Shaking her head didn't seem to help much as the tiny, dancing spots decided to come along for the ride.

"No, not really, if I'm going to be completely honest." she said, reaching up as far as she could, trying her best to remove the parading vision killers manually. "I was actually kinda hoping maybe you were eaten by a troll or something." she smiled sweetly. "But I suppose even trolls draw the line at cannibalism."

"What did you just call me?" the big man's eyes narrowed.

"She called you a troll, Bill!" the shorter man laughed, the light reflecting off his glasses. "Sure, there was a lot of unnecessary chitchat in between, but she sure as hell did!"

"Shut the hell up, Ned!" Bill shouted, before turning back towards the blonde. "You think you're so goddamned smart don't you, slut?"

"Well, I used to. But I think you and Ned here have got me beat by a long ways."

"I think she's making fun of you again, Bill." Ned whispered.

"Shut the fuck up!" the large man said, letting go of one of Arizona's wrists to backhand the smaller man.

"Well, that was unnecessary." Ned grumbled as he picked himself back up slowly, wiping the blood from his lip. "She started it." he added, pointing towards the captive blonde who simply shrugged.

"Just shut up and go get Jasper, you dipshit. We're all going to have a turn at this beauty." he smiled, the spit in his beard gleaming in the glow of the flashlight.

"Sure thing, Bill." Ned nodded, jogging away, his light bobbing along with him through the trees.

"Yes, indeed. And a good time it will be too." Bill said, grabbing a fistful of blonde curls and bringing it to his nose, laughing as Arizona struggled to pull away. "You should save your energy, dyke. We got a long way to go before this night is over."

"You do understand what dyke means, right? It means that all of this that you got going on..."she gestured with her eyes towards him. "Is not really in my interests." she explained, making a face.

"That's just because you've never had a real man!"

"That's what my mom says." she sighed dramatically as she wiped what mud she could off her face.

"Alright, enough talk, sit your ass down." Bill commanded, grabbing her shoulder tighly and pushing her backwards, smirking as she lost her balance and ended up on her back. "Why don't you save yourself some trouble and just stay there." he said, pulling his pocket knife back out, snapping it open with a flick of his giant wrist.

"Why don't you save yourself some trouble and go fuck yourself." the blonde hissed, lossing a bit of confidence when the giant began to laugh.

"You got balls girl, I'll give you that."

"If I had balls I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be an is, of course, unless that's how you get down, then more power to you." she smiled as even though she couldn't see his face, she could see his outline start to shake slightly. "But then, if that was the case, you wouldn't even need me. Not since you have atleast two friends, that I know of, that like to come out here and play with you in the woods."

Her short victory was brought to an abrupt end as she felt a large hand connect with the side of her face.

"You FUCKING whore!"

"Ow." she brought her hand up to her cheek and blinked a few times as her eyes watered.

"That'll teach you to open your goddamned mouth!" he said, pointing his large, sausage of a finger in her face. "Should just leave your ass here, let the Beast of Webber's Woods have a go with you." he smirked. "Maybe then you'd learn some manners."

"I'm sorry? the BEAST of Webber's Woods?" the blonde chuckled slightly. "Aren't you a little old for fairy tales, Bill?"

"It's real, I swear it! My cousin Jasper saw it." the big man nodded solemnly. "Says it has eyes of fire and breath of smoke." he said, looking around nervously.

"Does your cousin drink a lot?" she asked, the side of her mouth curling up a bit as Bill turned back towards her quickly.

"Not a drop." his voice lowered. "He knows what he saw."

"Hmm, well...maybe it was a dragon." she shrugged.

"You think you're so smart, don't you?" he growled through the shadows. "All you damned city folks just can't wait to tell all us hicks just how smart you think you are. You people just have no respect for the ways things work 'round here."

"Okay..." the blonde started, turning her head slightly away from the man's beer battered breath. "So tell me, how DO things work here, Bill? What is so damned important that I seem to be missing?" she huffed, throwing her arms in the air. "Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like we're smack dab in the middle of a pitch black forest YOU claim some monster calls home, and..." she gasped. "All of your friends have gone missing." she whispered.

Looking up, she could see the whites of the man's eyes clearly even through the darkness, as he looked quickly from side to side. The man was scared. No, that wasn't right, the man was down right terrified.

"No, they'll-they'll be here. Just got a little lost is all. They'll be here." the giant whispered, more to himself than her it seemed. "Agh...Where the fuck are those guys? NED! JASPER! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?"

