Story 2: The Ominous Village - Chapter 1

There was nowhere to go. Everything seemed constricted. People were running for their lives but some were taking that away from them. It was horrible, it... it was something which I only watched in movies or shows. Such things always beat the crap out of me, but would get to see this in real life, never thought that way.

Myself Dave, an enthusiastic person who wants to explore things, and that's why I always run a lot. Nah, just kidding. I was a pretty enthusiast about roaming the world, but got caught in a scandal and now, I am being chased by police everywhere I go. Well this still gives me thrill which I really wanted to live on.

If you think of me as a bad guy then sure, go ahead. I just wanted to be free and explore the whole planet, of course not. Well I have been to places which I shouldn't have and because of that, I got these fellas on my back. Well, I didn't steal anything but was present with them, that's why they want me to spill the beans and help those officers in capturing them.

One day I was running from the fellas like always, but this time, I got almost cornered, and there was nowhere to run. With that, I decided on taking a shortcut to outrun them which I had never explored before. I raced myself through that gully while the police were chasing after me by the main road.

While running through that route, I got too far from the city and now at a completely open and unknown premises. I was cautious of them because they might catch up to me. I came across a village outskirts that was kind of creepy but a good hiding spot. I heard the sirens so I hid myself in the bushes which were close to an entrance. The entrance of this village maybe?

The police officers stopped at the entrance at started muttering among themselves while some looking here and there. The entrance was just like any other village entrance, a path with wooden planks on the sides leading us inside the village. I was able to see only a small distance ahead of that entrance, after that, it got all blurry. I wanted to take a closer look but the officers won't be that generous to let me be.

The police officers discussed something among themselves and started retreating. I was shocked yet fulfilled because I saved myself again from those predators who wanted to run over me. I got out slightly and saw that the officers went back into their cars and left that place. After sometime, I rechecked if everything was fine, and moved out. The mosquitoes sucked so much of my blood in those bushes, that I might die from malaria or blood-loss, just kidding! *sighs*

Not gonna lie, after seeing such an area, it made me curious. My curiosity rose, because the officers just stopped and went back muttering things like "This place is not safe, he might never return, let's leave before we get caught in it". After hearing these phrases, who won't go to check it out at least once.

I got close to the entrance, which was nothing special, but as I was about to step inside, I got chills down my spine. My skin crawled and hair straightened up. This sweaty and scary feeling I just witnessed was similar to which I got in my childhood when I got lost in a dark place. At that place, I was not even able to see three steps ahead of me. I thought I had overcome that past, but I believe I didn't.

I just took a U-turn and got back to my hideout. At the entrance only, I saw one person with a glass of malt in his hand, my only friend, let's not go that way. My stealer friend Jasper was waiting for me. "Hey! how's your fans following?" he asked. "Like always, nothing new". I replied sarcastically.

Jasper knew my situation and what my response would be, but still, he won't lose even a single chance to make fun of me. "Hey Dave, are you up for another one?"

He was not offering me a glass, but he asked that because he wanted to make a deal for something, which he thinks as a rare item, and for that, he setup the client and wanted me to do the negotiation. Well that's my job, didn't I told you? Like I said, I did not steal anything, I just do the negotiations which led to the profits or loss.

"So, where have you decided to meet your, sorry OUR client?" I asked. "To the North of our city, at the inside edge of the Nether-wile Village." Jasper replied.

I had no idea about where this place was, but I said yes for that matter. I believed him that at least, at the time of work, he wouldn't pull any pranks. He scheduled our small meetup at 11:30 pm in the Nether-wile Village which by its sound seemed scary, but the explorer inside me, was rising to the top.

The time approached and we got ourselves out of our beds, and moved straight to the location. The night was cold. I got my jacket on but it was freezing me to death. I was walking behind Jasper who was leading me to that place. "I don't want to die freezing you know." I said out loud. "Yeah, shout LOUDER so that everyone in the vicinity could HEAR US." he shouted. With this loafing, we kept getting closer and closer. I was keeping an eye for any suspicious move behind our backs. As we got closer, something started to familiarise, as if I had seen this before.

