Chapter 6 – Chap 6

The beast was a quadruped creature that heavily resembled a dog or a wolf, but it was no regular canine, it was huge, about as big as a fully grown horse. At first glance, you might look at its bright green eyes and think it was blind, since they had no pupils, but that wasn’t the case, unfortunately for us…Aside from its size and eyes, there was also another trait that set it apart from your everyday dog, its horns, they were much bigger than ours and looked as if they had been specially designed to tear through the flesh of helpless children, just like its enormous jaw packed with two rows of teeth that looked as sharp as knives. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s peculiar,terrifying and familiar roar confirmed it, that thing was Paula’s monster, there was no doubt about it.

“SPLIT UP!” I shouted

And so, Jack ran to the right, Chris to the left and I stayed in the middle. That managed to confuse the dog for a few short seconds, wich we used to run away as fast as we could. But, of course, the demon dog quickly got back on track, now it was forced to choose between us three…it chose me.

There was no way I could outrun it, it was right behind me, about to pounce at me as if I was its defensless little toy. As a last resort I dropped down and played dead.

I could hear it sniffing me as its nostrils scrolled through my body, my eyes were closed shut, I felt like a living time bomb, desperately trying not to move or breathe or cry. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like a rock being thrown at the dog, and the beast noticed too, it was Chris. The demon dog stared at her, growled and began running towards her. Chris screamed and put her hands in front of her face, and the dog…stopped. It kept staring at Chris, but it didn’t move, it looked as if it was scared of her. Chris then ran and hid behind a bunch of stalacmites.

“Alright, guys, hear me out on this…” Jack said

“What if we all made noise at the same time? Maybe that would distract or confuse it…”

“Great idea!”

So we all grabbed a rock and began banging the walls and the floor. And it seemed to be working, the demon dog began to frantically look arround the place, clearly confused as it was surrounded by sound coming from three different directions.

“We can’t keep doing this forever…” I said

“Look, a dark tunnel, that’s our escape route!” Chris pointed out

We began moving towards the tunnel, slowly, trying not to make any sudden moves and without stopping making sounds.

“Wait for it…” Chris said as we entered the dark tunnel

“Wait for it…”

“Now,run!” she said once the darkness of the tunnel had shrouded us completely.

The dark pathway branched into multiple tunnels creating a labyrinth of blackness, that made us harder to spot, but it also camouflaged the dog as well, especially since it had black fur. And speaking of the dog, it was clear it wasn’t gonna give up because of a simple dark tunnel, we heard him running through the maze as it let out those uncanny animalistic growls that definitely didn’t sound like your usual dog barks.

“Oh, come on! Don’t tell me it has night vision!” Jack complained

It seemed as the tables had turned, as now it was us who could hear the dog moving across the tunnel system on all sides, or at least our null visibility made it seem that way. It felt like a twisted game of Pac-Man.

“Guys, I think I see light over there!” I whispered

We ran towards the light and ended up in another corridor, but at least this one was illuminated, but there was no time to relax, the demon dog had seen the light too, and it was coming.

We sprinted across the tunnel, hoping it would lead to the exit, but that hope was shattered when we discovered…it was a dead end, and the dog was right behind us. There was nothing we could do, that was it, it was going to kill us for sure.

“Ths is it! We’re all gonna die!” Jack exclaimed in tears. All three of us began crying out of sheer impotence.

And then…then something I can only describe as unbelievable happened. Right when the demon dog was mere inches away from our faces, its mouth overflowing with saliva, Chris steped forward, looked at the monster in the eyes, and opened her mouth wide, letting out a roar that put the dog’s own growls to shame, it was so loud I covered up my ears in fear my eardrums would explode.

And so, that giant creature that had taken the lives of Paula and who knows how many more children, slowly backed away, and then ran away in fear, wheeping like a puppy.

“Yeah…that…that’ll teach him! Right, Chris? Chris? ” Jack uttered

Chris didn’t respond, she just stood there.

“Chris? Christine, are you there? Are you alive? ” I asked

I looked at her face, her eyes were half closed, as if she was stuck in some kind of trance. But that wasn’t the oddest thing about her eyes…her pupils, they didn’t look round, but rather looked like those you’d see on a feline or a snake.

“CHRIS!” Jack and I shouted

She then blinked and looked arround, confused. Her eyes were back to normal.

“Huh…What? What just happened,mates?”

“Don’t you remember what you just did to that demon dog?”

“Oh,yeah… Wait, that roar…that was me!? HOW?”

“No idea! Don’t ask us, you’re the one who did it! It was sick,though!” Jack replied

“But how? I’ve studied vocal chords in school, that roar should be impossible to pull off for any human being, much less for a twelve year old kid whose voice is still in development! How are your vocal chords not completely destroyed!? ” I said

“Seriously, what the hell,Chris?” Jack added

“I said I don’t know, okay? The dog’s gone, so let’s focus on getting out of the cave.” she replied

So after exploring corridor after corridor in search of a way out, the calming sound of waves gave us hope.

” The ocean… That must mean we’re close! Come on, mates!” Chris exitedly exclaimed

And shortly after, we saw light again, but it wasn’t coming from lightbulbs this time. It was moonlight, the exit was just a few feet away. We ran to it as soon as we saw it. It felt so good to feel the cold air from the outside world hit my face!

“We made it! Hooray!” Chris said as we high-fived

“Too bad we’re still trapped on the island,though…” Jack said

“Don’t ruin my optimism! After all, I think I deserve it after being the sole reason the dog’s not playing with our corpses! “

” Yeah, about that… I still have no clue how you managed to do that! ” I added

” Me either… We could try to figure it out tomorrow, I’m very tired now!” Chris said before yawning

“We all are, I think we should go to sleep.”

“But where? There’s no way I’m going back to the bungalows, the cultists go there reguarly and after all what we’ve done today, we must be their top priority on their hitlist!” Jack said

So we went to the forest and made a basic bunker with bushes and leaves. It wasn’t exactly comfy, but it was better than risking being caught by the men in our sleep.

Chris was the first one to fall asleep.

“She’s…fascinating! ” I said to Jack

” And terrifying! What she did to the dog…it wasn’t normal! “

“What do you think was that?”

“No idea, but I think it’s best we keep her arround, she saved our lives, after all!”

Jack and I gave in shortly after. We had a relatively peacful night. But the following morning, didn’t start with peace, but rather with Chris’s horrifying scream that woke us up with a huge dose of adrenaline.