Being led through the forest against his will made the strangest thought appear in Kyle's head. He couldn't really explain why, but he suddenly wondered if this was how his dog, Oscar, always felt when he didn't want to go for a walk late at night.

He silently promised that if by some divine miracle he did live to see that crazy dog again, he'd always make a stand against anyone trying to drag him out of the house. Oscar had always been there for him; he just wished he could return the favour to his furry friend now.

With his hands bound, it had been hours since Kyle had been able to check his cell phone for the time and he usually refused to wear a watch, so the exact time was lost on him but he had to assume that it was almost 4AM. Normally he'd be exhausted at this time of morning after the weekend he'd had, but his senses were refusing to shut down right now.

"Where are we going, asshole? Couldn't we have at least stayed inside where it was dry?" Katie asked, breaking Kyle from his thoughts. Until that point he hadn't even noticed that a light drizzle had taken over.

Katie was at the front of this deadly conga line before Kyle followed closely behind her, with Jess and Matt finishing off the queue. Realising that Katie's question wasn't going to get a response, Jess took over, trying a new tactic.

"You don't have to do this you know?" She said to the men who were flanking them either side.

"Of course we do," One grunted. This was the first time anyone other than Jake had spoken. "We're doing it for the town. It's for the best."

"Weirdly, I disagree," Katie sighed before Jess continued.

"Surely you can see that this is nuts? Please! Imagine one of us was your sister or brother. Would it still be for the best then? We have families and friends who need us!" Despite her best efforts, she began to cry again.

"Can't you see that this is for them?" The boy said again. "Your sacrifice will not be in vain."

"I've never met anyone more full of shit than you," Matt told him. He couldn't see her, but Katie grinned widely. She'd clearly had an impact on him.

After a few short minutes, they arrived back at the waterfall where, ironically their tents were still up.

"Well at least we might get our stuff back," Katie sarcastically remarked.

"You're taking these jokes in serious situations to a whole other level," Kyle sighed. Katie simply shrugged.

Finally, they were halted as they were led into the centre of the clearing. Whereas before there'd only been around three people walking them on each side, now the teens were surrounded by a countless number of cloaked people on either side.

"Jesus. It's like the whole town showed up," Matt gawked.

In one swift motion, they all threw down their hoods and stared straight ahead. Thankfully there were no familiar faces for anyone.

"Good evening!" Jake boomed, commanding the attention of everyone around. Not even the rain made a sound, as if it was listening to this madman too.

He was stood up on a giant moss-covered boulder of sorts, higher than everyone else around, surely inflating his ego even more.

As much as he didn't want to be, Kyle was slightly impressed by Jake. Not everyone could easily make so many people follow them blindly into something as crazed as this. Kyle and his teammates struggled enough to follow their soccer captain, Danny. And the whole squad was only twenty guys! He just wished that Jake could have channelled his ability into something a little less nefarious.

"We are here tonight to honour the past . . . and to preserve the future," Jake called out to his followers. Most of them nodded in agreement.

Matt looked around, watching them all. He was both fascinated and terrified.

"Today's modern society doesn't recognise us. We're a black spot on the map; a town to be forgotten as quickly as we're discovered. But we have a history, unlike any other. And now our mission is finally starting to work. All of our hard work is finally starting to pay off," At this statement, there was a minor cheer around the gathering before they all fell into an inaudible incantation.

"And tonight . . . is our greatest win of all. Our greatest victory. These four sacrifices," His arms became an arrow pointing at the group of kids then, "These four have given us the blessing of walking to us. We didn't need to find them, they found us! This is the true meaning . . . of family."

"Give me a break," Katie whispered to herself.

"They will be missed," Jake continued. "Of that there is no doubt, but we will not make it so that it's meaningless. All four will know that they were a part of history," He was certainly a showman.

The teens all jumped simultaneously as they were each grabbed from behind and had a knife placed to their throats.

"Oh my god!" Jess wheezed.

"So we call on our great leader . . . the Gorgoya! Come forth and accept these people as-"

Suddenly, Jake was cut off by an earth shattering scream.

"What the hell was that?" Katie asked with no more traces of her sarcasm.

"Matt . . ." Kyle asked, hoping that the person who seemed to know most about this would have an answer.

"I . . . I . . ." Matt stuttered.

After a few silent moments, the same scream blasted its way through the ears of everyone around, forcing them to cover their ears as best they could.

