3:06 PM

01/08/2020

It felt like Oscar and his friends were the Power Rangers from the way they got to their bikes. That's how he felt at least. He always liked to think they were cooler than they actually were, even if it's something as mundane as grabbing their bikes. The three of them got on their bikes and started riding down one of the trails leading away from the school. When they were sure they wouldn't have any issues with traffic, they changed course and went towards the road.

They rode along the side of it for a while. As they rode, the cold air stung their faces. It was slightly windy out, so that totally helped with the winter weather. Oscar used to get sick all the time as a kid because of cold weather, not that he was surprised. A weak immune system to him was just another thing that made him unlucky. To top it off, it barely ever snowed in Hurricane. It only happened twice in his lifetime, and that was when he was practically a toddler, so he was catching colds just from the cold air. To make matters even worse than they already were, his mother doted on him nonstop during the winter because of his sensitivity to the weather. She'd dress him up in thick coats and big gloves and gave him a ski mask. Thank the lord above that stopped after intermediate school. He was getting really tired of going to school looking like the bubble boy.

"Guys, the trail's up ahead! It's just around this turn!" Raj said.

Oscar looked ahead of him and saw the turn. They turned to the right and sure enough, there was a large wooden sign on the side of the road that read: "Etenia Trail." Below it, they could see that the trail was four miles long. Oscar was surprised by the length of the trail, but at the same time, excited to see what it had to offer.

"You guys ready?" Raj asked.

"Ready as I can be." Isaac answered.

"Spare me the suspense!" Oscar shouted with a smile. "Let's get riding already!" He got a six second head start on both of them.

"Oh, no you don't! I'm not going to be third place!" Isaac shouted defiantly.

Raj laughed while racing past Isaac. "Sorry, Isaac. Guess you'll have to eat my dust!"

Isaac grunted. "Not if you eat mine first!" He started pedaling faster and to Raj's surprise, managed to catch up to him.

"About time you started using your legs to ride your bike!" Raj joked before getting ahead of Isaac again.

"Hey!" Oscar called out. "Why don't you focus on the guy ahead of you?"

Raj rolled his eyes when he saw how far ahead of him Oscar was before catching up. The three boys rode further down the trail across a large field where the trail led them directly to the forest ahead. Oscar looked around at the wide open field and smiled as he took in the scenery. This was another reason why he liked biking. There were no buildings or streets in the way. Just wide open space. It looked peaceful in a way that Oscar liked and could feel comfortable in. They didn't even get to the woods yet and already, he was gawking at the scenery. There wasn't even anything to see; it was just a field, but it gave Oscar something else to look at besides the town.

It didn't take them long to reach the tree line. Oscar squinted his eyes from the sunlight peeking through the trees while he kept riding down the trail. The trail was bumpy and they had to ride around a couple large sticks, but for the most part, the trail was nice. The trees towered over them with the setting sun peeking through and the cold air blew in their faces as they rode.

It had been a while since they had gone bike riding in the woods. The last time they did, it wasn't exactly their choice. Though, Oscar was pretty sure the woods they were riding through were different from the forest Plushtrap chased them down in. He doubted train tracks would be near a forest trail near a camp. He couldn't imagine trying to sleep in a tent and a train horn suddenly blowed in the middle of the night. That wasn't his problem, though, since he never went camping and wasn't particularly interested in it.

He could hear Raj getting closer. "Oh, what's this?! Raj Ahuja's comin' in hot, ready to turn this whole thing around!" He mocked, pedaling fast and panting heavily.

Oscar smirked. "Not on my watch. First place is calling my name." He started to pedal faster.

It was silly. They weren't even racing for anything special, but it was fun. That's all there was to it; it was just simple fun. They couldn't help but act like children for just a little bit.

"Hey, watch out." Isaac said to them. Oscar looked up ahead and saw someone walking across the trail in front of them. Their bikes skidded to a halt as the guy stopped and looked at them.

"Oh, sorry!" The man called out to them, his voice sounding friendly, but at the same time... off? Oscar couldn't describe it.

"I, uh, I didn't know- uh, anyone else was on- uh, on... on the trail." Oscar could definitely hear it now. He was sure his friends could hear it too, unless they were suddenly deaf. The man's voice was wrong. They could barely hear him from where they were standing. He talked fast like he was in a hurry, but he kept the same low tone and never raised his voice above a mumble, all while talking and stuttering at random parts during the sentence. No, not stuttering, pausing. Randomly, his voice just... muted. He couldn't explain it, but it was like his voice simply cut out at random while he was still talking. His lips kept moving like he was a fish out of water, but no sound came from them. Occasionally, his face twitched and his body did a weird jerk like a cold chill ran down his spine and he was shaking from it. It was like he couldn't really speak, but he was trying to control his words, or maybe a better description would be that his body and him didn't really get along. Oscar could see that the twitches were hurting the man. Every time his body and face jerked, his features scrunched up in irritation.

"It's, uh, it's getting a little- uh... a little late." He continued.

"Sorry, sir!" Isaac spoke up for them. "We weren't trying to do anything wrong! We just wanted to ride on this trail for a bit! It is public, right?"

The man paused in thought before nodding along. "Yeah, it is. My-... my bad. I don't see- uh... anyone out here often." He twitched again.

For the next few moments, he stared at them while not moving at all. It was like he was completely frozen. The world around them was still and silent as the awkward silence got more tense, a silence that Raj thankfully broke.

"Well, we should get back home. Don't wanna stay out too late. Have a nice day!" Raj said as he slowly started to ride his bike again.

