Chapter Text
CRACK!
Thud.
Something was watching him.
CRACK!
Thud.
That same prickling gaze that's been observing him for weeks now.
CRACK!
Thud.
Ze's axe felt heavier in his grip than usual as he wound it back over his shoulder. He pretended not to feel the unmistakable weight of eyes on him as brought the blade down with a bit more force than necessary. Silently hoping that that thing—whatever the hell was doing a piss-poor job at being sneaky—would get the idea. Realize that Ze would no easy target, know that the second it decided to strike, even someone like Ze could find enough strength inside himself to defend against whatever shitty sneak attack it might have in store.
CRACK!
Thud.
Again, Ze watched with vague satisfaction as the heavy axe split the wood neatly in two, the splintered halves offering no resistance as they fell onto the ground with another dull thud. Just a few more and Ze would probably kill some time at the river he recently found westward of his cabin. It wouldn't hurt to bring home a few fish, either.
Like hell he was going to let whatever was watching him disrupt his daily life. Ze moved to the wilderness to get away from stress, and he wasn't going to let some cowardly entity—that couldn't even show itself—ruin it for him.
Ze's arm tugged to pull the axe away, already mid-reach to grab a larger piece of uncut wood, before he paused. He tugged again.
Ze turned his gaze back to his dual-purpose tool. The axe's head had fixed itself into place, its sharpened edge remaining stubbornly lodged within the surface of the chopping block.
A frustrated huff escaped Ze. That was, what, the eighth time his working rhythm had been disrupted within the past twenty minutes? Ninth, tenth, eleventh—? He hadn't thought to keep count—he didn't need to, not usually—but these days, with each movement his axe would get stuck, he would suddenly become increasingly aware of the way his skin prickled with the instinctual unease of being observed. And just like all the times before, the reality of something being out there—eyeing him intently, likely waiting for him to lower his guard exactly like this for even a second—instantly came down on him with all the force he used to split those logs in half. Fucking- Christ.
He tugged on the axes handle a few more times, each attempt fruitless as a string of quiet curses left him before forcefully trying to calm his paranoid brain whilst he worked on dislodging blade from oak. Shit, okay, it was fine. It was alright. He was fine and alright and he'd be fine and alright because he always turned out fine and alright. That thing had never be a move before, and it wouldn't now, because it was a stupid idiot coward who wouldn't show itself for shit because it was probably fucking scared of Ze like the stupid idiot baby coward it definitely was-
Rustle.
Ze whirled towards the noise, whipping out his gun out of inside his pocket in a single, practiced motion. The exact model escaped him, though he had half the mind to recognize it as the 10mm pistol he had taken from his nightstand. Protection, or whatever—he needed to focus!
Shit. Ho-kay. Fuck. He squared his shoulders, quickly shifting his aim from a tree to a pile of leaves to another mossy tree to the mossy log right next to it to—to wherever! Who the hell new where this thing was hiding? Fuck!
Ze hadn't realized his breaths had become little more than uncontrolled bursts of air. The beads of sweat on his brows, initially from chopping wood, cooled into icy pricks of uncertainty. So what if that thing hadn't attacked him before? It was probably just gauging Ze's strength- learning his behaviors- keeping tabs on its latest prey—or, shit, maybe it-
The snap of a twig was heard somewhere, somehow louder than any of the bullets that have shot out of his arsenal.
POP!
He instantly fired a bullet in the direction of the noise, but even then, the quiet snap still rang clearly in his mind
"Where are you?"Ze gritted out, ripping the words from his dried mouth as he swallowed. He unconsciously hunched in on himself as his voice sounded shaky and uncertain even to his own ears. He immediately straightened back up, shaking his head. No, shit. He couldn't afford to let this thing see him as weak.
He fired again in a different location, the familiar recoil a minor comfort to his racing heart. "I said where the hell are you?!" Ze called out with more force, his steadied voice echoing throughout the vast emptiness of the woods. "I'm not fucking scared of you, you-!"
CRUNCH.
The words died on Ze's tongue. His heart leapt out of his chest. The crunch of leaves directly behind him sent Ze careening to face the direction of the noise. He didn't think twice before his finger pulled the trigger a third time, a forth—
CRACK!
POP!
His legs moved out of their own volition, sending him stumbling backwards in an automatic response to get away. Any of his previously mustered bravado completely slipped off, shattering to the ground like cheap porcelain. Ze was quick to follow as the back of his foot caught on thin air.
The sudden feeling of weightlessness overtook him. For one terrifying second, Ze was at the mercy of his unanchored weight.
Helpless to the laws of physics, gravity ruthlessly slammed him down. His solar plexus painfully collided with the ground, knocking the air from his lungs. He dropped his gun somewhere off to the side, desperately gasping for oxygen as his mind blanked.
Ze grasped at his chest. Dizzy panic entirely consumed him. He couldn't- breathe-
He was going to- he was going to die like this-! Hewasgoingtodie-
Ze didn't know how long he spent half sat-up on the ground before he felt the relief of oxygen returning to his lungs in large, greedy gulps. As soon as the shock left him, however, he felt the ground for his gun, taking it up in his grasp again before he momentarily stilled, staring down at the dirt closely beneath him where he sat on the ground—
He sprung off the ground as if he had fallen into a pit of molten lava. Fucking hell, that was… pathetic! That was—he was pathe-
A snicker.