Perhaps the most telling sign of all was that even Jake had a horrified look on his face.

"What did you do!?" The man who'd previously answered Jess yelled out to Jake.

"I didn't . . . I . . ." Jake tried getting his words out so quickly that he tripped on them all. "Bray! Go and check it out!" He ordered one of his followers.

Bray looked more scared than anyone that Kyle had ever seen. He half expected him to wet himself there and then. Bray looked up at Jake pleadingly before shifting his eyes to the looming forest. His eyes continued to flit back and forth between the two terrifying possibilities. Eventually though, it seemed that the fear of disobeying his master outweighed the fear of finding the mystery sound.

He jogged towards the trees, as if there was more chance he'd change his mind if he walked.

A hushed silence fell over the clearing then as, with bated breath; everyone watched the nervous figure disappear into the foliage.

A minute passed without a sound. Then . . .

"Aaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!"

Kyle had often heard the expression "blood curdling scream", but not until now did he truly know what that meant. His veins iced over and his stomach dropped as he realised that he would never see Bray again. Obviously, he didn't know him at all but that didn't make him feel any better.

"Bray?" Jake called. "Bray?" He tried again with a broken voice but there was no response.

"We have to get out of here!" Cried another cult member.

"No!" Jake snapped. "Someone go and check on him."

Unsurprisingly, no one volunteered.

"Oh for god's sake!" He cried before jumping down off his pedestal and taking three giant strides towards the woods. "If you want something done right, do it your motherfucking self!" He continued to rage as he marched past his cohorts.

Jake took five more steps before stopping in his tracks, despite there being no further sound. He couldn't explain it, but he knew what was coming. His sixth sense went into overdrive as he took one step back before the forest seemed to collapse before him and out stepped an unspeakable sight.

Out stepped a jet black animal the size of a giraffe, with four tree-like legs and giant wings that flapped as it walked, as if willing itself to fly. As it walked closer to the stunned group, they could get a closer look at its long, thick neck and goat like face. Its nose was flaring up and down and its eyes glowed a dull red colour. The frightening creature was topped by twisted horns that protruded out of either side of its head and curved to meet in the middle like a crown of thorns.

Everyone stood stock still, as if in a dream.

In response, like it was an invitation, the Gorgoya screamed again.

"What the fuck is that!?" Jess gasped.

"Is that . . . ?" Kyle mumbled.

"It's real!" Matt cried, way too excitedly for what the situation required.

"Nope, fuck off. I'm not making a joke out of this!" Katie rounded off.

"Run!" Jake cried, finally shedding his bravado.

As usual, everyone agreed with him and began running. The only problem was that the Gorgoya was blocking only one of two ways out of the clearing.

As it continued its slow walk towards them, a few realised this, and without hesitation ran back to the waterfall and dove off.

"What the fuck are they doing?" Jess asked.

"We need to get to the tents!" Katie cried, ignoring her.

"What?" Kyle hissed. At a time like this, that was probably a dumber idea than throwing yourself off of a waterfall.

"Not for a nap you moron! I have a knife in my bag so we can cut these fucking things off!" She replied, gesturing with her bound hands.

"I am never making fun of your bottomless bag again!" Matt laughed. He still seemed like the only happy person there.

They burst into a run, dodging fellow deserters like falling debris on their way. It took only a few seconds to reach the tents, and Katie began digging through her bag as best she could while the others kept watch.

"Where are you, you sharp piece of shit?" Said Katie, to herself.

"Holy shit guys. Look!" Kyle ordered, pointing back to where the monster was.

The others watched in horror as Jake continued his escape from the behemoth but didn't seem to be getting any further away from it. Despite its size, it seemed to have incredible speed, and before long it was right behind him.

"Somebody help me! Please!" He screamed before it was too late.

The Gorgoya lowered its head and opened its mouth and snapped Jake in two. Blood flew through the air, making the rain itself red.

"We're gonna die!" Jess panicked.

"Cut me free first!" Matt yelled to Katie.

"Whatever, just hold still," She sighed having finally found her knife. As she cut Matt's cable ties, she noticed that she'd sliced her finger open whilst fishing in her bag. "God dammit Katie, learn how to pack!" She told herself before cutting Jess and Kyle free and handing the knife to the latter so that she could be released as well.

"Now what?" Asked Jess, rubbing her bruised wrists.

"Maybe if we stay here it won't see us?" Kyle suggested.