The man smiled at them. "Yeah... my... my bad for... for- uh, holding you up. Have- uh... have fun." He lazily waved at them, flopping his arm back and forth like it was limp.

Something was wrong. Oscar knew it. He knew that something was very, very, very wrong. He didn't know what this man's deal was or why he was acting so weird, but he didn't want to find out. Something in him was telling him to leave as soon as possible.

They started riding past the man who sounded like he was mumbling something to himself, barely above a whisper, but he could still make out the words as he moved closer.

"No... can't." Oscar could barely make out. "I... can't-uh... can't do that." He definitely didn't want to stay near him. The boys rode past him and Oscar's eyes locked with the man's. Now that they were close enough to fully make out his appearance. His body looked bloated. It wasn't that he was fat. Well, he was fat, but in all the wrong places. His arms and legs were so bloated, that his pants and sleeves were ripped. His throat was also incredibly swollen. Oscar looked back at the man's eyes, his... strangely... yellow eyes looking right at him with a look of fear. It was weird; Oscar felt like he should be the frightened one here.

"They're just- uh... just kids. I can't do that." The man muttered, shaking his head violently.

Now, Oscar was starting to pedal a little faster. He didn't know what this man was talking about, but he and the others spent too long around him and they should probably focus on their race again.

The man clasped his head in his hands and let out a strangled scream before collapsing on the ground.

"Shit!" Isaac said out loud. Raj simply yelped in surprise. Oscar's eyes widened as he stood completely frozen. He was concerned for the man, but this all still felt wrong. His brain was confused. Should he help or leave? Up until now, the man was acting incredibly weird, but now, he looked like he was in tremendous pain. Maybe Oscar was just imagining things. Maybe this guy was just on drugs and really was in pain from withdrawal or something. He couldn't really say. Looking at both Raj and Isaac, Oscar could see that they were frozen in place too, likely just as confused on what to do as he was.

Taking a deep breath, Oscar made up his mind and got off his bike and approached the man. If he had a phone, he would've called the police, but either Isaac or Raj could handle that for him. The man seemed harmless enough anyway. Oscar knew he could outrun him if he ever did try to attack him. The man looked as though he was trying to scream, but instead, he kept gagging like he was choking on something. This was bad. Oscar should help him. Why wasn't he moving faster?! As he got closer, his pace started to slow down. This was bad. Oscar wanted to see if he was okay, but he really didn't trust this. His body was still trying to make up its mind as the man sat up and looked at him with those same yellow eyes again. Was he fine now? He didn't look like he was having a... whatever kind of episode that was.

"S-sir?" Oscar asked nervously. "Do you need help?"

He got no response from the man. Oscar stopped when he was ten feet away from him. They looked into each other's eyes. Oscar could see pain in the man's eyes. It didn't just look like the pain he felt just now, no. It was more like sorrow and regret. Oscar felt bad for him. He looked back at his two friends who had also gotten off of their bikes and stepped away from them to follow Oscar.

"Call 911. He's hurt." Oscar said.

Raj and Isaac did nothing but look at each other nervously, neither one reaching for their phone. They were both likely still concerned about the man, but Oscar didn't want to stand around like a useless kid. He wanted to give the man help.

"Call the police!" Oscar said louder. That seemed to scare them out of their trance. Raj fumbled for his phone and as Isaac looked back at Oscar, his eyes were blown open in shock and he took a step back. What was going on with him?

"Shit! Oscar, back up!" Isaac warned.

"What?" Oscar turned to see what he was looking at and saw the man still looking up at him, but something was wrong with his eyes. His yellow irises were glowing brighter. The white in his eyes started to look more bloodshot before the blood vessels in his eyes seemed to burst from the inside, turning his eyes completely red.

"Get the FUCK away!" He yelled, grabbing onto Oscar's arm and harshly yanking him away. Oscar couldn't even react to what was happening properly. His brain was fuzzy and he didn't know what to do other than keep staring at the man.

The commotion made Raj look up in concern before he could call the police. "Hey, what-" He paused as he looked back at the man whose red eyes started to turn a few shades darker, then turn another shade darker, then a few shades more before they looked completely black apart from the glowing irises. Then, something started flowing from his eyes. It couldn't be tears, not the kind of tears Oscar was familiar with. He knew that tears weren't black like ink.

That's when he started running. He didn't need Isaac to pull him away anymore. He just started bolting back towards his bike. He could hear Isaac close behind him, loudly cursing and panicking. Looking back, he saw Raj panic and drop his phone on accident. He quickly picked it up and caught up to them. The three boys hopped onto their bikes and started to pedal as fast as they could. They ignored the bumps on the trail. Their surroundings were muted to them. All three of them shared the same instinct, the only thing their minds would let them focus on right now: Get the fuck away from that man.

Far behind them now, the man finally stood up, the tears on his face still flowing from his eyes with no signs of stopping. "One and- uh... it stops?" He looked after the kids who were getting farther and farther away. After a moment, he twitched again. "Okay... just one."

Oscar didn't know what he was supposed to be feeling right now. Confusion? Fear? Panic? They all made sense, but his brain just didn't know which one to go with. Even after witnessing it happen, Oscar just couldn't comprehend what just happened. How could he? After all... what the fuck did just happen?! No science, or drug, or anything of that sort could explain what happened to that man. Whatever that was, it wasn't normal. It was something that just couldn't be explained no matter what kind of crack pot theory he came up with.

