Man of The Forest

The sun rose over the town I called home. The orange glow bathed my sleeping face and filled me with an ironic sense of regret. I had only gotten a few hours of sleep the night prior because my daughter insisted I inspect her room for monsters every hour on the hour.

I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the whimsy and splendor of fatherhood, but I never imagined it would be such a huge burden without any support. Raising a child at a ripe and impressionable age should be handled by more than just one person. My daughter is one of the more energetic children in her class, and she unfortunately inherited her mother’s ditzy mannerisms; so needless to say she is a lot to handle. I ponder how someone whom had so little to do with her life could have molded her so effectively.

I attempted to roll out of bed and get my day started. The tight hospital corners thought otherwise as they held me fast like a silken constrictor. I eventually wriggled out of the entanglement and got dressed. When all was said and done I opened my bedroom door only to see my daughter fully dressed and ready for school. I sent her downstairs while I tried to clean myself up in the bathroom.

Looking in the bathroom mirror, I could tell that I was in desperate need of another four to five hours of sleep. My eyes were sunken in slightly and my vision was slightly obscured with a generous amount of eye crust. I noted that my facial hair was unkempt and some gray hairs were resurfacing on my head. Regardless, I knew that there was no way for me to look presentable and make it to work on time so I shrugged it off. I splashed my face with water in feeble attempt to energize myself and headed downstairs.

My daughter handed me my axe and jacket as I handed her a pastry I grabbed from the kitchen. I opened the door and the two of us embarked on our daily commute. Since our town was so small, we usually would have to tread through two miles of dirt paths and thorny brambles just to reach an agreed upon crossroad. On most days, I would let her run off to the school house while I headed to the lumber mill. Then when my shift was over I would meet her at the same crossroad to escort her home.

Recently our hometown has been growing. Being a logger for close to a decade, I have been on the front line of the expansion process. For two years the company I work for has been clearing away the edge of the Eternal forest to build new houses and a few commercial buildings. Some recent editions to our town include an Inn adjacent to the town hall, a small bicycle shop close to the edge of town, and a store that sells wares from the orbs and raw ores this town produces.

As much as I love all of these logging contracts our company receives, there is somewhat of a backlash. With each acre we chip away from the forest, the more wildlife indigenous to the forest is displaced in our town. Some of these creatures arena’t bothersome and just keep to themselves, but most either rummage through waste bin or eat away at vegetable patches. Some even go so far as to attack people that they feel threatened by. Recently people have been working alongside these creatures. Some can be used a simple beast of burden, others replace household pets, and a few are collected and classified for scientific purposes. I personally don’t like any of them, and any creature foolish enough step onto my property pay the ultimate price.

When I finally broke the haze of my thought my daughter was saying her goodbyes and daintily skipped away towards her school house. I walked another mile or so to the lumber mill. When I reached my job I greeted my boss and I checked the workload for today. My job was currently understaffed, so with the five remaining workers at hand my boss spread us out as thin as he could to handle unrealistic workloads. Unfortunately for me, today was my day to start clearing a section far behind the tree line. Visibility was usually very limited until the afternoon and the local wildlife were usually bothersome.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">After some time, I headed into the forest with my axe and began my search for marked trees; I was overwhelmed with a feeling of uneasiness. It wasn’t a feeling strong enough to make me turn back immediately but it certainly was enough to cause me to stop and look around a few times. Hours passed by and I had managed to clear a reasonable amount of timber. Oddly enough, even when I cleared a large cluster of trees, it didn’t do anything to improve the lighting conditions. It was as if the sun was afraid to venture this deep into the forest.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">An eerie electric feeling filled the atmosphere for a few hours. When I was just about to head back to the lumber mill, I felt an unsettling cold spot on the back of my neck. As if a disembodied head were uncomfortably close and breathing against me. I turned around swiftly to see nothing but a few young trees I didn’t see fit to cut down. As I continued chopping and noticed something rather strange, the forest was now dead silent. I had been cutting away at this landscape for two years now and never encountered such an ominous silence. Then as swiftly as the silence came, was it broken by the sound of hushed footsteps.