Looking up at vague outline of the bear of a man standing over her, Arizona couldn't help but notice he was starting to shake slightly.

"Come on, you guys, this isn't funny!" Bill hollered into the forest, his voice bouncing back to him sounding just as nervous.

"I'm sure they'll be back any minute now." the blonde said, scooting herself backwards until she came into contact with the large tree behind her. "You know, unless they got eaten by the Beast."

"Shut up!" the giant screamed, bringing his blade towards her in his massive hand. A hand that, she couldn't help but notice, was shaking like a leaf. His focus shifted once again as he turned back towards the darkness, his eyes scanning for any sign of movement.

"Bill, I think maybe..."

"I said shut up!" he cried, clamping his paw of a hand over half her face as he leaned down towards her ear. "Do you hear that?" he whispered, fear making his voice high and breathless.

Putting on her best face of concentration, she closed her eyes tightly and tried her best to focus all the energy she could towards her ears. But even with such a self impressive effort, the only thing she could make out was Bill's heavy breathing and the sound of her own heartbeat.

"I don't hear anything." she replied as best she could behind her makeshift muzzle.

"Exactly!" the large man exclaimed harshly, bringing his face within an inch of hers. His wide eyes reflecting terror and long forgotten nightmares as his breath rose around them. "No birds, no crickets, hell not even a goddamn bunny rabbit for fuck's sake! NOTHING! There's a whole shit load of NOTHING!" Taking a deep breath, he wiped his forehead quickly before continuing. "You know, my Grandaddy used ta tell us stories 'bout these woods that gave me nightmares almost 'til I was grown." he whispered low beside her ear before standing up.

"Are you okay, Bill?" she whispered back as she pulled the large man's hand from her face.

"There are some things in the dark that should never be seen." the bearded giant quoted, taking a few steps backwards, his head returning to it's back and forth motion. "Voices in the nothingness that should never be heard." he added, his own voice starting to shake. Stopping suddenly, he stood at the very edge of her vision, where she could barely distinguish him from the darkness that now seemed to do it's best to overtake his form. "There are monsters in the shadows." he whispered, his voice drifting back towards her slowly, as if he were already miles away. "You should run." he stated simply, before turning himself quickly and disappearing among the darkness.

From her place against the tree, Arizona sat staring at the last place she had seen him for a few seconds, before blinking a couple of times and shaking her head to bring her thoughts back from wherever they went to try and make sense of the big man's words. "Okaaaay." she whispered to herself before tilting her head slightly and listening to the heavy footsteps as they made their way, she assumed, back towards the highway.

Using the tree's trunk, she eased herself up slowly, frowning as the side of her face began to throb. "Damnit, Bill." she whispered harshly as she rubbed the reddened spot gently. "If I ever see you again I swear I'm going to punch you in a very impolite place." she grumbled. "Asshole."

Taking a step forward she stopped, looked around slightly and shrugged, before heading in the direction the giant had ran, figuring it was the best point of reference she had at the moment. Rubbing her arms to try and regain some type of warmth, she stumbled forward through the trees, with rare strips of moonlight as her guides through the otherwise pitch black forest.

"Okay, Bill, how far into this thing did you guys chase me?" she asked no one in particular as she walked along, cursing as her light sources where becoming further and further apart. Stopping for a moment, she huffed slightly, watching her breath rise up like a lifting fog before she became thoughtful. If she was following behind Bill, how come she couldn't hear him anymore? Sure, he had a good head start, and fear can make you move like your head is on fire, but surely such a large man would get winded easily, right? He couldn't be that far ahead...

Suddenly, she saw it. There, in the distance, was a beam of light calling to her from it's place amung the dead leaves lining the forest floor. Feeling a renewed sense of confidence, she laughed as she ran towards it, ignoring the slight sting of the low branches as their sharpened points kissed her jacket, undoubtedly ripping it apart worse than it had already suffered. Racing forward, her vision tunneled as she focused on her goal, the light source now within a few yards of her running legs.

Raising her arms in victory she cheered as she closed in on her treasure, right before her feet went out from underneath her. With a slight 'Oompf', she landed hard but was atleast able to put her arms out before hand this time. As her already bruised nose stopped within an itch of dirt, she couldn't help but grin. Perhaps her luck was looking up after all.

Reaching out she grabbed onto the flashlight greedily, bringing it to herself as she wiggled her shoulders in a small victory dance before making her way back to her feet and continuing on her way. "If I fall one more effin' time out here, I swear I'll...fuck!" she cried as she stumbled once again. "Damn Heely shoes!" she grumbled as she turned to shine the flashlight towards her ground attacker. "Just my luck I'd trip over a twig, or a leaf, or hell even a breeze would probably...Ah, hell."