"Guys! GUYS!" Raj shouted, startling Oscar out of his shock once again. His poor friends were just as shell shocked as he was. Isaac was constantly screaming swears to himself while pedaling as fast as he can. If Oscar was able to focus on it, he would've noticed that Isaac was actually keeping up with them for once. As for Raj, he looked like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. He couldn't keep his bike steady from how much he was shaking. His breaths were short and rapid. His eyes were flickering between them and everywhere else.

"Guys, I... what was that?!" Raj yelled in disbelief.

"Raj, just shut up!" Isaac shouted.

Raj ignored him and kept panicking. "Was that... was that like some kind of... I... I don't know! Was that guy poisoned or something?! That's gotta be it! I mean, he was crying black tears, so maybe he was just sick!"

"RAJ! SHUT UP!" Isaac shouted at Raj, making Raj stop his rambling and stare at Isaac with wide eyes.

Isaac breathed heavily, his annoyance and all his other emotions boiling over as he could hardly hold himself together. "Look, just keep going, and we can-..." Isaac paused before his eyes widened in realization and panic. "SHIT! THE TRAIL!"

Oscar didn't get what he was saying at first, but after a moment, he understood. The trail they were riding on was probably going to take hours to reach the end of it, or at least get close enough to their houses, but after seeing what happened to that man back there, none of them wanted to venture off the trail into the woods and risk something else popping up. They obviously couldn't turn around and go back the way they came either. They had no choice but to keep moving.

"DAMMIT! We shouldn't have come onto this stupid trail! We should've just went on our normal path and we would've been fine!" Isaac complained to himself.

"Isaac..." Oscar said.

"Oh, god, this is just like what happened on Halloween all over again!" Isaac realized to himself. "This is just... this is insane!" He shouted and smacked the top of his hand against his bike in frustration.

"Isaac, calm down! We're gonna-"

"Calm down?! No! No, I'm not going to calm down! We just saw a man crying ink or oil or... whatever! Do you really think I can calm down after seeing something like that?! Be honest!" Isaac shouted.

"Isaac! Seriously! Chill out! We just need to keep moving! The trail's end is pretty far, but we're on bikes and we're way ahead of him already, so we just need to keep moving until we get to the end! Listen, that freaked me out too, but we're going to be fine!" Oscar did his best to relieve Isaac's stress, but his words seemed to be falling on deaf ears; Isaac was still unconvinced.

"Are you sure?" He asked Oscar. "I mean, can we really be sure of anything anymore? Before today, I was sure I would never see anything like that, but h-hey! Looks like I was proven wrong!"

"That's enough, Isaac!" Oscar shouted. "Look, let's just call the police, okay?"

"How are they going to believe us?!" Isaac asked.

"We can say that someone attacked us on the trail!" Raj suggested. "We don't need to mention the black tears and yellow eyes and all that other stuff! They'll believe us if we just tell them that some stranger attacked us and nothing else!"

"Yeah, that's a good idea! See? That's all we need to tell them!" Oscar said. Isaac didn't respond to them, his eyes went wide and his hands started shaking. "Okay, Isaac?" Isaac still wasn't responding. "Hey!" Oscar spoke louder, finally getting Isaac's attention again. "Hey, we'll be fine." He tried to comfort his friend with a smile.

"How can I believe that?" Isaac asked in a quiet and quivering voice that Oscar felt like only he could hear.

Oscar gave him a worried look. He hadn't seen Isaac this shaken up. He wasn't even this frantic when Plushtrap attacked them. Maybe he was, but he never showed it. Who else could know but Isaac? Either way, Oscar needed him to calm down so that they could reach the end of the trail.

Oscar moved his bike closer to Isaac's. "Hey, you're right. It's awful that we encountered two weird things only a few months apart from each other. There's no questioning that. But, remember what happened last time?" Oscar asked. When Isaac didn't respond, Oscar gently nudged his shoulder. Isaac's eyes met his and he shrugged. "We beat the thing."

Oscar chuckled. "That's right! We won! And, if we won that time, what's stopping us from winning this time?" Oscar asked, finally earning a small smile from Isaac. "That guy back there? He'll never catch up to us, if he's even chasing us that is!" He could see the confidence returning to Isaac. It wasn't much, but a little was better than having no confidence.

"So, we just keep going down the trail and call the police. That guy won't try and come after us after that." Oscar encouraged further.

Isaac held onto his handles tighter, seemingly feeling more resolved than before. "Yeah, you're right, but we should keep going."

"Yeah, you're right." Oscar nodded. "Let's get going."

Together, the three boys continued down the trail, refusing to stop for any breaks. Raj called the police and told them the story they came up with. With any luck, the police will be waiting for them at the end of the trail. Raj and Isaac were riding next to each other while Oscar stayed a bit behind them and occasionally looked back at the trail behind them. He was sure that the man couldn't catch up to them now, but it was just a reflex for him to keep checking, he supposed.

Meanwhile, Isaac looked at Raj with guilt on his face. "Raj, I'm... I'm sorry about that. About... snapping at you, I mean."

"It's fine. You were just panicking. All of us were pretty panicked over that. I mean, who wouldn't panic about something strange like that?" Raj said, but Isaac had been his friend long enough to tell when Raj didn't truly mean something.

"I still mean it, Raj. I shouldn't have said any of that stuff." Isaac said with guilt in his face.

"No. No, you shouldn't have." Raj said, glaring at Isaac for just a split second before relaxing again, taking a deep breath. "Sorry. It was my fault you yelled at me anyway."

Isaac looked at him bewildered. "Don't say that!"

