PROLOGUE:

The crisp air starts to dampen around the low hanging clouds as they slog themselves along the moist, lush ground. Her eyelids spring open for a brief moment, only to tighten themselves shut as a flashlight illuminates its glow in the tiny dark room. Footsteps pace around the room, while the light dances across their bodies and along the dull walls with makeshifts of homemade posters made from shrivel papers stuck to the wall with runny glue, penetrating its way through the poster in random spots of wetness.

The light exits the room, along with the hollow sound of footsteps. She listens and waits, until the steps disappear into the air before she springs her eyes open once more. Crawling out of bed in her long pajama gown with her hefty sweatpants underneath, she whispers out in the darkness. She slides the shoes on her feet, slipping up and down her feet while the tongue of the shoe flops around without the laces on them keeping it in check.

She whispers once more, now hovering over another girl snug in her tiny cot. She waits, the girl groaning before she snaps herself out from the bed. They give each other pleased smiles as they clasp their hands to the other's tight.

Precipitously, they find themselves outside, staring behind them at the large disengaged house. The wind caresses them as they make trample their way through the slick grass, their long dark purple and brown hair intertwining itself with the wind.

They make a few careful steps to the edge of the woods behind the house. The full moon hangs itself high up in the sky while the clouds depart themselves from its devotion, overlooking the entire estate of the house and acres and acres of the land surrounding it.

The young girls make their way further from the house, boisterous noises of laughter, playful chaos, and antics echoes more and more in the night as they gallop through the woods, without hesitation. The house soon many miles away from them.

Their hearts pound, fragments of the moon slithers through the canopy of the trees until even it disappears all at once. A growl announces in the forest, causing the girls to heed the direction it came from, looks darting and ears perking up. But nothing sounds, no crickets chirping, not even the sound of the wind bustling through the leaves of the trees. The girls freeze in their place, wanting to question the other only for voices to turn into air as their mouths open.

They look at each, frantic. They repeat again, trying to shout this time with more pronounce and more gumption. The same results, silence. They place their hands up to their throats, piercing it hard as if trying to feel for something faulty or off. They sneak around, the quiet becomes deafening, almost mocking. This was not just silence. It is the absence of sound, the absence of noise, the absence of everything.

They swat at their ears as if trying to arouse them back to their normal function, all the while trying to call out the other's name, with all the energy that they had. Hearts rupturing through their chest, whole bodies tremble. The girl with the long purple hair, sensing it snagging on the wind, reaches out and grabs her friend by the shoulder.

"No, wait," a weak voice replies out. They stop, turning in the direction of the voice.

"Did you hear that?" they both question at the same time, excitement mixed with terror.

"Yes?" the voice grumbles, tone scratchy and deep. They see a large man leeching in the shadows, a large tentacle detaching itself from its body to puncture itself through one of the girl's throats.

The other girl panics, feeling the life draining in her hand as her friend drops to the ground. The large man shifts itself as it separates from the shadows, turning huge and grotesque. Instead of a man, a monster appears with long stout legs the size of tree trunks and a long head with horns bulging from it with black blood dripping from them. The creature opens its mouth, revealing an emptiness inside beyond abundantly red razor teeth. The girl sprints from the figure, from the creature, as it rips its tentacles from the girl's throat and waves it high. It remains still and calm as other long slimy tentacle reaches out from its body.

It grips the girl by her leg, causing her to fall into the dirt and grim of a snakes' nest. She plunges her hands in the dirt, the vibration of the earth pulsates against her hand. Snakes roam around her, slithering over her body and clutching their fangs in the monster's tentacles. She attempts to grab onto any branch or rock but the strength and speed makes it hard for them to latch onto anything permanent. She cries, summoning the reptiles to her. Screaming out in agony, the monster whips her off her stomach, slamming her into the ground as a loud crack reaches up in the air.

Another large tentacle rises above the creature's head, swirling around until it flops down next her, tears begin to flow from her eyes as agony flows from her back. Her terrified face locks onto the beastly sight next to her, as it crushes the precious animals surrounding her in her time of anguish. The tentacle slides over her body, the slimy and heavy feel of it on top of her. Spikes coil from its tentacle, dragging itself in her stomach as it snatches up organs from her insides, only a moment passes as the unbearable pain inside the girl causes her to lose consciousness.

The bodies of the two girls rest, defeated and damaged, as the monster lurks again and treks away in the shadowy night. The sounds of the wind and the hum of the crickets echoing itself out to the moon.