"Zak, you know you shouldn't be walking through the woods at night," a

voice spoke through the phone that Zak was holding up to his ear, "People

have gone missing there, some of their bodies haven't even been found! What

on earth were you thinking?!"

"I'm going to be completely honest with you," Zak hummed, "I wasn't really

thinking about it much at all, in fact, I hadn't even given the missing

people a thought when I started. All I know now is that I'm completely lost

and have no idea how to get back on track."

"Yeah, I'll bet," the voice responded, "And when you go missing, don't be

surprised if you come back and we're hosting your funeral."

"You're so overdramatic," Zak sighed, "I'll be fine, besides, it's not like

these woods can go on forever, I'll find my way back." He hung up the

phone, mocking his friends in private about how overly concerned they were

over his well-being. After all, he had gotten lost before and nothing ever

came of it.

After about another hour of walking, Zak's worry began to rise, and as he

began to panic, he decided to pull out his phone to play some calming music

to help him stay sane. Yet there was still a feeling that something was

wrong, he had walked through these woods hundreds of times during daylight

hours without a problem, he had taken the same route when he began about

two hours earlier, he should've been out of the woods by now. Soon enough,

he began to fumble with his phone, desperately trying to get directions to

get himself out of the forest.

After a few minutes of fiddling with his phone, Zak suddenly crashed into

something. He fell backward, and in his daze, had the displeasure of

accidentally looking up and seeing firsthand what he had bumped into.

There, standing in front of him, was a tall, thin cryptid with pitch-black

skin, horns that resembled tree branches, a tail that looked like it had

serrated edges, a small glowing white halo, and two piercing white eyes. It

was wearing a long, red cape that appeared to be bigger than the creature

itself, that, along with its silver hair, was slowly moving back and forth

with the wind.

Zak was just hoping that the creature didn't notice him, and if it did,

that it would just leave him alone, but his hopes shriveled when the

creature's head turned towards him, with its eyes piercing his as it stared

down at him. Zak could feel himself trembling with fear as the cryptid took

another step closer to him, and this thing, whatever it was, was massive,

easily exceeding ten feet in height. As Zak's breath became increasingly

shaky due to the large creature approaching him, he felt tears forming in

his eyes, as he knew that what he had said on the phone call he had over an

hour ago was going to be the last thing that anyone would ever hear from

him.

As the creature drew nearer, Zak looked up and saw that it had its head

tilted to the side, almost as if it was curious. But Zak knew better than

to be lulled into a false sense of security, he knew that the thing was

only trying to look like it wasn't going to hurt him in order to gain his

trust. Then, once he felt he could trust it, the creature would tear him

apart limb from limb. Whenever it would take a step closer to him, Zak

would just push himself backward in a futile attempt to escape. Eventually,

Zak gained the feeling of dread when his back hit a tree, as he was unable

to back away further, and standing would surely anger the monster.

The cryptid silently and gingerly approached Zak, keeping its eyes locked

on his, and once Zak had reached the tree, it knew it was free to continue

its approach. At this point, Zak was hyperventilating due to the creature

continuing its approach, and his panic soon became visible on his face as

the creature was now less than three feet away from him. It slowly and

cautiously bent down to get a better look at the human, carefully examining

his every move. It could see the fear in Zak's eyes, and it knew that he

was terrified. The creature slowly reached out a clawed hand toward Zak,

which only made the human even more terrified. Knowing this, the creature

carefully put its hand on the smaller form's head, gently rubbing the top

of his head in an attempt to calm the human down.

Zak, now even more terrified than before now that he was being touched by

the monster, slowly began to formulate a plan of escape. Once he had

something in mind, he did what he felt was necessary to escape. He grabbed

the creature's hand and threw it aside, quickly got up, and ran in the

opposite direction, screaming and crying for someone, anyone, to help him.

He could feel his heart pounding, and was just hoping that the creature

wasn't following him, and if it was, that he would be able to outrun it. He

began to hear leaves rustling nearby and began to run faster than he ever

had before, crying and begging for this nightmare to be over so he could go

home safely. Soon enough, he could see the edge of the woods, he didn't

care where he would end up, as long as he was away from his pursuer. Just

as he was about to break free from the woods, he heard growling as

something pushed him to the ground. He began screaming, desperately trying

to get someone's attention, as he felt himself being dragged back into the

deeper part of the woods. His screaming turned into crying, and his crying

turned into begging whatever had a hold of him to let him go.

The cryptid was originally shocked to see the human run since it had been

nothing but kind to him. It had considered letting him simply run away, but

it just couldn't give up a good chase just like that, after all, it could

be good practice for hunting later, so it began to rush after the feeling

person. The cryptid was easily able to catch up with the human, after all,

it hunted deer as its prey, so it was used to long, fast-paced endurance

runs. Eventually, the creature entered a hunting mode, determined to make

the human feel like it was going to get away, only to destroy his hopes

just before he reached the finish line. So that's exactly what it did, just

before the human reached the treeline, the cryptid jumped and pounced on

his back, dragging him back into the deeper part of the forest.