"No, if I just shut my mouth when you told me to-"

"Well, I'm gonna tell you to shut your mouth again if you don't stop talking about yourself like that." Isaac interrupted him, knowing if he didn't speak up, Raj would ramble on more than he needed to. Raj stared at him in shock.

"Sorry! That came out wrong! Look... it's nobody's fault, okay? We all freaked the hell out and we yelled at each other. That's what people do in situations like this." Isaac said.

"Do many people even end up in situations like this?" Raj asked.

"If they did, then it wouldn't be as strange." Isaac said. Both of them were trying to lighten the mood, but they still felt uncomfortable. Even though Oscar was already watching their backs, they couldn't help but turn to look with him. That feeling of being watched remained prevalent the whole time they continued on the trail.

"You know what?" Raj spoke up after, in Isaac's opinion, a very uncomfortable silence. "You have a point. How come we always encounter stuff like this? I know twice isn't a lot, but it's a weird coincidence."

Isaac chuckled as he nodded in agreement. "Really makes you think the universe is out to get us, huh? Maybe Oscar's bad luck has something to do with it."

"Ha ha." Oscar sarcastically answered from behind, but at the same time, even Oscar couldn't help but think that. He and his friends had strange incidents happen twice in their lives now. To add insult to injury, this time was worse than the last one. Yes, Oscar genuinely believed that this was worse than Plushtrap. Plushtrap was just a toy, something that ran on batteries. Sure, it looked weird with the realistic human eyes and teeth, but it was still just a regular toy that, for some reason they still didn't understand, had a thirst for blood. It was at least predictable and easy for them to get rid of it without any incident apart from the broken furniture. Yeah, Oscar and his friends had to come up with a really believable story for his mom after that, along with a lot of apologies.

But, whatever this was... it was worse because that person was debatably human. He looked almost identical to just a regular human adult, but he acted strangely. It took a human, something familiar to them, and turned it into something unknown and bizarre. To see a person looking and behaving like that was more off putting and scary than anything they experienced with Plushtrap.

Oscar looked down at the trail in front of him with worry. He knew that guy was far behind them now, but he still felt a sense of dread as he kept riding on the trail, as if there were worse things hiding in the woods. At this point, he was almost expecting a werewolf to jump out of the woods. He was well aware that werewolves didn't exist and even if they did, it was still daytime out, but at this point, why not? At this point, he was on a winning streak of bad luck, so why not have a two in one day special?

Sometimes, on days like this, he genuinely wondered if the universe was against him. It was reasonable to think considering everything. At least, for him. After all, why him? He liked a little thrill in his life as much as the next guy; if anything, he begged for his life to be less boring, but was this the price? Strange and frightening moments in his life that'll never fade from his memory? It was bad enough it was happening to him, but his friends too? All three of them would have to share these terrible memories forever. To him, that was a price he didn't want to pay. His friends helped give him the excitement and joy he always needed. They're some of the only things his bad luck didn't steal from him yet and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen.

Oscar focused back on the trail, they were probably never going to take this trail ever again. The ride just felt miserable now. Oscar knew that they shouldn't let one incident affect their perception of a nice trail like this one, but there was this thing called common sense that prevented them from agreeing on going back onto that trail again after today. Not that they cared that much about it anyway. There were plenty of other places in Hurricane where they could ride their bikes, so it wasn't a big loss. It may be a boring town, but it was basically their playground when it came to having places to bike ride.

Oscar slowed for a second and gulped slightly as he realized something. The police, he thought. If their parents found out about this, then they might not be able to go bike riding at all! They would be under house arrest for sure! And... Oscar didn't want to think about it; it made him shake his head in denial... but what if their parents force them to stop hanging out with each other? All because of something they didn't mean to happen! They had no clue they were going to get attacked in the woods, they just wanted to have fun! Oscar reassured himself. Yeah... they'll be fine. Their parents will understand that this was all just an accident they had no control over.

Surely, Raj's parents, the ones who didn't like Isaac, would understand if he got wrapped up in something that they would surely believe was Isaac's idea. Surely, Isaac's mom who was already one mistake away from banning Oscar from speaking to Isaac would understand. No! He burned those horrible thoughts out of his mind. He was overreacting. Their parents would see that this was something they had no idea would happen and they could move forward. Why was he overreacting? He wasn't wrong about his description of the parents, but they were reasonable enough to understand this wasn't their fault, right? They obviously couldn't talk about how the guy looked, but they'll just say some drug addict ran after them.

That wouldn't make their case look any better, though. Oscar knew their parents would still give them an earful for going on the longest trail in Hurricane when it was almost dark out. What was Oscar going to do? They had no way to defend themselves once they got off the trail. Either way, they'll have to face the wrath of their parents. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad, Oscar told himself.

"Hey, uh... h-hey, wait!" A voice called out from behind.

Oscar swung his head around faster than he intended, but for good reason. That voice... that man caught up to them. He was standing at least fifty feet behind them, but he was still there. How?! They left him in the dust! And that was at least twenty minutes ago! How did he catch up?'

"Just-... just one and I-... I'll go away!" The man said to them, his tone sounding almost pleading from what Oscar could tell. Why though?

He could hear Raj gasp in surprise. Oscar looked ahead of him and saw Isaac and Raj staring in shock. They were just as frozen as he was right now. Looking back at the man, Oscar could hear a loud pop come from the man, making him gag.

"It won't uh... won't take long!" The man said as his limbs started to twist, more sickening pops and cracks coming out of them with each jolt. The man fell forward and landed on his hands.

