《No Eyewitness》


 Completed Story

    As the boy and the girl approached the eerie forest, the idea of camping out suddenly seemed a lot more daunting. The boy slowly tried to back out slyly but was abruptly caught by his female companion, "Come on Dante, don''t be such a pussy" she laughed.


    "I''m not" Dante retorted back and strode into the forest in a moment of desperation. By the time Dante had realized what he had done, he was lost deep in the forest with his companion being the only civilization he could see. Unexpectedly, a rotten stench pervaded his nostrils form underneath a nearby bush, which is when he realized that a sinister earthy and petrichor scent lingered in the air, surrounded by dark, silent trees that stood sentry over the shadows that darted through the mist swiftly. All of a sudden, a scream pierced his eardrums as he turned around fearfully to see his companion being dragged, by what seemed to be an ebony shadow, underneath the bush where the rotten stench had originated from. Dante had to decide, should he run or save her life?


    The word run races through his mind but when he turns around to escape from this deadly forest, he finds that the way he came was closed off. It was almost like the trees had moved in order to trap Dante inside. That left him with one choice and that was to simply carry on into the forest. Anxiously Dante carried on forwards with every step the whistling wind surrounded him with brisk breeze making him shiver in either fear or cold. The pungent smell of death surrounded him and almost seemed to be following every step he took. The sound of a crack from an old, bug-eaten stick being stood on filled his ears in the deafening silence of the surroundings and that was all it took for Dante to shoot through the trees, as fast as a bullet.


    Disastrously, Dante realized he took one step too many when his foot went through what he thought to be a moss-covered piece of grass. He fell for what seemed to be hours until he landed in a dark cavern at the bottom, saved by grass and leaves. Instinctively he took some matches out of his backpack and stuck one of them against the hard, rough surface of a rock nearby. After the angelic fire danced around the cavern lighting up Dante''s view. He looked down, Dante realized that what saved him was not grass and leaves but instead hundreds of half-eaten human bodies lying stark-naked in a hill of death. Startled by his new discovery Dante looked around the cavern to see a sea of dead bodies swinging from trees and skewered on rocks. Without warning, a hello was heard but Dante was unable to do or say anything because he was frozen in fear. After a while, Dante inspected the small voice and found it to be a small boy, around the age of 7 to 8 year old, who seemed to be petrified but as soon as Dante was about to respond, a creature scuttled from the darkness ,that was 15 feet tall and appeared to have crab legs and a spider body with millions of razor sharp teeth, and approached the small boy. Confused, Dante watched with caution as the crab-like creatures jaw unhinged revealing several rows of sharp teeth and it swiftly bit the boy''s body clean off leaving only legs and a river of blood flowing from the remainder of the dead body.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    After seeing that scene, Dante decides that the best solution is to play dead and stay silent. It seems to take forever but the creature finally leaves but still Dante waits a little just to make sure before he gets up and starts screaming for someone, anyone to help him. He continuously screaming until his head hurts from loss of breath and the throat is hoarse from the carbon dioxide rushing through his trachea.


    At a loss of hope, Dante collapsing to his knees and cries until there is nothing left to cry so he lies down, with a sore throat, a pounding headache and painful tear ducts, and awaits his far from merciful death. When all of a sudden, he hears a soft shout coming from the top of the cavern, so he looks up to see a hiker looking for him in the pitch-black darkness. So Dante screams with the little bit of strength that he has left up to the hiker and fortunately the hiker hears him and drops down a rope for him to climb, as well as a bottle of water and an apple to give him some energy. After eating the apple and drinking the water, Dante felt a lot better and so started to climb to rope up the abysmal cavern. Finally, he reaches the top and thanks the kind hiker. Exhausted, he yawns and so the kind hiker offers him to sleep the night in his cabin at the edge of the forest.


    After much consideration on whether or not Dante should trust the stranger, he finally agrees because he did just save him after all and so he follows the stranger to the edge of the woods and into the cabin that was placed strangely close to the edge but suspicion aside he blindly follows. Once entered, the stranger offered him some clothes to get changed into and made Dante''s bed for the night. Once Dante had finished changing, the stranger approached him and asked if he would like some dinner as he himself was hungry, However while the stranger was saying this Dante realized that all the window and doors had been locked, somewhat reluctantly Dante agreed to dinner and entered the kitchen but suddenly he heard what seemed to be groaning following by scuttling then the monster entered the kitchen, licking it''s lips hungrily "I did tell you that was I feeling hungry" the monster spoke and Dante realized that it was the hiker''s true form, he tried to run but was cornered and so in the last few moments he realized he should have never trusted strangers then a gut-wrenching pain ripped through his abdomen and everything slowly faded from his vision- the last thing Dante saw was the creature feasting on his arms hungrily before the last essence of his life drained from his body.