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">There were many things that frightened me about these footsteps. For one, the sound was coming from where I had just looked. Secondly, whoever was behind me was not from the logging company because our standard uniform consisted of steel-toed boots and the loudest orange vest the boss could find in bulk. This was supposed to reduce work related accidents, but all it did was made it physically impossible for someone wearing the uniform to not be seen or heard within one hundred feet.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I whipped my body back and got into a defensive stance to fend of against whatever could possibly be stalking me. Again I did not see anything. I chuckled a little trying to make ease of this unusually unnerving situation. Then my eyes fixed to the glint of something. There wrapped around a sapling tree was a pocket watch. I walked over to examine it further. I carefully unraveled it noting that it was fairly old. Then upon inspection I realized that this was my grandfather’s pocket watch.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I placed the silver ornament in my pocket, the proceeded to grasp my axe firmly and ran like I had never run before. Every time I felt winded the thought of someone trailing right behind me and a wellspring of energy replenished my tired sweating body. My legs struggled to keep a steady pace as I ran at full stride in weighted boots and restrictive cloths. I had run for twelve minutes before I was at the edge of the logging mill. My boss whom was enjoying his lunch outside saw me and asked what was wrong since I was usually one of the last people to leave the field.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I caught my breath for a moment then explained in detail what happened. My boss at first seemed skeptical since there had not been any other account of this happening to associates working in the same area. Then I dug into my pocket and pulled out my grandfather’s pocket watch. When he asked the significance, I explained that this was a family heirloom that I never took out of my wife’s china cabinet and it just so happened to end up tied around a tree behind me. He still appeared unconvinced and asked me to get some rest. He assured me that this was simply a trick of the mind but for peace of mind, I would not be assigned to that area again.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Feeling foolish, I went inside to pick up my things and headed out to the main road so that I could meet up with Faith. After ten minutes of tiresome trekking, I met up with her who was as energetic as could be. I did my best to hide the frightened look on my face. I would hate to reaffirm my daughter’s fears of a monster in her closet by telling her of my encounter with a stalker. So I remained silent for the extent of our walk home.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">When my daughter and I reached the house, I opened the door scanned the area. I was undoubtedly terrified to discover that our living room was ransacked. Every single piece of furniture including the table, chairs, and china cabinet in the dining room was overturned. Stranger still I noticed that everything that could be considered valuable was still there. Even when I looked at the china cabinet I noticed that nothing was taken, or damaged even.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I searched the rest of the house with my daughter glued to my side. Together we inspected every room of the house and could not find a single thing missing, or even a means of entry. The front and back entrance were locked, and the windows were nearly impossible to open from the outside. So after confirming that both she and I were the only two people in the house, I pulled her bed in from her room to my own. I brought up a few snacks for us to eat and had her stay in my room for the night. I locked my door and made sure that my windows were secure.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">A few hours after sun set I read my daughter her favorite bed time story and let her get some rest. I looked outside to find that my neighborhood was swallowed by a thick fog that stretched as far as my eyes could see. This was by no means uncommon, but still put me on edge considering. I reached on the dresser and attempted to comfort myself with one of the sweets I had grabbed from downstairs. Just when I assumed it was safe enough to finally go to sleep. I heard the sound an incredibly loud crashing sound. Then the sound of dishes breaking soon followed. Someone had just knocked over the china cabinet for sure.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">My daughter woke up in a fright, and immediately started crying. I tried to settle her down out of fear that whoever was downstairs would come up stairs. However, she was beyond the point of return. She screamed for what seemed like an eternity until eventually she was too tired to scream. Even still she let out the occasional wimpier whenever a loud crash filled our ears. I was shaking in fear and hadn’t the slightest idea what to do. Whoever was stalking me was now in my house coming for me and my daughter. When my daughter managed to hush herself completely, I could distinctly hear a light rapping at my bedroom door.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">It was subtle, but my daughter and I could still hear it. The knocking caused my daughter to bury herself in her blankets and cling to them for dear life. Then she said something that both confused and horrified me. She wriggled her self of the safety of her blankets and came into my bed. She brought herself up to my ear and whispered, “It’s him” in my ear. Asking her to further elaborate she continued by saying, “The monster. I know it’s him. He always knocks.