"We gotta go! Come on!" Isaac shouted before looking over at a still paralyzed Raj. "HEY!" He harshly shook his friend's shoulder. "We need to leave right now!" Raj's body moved on autopilot. He pedaled away as fast as he could. Isaac stayed back after he noticed that Oscar was also frozen in place.

"Oscar! OSCAR! Come on!" Isaac screamed, but Oscar couldn't look away.

Oscar watched as the man's limbs kept bending at angles they shouldn't bend. It was like his limbs were breaking themselves apart just to reset into new angles, like tree branches were getting broken only to be glued back together, but not in the way they were before. That shouldn't be right, though. His arms and legs were so chubby. He was surprised they could move with such flexibility. No, wait. That shape... that odd shape Oscar could barely make out under the skin of the man's right arm... was that... a face?

Oscar didn't need to see anymore. He let out a loud, voice crack littered, horrified scream as he turned around and started to get away from that man as far away as he could. Raj was already so far ahead of him and Isaac. Oscar guessed he took off before he and Isaac did. Because Isaac was still warning Oscar, they were next to each other. Both of them were pedaling as fast as they could. No, faster than they were pedaling before. They hardly got a break after they ran away from the man the first time, so Oscar was starting to get worried they'd get tired. They never pedaled this fast for long distances.

Oscar looked back and saw the man crawling towards them. He was quick, quicker than Oscar was expecting. The only thing holding him back was the thing that made him so unnatural. Every now and again, one of his arms would buckle and snap, and he would tumble before righting himself and continue chasing them like nothing had happened.

"OSCAR!" Isaac shouted, making Oscar look him in the face and take in his fearful expression. "DON'T LOOK BACK! DON'T YOU DARE LOOK BACK!"

"I WON'T!" Oscar shouted back, directing his gaze ahead of him. The trail stretched out so far ahead of them! Not to mention how bumpy it was! Some spots had potholes they had to ride around if they didn't want to fall off their bikes. There was a stick in Raj's way, so he had to ride around that. Raj was in a complete panic. He kept screaming in utter terror. He could feel his legs beginning to burn. He pushed himself to keep going. He didn't want to feel the burn right now. He didn't want to focus on it. He was barely focused on his own friends. He looked back at them every now and again, but every time he did, his eyes focused back onto that... man... no... creature, and it made him pedal faster. Those eyes... that... black liquid stained grin painting his face.

The man's arm fell into a pothole and completely collapsed in on itself. He fell flat on his stomach with a grunt before pulling himself back up, flicking his arm and snapping it back into place with a series of loud pops, then continuing the chase.

"What do we do?! WHAT DO WE DO?!" Oscar asked Isaac hysterically.

"Just keep going! We'll have to reach the end eventually!" Isaac answered Oscar's panicked ramblings. "That was the plan, right?!"

Oscar looked back at the man who was still managing to keep up with them. At the rate they're going, they'll get tired before they even reach the end and that man will... kill them probably. That has to be what his plan is. Otherwise, he wouldn't be working this hard just to catch them. Oscar still didn't know why. Why them?! They didn't do anything wrong! Unless... the Plushtrap Chaser! Did this man have something to do with that? Did he know about it? Was that why he was after them? Oscar doubted that. The only thing wrong with that assumption was that the man looked surprised that they were there, so he had to be chasing them for some other reason. Whatever reason he had, Oscar didn't know.

"We can't! We'll never make it!" Oscar shouted.

"Yes we will!" Isaac shouted back.

"No! We won't! We're not even close to the end! He's too fast! He'll catch up before we even get close!" Oscar yelled. "And what happens if we reach the end?! Even if we do, he'll just keep chasing us!"

"Okay! Okay! What do we do then?!" Isaac asked, trying to hide the fear in his voice with irritation.

Oscar needed to think fast. Whatever he thought of, the man would still chase them no matter what they did. It wasn't like there was an invisible barrier around the forest keeping him from attacking them whenever they were outside of it. He looked around and couldn't see anything. No buildings in the distance, no branching trails, no parking lots or campsites anywhere to be seen. They were already too deep in the forest to escape to a nearby street.

Oscar's mind was racing faster than his heart, which felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. He was lost. Any ideas he could think of wouldn't work in this situation. He looked back at the man again, feeling even more frightened that his worst fears were starting to come true. The man wasn't getting tired. He was still crawling and catching up to them after every stumble. They were lucky enough to be fast enough to avoid getting caught by him sooner. That wasn't going to last much longer. They were beginning to catch up to Raj which meant that either they were getting faster or Raj was starting to slow down. Oscar could see Raj breathing heavily, his fast pedaling combined with his frantic screams making him draw short of breath, so the latter was becoming more and more likely.

"Hey! Stop looking back!" Isaac shouted again. "Think!"

How was Oscar supposed to know what to do here? Why couldn't Isaac come up with a plan? Why did he have to put all the stress on him? Just because he killed Plushtrap, doesn't mean he was the type of person to have the answer to everything. It was pure luck that the train showed up when it did. Oscar felt the urge to scoff. Luck. That was the only time Oscar could consider anything in his life to be lucky. This was nothing like that night. They had no advantage here. There was nothing they could use against the man. Even if the police did show up, it would still take them a long time to get to them on the trail. Oscar looked at Isaac, taking in his frantic expression. He was still expecting Oscar to come up with something that could help them. How could Oscar do that? How could they expect him to magically think of a solution when they were all facing the same problem? It was all too much for Oscar to handle. He blinked and shook his head rapidly as he started coming to terms with their reality.

"I can't."

