A hunter's nightmare

Jason was a hunter. A damn good one at that. He was known for always finishing his job without failing. His cozy cabin stood in the middle of a forest: his hunting ground. Today he was out again to shoot another wild Pokemon and sell it in the town. His trusty rifle was drawn, since he had to react quickly, in case of an attack. So he walked around in the forest, trying to find a prey.

''Argh... Only Zigzagoon... Damnit! I need something better...'' He kept walking, while watching the Zigzagoon run away. The same situation occured several times.

''Screw it!'' he yelled ''I need to find a better place than this...'' So, he went further into the forest. Suddenly, he spotted a clearing, he didn't recognize. It was like it randomly appeared out of nowehere.

''Hm? Was this here before?'' he wondered, as he went to examine it. The sky was clear and there was a big tree in the middle of the place. There weren't any Pokemon, but the tree looked like some kind of residence. Perfect for a trap! Jason gathered some of the leaves, the tree dropped and used them to cover his trap.

'All done!' he thought 'Now I wait...' He went into a bush and took his rifle, ready to fire.

After some minutes of waiting, a Mightyena entered the clearing. It had purple eyes, which fascinated Jason. This clearly wasn't a shiny, neither was it a regular one.

'Ooooh, this specimen looks interesting... I wonder, how much I could get for those eyes...'

The Mightyena looked around, but Jason was well hidden, so it didn't notice him. He had enough experience to tell, that it was a female, possibly even a mother. It didn't matter to him.

She went to the tree, right into his trap. The snare snapped and the Mightyena gave out a pained howl and then desperately tried to break free.

'Gotcha!' Jason raised his rifle and took aim. In this moment the Pokemon broke free and tried to limp away, right out his aim.

''Oh no, you're not getting away'' There was a small slope. If he missed, the Pokemon would be gone. She attempted to jump right over it, as the shot fell.

Jason wasn't sure if he hit her, so he went to the slope himself and peeked over it. There she was, lying on the ground, bleeding, breathing heavily and trying to get back up. He again took aim to finally kill her. She turned her head and pleadingly looked into his eyes, but no avail. He finished her off with a shot in the head, managing to not damage the eyes.

''Well then, let's see...'' he kneeled down to check the Pokemon's lifeless body. One of her eyes had a scar, which he didn't notice before. And her teeth appeared to produce some kind of poison. This wasn't a normal Mightyena, that's for sure.

''Jackpot!'' He took out his hunting knife to cut out the eyes after he pulled them out.

''No idea how much I'll get for a damaged eye... but maybe it can be used as a trophy.''

The teeth of a Mightyena are fixed to the jaw and the skull, so he decided to cut off the entire jaw, but left the rest of the head on the body. He thought about taking the fur too, but it was just the same color as a regular Mightyena's. He didn't need any more of those. There wasn't anything of value left on the body, so Jason left the corpse. After all the forest is an ecosystem, so it will find a way to decompose and recycle it.

Back at his cabin, he again looked at the eyes. The scarred one appeared to be looking right into his soul, while the other one seemed to be watching him. Every time he put them down somewhere and turned around, they are turned to him. He couldn't stand this odd feeling of being watched, so he quickly put the eyes along with the the jaw into a small chest and closed it. Still having a nervous feeling, he ate something and then went to bed.

He woke up with a view out of the window. Apparently it's daytime, but strangely the forest was full of thick fog. This rarely happens in this area

''Hmm... That's is weird...'' He dressed himself and took his rifle along with a flashlight to get on the next hunt, leaving the chest on the table. Jason looked around, after leaving the house. It was hard to see a damn thing, yet he had to satisfy his customers, so he went into the forest. He walked for a few hours, without encountering any Pokemon. Not even a single Zigzagoon appeared, which he normally sees every minute.

''I've got a bad feeling... Usually this part of the forest is full of Pokemon... Where are they?''

Suddenly he heard a noise. A Pokemon must've stepped on a branch. Quickly he raised his flashlight to find it, but it seemed to be gone.

''What the heck?'' He spotted the broken branch. Again there was silence.

Jason started to feel uneasy, so he decided to return to his cabin as quick as possible. He followed the way he came, but even after several hours, he couldn't find it. It appeared to be gone. No Pokemon, strange noises and now the house is nowhere to be seen. Was this a nightmare? He kept walking, hoping to find his house. Eventually he got to the clearing again. He decided to check the body, but as he reached the place, there was nothing left. Even the blood was gone, like he never shot the Mightyena.

''How is this possible?'' Jason looked around frantically. ''She just disappeared...'' Chills started to run down his spine. He walked to the tree, which had a little hole inside. Maybe he could stay in there, waiting for the sunlight to break through. Not a good idea, but better than walking through the seemingly dead forest and die from exhaustion. So he tried to crawl in.

Suddenly a snare, covered in leaves, snapped into his arm.

''Argh!'' he yelled in pain, trying to break free. It didn't succeed, since one hand wasn't enough to open the trap. After several failed attempts he looked around and saw a shadow in the fog. Now he had only one desire, to get rescued.

''Help!'' he shouted ''I need h...'' His face turned white, as the figure came closer. It's shadow had the shape of a Mightyena. Desperately he tried to open the snare, but failed. The figure appeared to be the Mightyena he killed. It had empty eyesockets, and it's jaw was missing. Some black liquid was dripping out of the wounds. And after closer examination, he noticed, that there were little red pupils inside of the eyesockets. They were glowing and seemed to be piercing through his soul. Out of despair, he tried to grab his rifle, as the creature lunged towards him. It was too late...