Her eyes widened as her light stream hit the culprit. "That is not a twig or a leaf." she whispered, her voice cracking as she took a unstable step backwards. "That is a Ned." she pointed a shaky finger towards what as left of the man as the light from his glasses bounced back towards her. "And I'm guessing THAT's a cousin Jasper." she reasoned to the trees as the glow from her new flashlight started to shake as it fell upon the other man's back.

"And now...it's time to run." she stated, hopping backwards a few steps before turning and taking off as fast as her legs would allow.


Her breath came up around her head as clouds as she willed herself to move faster. Something had killed Ned. Something had killed Jasper. Something big, it seemed. Something that was most likey still relatively closeby. The thought clawed it's way into her mind and sent shock waves down her spine. She had to run faster, she had to get away.

Ignoring the pounding of blood in her ears and the pain in her chest from the cold, she pushed herself harder, dodging trees as they came into her limited vision and leaping stumps like a super star. Ahead in the distance, she saw the lights from the highway slowly come into view, making a line of brightness that beckoned to her like a lighthouse on troubled seas.

"Just a little further! Just a little further!" she chanted as she ran towards what she hoped would be her sanctuary.

Moving forward she forced herself to concentrate on nothing but the path in front of her and her own wild heartbeat. She had to ignore the fear. She had to ignore the pain. She had to ignore everything else and just keep running as fast she could towards the light.

As her first foot hit the aspalt, she cheered as best she could with her lungs burning as she allowed the street lights to bathe her in light, to embrace and engulf her completely. Falling to her knees she breathed long and deep, willing herself to regain some sort of control. It was over. She was safe. Laying backwards, she spread her arms as wide as she could on the road, releasing her torch and giggling madly as her chest heaved, taking in as most air as she could.

Noticing another light source in her peripheral vision, she turned her head to the right and smiled as the back of Bill's big black truck came into view. Sure, he and his friends had followed her down a dimly lit highway and waited until her tire went suspiciously flat to try and have their way with her, and sure, they chased her into a pitch black forest where something had eaten most of them, but she was alive and Bill was alive and that's all that mattered at the moment. She could go about kicking his ass in the future.

"Bill! You waited!" she exclaimed as she lifted herself up and jogged towards the large man who was sitting in the front seat of his equally large truck, his door still open, his radio still blaring long forgotten songs about booze and heartache.

"You're fast for a big guy I'll give you that!" she laughed as she jogged around the side of the truck. Pulling open the passager door, she hopped in quickly, slapping her hand against the bashboard as soon as her butt hit the seat. "Alright, come on, let's get out of here!" she exclaimed, reaching over to lightly smack the large man's shoulder. Her brows fusing when he didn't immediately slam the turck into drive and take off.

"Come on Bill, MOVE YOUR ASS!" she cried towards the still unmoving, staring man as she shook his shoulder roughly.

Bill wobbled slightly from her movements before his unblinking eyes disappeared from sight as his head fell backwards off his shoulders, landing on the street behind him with a sickening thud. With a scream, she scrambled backwards against the passager side door, blindly reaching behind her for the door handle as her wide eyes watched the rest of the knife clutching giant slowly tilt before making a dive towards it's misplaced piece.

Finally finding the handle, she pulled hard, yelping slightly as her weight against the door caused it to open suddenly, leaving her grasping at air as she fell backwards, landing rather ungracefully against the the rocks and dirt lining the highway.

Rolling herself, she laid her forehead to the cold road briefly as she willed herself to calm down as much as possible. There was no sense in running, whatever it was that was stalking them was obviously faster then she could ever hope to be. Closing her eyes tight, she felt the tears start to come. There was no way she making it out of this.

What am I going to do? What am I going to do? FUCK! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

Looking up proved to offer little comfort as her gaze locked with Bill's from the other side of the truck's wheels. Her eyes widened as realization suddenly rang in her brain like an unholy chorus of demons. Bill probably only got this far because it was busy with the others, and the only reason it didn't get her, was probably because it was chasing Bill.

The most horrible of the thoughts took its time, sinking it's way through her mind slowly as the fear came back with a vengeance. If it got Bill, then it wasn't afraid of the light. Her self declared sanctuary was nothing more then a well lit, all you can eat buffet.

Well, fuck.