Isaac blinked and turned his head to look at Oscar. His voice was so low, he could barely hear what he said over his own breathing. "What?"

"I CAN'T! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!" Oscar screamed. His eyes started getting glossy. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm sorry, but I don't know what to do." He whimpered.

Behind them, the man dug his fingers into the ground and pulled himself forward with all his strength. His body sailed through the air and collided with Oscar's. Oscar could feel the air get knocked out of him as the man's body hit him in the back. Both of them tumbled to the ground and rolled along the dirt.

Isaac still kept riding for a few feet before his brain truly comprehended what happened. His friend wasn't on his bike anymore. No, the bike wasn't even next to him anymore. Isaac brought his bike to a stop and looked back as Oscar scrambled to get up before getting pinned back down by the man. He watched the man's fingers wrap around Oscar's throat and squeeze hard. Oscar coughed and gasped for breath as his face quickly started to turn purple.

All he could do was watch. He found himself as paralyzed as Oscar was when the man first started chasing them. Then, in just one blink, Isaac found himself right above the man. He tore his backpack from his shoulders and swung it as hard as he could, hitting the man in the side of the head and making them fall over.

Just ahead of them, Raj broke out of his hysteria when he suddenly heard a loud scream from behind. He knew the scream sounded familiar, but it didn't click at first. Then, he stopped so hard, he almost fell forward. His friends... he had completely forgotten they were with him. He left them behind! He berated himself. How could he do that?! They were his friends and he left them behind! They could've died and he never would've noticed! He felt so awful. He berated himself in his head, calling himself a coward, a spineless, pathetic, tiny, little coward who didn't care about his friends.

Following the source of the scream, he realized it belonged to Isaac, but when he looked closer, he saw that Oscar was the one on the ground being attacked by that terrifying man that had been chasing them and Isaac was trying to save him. Isaac was so much braver than Raj. He immediately stopped to help Oscar and Raj just kept going to save his own skin. What a coward he was...

Raj tightened his grip on the handles and turned his bike around. He wasn't going to be afraid. Oscar was brave on the train tracks. Isaac was being brave right now. They both made it look so easy. If it was as easy as it looked, then maybe Raj could be brave too if he thought about it hard enough. He found himself racing back in their direction. He was completely baffled by how far he was ahead of them. He started to scold himself again. He hated how scared he was.

Watching Isaac swing his backpack at the man made Raj move faster. He saw the man fall over and Isaac started kicking him to stop him from getting up again. Finally, Raj reached Oscar. He practically leaped off his bike and got on his knees next to him.

"Oscar! Oscar, are you okay?!" Raj looked him up and down, seeing his red neck that was stained with the man's black handprints. Oscar was coughing wildly.

"Here!" Raj said as he tried helping him up. Oscar took to his feet pretty quickly and grabbed onto Raj. They both moved away from the man.

After one last kick, Isaac backed away and quickly made it over to the others. "Oscar!" He said in relief when he could see that he was okay for the most part.

Oscar nearly started to relax before he saw the man start to get back up again. "Isaac! Behind you!"

Isaac didn't need to know what was happening behind him. He took his backpack and swung again, hitting the man in the side of the head. "Get the hell back!" Isaac seethed. "Come any closer, a-and I'll hit you again! I swear to god, do not screw with me, freak!"

The man suddenly doubled over and started gagging, more of that black stuff coming out of his mouth like blood. All three of them were surprised and took several steps backwards to put some distance between themselves and the man.

"We need to go now." Isaac said sternly. He learned his lesson to not stick around and try to figure out what the man was doing. The three of them retrieved their bikes and were about to leave.

"Hit me again."

The boys looked back at him stunned. Oscar didn't know if he heard him right or if he was really asking Isaac to hit him again.

"It hurts. Hit me again." His voice sounded strangled and raspy like something was blocking his throat, but he was speaking anyway.

Oscar looked at him, seeing the sincerity in his eyes, but also... he saw pain. This guy was in pain, not from snapping his limbs over and over, but from something else. Looking closer, he finally noticed it: an object in the man's mouth. It dangled past his lips for a moment before, to Oscar's surprise, retreating back into his mouth on its own. From the glimpse Oscar saw of it, he was almost positive it was an arm, a tiny, twig sized arm that was in the man's mouth.

Oscar froze, his throat closing in on itself. He tried to come up with several rational conclusions to the arm, but nothing was logical enough. No matter how he tried to explain it, there really was an arm dangling out of the man's mouth. And, if there was an arm, Oscar knew there was usually a body attached to it, meaning that something... was inside of him. That had to be why the man was acting like this. Whatever kind of creature that arm was attached to must be controlling him.

Oscar wanted to help him. He was asking them to keep hitting him for a reason. He wanted that parasite out and Oscar would help him get it out. He took his backpack off and hit him again. He had a really hard binder in his backpack, so Oscar thought that must pack an extra punch. That assumption turned out to be right and the man stumbled backwards again.

"Oscar!" Isaac said in surprise.