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I looked at my daughter and tried to recall the first incident in which she told me that there was a monster in her room. From what I could remember it started about three months ago. She started running into my room insisting that I either search her room for monsters or let her sleep in my room. This happened daily for about a week then stopped out of nowhere. Then more recently she had been asking me to search her room practically every 45 minutes. Although way she described the monster made it impossible for it to be an actual thing, she described it having mustard yellow skin and an impossibly long hooked nose. From my limited knowledge of things I could not fathom what she described to any sort of living thing in the area so I shrugged it off as her wild imagination. I soon shook of the thought of monsters until a chilling idea crept up from the dark crevices of my mind. What if it was my monster?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">These series of events triggered a flood of memories to splash into my mind; memories that I had repressed from my adolescence. I can remember a warm summer’s night. It was the last day of an adventurous and fulfilling summer vacation. I both regretted losing a majority of my free time and looked forward to the first few days of grammar school. My mom had insisted that I slept early so I could begin so that my body could adapt to waking up early for classes. I followed her orders regrettably and lied down to rest.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I had been awake for an unreasonably long time just staring into the darkness. I was a fearless kid so I did not fear the dark, but something about staring into nothingness for an extended amount of time unnerved me. Then out of nowhere I heard a subtle knock on my window. This was unusual seeing that it was past midnight and stranger still I slept on the third floor. Regardless I silently stepped to the edge of my room and looked out the window.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I took a double take not believing what I was looking at. To my surprise, there was a small purple balloon just outside my window. As I continued to look at it I noticed that it was banging against the window in a light but forceful manner. Confused, I opened the window and it floated in. As I grabbed the frills to get a good look at it I was somehow overcome with a feeling of weightlessness. As if the balloon was sentient it floated outside into the air. Though I was incredibly perplexed, I was entertained by the notion of flying. I made sure to keep hold of the balloon and used my feet to push myself forward. I would surely tell my friends about this crazy happening as soon as I met up with them at school. Then the balloon began to slowly descend, I would assume whatever force that keeping the balloon afloat could no longer support my weight. Then I made the mistake of looking down.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Twenty or so feet below me was a man adorned in dressy cloths and a large top hat. I couldn’t make out most of his face but what I could see was his arm outstretched to reach me and a perverse, sickly smile. The last of what I could remember was me struggling to keep myself afloat in a feeble attempt to escape this strange man’s grasp. Two days later, my family and a small search team found me passed out holding on to the trunk of a tree with a white knuckle grip. They were relieved to find me alive, but wanted to know how I ended up this deep in the eternal forest, and why I had been stripped down to a pair of underwear.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">After two years, a bunch of inconclusive evidence, and hazing from the local school children, I refused to tell my story to anyone. I lied and said the events were due to my sonambulation. I forgot about my internal bruises and repressed my mental scars so I could just continue with my life. I never saw or heard from that strange man again which eventually made me convince myself that it never really happened.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I used to be fearless, but now thirty years after the event and I am cowering about twice as hard as my own daughter. The knocking continued for about two hours, causing my stomach to tie up into knots and my daughter to conceal herself in her mother’s blanket. When it finally stopped, I unlocked the door to take a quick look outside to see if it was safe enough to sleep. After a quick peek I assumed it would be safe for the both of us to get some shut eye if I locked the door and put Faith’s bed firmly against the door. I let Faith snuggle up beside me and she fell asleep within three minutes. I grabbed my axe and placed it securely under my pillow. I did not sleep well. Every half an hour or so I woke up with a jolt and looked around to see if the door had been forced opened. I did these four or so times before I rose one last time. This time I woke to the cold burst of an indifferent gale.