The beast within

A small boy and his family lived on the border of the local forest, safe from the hustle of the village. But instead replaced by a deathly silence that shrouded the forest behind them. He never felt safe outside his house, his room was the only place he felt safe yet he always felt lonely on account of living so far away from everyone else.

One day he and his parents were out shopping for some new hunting equipment as his father's had been worn down over years of killing to provide for his wife and child

"Could i have a new hunting package please?" asked the boy's father

A man slunk up from behind the counter he was slouched behind. He was almost serpentine with the way he moved and spoke, he had a smooth,sensual overtone to his already soft voice and he spoke almost with a whisper.

"Why do you need it?" he asked sharply, with his hand stretched out toward the man 

"To replace this one", he slung a snapped bow  and rust covered blade across the counter

"fine" said the clerk as he handed the boy the bow meant for his father "good luck", he whispered as a cloud of ravens swarmed the sky around him "you'll need it".

The family returned to their home by the woods in total silence, the only noise was the shrieks and caws of the ravens surrounding the now empty counter. When they reached their home the father left to go hunting for their next meal.

"When are those crows going to stop circling that poor man's store?" the mum said to herself

"Ravens mum, not crows", corrected the boy "hey mum? That guy Pa brought his hunting gear from was kinda creepy, don't you think?"

"that's rude but yeah, he was kinda creepy but, your dad trusts him so we have to as well"

A few hours passed and the father hadn't returned home yet, the boy was concerned but decided to stay inside his room for now , he didn't feel safe after his encounter with the store clerk. His mother had taken a different approach...

She ran out of the small bungalow that they lived in slamming the door behind her as she sped of into the forest in search of her husband, disappearing into the sea of black that swamped the trees like the web of spider waiting for it's food to fly in. The boy started getting more and more concerned by the second and eventually gave in to his desires and wandered toward the tree line. Puffing his chest up to try and ward off predators, he breached the walls of the dark fortress but, he didn't need to go very far...

There on the ground in front of him lie a sight that made him wish he'd never left the safety of his home. The mangled, mutilated corpse of his mother, who he'd had a conversation with not ten minutes ago was lying there by his feet, blood gushing out of wounds all around her body. His eyes widened and filled with tears as he collapsed to the ground taking what remained of her hand in his

"You never should've gone mum, you'd still be here if you'd just stayed at home with me", sobbed the child as he sat on the grass with no one there to comfort him other than the rustle of leaves blowing in the wind and raven cawing in the distance.

 The boy looked around and saw a small arrow drawn in blood pointing further into the forest. Further into the darkness. Hesitantly the boy followed the arrows until he couldn't see anymore. a loud clunk echoed out from beneath him as a plate of wood sunk into the ground leaving the boy stuck in the wet mud as it tried to filled the hole surrounding his foot, he looked down and attempted to pull his foot out of the mud that now held him prisoner.He pulled and tugged as hard as he could until his foot freed itself from it's shoe prison and he tumbled over, landing on the grass and there lying next to him lie a skeleton, completely stripped of all flesh and muscle, all that remained were a few of the teeth that lay scattered across the floor in front of him and a bow inscribed with four words "this is the end" the words looked like they'd been there for years now, they sent a chill down the boy's spine regardless. He turned around ready to leave and there he was, the man from the store, he was just stood there waiting, watching.

"Listen to the weapon boy", whispered the man as he faded away into the blackness

The boy rushed  home as fast as he could ignoring all thoughts of what could be there waiting for him when he arrived. As he arrived at his home his knees weakened and his arms dropped as he saw his father dangling by a rope wrapped around the rafters of the roof. He wanted to scream but couldn't bring himself to make a sound, he burst through the door stopping dead where he stood. The man was sat on a chair rocking back and forth in the middle of the room caped in feathers, draped with black, surrounded by a ominous mist made up of an almost unnatural  blackish purple swirling around in circles on the floor engulfing all that stepped in with an almost toxic mist 

"save us", whispered the man coldly. As his icy tone stabbed at the boy's ears the mist dissipated and with it the man faded away with it, once again being replaced with a swarm of ravens, all squawking as they flew out the door and started to circle around the trees surrounding the house. A sudden wave of heat spread throughout his home, followed by the smell of burning and smoke spreading throughout the house sending a sharp sense of panic through his nerves. Without warning fire and flames spread all around  burning holes in every wall. The boy barely made it out alive, just with a few minor burns instead.

Panicked, the boy ran back to the town, screaming, crying, tugging on peoples arms.

"Please, you have to believe me! He did it! Please, I'm not lying",

But no one listened, they all just walked on past completely ignoring him Until one man came and he knelt down besides the distraught, broken boy.

"What's wrong boy?" said the man with a familiar, icy tone.

The boy tried to scream or shout but couldn't make a sound.

"Don't try it boy. It wont work." said the man as a raven let out it's horrifying cry. The boy winced as the sound pierced his ears. When he opened his eyes the world around him was dull and colourless with only a few splotches of red around what looked to be bodies, some he remembered speaking to before with his parents.

"this is what the world would be like if anyone found out what happened." said the man, He seemed almost sad about the outcome. 

"What do you mean?" asked the boy

"Mass genocide. And all of it would be your fault."

The boy stood there starstruck, he didn't know how to react

"What a shame that would be", the man stated

"How could anybody do something like this", asked the boy with more anger in his tone than sadness now.

"look at your hands", said the man with a cold, unfaltering, remorseless tone "then ask yourself that again".

Hesitantly he looked down at his hands, now stained a deep crimson with blood as his one and only friend dropped from his grasp onto the floor. He picked him up from the floor as blood spewed up from his friend's mouth

"W-why?" asked he asked still staring down at his friend barely hanging on to life when he noticed the tear marks on his flesh.

"what did this?" cried the boy, tears gushing down the side of his face.

"Huh, You're pretty stubborn aren't you?" said the man, a grin spread across his face "look at your hands again"

The boy look another look at his hand but this time the crimson that once soaked into his hand was now mixed with a mass of matted fur revealing claws extending from what once were fingers with torn parts of flesh hanging from their razor sharp edges.

"W-what? What is this?" asked the boy almost throwing up

The man's hat was tilted casting a shadow over his dull, lifeless eyes. His teeth shone a bright white as he grinned at the boy "That's you"

The boy stared at the corpses that lie in rest around him 

"I did this?" he said with a sour voice "Don't lie to me!"

"I only deal in truths", muttered the man.

The boy closed his eyes trying to wake up from this nightmare and when he did the world was back to normal, the man had disappeared and a murder of crows had shown up

"Crows? No ravens?" said the boy, confused "Interesting"