Oscar didn't pay attention to Isaac. Instead, his attention was focused solely on the man in front of him. He could see the thing in his mouth again. This time, more of it was visible. Oscar was taken aback to find a doll hanging out of a man's mouth. At least, that's what the thing looked like. It was small and dainty. Its hands didn't have any fingers, just tiny stubs that resembled mittens. It was covered in a black slime, so it was hard for Oscar to properly get a good look at it, but he could see that its body was a light tan color under the oil covering it. Its design was extremely plain, the only piece of clothing on it being a white tutu decorating its waste, giving it the appearance of a ballerina. Its head was white like its tutu and it had no hair, leaving the top of its head completely bald. Its face was twisted into a wide, open-mouthed smile, revealing that the thing had no teeth that Oscar could see. Apart from the tutu, it resembled one of those wooden figurines he'd see in an art class. His mind thought back to when he could make out a face beneath the skin of the man's arm, a wide smile that looked just like the one that decorated the doll's face. Then, he looked back at the doll, noticing its glowing yellow eyes. He blinked in surprise, remembering that the man's eyes were the same color. It was weird. This doll looked like it shouldn't have eyes. Apart from the pupils, the rest of its eyes were completely hollow, like the eyes weren't supposed to be there. Come to think of it, the black tar covering it matched the man's black tears. Putting two and two together, Oscar realized he was right about something possessing this man. He was astonished. A single, small doll was possessing him? It looked so small, it could fit in his shoe. As the doll fell further out of the man's mouth, Oscar recoiled and backed away. His mind began to drift back to when he was on the ground, when the man was choking him. Had Isaac not helped him, Oscar wondered if that doll would've fallen into his throat and it would control his body, snapping his limbs and making him hurt people. He imagined it was painful, having something like that inside your throat. The doll may be small, but it definitely wouldn't go down his throat easily. It would be so uncomfortable feeling it inside of him, the pain he'd feel when it would make his arms crack. Oscar was starting to feel nauseous from his own imagination.

One of the man's arms twitched. This was probably the twentieth time he'd heard that sound, but Oscar still found it unbearable. The man's hand moved towards his mouth. Oscar's mind instantly went to the conclusion that he was trying to put it back in his mouth. Not after all the trouble he put them through. Oscar's fear burned away and in that moment, Oscar snatched the doll out of his mouth and threw it as far into the forest as he could. His hands felt gross and sticky after touching the doll, but it was far away from him, his friends, and the man now. Could it crawl back? Oscar felt like slapping himself. Of course it could! If it could control an adult at that size, it could move on its own.

Oscar almost let out a scream of his own when the man doubled over and started screaming in agony. His screams sounded wrong, though. It was like multiple screams were layered over each other. There was the man's voice and then there were several others that sounded higher pitched than the man's voice. The higher pitched voices didn't sound like they were screaming in pain. It sounded more like desperation to Oscar.

They had no time to react before the man got up and sprinted off into the woods. Oscar almost chased after him before Isaac grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Come on! Now's our chance!" Isaac got onto his bike with Raj following suit.

"Wait! What about that doll?!" Oscar shouted in protest.

"What about it?! It's keeping that guy off our backs for now, so let's go!" Isaac answered frantically as he started to ride away on his bike.

Oscar looked back at the man diving into the bushes. He wished he could've done something other than throw it. He could've stomped on it at least. Anything would've been better than leaving it intact. He wished his brain's first response wasn't to throw the damn doll, but it was too late now. He still didn't know why the man continued to go after the doll even though Oscar removed it from his mouth. He wondered if the doll still had some kind of influence over him even after being removed.

"Oscar! Come on!" Isaac urged from a distance.

Oscar blinked and nodded before retreating to his bike and hesitantly starting to ride away. He hoped the man was okay, and he wished he could've done more. He shouldn't have panicked. If he didn't panic, he would've actually done something productive.

***

5:24 PM

01/08/2020

After another half an hour, it was safe for the three boys to assume the man wasn't following them for the time being. At least, he wasn't currently near them. At no point during that time did they stop to take a break. They didn't want to take the chance of the man catching up to them. They kept their eyes open, constantly scanning the tree line for any sign of the man. They didn't stop looking behind them. There was nothing.

They finally started to slow their pace before deciding to just come to a full stop and catch their breath. Raj looked like he was about to fall off his bike, his legs looked so worn out. Oscar didn't want to be the one to tell him they still weren't near the end of the trail. Or were they? Oscar didn't care to keep track anymore. They were going really fast, so they might be a bit closer than they would be in normal circumstances.

After about a couple minutes of lots of heavy breathing Raj was the first one to speak. "Hey... so... that..."

Oscar nodded. "Yeah. That... yeah..." He felt so sick. The memories of the man's bloated appearance, his eyes, the way he moved, the way he spoke, the doll, it all made him feel like puking. It was all just so disgusting and it brought out the worst in Oscar's imagination.

"Dude... you don't look so good. You okay?" Raj asked concerned.

" I don't think... that's the only thing we have to worry about." Oscar said as he started to move forward again. Raj nodded and breathed deeply as he rode alongside him. The three of them rode together slowly.

"I'm so tired..." Raj groaned.

"I don't think you're the only one who feels that way, Raj." Oscar said.

"Far from it." Isaac agreed.

"Oscar... that thing you threw... what was that?" Raj asked. When he first saw the doll hanging out of the man's mouth, he was startled by how big it was. He didn't get a good look at it before Oscar grabbed it, the only glimpse he saw was its tiny arms flailing and he looked away after that.

"A doll... I guess. Or... maybe a ballerina or something?" Oscar said. Even he was still trying to understand what they saw. The whole thing was a mess for them to even try to understand.

"Or something? You got a better look at it than we did!" Isaac said, frustrated by Oscar's not very helpful description.

"I don't know! I didn't want to hold onto it for too long! It probably was a doll! But, that's what I don't understand about it! What was a doll doing in that guy's mouth?!" Oscar asked, more to himself than Isaac.