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Faith was gone. I tore my room apart hoping that she was just hiding somewhere but unfortunately, my frenzied search was for naught. I looked towards the window and examined the window. It had been painstakingly pried open so that it would not make a single utterance. Allowing “him” to snake his way into my room and take away my daughter. Luckily, there was evidence left behind on a single rusted nail that stuck out from the edge of the window sill. There, blowing in the breeze was a tuft of fine white hair. Not knowing what else to do with it, I put carefully placed the hair in the pocket of my pajama bottoms and hurried out the door.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Instinctively I run to the edge of town to the beginning of the Eternal forest. My body feels withered down by the elements and my feet are now bleeding from the various rocks and thorns that I stepped on in attempt to reach my destination. In all of this chaos I had actually forgot to put on cloths or shoes. The mist seems almost omnipotent at this point, whenever I feel like I’m getting closer to where I need to the forest, it somehow further obscures my vision and makes me lose my sense of direction. Due to the fact that I had been traveling to the job site on foot for the past two years now, I manage to reach the lumber mill at the rim of the forest.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">It seems so much scarier at night, especially with this eerie fog. I now realize that it is going to be nearly impossible for me to find anyone in this forest given the fact that I don’t have a map of the forest or even know where my daughter might be. Regardless I have to keep searching. I continue into the Eternal forest making sure that I check every visible tree and inspect every burrow, den, or depression in the earth. I begin to lose hope and lament a little. My feet are stinging at this point from the various hazards continue to step on.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">For the first time since early this morning I can hear the adventitious sounds of local wildlife. I’m assuming that I have lost “him” completely since he for some reason caused everything within earshot to become dead silent. I hear the blaring sound of a squawk and see what I believe to be a crow. The crow begins to circle around me then, then with the beat of its tiny black wings the fog begins to disperse. It descends and lands on a nearby branch.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">This was unlike any sort of crow I had ever seen. It has a small emaciated body and deep black feathers but strangest of all, someone had a hat fixed precariously upon its head. Needless to say it was strange, but I have seen stranger things at a traveling circus. It looked as if it were smirking insincerely as we exchanged glances. It flew a little bit closer to me until it was on the ground looking up at me. After interacting with it for a few minutes I realize that this creature may have near human intelligence and might be able to assist me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I don’t know if do this out of desperation or insanity, but I pull out the tuft of hair from my pocket and give it to the bird. It digs its beak into it and after a short lapse in time it flies up and towards the east. With each flap of its wings the fog clears allowing me to see further down dark woods. The bird swings around mid-air and squawks reassuringly. I run after it, being sure to not lose sight of it in any instance. I continue to keep up with it for a good measure of time until it slows down suddenly.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I accidentally run into a wrought iron gate and the rattling sound it makes during collision can be heard throughout the forest. I swear I can hear the bird cackling in reaction to my stupidity. It descends and perches itself on top of the gate and attempts to clear the fog one last time. It beats its wings furiously but for some reason or the other whatever lies beyond this gate cannot be seen. The bird then turns to me and nods its head from side to side before flying off into more obscuring mist.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I walk attempt to push the gate open but it is held fast with several layers of chains. The fences seemed easier to climb that the gate, however it was made of stone so getting a solid grip would seem difficult. I carefully scale the wall a drop down on the other side. There is a large decrepit house now visible. It is at this point I get an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu. Regardless, I run up to the front of the house and ascend the steps.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I end up falling through the deck and scraping myself up pretty bad. I open the door and note that it was so old that the wood was practically rotting off of its hinges. The inside of the manor was covered in a healthy coating of dust and a generous amount of cobwebs. I look around and don’t see much of anything that makes me believe that anything has lived here within the last century. I step into what I think is a library and search around. I find my first sign of life in the library, an ambiguous pile of meat and bones. I can’t tell if the remains or human or animal but I can tell by the smell and heap of maggots that surge through the mass that it is between three days and a week old.