Maplebrooke, a small town located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and thick trees. It was an old, quaint town filled with charming Victorian houses, serene nature that pair well with any season, and the usual appeal that all little cities have. Though, there was one issue that bedeviled the residents…

_The sudden rise in disappearances that occurred for the past few weeks in the outskirts of Maplebrooke. Nobody knows who or what was responsible for these people suddenly vanishing…_

Tonight, there was a gathering of both anxious parents and frustrated civilians, determined to find the culprit. They were all dressed in their warmest clothes with flashlights gripped tightly in their hands, while some brought first aid kits and others brought their guns. Before the party began to search, they all cooperated in formulating a strategy; since the cops were doing investigations in the town during daylight and haven’t had luck with any of the cases there, they decided to inspect the surrounding forest instead. They chose to split up in packs of three and attempt to search almost every last space of the land.

Once their plan was set, the search parties went their own ways, the crunching of their footprints in the snow getting softer as they became further away from each other.

There were seven groups of three, who looked for hours and none of these people found anything. Well, all except for one set of people…

The atmosphere was tense for this trio as they **slowly **walked through the wintery forest, the radiance of their flashlights cutting through the pitch-black sky. It was silent except for the occasional call for one of the victims by the search team and the sound of the nocturnal animals carrying on with their lives. But suddenly, a horrific shriek came from one of the poor men in the trio, who was swiftly snatched away after walking too far ahead from the others. The other two’s eyes darted around quickly, fearing for the safety of the man.

“Where the hell did he go?!”

One yelled, wagging his gun around as he was ready shoot whoever took the kidnapper. The other man pointed his finger to where he thought the kidnapper disappeared to, “Over there!”

The two sprinted off in the way the man pointed, bolting past the trees for what felt like forever, but it was all payed off when they came across a massive cave that was located where the woodland ends and the mountains meet. They slowed their pace considerably while attempting to catch their breath, noticing the cave near them the cave before getting a whiff of the stench of dead bodies.

“What the-?”

One of the men mused before shining their flashlight in the cave, their eyes enlarging and their face growing pale at the sight before them.

A towering, lanky, monstrous creature stood inside the damp cave with warm blood under its feet, its grip tight on the now-dead body of the vanishing search man as it sucked its teeth into him. The monster was almost camouflaged with the stone behind it due to its inky black pigment, but its snow white feet nearly gave away its presence. The most shocking thing is that they found the missing people, who were all lying unconscious in big piles with their flesh and blood gone, decomposing and emitting the vile smell from before.

As the monster noticed the glare of the flashlight, it slowly turned its head to face the two men, sending them both in a state of paralysis. The man with the gun snapped out of his state of shock quicker, trying to shoot the advancing creature while pulling the other man behind him. Inconveniently, due to his frantic efforts, the only bullet that was loaded in his weapon missed.

The only thing that the two, petrified men could do is run…