Isaac paused. Not even he could come up with a good response to what they encountered. Even if they didn't see that doll, which in Isaac's opinion, was really ugly, they would still have questions about the man's behavior. He himself got a better look at the doll than Raj did, but like Oscar, he couldn't believe it either. Isaac didn't have an explanation for this. He couldn't, even if he tried. Who would? Today, he witnessed, as absurd as it sounded... possession. Or, at least they saw what was supposedly an inanimate object acting like a parasite. Either one of those possibilities sounded completely impossible to anyone else, but they saw it with their own eyes, all three of them did.

"I don't know! I don't think any of us would know that, Oscar." Isaac answered in frustration. The events of the past couple hours combined with the added stress he absorbed from Oscar and Raj like a sponge really weighed down on his mind. "I just know that guy was trying to kill us. That's for sure."

"But... why?" Oscar asked.

"Did the doll have anything to do with it? Was it controlling him?" Raj pondered.

At this point, they all knew the answer to that question. It was so obvious, but none of them could believe it. It wasn't just the idea of possession existing that scared them, it was the fact that they watched it happen to someone, a human just like them, a human who probably had a life, a human who might have a family, friends, a human whose body that doll broke and twisted for its own uses. That wasn't even the scariest part about it. The worst part was that it could've easily happened to any of them at any time if they weren't fast enough. If everything didn't play out exactly as it did, one of them might've gotten possessed by that doll. Possession... just using that word felt silly. All of this was still hard to believe.

"Does that really matter right now?" Isaac asked.

"It matters! That guy's still back there, and that doll probably got into him again!" Raj exclaimed.

Oscar looked down in guilt. If he'd just destroyed that doll when it was in his hands, he probably could've freed that man from whatever suffering he was going through. He knew the man probably felt every bit of pain that doll inflicted on him. Was it too late for him? Could he ever recover from the damage done to his body? His eyes leaked the same black fluid the doll was covered in and his eyes were the same color, so at this point, the man and the doll were probably one and the same. To have your consciousness slowly crumble away and get replaced by another more malicious one... it was truly a terrifying concept.

"Look, I know that guy back there probably had no choice, but that doll that was controlling him definitely did! And, it chose to try and kill us for whatever reason! Whatever reason it had, we don't need to know! We just need to keep going and make sure it doesn't get another chance, okay?" Isaac reasoned.

Raj hesitantly sighed and nodded. "I hope he's okay. The guy, I mean." Isaac didn't respond, but in his head, he didn't even consider the man's safety at first. He was trying to kill them all, so Isaac wasn't concerned about him at the time. Now... now, he shared Raj's sentiment. It didn't matter what kind of person that man was, no one deserved to get possessed.

"Hey, guys..." Oscar spoke up in a nervous tone. "Our parents are probably going to be there... with the police."

Isaac looked at him in confusion. "Yeah... obviously. So?"

"What are they going to think about all this? Even if we lie, they'll know someone chased us because that's what we told the police. They'll probably get mad." Oscar frowned.

The two boys started to understand what Oscar was implying. It was no secret to them that their parents weren't exactly the biggest fans of them being friends. Oscar's mom was cool and Isaac's parents were fine with Raj but they weren't too happy about Isaac being friends with Oscar. Raj's mom didn't exactly like Isaac. He knew Raj definitely didn't tell her about this trip, so Isaac would most likely take all the blame. If she found out about them going on an extremely long trail before dark, she'd have his head on a pike before he could say mercy. Raj's dad would ground him for weeks, but not before tearing into him like a hungry bear. They knew what Oscar was worried about. He was worried their parents try to separate them. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. As previously mentioned, their parents weren't fond of each other's kids, but after this? This would be so much worse than all the other times. If they weren't careful, it could mean the end of their friendship.

"Eh." Isaac shrugged.

Both Raj and Oscar looked at him incredulously.

"Eh?! That's all you have to say?!" Raj yelled.

"We shouldn't be that worried about it. Even if they do try and break us apart, we still have school. And, hey, we'll be getting our licenses some time next year, so by then, we can do whatever we want. You guys worry too much. Seriously, it's pretty concerning."

Funny that Isaac was saying that after they almost died, Oscar thought.

"Hey, it's gonna be fine. I mean, we faced far worse than some angry parents. At this point, they can bring it on!" Isaac continued enthusiastically. "Because I'm not letting you guys go that easy."

Oscar chuckled a bit, rolling his eyes. "You softy."

"Not a softy, a truth teller. This whole mess will turn out okay." Isaac said.

"A truth teller, huh?" Raj smirked. "So an honest softy?"

"Raj, don't make me sell you out to your mom." Isaac deadpanned.

"Please, I thought you 'were never going to let us go.' What happened to that whole speech?" Raj mocked.

"I'll still have Oscar. He and I... we'll be best buds!" Isaac patted Oscar.

"Yeah!" Oscar chuckled. "Just you watch, Raj. You'll rue the day you called Isaac a softy."

Raj rolled his eyes. "Now, I definitely want to get out of this forest."

"Looks like you'll get your wish soon." Oscar pointed ahead of them. "Look." Up ahead, the glow of police lights could be seen further down the trail. They were almost at the end. They could even hear talking, and that meant officers were nearby, probably searching the forest for them.

"Our parents are probably there by now." Oscar said.

"Yep. You guys ready?" Isaac asked. Oscar nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I'm ready." Raj said.

"Good. Time to face the music." Isaac said with a sigh. This could go one or two ways, and the three boys were as ready as they could be... well, except maybe Raj, but that was another problem. Oscar just hoped their parents would go easy on them with the scolding.

TO BE CONTINUED...