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I continue to the next room which looks like a drawing room and see a tiny smear of blood leading out of the room. I press my fingers against it and note that it is not coagulated, meaning the victim was either a hemophiliac or this was very recent. The blood smear trails off but points to the direction of a room with a larger metal door. This door was out of place in any setting, but it was especially out of place in a house as old as this one. As I begin to walk to the door, I hear a low pitched growl from behind me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Shaken and in shock, I see what I can only describe as a hell hound. It stands an incredible four feet high and has bleached white ram horns sticking out behind its ears. It points its ears down and readies itself to charge. Not wanting to know what it did to make that blob of meat; I flipped over a table to impede its movement and ran like my life depended on it. I run to the metal and only to discover it is secured with a deadbolt. I see the hound jump over the table effortlessly and run towards me at full speed. I somehow manage to evade the clasp of its jaws; it had been so close I could feel its hot, carnivorous breath against my throat. It misses me crashes into an adjacent wall with such force that it breaks through into the other room.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">The room hound brakes into was the room secured with a metal door. Ironically, the walls were less fortified than the door it was set in. There was a dim light coming from the hole it had made. I knew the answers I sought out were just beyond that hole, but this damned hound was in my way. I have an idea, but there is no way it’s actually going to work. I run to the far end of atrium and goad hound to pursue me. As I expected, it runs at full speed to me and jumps towards my throat. In an instance I drop to the floor as the dastardly creature flies over top of me and out the door. It actually manages to fly into a support beam and knock down what was left of the roof on the porch. A loud crash follows. I am unable to see the hound but for safe measure I push an old book case against the door frame where the front door used to be.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I was now able to walk see what was beyond that creepy metal door. I carefully step through the makeshift door and look in horror. Beyond the wall was a dining room lit littered with bones. There were so many that it made it difficult for me to get to the other side of the room without me stepping on them. Some of them still have entire chunks of flesh clinging to the ends. The floor is covered in dried blood and the smell of iron makes me nauseous. I step on a withered bone and the fragments dig deep into my feet. I would scream from the pain but I just don’t have the energy for that any more.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I open a door and the creak of the door echoes down the hallway. I hear a child scream and I bolt down the hallway. I charge through the door I heard scream come from and I am overcome terror. There no less than five feet away from me is my daughter being held down by a small, old yellow man. Lo and behold, my daughter’s imaginary monster stands before me. He wore no cloths and his body was beaten with age. His nose, as she had described, was about ten inches in length and drooped over his mouth. His ears were pointed, his ears were greatly sunken in, and his upper torso was covered in eggshell white body hairs.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I bite my lip, ball up my fist, then charge at the bastard. He looks up at me confused but not threatened as I punch him with all my might square in the nose. He falls over and I get on top of him but before I could land any other blow, my body is held fast by an unseen force. I look around to see if someone is holding me but I see nothing. I feel an intense weight restricting me and I struggle to move an inch. Then with a familiar sense of weightlessness I am thrown across the room and pressed firmly against a wall. I manage to rise to me feet and I scream for my daughter. She does not respond. I scream again, damaging my voice box in the process. She lays motionless. The man rises from the ground and continues to feel around my daughter’s body. He places his nose on her forehead and chortles slightly. I can feel his invisble bind on me weaken as he focuses on my daughter.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I take a chair a fling it the man and as soon as it connects with his body I dart at him. I bring him to the ground and begin to beat at him manically. I hear the metal do swing open and deranged laughter coming from the doorway. I do not see who it is but I soon feel the stinging pain of a dog digging its teeth into my side. I am dragged off of the old man by the hell hound I thought I ditched outside. I try to wriggle away from it, but its jaw is locked and it is filled with a bestial rage. I manage to land a blow, and punch it in one of its eyes but it only made it more powerful. It rips of a large chunk of flesh from my side and aims for a killing blow. I did everything in my power to keep that thing away from my throat and I manage to guard my neck quite well but I know this is a losing battle.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">With two pints of blood leaving my sides and more and more fingers being chewed off by the minute, I stop fighting. My daughter looks at me for the last time before the damned hound closes its jaws on my windpipe. I begin to shed tears as I see my daughter scream. I would do my best to comfort her but I am struggling to breathe.