As we walked some more distance, I saw the same wooden entrance which I saw this morning. "Is this the place?" I asked. "Yep." Jasper replied. "It feels... creepy." I said. "Don't be a pussy here. It's an important deal, so stay focused." Jasper said while casually entering from the entrance, ignoring my words. And because of the need for money, I followed him while feeling unease on my every step.

The environment was rough on me already and on top of that, because of my anxiety, I was constantly checking right and left for anything which might come at us in such a dark place. Jasper kept on moving and dragging me with him towards the meeting location.

We were getting deeper and deeper, which was giving me cold chills, a slight breeze was giving me goosebumps. My mind was freezing with thoughts, but my body was not that cold because of the jacket. I was still on alert and my gut feeling was telling me that, it is being silent for too long, but their is someone, or something, piercing us through it's gaze. 

We were walking through the bushes which were surrounding me till my neck, almost hiding me. I was 5'4 unlike Jasper who was 5'9. We kept on walking, and he said that were are close to the location and he could see that person with whom we were going to make the deal with.

I stopped and stood on my toes to get a good look. He was right, as I was able to see a person standing, it was still blur but and with him, there was another human like figure standing in front of him.

The dealer was a few meters away and to see exactly what there was, we moved faster. As we got closer Jasper gasped and shouted. "What the HELL is this?" I was going to say the same but the words got stuck in my throat when I saw that.

The person with whom we were going to have this deal, was impaled with a spear right through his stomach. But at the same time, he also jagged his knife in the attacker's throat. It was like a stalemate where both killed each other. But WHY? I asked myself.

I took a deep sigh and started accumulating things to understand what could have happened here. But in the meantime, Jasper was looking into the pockets of the dealer to get anything out of it. The morning scene was rolling in my head and a voice saying I shouldn't have come here overcame my explorer. 

"Hey Jasper, let's get back." I said. "Just wait a minute will ya. I am searching for my thing which he had." He replied. I was so scared that my senses were heightened up. I could hear the breeze flowing and animals screaming somewhere far away from us.

I again mentioned him about leaving, and he agreed because he found his thing without losing anything. We started walking and I was hearing noises from all kinds of things other than humans. I even asked Jasper to check if we were going in the right direction, and he kept on saying 'coward' to me which he had said to me 20 times already. 

The whistling sound of wind was blowing my ears off, along with the sounds of bats, owls, and animals screeching out loud, somewhat away from us. It was like an ominous orchestra led by a conductor with a horrible taste in music theory. I asked Jasper again about our route and he was scratching his head. "I think we are on the right track, I assume." he said. Those were not the words I wanted to hear.

We kept on walking for an hour or so and I asked him again, but this time he was sweating a bit and was not able to find our way out. While I was about to say something, I heard a voice coming towards us at a high speed. I stopped Jasper and ducked into the bushes. 

We moved forward by slowing pushing the bushes to see if anything is up ahead. We saw something, and that something scary for me. We saw a figure with torn clothes, pale skin gnawed by sharp nails and scratch marks tearing up blood all over the body. The figure had a human-like yet a brutally aggressive face which was giving out an aura of a serious killer.

We had our mouths covered. Sweat running through my forehead, and off my cheeks, falling on to the rough soil. Jasper was trying to take a peek, but I stopped him by pulling him back. The figure was just standing there without saying anything at all. It suddenly moved its head left to right, and passed straight ahead.

 "What was that thing?" I said in a low yet frightened voice. "I don't know, it seemed human like." Jasper replied. What feature of that thing made Jasper think that as a human. Those rough nails looked more like claws, and its body was like or unlike human.

Looking at my sorry face, Jasper said. "Let's follow him, we might get something." 

----- To be Continued in Chapter 2 -----