Summery: You're being hunted by a monster that the town's folks think is a myth, little does everyone know...
Warning: Eludes to death and violence
You hear a noise so clear and loud you think that it's right behind you; you've been running for what feels like miles, the only concept of time you have is the moonlight, but even then you have no idea what time it actually is, or how long you've been running.
The air is cool on your face, the ground hard under your feet as you race through what seems like a forest that stretches on forever. A branch hits your cheek; it stings like when you got bitten by a wasp, but you quickly forget the pain and keep on running. There is no where to go but straight it looks like.
You've seen movies like this and they never end well; you also never thought you'd be apart of one, the only differences... no film crew, no lines, no directors, or cast; only you running for your life from whatever it isā¦
You don't remember much, but you did get a glimpse of it. Its tall looking figure, its glowing eyes, hunched shoulders, and its low growls. It's definitely not human. You don't know how it got here, where it came from, or why it is interested in you, but all you can focus on is trying to get away from it and its hideout. You've never seen a forest anywhere near the city, you must not be anywhere close to home.
Finally after what seemed like almost all night you find a road, you try to figure out what direction to go, but only pause for a couple seconds to look and catch your breath a bit before you start running again in a direction that looks like there's a house with its porch light on.
Hoping someone is home and is friendly enough to help you, you sprint up the mile long drive that most farms have, up to the house and rapidly knock on the door as loudly as you can. To your surprise a young boy opens the door rubbing his eyes, he looks at you confused; before he could speak you ask for his parents, he tells you they are sleeping. You ask him to wake one of them up and told him you need help. As much as you might look and sound crazy you need to at least get taken somewhere safe for the night, you also know that if it finds you, or if it knows where you are that this family is probably in danger.
Instead of the little boy returning, it was a tall, bigger man that looked a little rough around the edges. "What are you doing here? And why are you here at two in the mornin' ?" You ask for help saying you are lost and don't know where you are and that you need to get back to Arlidge. The man tells you that he would take you into town in the morning when the sun rises, and you can sleep on the couch. You hesitate a moment and look around outside to see if you can spot it; the cost is clear, you accept the generous offer of the man and see the little boy eavesdropping from the door of what must be his bedroom. The man shows you the couch, tells you where the bathroom is, says goodnight then walks to the open door at the end of the hall, closing it behind himself.
You look out the bay window on the other side of the room from the couch to ease your mind. You lay down and close your eyes; you have no problems falling asleep. You're exhausted from all the running.
The sun rises and you awake from the warm glow, but something doesn't feel right. You open your eyes and you are face down on a dirt road, soaking wet. You sit up and look around to see where you are; you're outside of the farm house, in a puddle as longĀ as you are tall; you try to stand up and searing pain shoots through your leg as you crumble back to the ground; you grab your ankle and realize your shoe is missing, you look behind yourself and find it stuck in the cattle grate at the front of the drive. As you crawl over to get your shoe, you notice something in the trees across the road. Your eyes still a bit blurry from just waking up, you rub them to focus and when you open them again to see what was there, it was gone. In a panic you grab your shoe and get it back on your foot as fast as you can, looking around to see what to do, you see a bicycle leaning on the side of the house. Looked old but would have to do. You get up and try to push through the pain and grab the bike and run back to the road, more like hobble.Ā
As you ride in the direction you think you need to, but not really sure, you finally see a church with some cars parked out front. You pedal faster, pushing the pain of your ankle away. As you get to the church you hear the choir and some other people singing and the organ. You go inside the first set of doors to get out of the brisk fall air. Leaning your head against the wall you hear a crunch, realizing that you had leaves in your damp hair.
