At the edge of the forest, the sunlight struggled to penetrate, falling to the ground in scattered patches of light.
The air here was different from the camp's.
Carrie walked a few steps behind the three girls, with her senses on high alert, while Sarah's request repeated again and again in her head.
"Girls, please," she called quickening her pace not to lose sight of them among the thick trunks, "Let's not stray so far from the path. Let's look around nearby, where we can still see the tents, okay?"
"Whew..."
With a childish pirouette, Lillith spun on her heels to reveal a face that kept her sweet and flawless smile intact.
"Relax, Carrie. I already know," she said intertwining her arms with Emma's and Esther's in a gesture that seemed affectionate, but that had the firmness of a shackle, "We just want to find the prettiest flowers for Mom. The ones that grow near the path are boring."
Even though she let herself be dragged without resisting, Emma's free hand revealed a different story as she manipulated the freshly carved wooden dagger and spun it between her fingers with unsettling dexterity.
Esther, on the other hand, was tense.
Since they had crossed the treeline, her eyes didn't stop scanning the shadows in the undergrowth.
"Don't you guys feel that...?" she murmured, "It feels as if... as if something were watching us."
Lillith tilted her head, accompanying the movement with a slow blink and her exaggerated innocence.
"Watching us? Esther, you are letting Dad's silly stories affect you," she mocked, "I only see birds and squirrels. Stop being so paranoid."
But despite Lillith's assurance, Esther's words made Carrie's skin crawl.
She had also felt something.
Instinctively, she expanded her senses, sending waves of her mental energy to probe the surroundings.
But before she could detect anything concrete, Lillith shouted in amazement.
"Wow! Look at that!"
She pointed toward a place that opened suddenly in the undergrowth, partially hidden.
They all looked over there.
In the center of the clearing, bathed in a grayish light, rose a solitary cabin.
One that seemed ancient and neglected, with the wood painted a faded turquoise color that was peeling, and a broken perimeter fence that together gave the ancient structure a sinister and totally abandoned look.
"Let's go take a look!"
Lillith's eyes shone with genuine excitement since, far from being scared by the gloomy place, she seemed so enchanted that she immediately pulled on Emma's and Esther's arms to drag them toward it.
"Wait! No!" Carrie reacted instantly, running to intercept them, stepping in front, "That place looks dangerous, the roof could fall, it is better that we go back right no…"
She couldn't finish the sentence.
Bam
The cabin door, which hung precariously, burst open with a violent crash.
With the noise two figures came out stumbling, almost falling down the stairs in their desperation to flee.
They were two young people, younger than Lief.
The boy was chubby, with thick-rimmed glasses that slid down his sweaty nose. The girl had black hair, and her clothes were disheveled and covered in dust.
Both had their faces distorted by terror, pale as if they had seen death itself.
They shot out of the cabin's perimeter, running blindly, and almost crashed into the group of girls.
Upon seeing Carrie and the little ones, the boy stopped for a second, waving his arms frantically.
"Run! Get out of here!" he shouted looking back, "Don't get close! For all you hold dear, DO NOT ENTER THERE!"
The girl bent at the waist, trying to catch her breath, sobbing hysterically.
"It's inside... there is something inside!" she moaned pointing with a trembling finger toward the door, "In the basement... oh my God, it's coming! That thing is coming!"
Monster?
Carrie's heart gave a violent lurch.
But before she could process more thoughts, a rumbling growl resonated from the darkness of the cabin's interior.
Accompanying the roar, a bulky figure emerged slowly from the door threshold, exposing itself completely to the forest light.
It was a nightmare creature: its height easily exceeded two meters, its body was incredibly thick and wide, covered by a red plaid flannel shirt that was too small for it.
Its skin, of a sickly and grayish color, was completely covered in pustules and large nodules that seemed to be full of liquid, as if they were going to burst at any moment.
The head, although of normal size, seemed disproportionate on that swollen neck, and its face was so deformed and bulging from the boils that its features could barely be distinguished.
"No... it can't be! IT CAME OUT!"
Meanwhile, Carrie's mind went blank, 'Was there another one?'
Not even half a day had passed since Lief and she had dealt with the first one.
An avalanche of ideas crossed her mind, 'how many more were there?, what was creating them?', but the time for analysis ran out.
The Monster had already fixed its blind gaze on the group of young people, so it broke the silence of the place by starting to approach with one heavy step after another.
"Get out of here, fast! Run, I tell you to run!" shouted Carrie taking a step forward and interposing herself between them.
However, to her surprise, none of the three girls behind her showed signs of panic.
"Honestly, it's gross," Lillith wrinkled her nose with a face full of sincere disgust... very sincere, "It is uglier and clumsier than the one in Dad's silly story."
Emma, for her part, did not reflect fear in her gaze, but barely an intense curiosity.
Esther's reaction was not of terror either, but she made a grimace of repulsion while taking a step back, sweeping the ground and trees with her gaze to find stones, branches or anything that would serve as a weapon.
"..." Carrie was left speechless for a second at their passivity, but at this moment it didn't matter.
As she filled her lungs with air and fixed her gaze on the approaching creature, she extended her open hand tensing every muscle in her arm to project her will.
The pair of young people were preparing to crawl and flee, but then they witnessed a scene that would completely nullify the previous horror.
!
The advancing deformity stopped dead with a brutal jolt of its entire body.
The huge mass of its upper body leaned forward, but it could not advance a single millimeter more.
Letting out a growl, the muscles of its entire body shook frantically, swelling as it fought with desperation to break free.
"I... It stopped!?" The boy with the glasses rubbed his eyes, unable to reconcile the scene he was witnessing.
"..." The young girl simply stood petrified staring at Carrie.
But she ignored their shock, since she could feel that she wouldn't be able to prolong the paralysis for long.
And she didn't want to repeat last night's scene either.
The idea of another bloody implosion turned her stomach.
It had to be quick and clean.
Her gaze sharpened.
"Go back to your hole!"
With her voice she pushed her hand forward strongly.
Swish
The invisible force transformed instantly from a wall into a battering ram that impacted the monster's chest with such power that its body was sent flying backward like an airplane, crossing the air until it disappeared again into the darkness of the cabin.
Immediately after, a series of crashing noises were heard, the sound of the creature smashing through furniture, the creaking of wood and, finally, a resonant crash.
A cloud of dust exploded out the open door.
The air settled, and silence returned to the clearing.
"..."
Disbelief displaced fear when the boy with the glasses spoke an astonished "What... the actual fuck?"
He remained motionless next to his companion, watching Carrie and the cabin, dumbfounded.
"Let's get out of here now!" With sweat running down her forehead, Carrie ignored the outcome to firmly grab Lillith's wrist, which was within her reach, and turn with the intention of leaving.
"How boring...", murmured Lillith with a pout of dissatisfaction, letting herself be dragged without issue. "We didn't even have time to pick the flowers." But she obeyed without a peep.
Emma and Esther also moved, following Carrie with quick and silent steps.
!
Just at that moment, when they were starting to venture back into the treeline, a roar that surpassed the previous one in intensity and fury transmitted itself from the depths of the cabin.
Feeling the imminent danger, the two young people went from paralysis to a violent shudder that made them react and shoot out at all the speed their bodies allowed, without daring to stay even an instant longer and running behind Carrie and the rest of the group.
________
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