@emptyEyes MOOOOOOOOOooobbbssseerrrveeerrr
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The hunter had tracked monsters for twenty years. He carried silver blades, iron charms, and enough scars to prove that most things lurking in the dark could bleed. Tonight, the forest felt different. The trees stood packed together like black teeth, their branches clawing at a sky hidden behind storm clouds. Rain dripped from every leaf. The earth beneath his boots was soft with rot. Something had been taking people from the nearby town. No bodies. No blood. Just empty campsites and abandoned trails. He found tracks near midnight. Not footprints. Not claws. Just strange depressions in the mud, spaced impossibly far apart, as though something had crossed the forest in leaps that should have shattered bone. The hunter followed. The deeper he went, the quieter the woods became. No owls. No insects. Not even the wind. Only the distant sound of movement. A rustle. Then silence. He stopped. His lantern illuminated a circle of trees ahead. For a moment, he thought he saw something standing between them. Then it wasn't there. His hand drifted to his knife. The rustling came again. Behind him. He spun. Nothing. The forest stretched away in endless darkness. Then the sound came from his left. Then his right. Then somewhere ahead. Each noise separated by barely a heartbeat. Too fast. Far too fast. The hunter's confidence began to crack. Whatever stalked these woods wasn't circling him. It was everywhere around him. His lantern flickered. Something moved between the trees. A blur. A shadow. Gone before his eyes could focus. He raised his rifle. The woods exploded with motion. Branches snapped. Leaves scattered. The thing rushed through the darkness so quickly it seemed less like a creature and more like a tear opening in reality itself. He fired. The shot vanished into the black. No scream followed. No impact. Only silence. Then he felt breath against the back of his neck. The hunter froze. Slowly, he turned. Nothing stood behind him. But something wet dripped onto his shoulder from above. His lantern went out. The darkness swallowed everything. There was the sound of something moving. One step. Then another. Then suddenly a hundred steps at once. The hunter ran. Roots grabbed at his boots. Branches lashed his face. Behind him came that impossible sound, racing through the forest faster than any living thing should move. Closer. Closer. Closer. A hand reached from the darkness ahead. His own reflection stared back at him from between the trees. Then it vanished. The hunter stumbled. For the first time in twenty years, he screamed. The sound cut off abruptly. The forest fell silent once more. By morning, search parties found his rifle leaning against a tree. His lantern rested beside it. The mud around them was untouched. There were no tracks. No blood. No body. Only the endless woods stretching into the darkness, where something impossibly fast still moved between the trees whenever nobody was looking.
Nice fanfiction. Care to put it to the test? Tear it all down, embrace the detonation.