When the service ends, you hear everyone inside get up, talking and shuffling around. As the first people come out they are startled by you. You smile and are about to speak, when you are interupted by a gruff, elderly voice āYou look like youāve been through a lot, here why donāt you come in and tell me what I can do to help.ā You follow the Father inside the church to an office. Its small, poorly lit with a small window behind the old desk that looked more like a table. The Father turns on a lamp behind the desk that tries to help light the room, but doesnāt quite succeed. āWhat happened child? Are you alright?ā The Father asks. You begin to tell him everything from the beginning, you know you sound and probably look crazy; especially to him, but he doesnāt bat an eye.Ā
When you have finished telling him everything he looks at you calmly and tells you that he will take you to the hospital in town to get your wounds tended to. As he gets up to leave you turn to him and ask him where you are. āMy child you are in South Valley. Letās get you to the hospital and Iāll see if I can answer more of your questions; you look like you have some.ā And with that you get into the car with the priest and drive to an old brick building that looks like it was once something moreā¦ something beautiful.
As the nurse is bandaging you up the priest is sitting by your bedside, you turn to him and ask about what he thought of what you told him happened to you, hoping for some sort of reassurance that you arenāt as crazy as you feel. He turns to you and says āFrom what you told me, it sounds like you are wanted by the DopadnÄ CiÄ.ā You look at him questioningly, with confusion written all over your face.
āCome child rest and I will tell you a story that should help you understand.ā So you lay back, resting your head against the pillow, trying to relax into the soft bed. The priest begins. āSouth Valley is, pardon me, was a mining town, lots of folks around here have men in their families who used to work in the mine. All of a sudden out of nowhere there where men going missing, no one knows why, the people who say they do where ruled crazy and taken to the city for treatment. The mayor and the council decided that the mine was too dangerous and that it had to be shut down. Many men lost their jobs, as you can imagine, not many of them were happy. Iāve talked to the men that saw what happened, when no one high up would believe them and went to investigate after the mine was shut down. Lots of folk say itās just a myth, but the DopadnÄ CiÄ is REAL. I saw it!ā
Now you donāt know if this makes you feel better or if this priest is as crazy as you are, but you take it for what it is and thank the priest for all his help. As he leaves a nurse comes in to check on you, tells you that she overheard your conversation with the priest and that as crazy as he sounds itās true. She asks for your story of how you ended up in the hospital. When you finish telling her she asks what happened the day before. You try to think back and itās blank; you have no memory past running away from this thing. As you tell the nurse this she smiles gently and tells you to get some rest.
You don't lay there awake for long. You doze off dreaming of getting back to the city. You get awaken in the middle of the night by pain from your ankle that you sprained the night previously. You use the call button to see if a nurse can get you some pain killers, as you are waiting, you hear the phones ringing but no one answers them; strange. You wait another fifteen minutes before you push it again; you think to yourself as you wait that it's a small town, they can't be that busy. You wait another fifteen minutes, phones still ringing, and still you hear no one answering them. You get out of bed to go see if you can find a nurse at the front desk, which isn't far from your room. When you get there, you can't see anybody in sight. You yell out to see if they are behind some filing cabinets, but still no answer. Computers still on, just on their lock screens, everything thing seems somewhat normal. You roam the hospital for a little while, peaking into other rooms to see if you can find a nurse, there's no one. In some of the rooms you looked in they have been cleaned within the last couple hours and the beds made, other rooms look like the people that were supposed to be in those beds were dragged out. Scared you leave the hospital to see if you can find help elsewhere.
You think back to the farm how you dreamt of having a whole conversation with someone and were in their home, when you were actually outside. You lay down in the middle of the road that ran alongside the hospital trying to see if you can snap yourself out of this dream. An hour passes and you are still laying in the middle of the street and no one has been around, as you thought at least a couple people would of been since this is a main road through the town. You finally get restless and stand up and start walking; no clue where you're going.Ā
As you walk you see a figure down the street. It looks like the silhouette of a person. You get excited that you finally found someone in this town that seems deserted now, that you start running towards them. As you get closer you start to get a better image of who or really, what it was. You come to a halt as fast as you can almost tripping and falling. You've forgotten the pain of your ankle by now. You turn and run back the way you came from, but the DopadnÄ CiÄ was following and catching up quick. Next thing you know you feel a sharp pain in your back, you fall face first into the pavement, your back feels wet and cold. You close your eyes for just a second, or what you thought would be a second.
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