Chapter Text
Maxine doesn't know where she went wrong.
The house was never right to begin with. Maxine knew that well at least. The whole town knew it too, that is why it was deemed with such caution. While it was never outright spoken, everyone knew, even the newcomers. Rumors and myths always spread like wildfire, especially in such a small, rural town. It was always regarded as dangerous and sometimes even used as ways to make sure children don’t go out when it was dark. Bedtime stories about freakishly tall creatures with mostly human features aside from their extended limbs that looked as though they could grow and shrink at will, and raptor-shaped heads with big jaws full of razor sharp teeth. Those creatures stalking the forest, lost and looking for prey, but once being unable to, they all retreat back to that one abandoned structure.
Of course, these were all morbid stories to keep children inside during the night. Anyone outside of the town would be surprised at the morbid stories and myths that were passed down through generations in the small town, but to the townsfolk, it was common. Just something to get used to hearing. Another vivid rumor to go in one ear and out the other, especially to a kid like Maxine.
Maxine was a peculiar child. One that, while her parents understood very well, the people in town didn’t get at all. She always cared less over the rumors that were spread around the classroom or overheard from people at the park. In fact, she probably showed more interest in them than anyone else. A certain curiosity was always struck whenever xe heard about the myths of the creatures around or the remnants of the “gifts” from the events in the past. An urge that was slowly building the more she heard about them made xem want to find out for herself if they were really true.
And unfortunately, that is exactly what xe did. Letting moons irrational thoughts get the best of her as she took an adventure into the forest with her closest friend, Cecil. Not only was this move extremely dangerous due to the possible rumors, but also the fact that it is an abandoned structure. No child unsupervised should run off, deep into the forest to locate an abandoned building that has been sitting vacant for years and could possibly crumble at any moment. No one could stop the two explorers though as they went off, expecting a time of their life adventure. Either to prove everyone wrong or be able to come back with an incredible story to tell about how they somehow escaped multiple feral creatures that were always rumored about.
While Maxine had confidence for miles, Cecil wasn’t entirely sure. He was always the more logical person out of the two, but he wouldn’t lie that a bit of curiosity always pricked at him as well. Besides, it was during the daytime too! Nothing too bad could happen during the day, right?
That is what Maxine would have liked to believe.
Heavy breathing escaped her lips as she froze in a narrow, dark hallway. Multiple doorways were scattered across the right side, leading into what she could only imagine to a pure void that didn’t make sense at all to her. It was bright when they walked in the structure and while walking around, but only when it resounded, that is when everything took over. Maxine was crouched down, investigating a large crack in the wall when xe heard it. The petrifying scream of her friend, Cecil, who she didn’t even realize had wandered off on his own. Xe assumed he must have gone into another room and by the time xe even noticed he was gone, it was too late.
Her heart was practically beating out of her chest. In her ears were just pure white noise as she tried to decipher what had just occurred. The scream that echoed through the whole house sounded too real. Too genuine to be a light joke to mess around with a friend to, and Cecil would never make jokes like that! So it had to be real. It had to be genuine. But what would a child do in a situation like this?
Maxine stood up straight quickly, thoughts making her head a complete blur. A mess of scribbles as she tries to wrap around what happened. Her feet unconsciously start walking down the hallway, towards the sound. That’s when she sees it. After that scream, there was a thud that she couldn’t even process, but with a small glance into the room, she could tell what it was. Cecil had fallen. All she saw was his legs from the position she was standing in, showing that he didn’t go too far into the room. …Well, “room”. At that point, it looked like the void was still trying to consume it whole, including Cecil.
Before Maxine could take another step, her heart stopped for a moment as the legs were blocked from view by something coming in the way. Her breath hitched as she looked up at what had just exited the void. All she was faced with was a huge being that’s mouth hung open to reveal tons of sharp teeth. From what she could tell, it was on all fours due to being so freakishly large and tall. Due to the increased darkness, she couldn’t even see half of its body due to how it was pitch black.
That’s when the realization finally set in. The darkness all around her… That wasn’t darkness.
She didn’t let her thoughts drift for another moment as she turned around and started bolting as fast as she could towards the exit of the structure. Or any exit for that matter. She didn’t even want to consider the fact that one of those things was smart enough to know to block the front door. She dove for the end of the hallway due to there being a window there that was still emulating a bit of light, yet it was slowly draining as the darkness crept around it.
She shouldn’t look back. Xe knew xe shouldn’t. She heard so much however, the thumping footprints and the hissing as the shadows around moon suddenly sprung into life, attempting to grasp at her ankles to see if they could cause her to trip and drag xem down into their void just like they possibly dragged Cecil. She tried to solely focus on the only escape in her eyes, but out of the corner of her eye, xe could almost see the shadows burst into life to come after xem with thrashing teeth.
Luckily, the glass had already been broken for years of abandonment and vandalizing from other people in town. No broken glass shards came along with Maxine as she rolled across the grass, although even if any had, she ignored them as her adrenaline pumped. She took a moment to take a deep breath, hoping that the rumors were xe heard back at school were true and the creatures that resided inside the structure couldn’t come out.
Unfortunately, there was one thing untrue about those rumors.
Xe still didn’t even want to look back. All she knew is that the shadows were still on her tail and once she picked up on it, xe bolted into the forest at full speed. Shadows surrounded her from all sides due to being very deep into the forest. Much deeper than any child should be. She thought she could take it! She thought she was strong enough to be able to go in and out of that abandoned place with her closest friend. And instead…
She wasn’t able to run for long as one of the shadows suddenly formed in front of her, like it was being willed into existence by all of hell to punish xem for the actions that xe had done. Its body warped and swished slightly before fully gaining its proper form and causing Maxine to come to a screeching halt. She had to crane her neck up to even see its head at the height it was standing at. All of the stories remained true for how freakishly tall the creatures were, although they didn’t go into much detail describing how accurately horrific they appeared. She didn’t even have a moment to process anymore about the creature as it pounced at her, long claws outstretched to strangle the poor child.
She remembers screaming. The feeling of a huge body suddenly snatching her and the complete darkness taking over her whole vision. In that moment, she didn’t even see her life flash before her eyes, even if it wouldn’t be much. It took her so much by surprise that her mind didn’t even process what was happening.
All she remembered was the overwhelming fear and helplessness before everything went pitch black.