The Beast of Silver Crossing

Estimated Studying Time — 6 minutes

Oh, the city of Silver Crossing… Oh?… You’ve got by no means heard of us?… I am not shocked. You see, our little city can’t be discovered on Google Maps. For the remainder of the world, it would not exist… The individuals there do not exist… Or a minimum of they do not exist anymore. It was as soon as a small, self-sufficient neighborhood that survived off the land and supplied nice hospitality to outsiders. Caught in our methods and historically cussed, with household on the coronary heart of our core beliefs. We weren’t uneducated or lived in tribes. We lived and prospered like some other small city. We regarded like your common small city. With small household eating places, a cinema, native retailers, hair salons, pharmacies, hostels, and so on. Now it is only a shell of itself. A ragged and scarred waste of area in an enormous open desert.

How did we get there ? It began when little Thomas Anderson disappeared…

Information of Tommy’s disappearance unfold like wildfire and the entire city banded collectively to attempt to assist indirectly. I occurred to be buddies together with his dad, Michael, so the information hit me fairly arduous as properly. I spent the following week with the search events on the lookout for Tommy in these dense, misty woods. Nothing. Completely nothing…

After the second week, individuals have been beginning to lose hope. After the third week, everybody besides me and her mother and father had sadly given up. Midway by the third week, I attempted to persuade Michael and Sandra, the mom, that Tommy was gone. Sandra went right into a deep despair and gave up. Michael, nevertheless, was on the lookout for Tommy day and evening.

One evening, Michael did not come again. Sandra was so depressed she did not even discover and I blamed it on him tenting within the woods. He would come again… however he did not. When Sandra lastly observed it, it had nonetheless been a full day and even I knew one thing was flawed. He had by no means been exterior so lengthy. Not even for a tenting journey. That and Sandra mentioned he had no tenting gear so he could not have deliberate to camp there.

Once more, town launched one other search, this time just a bit shorter, they usually lastly known as it at nearly three weeks. He had in all probability been killed by a bear or a wolf and eaten. Tommy too… or so the townspeople thought.

Two weeks later and I will go to Sandra and see how she’s doing and I discover that she appears… completely different. She talks to herself on her again porch and simply stares into the woods. White. Void of emotion. I ask what she is doing and he or she tells me she has excellent news. She mentioned she heard Tommy’s voice calling her from the woods final evening. She heard him getting nearer and nearer, however when she tried to strategy the noise, the sheriff’s automobile had stopped in her driveway and startled Tommy.

“I cursed him for all he is price for making me lose my boy a second time,” she mentioned rocking backwards and forwards on her porch whereas telling me the story. , “I do not care if he got here to see me or not. He scared Tommy. Perhaps Tommy thinks he is in bother now and he is too scared to come back again. All that issues is that “I do know he is on the market and he desires to come back house. I will hold trying, however he’ll come again to me…I do know that.”

I left his home shortly after and spoke to the sheriff. He advised me he tried to go to Sandra, however when he pulled into the driveway, she got here from behind the home yelling and yelling at him, insulting him and telling him saying to depart.

“I came visiting her, however that wasn’t the one purpose I went to her home final evening. I got here to let him know that just a few individuals on the town had separate however related reviews of a boy who appeared like Tommy screaming within the woods, however those that heard have been unwilling to analyze themselves and solely reported it. to me. I got here to let him know that I had despatched officers to analyze however that I needed to tell him of the scenario. He mentioned, pausing and sighing, “A loopy girl did not even let me say a phrase earlier than she chased me away. I attempted to calm her down however she solely bought worse. I might have made her come however I had no actual purpose to and he or she had each proper to inform me to depart. I got here unexpectedly and on the flawed time… however I’ve by no means seen her so erratic.

Later that evening, Sandra will need to have adopted the voice, as she too disappeared.

It was the final straw for town. One thing should be performed. As a substitute of one other search, the sheriff imposed a curfew and strict guidelines on journey and searching or something open air. That did not cease individuals who thought they might observe their very own guidelines. Particularly youngsters and younger adults. Finally, one after one other, increasingly more individuals disappeared. All of the unusual reviews across the city of the woods contained related particulars. The commonest of those was that those that heard the voices mentioned that the voices they heard belonged to those that had disappeared and that the voices have been at all times cries of misery or the individual was calling for one more individual. They by no means appeared regular. As if it have been the final cries this individual had ever uttered.

I had deserted my own residence close to the woods and sought refuge downtown the place my different buddy Kenneth lives. Kenneth and I had stocked up on meals and provides to final…so long as we actually wanted them. We had no concept what was taking place to the city, nor did any of the survivors. Even individuals making an attempt to get away from town could not survive. Sarah Miller had returned at some point to one of many roads all bloody and raveled. She and her boyfriend Josh had tried to flee the city however have been ambushed by what lay within the woods. She had in some way escaped however Josh had been killed. When questioned concerning the factor within the woods, all she might say earlier than dying of exhaustion was…”He is…h…hungry”

It had been two and a half months since little Tommy Anderson disappeared, and now the one individuals left on this cursed city have been me, Kenneth, Sheriff Paul and two of his officers, Mark and Emily. All of us gathered in the identical constructing and boarded up the home windows in addition to boarded up the entrances. Paul thought he noticed it prowling close to the constructing one evening and determined that he and his officers have been going to sneak up on it by the fog and blast it with what weapons and ammunition they’d left. Hesitantly, Kenneth and I made a decision that we have been performed hiding too and that we needed to take again our city.

The worst mistake we might have made….

By the point we have been out of the constructing and in the direction of the place we thought he was, he was gone. Emily was the primary to go. When she noticed him popping out of the fog in the direction of her, she screamed and was instantly suppressed by the beast. None of us had but had a transparent imaginative and prescient of what this beast was but. Solely that he was tall and moved abnormally quick. Kenneth and I weren’t silly. As quickly because it took Paul and Mark, we took the chance to spin. We made it to the outskirts of city earlier than Kenneth was taken.

The very last thing I keep in mind is his shrill voice saying “RUN STEPHEN!” RUN!” as he was pulled into the thick fog. And I ran. I ran as quick as I might by the forest. I discovered the closest tree I might climb and I climbed as excessive as I might, making an attempt to vanish into the thick pine needles.

It will need to have labored as a result of when the beast got here on the lookout for it, it could not discover me. He will need to have a horrible sense of odor as a result of he did not detect my scent. I spent the remainder of the evening listening to the sound of branches snapping and leaves crunching beneath his toes as he walked, whereas producing all kinds of voices from the helpless victims he had consumed. Some voices overlapped as if this factor had a couple of mouth.

He should not like the daylight as a result of the second the solar welcomed the misty fog swimming by the dense bushes, the beast fled and the forest turned quiet. It took me nearly an hour to muster up the braveness to depart the consolation of my tree, however I did.

I walked rapidly and quietly to the closest river the place I got here throughout an individual doing a little bit leisure fishing in his boat. He took me on board and sailed as quick as he might to his city just a few miles away. Fortunately his city was far sufficient away that I felt safer…for now

I’m scripting this in order that if the identical factor occurs to this city, I might be able to depart some proof for the following traveler or passerby.

And to anybody studying this, please heed my warning. Return the place you got here from and journey solely by day. If the fog is coming and also you begin to hear voices coming from the forest, it might be too late. These are usually not requires assist from individuals in want. Even the youngsters. I do know it sounds horrible, however do not be the hero. These are the cries of a predator… A masquerade… A shrill masquerade of misery prowling the forest… The Beast of Silver Crossing.

Credit score: KorbinVazzana25

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