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Appearing behind my daughter is the man in the top hat I had not seen in so long. I could not see much of his face but I could see a perverse smile stretched ear to ear. He touched her bare shoulder and she froze instantly. I then saw the yellow old man rise once again. He stands in between me and Faith and my dulled senses can hear the hi-pitched squeals of my daughter in pain. I try to see exactly what the fuck that sick man is doing to my daughter, but I am unable to see past the sag of the old man’s genitals.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">What does it matter that I am dying, I failed my one duty as a father and I have lost my Faith. I plead the old man to put me out of my misery, but he is unable to hear me past the gurgles of blood. I see the man in the top hat one last time before my vision fades completely. I hear him call out the old man’s name and command him, “Hypno use dreameater!”  <span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif""> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language: EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">

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<p class="MsoNormal">'<span style="font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Case No. 61405-E                                                                               The Old Chateau Murders '

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Nearly half a century after the discovery of twelve bodies in Claymont Manor [known to locals as The Old Chateau], Investagators are now closer than ever to solving this gruesome murder mystery. On the warm August day in 1963, Eterna city police first investigated the house after several loggers from the Devon Corporation reported smelling an odd and sickening smell whenever they were nearby. A single officer entered the house noting the putrid smell almost instantly, and then called for additional support as he entered the dining room. Two rangers in the Eterna forest responded first to the scene, and 6 other officers came soon after. There in the dining room were hundreds if not thousands of bones, with two corpses that have yet to completely decompose. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">First responders did their best to set aside matching skull fragments, in hopes that a forensic scientist or anthropologist could recreate a face from a reconstructed skull. Luckily, a forensic scientist of the 6th precinct was able to reconstruct eleven complete skeletal systems and a skull that underwent about a decade of decelerated decomposition. With his work Eterna city officials were able to match up a dozen bodies with missing person’s reports. Reports dated back as far as 1951 and the most recent was an astonishing two months before the beginning of the investigation. Of the bodies that didn’t need to be reconstructed, Eterna city police sent messenger starly’s to precicnts in Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto after they could not identify match these bodies with any missing person in the region. After six months of silence, a messenger wingull flew in from Pacifilog town, stating that the two bodies were of Hoenn natives that were reported missing while vactioning. The bodies of twenty five year old female Sarah Kloama and her eight year old son Brice Kloama were sent to their home town of Pacifilog after Sarah’s husband was able to confirm both bodies. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Investigators at the time were able to determine that teeth imprints discovered on a majority of the bones belonged to the pokemon species Houndoom. This left a few of them confused because houndoom are extremely rare in the Sinnoh region and are notoriously hard to catch. This lead investagators to believe that this was a domesticated Houndoom and his trainer had traveled to many regions. It seemed that he used this infernal pokemon to destroy bodies after he was finished with his victims, and Houndoom performed this task very well. Forensic specialist attempted to pull together most of the unmatched bones in attempt to identify more bodies, but it seemed impossible due to the fact that most of the remaing bones were broken into fragments. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Along the edge of the house, the original investigators found the decaying body of Mateus Winthrop, a logger under the Devon Corp. Subsidiary Silph Logging Branch. His body was discovered frozen in a defensive position. Where the flesh was stripped from the bone, forensic examiners were able to detect human teeth marks as well as the familiar patterns left by houndoom. Bone fragments as well as cartilage from his right ear were recovered from the houndoom droppings in the corner. The houndoom in question was caught by local rangers and shot in the summer of 1963. Also in the back room was a second blood sample. This, suprisingly, was not discovered until the spring of 1997 when a geneticist noted that the blood on the table had special hemoglobin found only in menstrual blood [or in this peculiar case blood from the hymen]. It was also noted that the victims had a very similar genetic code, but no missing person report was ever filed for this person. Also due to the Eterna schoolhouse fire of 1968, the person could not be indentified using school records. The missing female was classified as truly missing and nothing more could be done on that matter. