Alex never liked it when his mother, Janice, made him walk home alone from school— not because he was a particularly fearful child, but because the roads were jagged and there were no street lights along the way. He simply didn’t feel it was safe for an 11 year old to do so. The dread consumed him the entire day.

Eventually, he exasperatedly shared his troubles to Peter, his best friend since grade 4.

“What if you get kidnapped or murdered? It’s cold and dark— What if you fall down because of the bumps in the road and hurt yourself and get frost bite!”

“That’s what I’m saying! But there’s nothing I can do; my mom thinks that I should start ‘being more independent’ which is bullcrap, I think.”

“Hey, maybe I can ask my mom if I can stay the night at your house tonight? Then we’ll walk home together and it won’t be so bad!”

“That’d be great! Then when we get to my place we could play on the new update of Minecraft— I saw that they made it possible to hunt the enderman and get meat from him alongside the enderpearl!”

Peter texted his mom, and she approved of the boys’ plan.

_Drrrrrrrrrrr _

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The bell rang, and with it the two boys went on their way.

Step by step their shadows faded with the setting sun, and the air around them became more silent.

“What was that?!” Peter whispered, as his demeanor shrunk.

Alex kept going and motioned for Peter to follow, “It’s probably a squirrel or something, just keep going.”

“Are we almost there?” Peter dreadfully asked, as he stuck close behind his friend.

“Probably halfway.. unfortunately.”

_BshhBshhhBhhh_

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"Okay now what was that, Alex?! This is starting to freak me out! Wait do you see that?”

In the treeline beside them was a dark figure which the boys could barely see.

The boys stood paralazied, then silently agreed to start walking away quickly.

_BShbssssssh BshhhBshh_

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Alex glanced over his should and saw the man about a couple yards behind them, walking steadily with them.

Their hearts racing at this point, Alex started running— Peter following suit.

“Where are you guys going? Can I come?” You could hear the smile on the man as he spoke.

The boys ran faster, until Alex realized that they couldn’t outrun him. Even if they could, he lived in the middle of nowhere, and his mom wouldn’t be home.

Alex huffed, trying to catch his breath and turned around.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Peter yelled to Alex, as his friend ran in a ball of rage to the man.

The man laughing the whole time until the boy reached him. With a sharp kick to his groin followed by scratches and adrenaline powered blows to the head, the man was on the ground. Alex kept kicking and punching the man, as Peter came inched towards his friend, in the darkness, breathing heavily.

“Okay, he’s down— let’s GO!”

“HELP ME!” Alex’s voice cut like a knife.

Peter stood frozen for a second, looking at the man as if he were a ghost. Then he followed his friend’s directions and started to beat the man into the ground.

They were there for probably 15 minutes, until it seemed like the life had drained from the man, after which their blows slowed down. Plopping on the ground beside the man they sat in silence looking at te damage they had done.

Words couldn’t really describe, between them, what they felt. They made eye contact and didn’t move. Almost succumbing to the darkness, in that moment.

“… I wonder what his name was.” Peter murmured

“I don’t.. think I care…” his friend whispered.

The air around them thickened.

“I…. I don’t know what to do with him.” Alex said as the reality set in.

The boys tried to come up with a plan, and eventually thought of one— although they probably needed to think about it a bit longer.

They dragged the man into the tree line, ran the rest of the way to alex’s home, and grabbed two of Janice’s knives.

They hurried back into the darkness towards the very thing they ran from only an hour earlier.

Quickly and haphazardly Alex and Peter tried to cut the man in pieces. It was not precise, but they managed to make him into chunks.

Some of the remains got burried and some were left for animals.

Alex stood with blood from his hands dripped over the remaining pieces on the ground, “I wonder what he would taste like.”

Peter stopped in his tracks and examined his friend; he noticed that Alex’s eyes seemed almost glazed over. Alex did not look like his friend anymore; he looked like a monster to Peter.

Alex cut off a chunk of the flesh, stared at it in his blood soaked hand, and took a bite.

Mortified, Peter yelled at Alex, “Is something wrong with you?!”

“It’s pretty good.. do you want to try it?”

Peter didn’t know what to say, as Alex walked over to him and held the chunk for him to grab.

“Try it.”

Peter examined Alex again, and while he did not recognize his friend anymore, he reconciled that maybe this was his friend all along.

Peter took a bite.

And suddenly, they knew what to do with the remaining pieces.

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