Chapter Text
Anthea sat on the couch of her living room where once she sat with Jack, watching cartoons together and munching on whatever snacks they had in the pantry. This time however was different, Anthea was burning with rage and worry for Jack due to it being weeks since she last saw him, the detectives haven’t even given her any updates at all on the search.
Whenever she called she would be told that she should be patient and that they were doing everything they could to find Jack. Anthea didn’t believe them, the forest wasn’t that big and even if Jack was taken from there, couldn’t they find any clues? This whole thing is bullshit!
Anthea decided she had enough. She threw a black coat over her long frizzy hair, and grabbed a battery powered flashlight, setting off to go into the forest to find Jack by herself.
The young woman sprinted down the stairs of the apartment complex she lived in, her feet skipping some steps from how much of a hurry she was in, almost like she was hovering above the stairs.
She swung the door open and ran across the empty road until she reached the sidewalk on the other side, ignoring the dull stares she was getting from other people.
It was strange actually, everything has been rather negative lately. The sky had turned gray and the days were darker than any other, it was as cold as fall despite it being the middle of summer and everyone had some sort of extreme seasonal depression, but Anthea just brushed it off as everyone feeling sad about Jack's disappearance. Jack was liked by everyone after all. He doesn't deserve this... He should be at home where it’s warm, talking with his friends, or being the local bakers “taste tester” just to get some free sweets; he always thought he was being sneaky but Miss Heather always knew but never minded giving him those treats.
Anthea’s thoughts stopped in their tracks when she was greeted by the forest of Hill Fill Park, caution tape wrapping around the tall sugar maple trees, warning people not to go in and that the police are investigating.
Anthea feels her heart catch in her throat, she had no idea what she was about to see in that forest. What if she gets caught by the police? She will certainly get in trouble. She can’t afford a lawyer! ‘I should just go back-’ No.
Anthea put on a brave face, feeling a sense of bravery rush through her veins, she needed to find her brother no matter the amount of trouble she would get in. If the police are going to be useless then I will do it myself
Anthea pushed the tape up and stepped forward through the opening, looking out into the darkness of the forest with little to no fear but lots of adrenaline rushing through her body.
She began to walk into the forest with her flashlight lighting up the dirt path in front of her, Walking past the spiles imbedded into the maple trees that seemed to be slowly dying for no apparent reason. Maybe it was the cold weather killing the trees.
A loud CRUNCH was heard behind her, she turned around immediately but saw nothing other than the trees she just passed, now with a slash down the middle of only one of the trees.
“That's weird..” Anthea said out loud to no one but herself, her voice quiet and cautious.
She stepped a few feet back, quickly making sure there was nothing hidden in the trees before turning around and continuing to walk along the path.
…
SQUISH
Anthea stopped in her tracks at the sound under her sneakers, her flashlight ran over what she just stepped on, immediately her eyes widened and her body shook with disgust. There laid the body of Mr. N, blood pouring out of his eye sockets where his eyes once were. His abdomen was poorly cut open and his intestines were brutally chopped up into small bits in a way it would remind one of a bowl of mac and cheese.
Anthea hunched over to the side and puked all over the leaves and twigs laying on the path, not being able to handle the sight of such gore, especially when she was already stressing out trying to find Jack.
“Oh my god that is so fucking gross!” She exclaims, running past the body of Mr. N and continuing on her journey to find her brother. She tried not to think about the dead body she just stepped on but it was now burned into her mind, probably forever.
Anthea mumbled something under her breath as she continued walking past the trees and stones in the forest, examining everything around her to hopefully find something that would lead her to Jack.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted something, a human figure looking at her from behind a far away tree. She pointed her flashlight in that direction but whatever it was, was gone, it didn’t even make a noise.
Anthea raised an eyebrow in confusion, she swore there was something there. For a moment she thought she was going crazy in this forest, but she shot that idea down herself; ‘Nah’ she told herself. ‘Only normal people think they're crazy. I totally saw something’ .
She stepped towards the direction of the tree with little to no fear, places her hand on the tree and looks around it, seeing a very faint pair of eyes in the darkness.
“What the..” Anthea said to herself, squinting her eyes to try and confirm if the thing she was seeing was really there or if she was just imagining it, but before she could decide something shot out of the darkness towards her and punctured her hand to the tree.
Anthea cried out in agony as she dropped her flashlight, blood dripping down her arm and some getting onto the tree. Her first instinct was to remove her hand but that only caused more pain to cloud her vision, so she kept her hand still, not daring to move an inch or her hand.
She reached her other hand over to try and remove whatever it was from her hand. Whatever it was, it was smooth to the touch with a dark yellow colour and it had a chipped circular base that would remind one of a broken glass bottle. The base was attached to a thin black substance travelling into the darkness that made the air around Anthea thick with the smell of old blood and tar.
Anthea struggled to remove whatever it was out of her hand, but didn’t make it move an inch no matter how hard she tried.
The figure stepped out from the darkness and into the light of the flashlight previously dropped, it was Jack! But… it wasn’t really him.
Jack now had the black tar substance dripping from his eye sockets and mouth, his chest had large torn lines all the way to his back, like his ribcage had burst open and enlarged to look like giant spider legs.
Anthea’s eyes widened at the sight of her little brother in such a state, wanting to say something to him but she was too disgusted and horrified to speak. She realised that the thing puncturing her hand was the tip of Jack’s rib cage split into three parts, all connected with the tar-like substance. She would throw up, but she didn’t have anything in her stomach to get out of due to the previous scene with Mr. N.
"You-... You're hurting me…” Anthea mutters out as the creature looks at her with eyes that scream danger. Its hand reaches out to touch her cheek as the other goes to her hand that is pinned up against the tree, weakly pressing her wrist down so her hand bleeds more, causing a blood curdling scream to erupt from the woman's throat.
Anthea acts on self defense and kicks Jack in the stomach, making it tumble backwards and remove the rib from her hand. She quickly starts to run away back down the path she came, wrapping her coat sleeve around the wound to stop the bleeding as best she could.
Anthea heard footsteps on crunchy leaves quickly approaching her, making adrenalin rush through her body as she tried to speed up.
Suddenly, two of the sharp ribs shot forward at her, just missing the back of her head and creating two cuts along her cheek bones.
(Yeah this story is unfinished lol. But there is a summery of the whole AU in another work XP)