Ze's body snapped towards the startling, jarring noise.
It was smothered down as quickly as it came. Only slightly further into the towering cover of Douglas-firs. It was faint, but Ze was certain.
That was beginning of someone's laugh he heard.
Something's laugh.
But just like all the other times Ze had heard it, there was nothing there. Nothing except the rapid decent of a small pine cone from its lofty branch.
Nothing except the heavy air left with the weight of something that once occupied its space.
Ze's hands shook. This time, it wasn't trepidation. Now only rage remained in its place to flood his senses as his fingers ached with the strength they held his pistol's grip. That thing-that fucking thing was getting a kick out of this! Laughing at him- taunting him with…with its invisible presence!
"You think- you think that this is funny?!" Ze yelled out, ignoring the throbbing twinge in back as he straightened out in his stance once more. He raised his gun, pulling back his finger against the gun again and again as the tinnitus of clenching his teeth .
POP!
CRACK!
CRACK!
POP!
CRACK!
POP!—
"I'll show you what's fucking funny, you coward!" It was gone. Whatever was watching Ze, he could no longer feel the weight of its eyes on him. Ze knew that. Ze knew it left long before he starting shooting at it again. Despite that, he continued his frenzied firing, screaming over the deafening sound of bullets any insult and threat he could remember.
"I'll fucking find you, you hear me?! I'm gonna fucking find you and beat your fucking ass, you- you coward! You fucking wuss! You—"
Just before Ze had managed to scream himself hoarse, the repeated empty clicks of his pistol managed to slowly calm him down from his ballistic firing practice on an innocent tree, leaving him only with the lightheaded exhaustion after an embarrassing display of pure, unadulterated fury.
By the time Ze returned to his cabin, the fleeting warmth of the foggy evening sun disappeared behind the densely obscured horizon woodland, dying the atmosphere a dreary, ever-darkening blue in its absence.
As much as Ze was tempted to slam the door shut behind him, he simply clicked it shut, slowly sinking down on the lonely chair right beside the entrance.
He rested his head above the top of the back, the wood uncomfortable against his skull. It was a welcomed discomfort to contrast the persistent pounding inside his brain that had established itself in wake of his physical exertion. Airing out his near month-long grievances with the…creature(?)…that's been stalking him. Even if Ze's impassioned tirade had occurred pretty much at the only time that thing wasn't watching him.
Ze sighed, moving to drag one of his hands down his face before noticing the pistol still held firmly in his grasp.
He stared at the gun for a long moment, turning the familiar firearm in around a few times. It was his Glock 20 V MOS, the first gun he had ever purchased with his own money, and the only gun he had bought for the sole purpose of self-defense.
Reflecting on it now, it was a bit ironic how the only thing that made him feel safe nowadays was the ability to hold someone else's life in his own hands.
Sure, always having a gun on him made him feel powerful at times, but that was never the reason why he liked them so much. It was the security. The reassurance that no matter what happened, no matter how physically weak he was, he'd always be able to defend himself against those stronger than him.
Hm. Well. Maybe it was a little bit more about power than he'd like to admit, then.
He felt the sleek metal against his fingers, warmed by the temperature of his skin before realizing. Shoot. He just waisted all of its bullets screaming at a tree.
Ze groaned in self-annoyance. That was great. He wasted valuable ammunition in a moment of impulse. Sure, he had a large supply stashed away for cases like these, but it was a critical failure nonetheless. He was still too impulsive. Too illogical.
Was dropping everything just to move into the first abnormally cheap deep-woods cabin he saw listed on Facebook Marketplace just another impulsive mistake, too?
"…"
Ze snorted, expelling the thought with a dismissive shake of his head. Sure, he could admit he could sometimes, maybe, be an idiot. Hell, moving way out here might've taken the cake, but he didn't believe he could ever regret it. He was free, away from the noise of his old life.
Even if…even if he had to deal with some unknown, un-see-able entity watching him.
He placed the pistol down on his lap, loosely folding his arms across his chest as he stared out the window. He took in the twilight, feeling a slightest bit of shame penetrate his emotions. So much for his fishing trip.
…That was the first time Ze freaked out like that out here. Usually, the thing's gaze was pretty easy to ignore. Maybe Ze was far too unconcerned, but it didn't feel…hostile in anyway. Not any time previously. Criticizing at times, sure, but never threatening, strangely enough. Hell, Ze would even go as far as to say it seemed downright curious at times.
He shut his eyes, slumping further into his actually quite comfortable wooden chair, ruminating the events. He was still too quick to get into his head, thinking up all of the gruesomest, gory endings that could possibly play out before he could stop himself.
But that was a good thing, wasn't it? Especially out in an unpredictable place like this. Yeah, actually. It was better, even if it did cost him a few freakouts and a couple of bullets. At least that creature—thing—would know he meant business now. Surely, it wouldn't come back to mess with Ze for at least a couple days after that incident.
Ze's breaths evened out as his conscious mind drifted off into blissful unawareness. Yeah, that thing would have to think twice before pulling that kind stuff with Ze again.