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">In 1976, two detectives from Oreburgh discovered a secret passage way leading to a room with a single projector and a set of two chairs. In this hidden room was a secret compartment containing approximately 20 self-shot snuff films. From what film specialist could put together and retouch, police could match several other victims to missing person reports from as areas as far as Snowpoint city. Unfortunately, the killer had always had his face conceal in shadows when ever he was in sight of the camera so he could not be identified.Of the few things that could be identified were a small assortment of pokemon that atteneded the killings first-hand. The pokemon were identified as a Hypno, a Houndoom, a Drifloon, and a Vulpix. After searching the room top and bottom, investigators found a large compartmant containing the rotting remains of the Hypno. The creature’s skin became the consistency of leather and its organs were nearly rotted away. It was estimated that it had patiently waited for his master to return for seven years. Investigators were quoted saying that they could feel his remnant psychic energy tugging at them as they sent him away. The body of a Grace Winthrop was discovered under the floor boards of this very room after an anonymous survivor released privileged information to the Eterna City Precinct. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">When the case was breifly reexamined in the spring of 1985, a dental specialist from Oreburgh city. A few adventurous teens had stumbled upon a drawer full of teeth in the upstairs bedroom after they were dared to explore the house. The drawer contained over 497 teeth and a few jaw fragments. After some time dental specialist, Robert Kirkmen, was able to match teeth up with some of his town’s dental records. He was able identify four bodies from Ourburgh, six bodies from Eterna, and strangely two from Floaroma town. After news surfaced of bodies being recently identified from Claymont Manor, the public was overcome with a sense of hysteria. Reports of the murdering being sighting came from the entire region of Sinnoh, but most were ignored due to the fact that the murderer was never truly identified at any point. Regardless frantic phonce calls continued until later that year. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Initially, investigators did not know what to make of the formless mass of flesh discovered in the library. It was put into cold storage where it remained until the May of 1997. Geneticist Terrence Oaklee assisted by his lifelong comrade Alazakam was able to do the untinkable. Alakazam’s specialized telekinetic powers were able to reconstruct pieces of DNA to a complete, complex strand. From this the Terrence was able to discover that the victim was Caucasian female from the Unova region. After countless hours using Alakazam’s divination abilities, he was able to note several facial and body features of the woman just hours before she was selected as a victim. He sent his findings to the Unova region. He also sent a description of the killer from the information he gathered from Alazakazam. Though the description was a tad vauge it was exactly what Eterna city police needed for this cold case. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">This mystery killer was presumed dead by late 2010 due to the fact no new bodies had appeared at Claymont Manor for over twenty years. Then on February 15th, 2014 an anonymous survivor released several diaries to police custody. Along with an expansive journal detailing this unnamed killers most recent prospects. The survivor offered this all this information in exchange for protection.The police happily agreed to put her in a witness protection program in exchange for the killer’s personal diaries. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Only a few weeks after being moved to a lodge New Moon Isle, this survivor’s body had appeared washed up on the shoreline of Iron Island. Field agents examined the body and uncovered hundreds of human bite marks covering the victim’s body. Iron Island police requested the dental mould of the mystery killer’s teeth from the archives of Oreburgh. The killer’s unique bite mark was able to be plastered from the body of Mateus Winthrop post mortem. The marks were a perfect match however; one of the Iron island police noticed some facial similarities in the faces of the two victims. After DNA testing it was discovered that Faith Auburn was the daughter of Mateus Winthrop and her body was sent to Celestic town where her father and her mother had been buried. Though records show that she was married toVictor Auburn, he did not file a report in her absense and he could not be found for questioning. ''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;text-indent:.1in;line-height: 200%">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">With the last survivor of this mysterious killer now dead, and the motives or physical description of this man left unclear, police are greatly discouraged. They will not know much more of this killer until his diaries are translated from a strange nonsensical language. Until then most other evidence is rendered inconclusive and until that day this cold cas will remain unsolved. ''

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Section heading
Man of the Forest