If she couldn't run, then she needed a place to hide. Taking a deep breath, she lifted herself slowly from the ground, trying her best not to look in Bill's general direction again. Turning towards her explorer, she took a small step forward, trying like hell to keep herself from looking back towards the forest of nightmares.

"Just a little f-further, Arizona. You c-can do this." she stuttered slightly, trying to build some sort of confidence inside herself, willing herself to take the next step. "Come on! Just a l-little further." she whispered, the fear beginning to cloud her mind with images of something monsterous coming up behind her.

It killed them. It killed them all. It killed them all and now it's coming for me.

"It's f-fine. Don't look back. Don't l-l-look back. There's nothing there." she mouthed to herself, taking another small step as tears began to fall. "There's n-nothing there. Just Don't. Look. Back."

In the distance, she imagined she heard movement somewhere beyond the borders of the light as something big made it's way towards her.

"Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't look back."

She heard a loud huff as the thing that did not exist stopped moving when she did, and as she closed her own eyes briefly, she could feel it's line of vision burning into her back.

"Don't look back. It's not r-real. It's not real."

As her tears flowed freely, she pushed herself forward, determined not to be beaten by her own fear and some kind of creature that was born of terror and an over active imagination. But as she leaned forward to take the next step, she felt more than heard the nightmare behind her move forward as well.

Closing her eyes tightly, she turned her head towards the darkness. She had to know for sure. She had to prove it was all in her head, that she was fine. That there wasn't something looming in the edge of the darkness, watching her every move. She had to look now, or she'd be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.

"It's not real. It's not real." she whispered, willing herself to take some sort of comfort in the words even if she didn't truly believe them. "It's not real. I'm fine."

When we are scared, we can see things that aren't there. When we are scared, we can hear voices belonging to no one telling us secrets we wished we had long forgotten. And as her common sense wrestled with her figments of imagination, it tried it's best to whisper calming words.

Everything is fine. There is nothing there. There is no such thing as monsters. Open your eyes and see.

Without necessarily understanding why, she obeyed almost instantly, her blue eyes sparkling in the street lights as she looked towards the darkness beyond.

And there was nothing there. Nothing at all. Nothing but a giant rock hidden halfway by shadows as the light shone down from above.

A small sound of joy burst forth from her chest without her even realizing it. There was nothing there. Just a rock, and as far she knew, she had nothing to fear from a rock.

But, wait. Had that rock always been there? Wouldn't I have seen it before? her voice of reason whispered as it joined forces with her fear. No. It wasn't there when I starting running. It wasn't there because it's...

"Oh, shit." she whispered, her eyes widening as the boulder slowly began to change shape before her.

As the shadowed monster leaned back onto it's haunches, a massive head with pointed ears came slowly into view. It's eyes burning like fire as the heavy breath from it's muzzle rose into the air like smoke curling into the night sky. Swallowing hard, she started to take a small step towards her adandoned explorer, eyeing the still open hatch briefly before switching back towards the Beast.

Titling it's massive head, the creature's ears twitched slightly before perking up as it watched the slowly moving blonde. It licked it's lips with a blackened tongue as it took a single step forward, sniffing the air quickly as it's focus shifted to something behind her.

"DO. NOT. MOVE." she heard called in her direction, but she was too transfixed on the glowing eyes of the Beast to comprehend much of anything. She watched as the monster lowed itself closer to the ground, it's ears flattening against it's giant head as a low growl started in it's chest before billowing forth from it's throat. Spinning on her heels, she stumbled quickly towards the voice.

"Damnit, I said DON'T MOVE!" was yelled towards her, but it became quickly overrun in the blonde's head by the sound of thunder as the Beast took chase.

Feeling the ground beneath her start to shake as the monster pounded it's way towards her, Arizona's tears began anew she felt it close in. Looking up, all she could make out through her blurred vision was a dark haired figure running towards her from the other side of the street.

"GET DOWN!" the woman screamed as she got closer.

The blonde barely had enough time to slide to her knees before her savior was jumping over her head, colliding hard with the already airborne creature. The duo came down heavily less than a foot from her, and she had to roll to the right quickly to avoid being crushed as they struggled.

It was all too much really, her head was starting to feel light as her vision worsened, and the fighting began sounding further and further away. Looking up past the street lights, she smiled at all the pretty stars as the nothingness quickly started taking over, and as reality slowly drifted away from her, a dark head appeared in what was left of her peripheral vision briefly before moving away.

"We better bring her with us." she heard a distorted voice say just before the entire world went black.