With perfect timing, they then watched the Gorgoya chomp at another man, before it stretched out a leg, extending its sharp claws and piercing three people at once, killing them instantly.

"Ok, my bad," Kyle conceded.

"Where's Matt?" Jess asked, noticing that there were now only three of them.

"Huh?" Kyle looked around, bewildered that Matt could have disappeared so fast.

"What is that dumbass doing now?" Katie groaned.

The three of them scanned the rainy battlefield for any sign of their new friend but he was nowhere to be seen. The Gorgoya was still a few hundred yards away from them so there was no way it could have gotten him.

"Maybe one of the others took him?" Suggested Jess.

"Why would they? They have bigger things to worry about," Kyle pointed out.

By now they'd seen that some of those who'd taken a wide berth around the animal had managed to slip past it undetected and into the forest below.

"We need to get over there. It's the only way," He told the girls.

"We can't leave without Matt!" Katie argued.

"I agree," Kyle sighed. "But where the fuck could he be?"

*

Matt looked over his shoulder once more, on the off chance that someone was stupid enough to follow him. He'd quickly slipped away from his friends to complete his own personal crusade. Despite what any of the others said, he still felt guilty for roping them into this mess and he was determined to finish it without them.

He crawled along the side of the bushes that surrounded the clearing. He could see Kyle and the girls looking for him from his position but he didn't want to be found, hence the crawling. He also figured that if the Gorgoya just wanted to feed, then it would see any fast moving targets as a tastier meal. He was sure that he'd read somewhere that if you stayed still, some dinosaurs wouldn't have seen you. Of course there was never any experiment of this done, and the Gorgoya definitely wasn't a dinosaur.

As the line of plants ended, Matt rolled his body so that he was behind it, hidden. He looked up in awe, and a little bit of pride, at the Gorgoya tearing through his former captors and would-be murderers.

He had been right. All along. When no one had believed him, called him a freak, called him an idiot or a child, it all no longer mattered to Matt Maguire. He was right.

"I knew you were real," He thought aloud. He stuck his hand into his pocket in search of his phone, wincing when his wrist touched his jeans. The ties may have been off but they'd left a strong scar. He took the phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen but nothing happened.

"Come on!" He cried. "Don't be dead yet!"

He held down the on button, hoping to turn it on for at least long enough to take a picture before his phone ran out of battery again. He didn't even want to share the photo with anyone if he ever got off this mountain. He just wanted to keep it to himself to back up his satisfaction.

"Yes!" He cheered as the screen lit up, illuminating his face. He smiled as he clicked onto the camera but quickly lost his grin once he looked up again. "Holy shit!" He gasped, dropping the phone.

The Gorgoya was standing over him, looking down at the easiest prey of all.

"Matt!" he heard Katie yell. He looked over to see that Kyle and Jess were holding her back and tears were streaming down her face. At this moment, she looked like the Falls Peak waterfall.

"It's ok!" He called, unconvincingly.

The beast snorted and threw a gust of wind into his face, pinning him to the deck. Matt looked up into one of the creature's eyes and gulped. He could see that the red glow had a tiny black slit in the middle of it, similar to the pupils of a cat. The creature had four legs, horns and was about five and a half meters tall yet this tiny pupil scared him the most.

The Gorgoya tilted its head slightly; bringing its eye closer to Matt, looking like how he imagined a zooming microscope looked from below.

"Hey there . . ." He whispered, holding his breath. He didn't know what else to do. "Shame about the weather huh?"

The only response was for the creature to tilt its head the other way before turning around and wondering off back towards the woods.

"What the hell!?" He gasped, using his harms to push himself up so that he could watch his fledgling life's work casually stroll back the way it had came.

"Matt!" Katie yelled again, diving onto him, knocking the wind right out of him. "What were you thinking?" She scolded while hugging him tightly.

"How did you get over here so fast?" Was all he thought to ask.

"They're all gone," Kyle answered for her as he and Jess joined their friends.

"Dead or . . ."

"A bit of both," Jess interrupted.

As one, they once again turned their attention to the retreating Gorgoya and were again surprised at what they saw.

It was gone, and had taken all traces of its appearance with it.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

PHEW!

Ok so I know this chapter was probably long as hell but it needed to be. This chapter was a culmination of everything that the story has been building up to so far. I honestly think that one of the reasons I've taken so long to write this story is because I was just always wanting to write this part! Haha

So the Gorgoya? Discuss!