F.E.A.R. returns

The end of one chapter is a start to another

The defeat of F.E.A.R. brought a well deserved success to the wild ones. From then on, living life with the fear of something maneuvering it into an unanticipated direction was a thing of the past. But aren't a great portion of us keeping the distant thought of a relapse in the back of our minds? Maybe we even try to forget that we once lived a life we'd never willingly crawl back into today?

With time the wild ones grew rather distant. None left their original domicile with the exception of the Deviant. Reckless, isn't he at times?

One silent evening when the majority of the village's inhabitants were asleep the Mourner decided to head outside and visit the cemetery. He was hoping that the burial of Josephine (an older villager who used to sell garments) wasn't going too roughly since her relatives couldn't afford a grave stone. And after all, he was the Mourner, here to silently pray for a peaceful rest to the fallen ones. The man ventured outside wearing a black cloak. He wasn't making an attempt to hide his identity. It was because desert weather in the night differs a lot from the scorching sun it exhibits in the day.

He walked half a mile in the darkness with only a candle to help him navigate the path. There's no point in building a road in this complete dry land which makes getting lost feel like you've proven Columbus wrong. A step followed by a few hundred more steps and the Mourner could finally see the dim lights from the cemetery's candles.

He speeded his walk up a tad, not wanting to take too long and ending up with not enough time for rest. Soon, the Mourner had arrived at the cemetery's gates. It's a rather small cemetery with roughly twenty graves in its range.
He pushed the gates open causing them to resist a bit due to their age. And he's in. Now, where is Josephine? The mourner took a look around and came to the conclusion that she's probably laid to rest uphill. Carefully, he began walking towards her burial site ,making sure he doesn't step on any of the other graves. It was really dark out after all and that small candle could only help so much. A few meters away and suddenly his candle got knocked straight out of his grip.
The force of it caused the Mourner to stumble back and let out a gasp due to how suddenly this happened. He tried to look for the candle on the ground but it must've been snatched from him since he would've heard where it has fallen.

"Hello??"- he shouted.

No response. The man's blood ran cold as he thought of what could possibly be happening. This is an isolated area with only about two hundred residents and there's no other signs of life for miles.

The Mourner took a deep breath and began looking around when he suddenly heard a match being ignited. A small flame appeared on the candles top, just above Josephines grave. It revealed a dark figure dressed in a pitch black garment. The whole entity was pitch black except for its bright white, razor sharp teeth. And Josephine's grave looked different. It had been dug up and there was a seven foot deep hole in its place.

The Mourner pinched himself, twice even to figure out if he was having a dream. But nothing about this was in his imagination. The figure inched a little closer, crawling toward the Mourner slowly. Our wild one was out of ideas, they were all consumed by one dark thought he kept at the very back of his mind.
F.E.A.R.
And that was the exact emotion he was feeling during this turn of events.
He began backing away in steady steps as he felt his breathing go shallow.

"You're scared, Mourner."- the creature hissed-"But didn't you celebrate the defeat of your fears?"

At the word 'fears', it lunged forward and the Mourner barely managed to get out of the way before that thing jumped on him. He started extemporaneously rushing back to the village. The man dropped his cloak and matches on the way, desperately trying to just get back home.

The Mourner finally shut the door of his tiny hut and let out a sigh of relief. But he was relieved for only a short moment because it wasn't like getting home suddenly cleared the confusion of what on earth has happened. He stood there for a while, staring at the floor and replaying every memory of the time they fought F.E.A.R. Then and there, his eyes met the sight of his small, burgundy telephone under his nightstand. It was there for god knows how long, collecting dust instead of the phone numbers of the Mourner's  associates. It's been a long while since it's been put to use but the time has come. The Mourner must get back in touch with the rest of the Wild Ones.

He leaned down and took the retro telephone out from under his nightstand. The man began dialing the Prophet's number, hoping that his close friend is willing to pick it up.

Meanwhile, about a mile away the Prophet laid under a warm blanket in what used to be the Wild Ones's base. It was almost like he was still struggling to comprehend that times have changed. His peaceful rest, however, was interrupted by this annoying ring. He groaned in frustration and started reaching for the source with his hand hanging out the edge of his bed. His fingers grabbed ahold of some dusty old thing which happened to be his telephone.

"Hello?"- the Prophet muttered while rubbing his eyes, still trying to fully awaken from his sleep.

After hearing the leader of the Wild Ones on the other line respond to the call with a simple greeting, the Mourner put on a slight smile. But another look of relief was wiped off of the man's face when he thought back to what had happened.

"Hi.. It's the Mourner. I know it might seem unbelievable but I think F.E.A.R. has returned."- He speaks, really hoping for a genuine answer.

F.E.A.R. was no laughing matter. The Prophet suddenly sat up on his mattress and forgot every last thought of sweet dreams.

"Are you certain? From what are you even making the conclusion?"- Concern was clearly heard in his voice.

"I went to the cemetery just a few minutes ago and this...thing snatched my candle straight out of my grip. Pitch black the creature was. It said something about us defeating our fears."

That was good enough to prove F.E.A.R.'s comeback. The Prophet jumped straight out of bed and began getting dressed.

"That's it! We're meeting up in the base. Make sure the Mystic, Destroyer and Deviant are here as well."

Things were going a tiny bit too fast for the Mourner. He nodded regardless but then remembered that the Deviant had left the village to live the life he desired.

"I'd call them all to meet up but don't you remember that the Deviant is out and about somewhere?"

Instant hangup. Didn't the Prophet hear what he was saying?