The fire crackled as the friends chatted, orange and yellow flames jumped to lick the air. 

“Guys I have to pee” Stacy said to the group as she stood up. Her drunken movements were sloppy and slow as she stumbled into the dark woods. 

“Don't get eaten,” Jess yells after her friend. She turned to flip us the bird before continuing her journey into the woods. 

“You're an idiot, Jess,” Chad slured. “She's ain’t gonna-” he's cut off by a shrill scream and the sound of tearing flesh. They all bolt up from their relaxed spots. 

“Stacy!?” Tracy screamed her name as if that would stop the sounds of her sister's bones crunching, flesh ripping and blood spurting out. Then the sounds stop and the forest goes quiet with only the sound of breathing and fire crackling. The cracking of a twig and Josh was gone, then Tracy disappeared. Jess took off into the woods. She didn't have to run far before she found her friend’s mangled body lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Her neck was broken and she was gasping for breath. The hole in her chest oozing blood onto the grass and leaves on the forest floor. Jess dropped to her knees next to her best friend, getting blood on the knees of her jeans. There's nothing she can do to save her now. She lifts Stacy’s head into her lap and cradles her. Stacy’s hand moved to her pocket. Jess stopped her movement and reached in herself. She pulled out a set of old keys on a metal loop. They were tarnished and rusty. Each of the keys had a very distinct shape, one of a raven, one of a star, and one of a plain circle. Quickly she pockets them, looking back down at her friend. Stacy reached up, her bloody fingers caressing Jess’ face. Bile rises but she pushes it down. Now is not the time for her hemophobia.

“The keys will fix what I have done, I'm sorry” Stacy rasped out. 

“What are you talking about??” Jess watched as her friend faded away.

“I love you” she mouthed,unable to speak anymore. 

“I love you too” Jess said with a shaky voice as the tears began to fall from her eyes. Dropping onto the dead face of her greatest friend. Life drains from Stacy's eyes and her body goes completely limp. Jess felt inhuman eyes on her, a growl and the crunch of leaves filled her terrified brain. One last look at her friend and she took off. Her feet carried her through the woods. The sound of growling, panting, and barking came from behind her. Her drunken haze had dissipated completely when she watched Stacy die in her arms. There was an aching in her chest and her breaths came in gasps but she had to keep going. To survive. To find what Stacy was talking about.

She tripped over a root and fell to the ground. The rocks and sticks on the ground cut her hands, dirt getting into the small wounds. 

Jess hears a twig break, shallow growls.  The feeling of claws ripping her back open rips an animalistic scream from her lungs.  Howling in pain she tries to get up, to get away. A gun shot sounds from somewhere far away and the beast pauses its brutal attack on her. Another shot, closer this time caused the beast to take off, leaving Stacy lying in the dirt bleeding. Not wasting another second she scampered to her feet, taking off through the woods. 

As she ran she found a grave yard, all of the tombstones looked old and abandoned. In the middle of all the stones was a building with a large statue of a raven on the top above a door almost completely hidden in moss and vines. Jess’ feet slowed to a walk as she approached it. Bleeding from her wounds, she stumbled up to the door. Her hands found the  door handle buried in the vines and moss growing all over the building. When she tried the door handle it didn't move. Her hands roamed around the door trying to find a keyhole. Her thumb hit a sharp edge “Ouch”, she yelped as she pulled her hand away to examine the cut on her thump. Blood poured out of the small cut. Her eyes lifted to the keyhole to find a strange yellow glow coming from it. The shape of the hole looked familiar. She yanked the keys Stacy had given her from her pocket, and shoved the raven shape into the hole. It slipped in perfectly. Quickly she twisted the key, hearing a satisfying click come from in the door before it swung open. She stumbled into a stone room. The decor of the room looked like something out of an old homestead. As she stumbled into the room, the warmth stunned her, realizing how cold she had been. Suddenly her knees buckled, her legs giving out as she fell to the floor like dead weight. Her knees hit the stone floor with bruising force. Her upper body fell to the floor after her knees, her head falling, skull bouncing on the ground. Her ears began to ring, vision going black. 

John clung to his rifle as he moved silently through the woods. He had not seen beasts like these in nearly 400 years. He had killed this batch but hadn't been able to save the group of drunk college kids that the monsters had found. He didn't think he would ever get used to the sounds of ripping bodies and screaming. He touched his headstone as he walked past it like he has done every time for the past 500 years. His eyes drifted up to find the door of his home open wide and a bloody girl laying inside. He rushed to her, feeling her neck for a pulse. It was weak but there. He lifted her up and carried her into his home, laying her body on the couch. He cleaned her up, starting first with the blood and dirt on her face. She's pretty, with a button nose and long natural eyelashes. Her skin is pale and soft complemented by her long chestnut hair. She was hurt badly. He hoped she wouldn't bleed out. 

Her eyes shot open. The light in the room made her eyes feel raw. Her body shot into a sitting position but she immediately fell down. There was a strange tugging in her back, like stitches had been sewn in. there was a deep male voice from behind her. “Whoa there, lay back down” her neck cramped from the sheer speed of her turning to look at him. He sat in an old wooden chair, looking at her like he was nervous about scaring her. He had a kind face, mostly covered by an untamed beard. His hair was long and stuck out from under his cowboy hat, curling up at the ends. A cigarette dangled from his lips. “You need to rest,” He says “that thing got you really good.”

She is suddenly aware of the stabbing pain all over her body. Slowly she lays back onto the couch. Her face is sore and hot. She raises her hand to one of her cheeks feeling the thread through it. Pulling her fingers away she sees a small amount of dark red blood. The nausea hit her like a train. Blood was not something that she could handle. Wiping her fingers on her pants, she swallowed the feeling of nausea and looked around. 

Her mind was foggy, her voice raw “Where am I?” she rasped. 

“I found you lying in the doorway bleeding out” He said as he gestured to the door. That's when she remembered what had happened. Images of her friends dying played behind her eyes. A single tear dropped down her face. 

There was scratching and a whine that came from the door. “What is-” she hadn't seen him move before he clamped a hand over her mouth and shushed her. Those things that had killed her friends. She thought. That's what was out there. She kept quiet after he moved his hand. Suddenly the door was ripped down and a snarling face of a large dog came into the doorway. It charged with a series of growls and barks followed by ripping flesh, spurting blood, a gunshot, and then silence. 

He watched as the beast launched itself straight at the girl. With reflexes that he had trained over the last 400, he jumped out of the way, launching himself for his shotgun. He let loose one and then two shots right at the monster as it ripped into the girl's body. Blood covered the walls. The beast yelped, grabbed what was left of the girl's body and took off through the cemetery and into the woods, a trail of the girl's blood dripping from its face. John fell to the ground, defeated.