room, the hole, the voice, the creature the voice belonged to, the fact the symbol from the pillar was on its forehead, the way he ran, the fact he got out alive and the fact it followed him to the campsite.

[Xavier]: "Are you sure tha-"

As Xavier was about to finish his sentence a scream pierced the air, it was blood curdling, it caused many people to flinch and those who hadn't been dazed by the sheer horror in the scream, sprinted to the source. The scream had come from tree-line near the area of Alex's tent. Alex, Xavier and Darius too sprinted. 'Had it shown up?' thought Alex as he ran.

Alex, Xavier and Darius got to the area, students and staff were already present. People were muttering, some were one the floor and Alex could see one student had hunched over near the trees to the left, he was convulsing, throwing up.

Alex pushed his way through the crowd of students and staff. Alex got close enough to the front of the crowd to see the tree line. His knees buckled...