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You know how there’s these things in life sometimes that are just a little bit… off? Flickers in the corner of your eye. A cold feeling dripping down your spine. The creaking of an old door.
Craig Woodman.
Things that are just outside the realm of normal. That are just a pinch to the left of explainable. That appear normal and right and exactly as they should be under direct scrutiny, but shift and warp and fester the moment you turn away.
Like Craig Woodman.
Some of these cases, of course, were far more dangerous and accelerated than others. Instances where this slip of otherworldliness was more than a quick blur. A tear in the Normal. Something that got stuck tethered to the world in a way that was wholly unnatural. Cases where the tangible world around you changes because of something. Because of someone.
Someone like Craig mother-fucking Woodman.
He’s the reason she started with all of this seriously. Really started believing in the paranormal. Because she couldn’t take it anymore. Something was wrong. Something was wearing a man’s smile, and it had the whole damn city fooled.
‘Craig Woodman’, she thought, scrambling through the darkened woods, ‘is the reason I’m being chased by a frEAKING MONSTER.’
Out of everything negative Craig Woodman was responsible for in Gabby ToCamera’s life, this was not technically one of them. This didn’t particularly matter to her at the moment. It’s hard to rationalize when running from a murderous rabbit-deer-man-thing.
Gabby sprinted through the trail, only barely remembering the right marker to follow to get back to her car. Her camera was slung over her shoulder, still recording her mad dash. Not that it would make for good footage now. She quietly noticed her laboured breaths couldn’t quite drown out the haunting melody faintly trailing her. It was gaining on her.
She spent the time it took for her to trip over a root and tumble into the dirt pondering her mortality.
How did she even get here? From all accounts, her life has always been nice. Good grades, plenty of ambition, a job straight out of college. Working her way up from an assistant to one of the main anchors for the whole city. It was all great. In a city full of people who do what they love, she got to do the same. She was in her prime, and had nowhere to go but up.
Except she’d seen the popularity polls. They didn’t matter to her at first. Craig had been in the position longer, and people preferred what was familiar. Given time, the city would warm up to her. Craig would warm up to her. It felt like every conversation with him was so one-sided. But he was busy, and important, and had every reason to keep to himself. It was fine. They were just coworkers. So Gabby pulled back. Woodman clearly wasn’t one for making friends.
As soon as her need for approval, her attempt at connection with her fellow man ended, that’s when she began to notice. How it started getting less fuzzy when she talked to him. How she could never recall how he got from place to place. That she had never seen him do anything but smile.
That’s why she was out here. Because she needed to know how to fight these monsters that she knows are real. That’s why she’s laying in the dirt, fumbling with her camera to fight back in the only real way she knows how.
Reporting is what she knows, and has known her whole life. It’s her safeguard and sword and a million other metaphors she could wax poetic about until the end of time.
Information is how she wins. As she points her camera up at this beast, she knows she’ll come out on top. Even as its multitude of eyes focus in on her, and its clawed limbs drag closer, she knows as long as she’s reporting she can’t lose.
The beast’s antlers cage her in as it pins her back. She can feel the warmth of its breath. As its jaws open into pitch nothingness, she draws her courage and speaks.
“This is Gab- I mean Cassidy Alias, paranormal reporter, face to face with the famed monster of the Dangerwood Forest. What was previously described by the locals as an ‘unimaginable horror’ can clearly be seen here as something far more palatable. Now, sir, would you mind answering a few questions?”
It stopped moving. It blinked at her. She suppressed a shiver as its open mouth dripped dark saliva onto her coat. Neither of them moved for a long, long moment.
“I am what blows in the wind, and what moves in the earth. I am eternal and finite. I am beyond what little comprehension you have. You are not scared?” It asked, gravelly sound emanating from the vague area of its chest. Not that she wasn’t being chased, Gabby could tell it was a mishmash of ribcages and squirming black.
“Not at all!” Gabby lied. “I wanted to ask you some specifics about who you are, why you like that old cabin, if you know anything about a strange creature of your kind in the city. Small things!”
The creature shifted away from her, sitting back. It seemed confused. Gabby slowly sat up, glancing at her camera’s battery. Good enough. When she focused back on the deer-thing before her, it was observing her.
“I will answer your questions, and you will answer mine.” It proposed. Gabby nodded. She needed all the answers she could get.
She was also regretting going all-in so fast on this paranormal things, but at least the first episode would be exciting.