The forest
“We need to head back to camp.” Thomas praised as he stared up at the cold, dark, winter sky. “They already escaped, there’s no point in searching any longer.” The captain had different plans though. “No, we have to find them. If we don’t follow orders then you know what the king will do to us.” He looked at Thomas in disgust. They continued forward into the haunted land. Thomas looked at his captain “sir is it true?” “Is what true?” the captain calmly responded. “The stories, or rumors if you must, you know about the red demons that live in these forests.” The captain's eyes blew wide open “You know that’s just a myth, and even if it was true they would’ve died years ago”. Thomas sighed in relief, but just as that feeling of relief was found the foul smell of ripe flesh filled the air. “They must be close, I’ll go check straight ahead and you guys go split up. If one of you find anything then yell.” The captain said. Thomas peeled off left into the pitch black. The cold wind pushed against his beard that had frozen over hours ago. The snow was nearly up to his knees, and with each step he took it had seemed to get deeper. He felt like there was no hope until he saw smoke rising above the trees. He yelled out “I think I found something!” But there was no response, he had traveled too deep and no one was around to save him. As he walked closer to the smoke the smell of flesh grew, fear had started to creep into his mind. With each step he took he would pray; pray for his own safety, his family's safety, and most of all he prayed that whatever was at that smokestack wasn’t looking to kill him. In the back of his mind he knew he was a dead man walking. Even if he didn’t get killed by someone else he lost his captain which meant that he would spend the night alone in subarctic temperatures.

Thomas had finally made it to the smokestack to surprisingly find the family that he had been looking for. But it was not how he expected to find them, each body was torn apart. Blood and guts changed the color of the snow from a heavenly white to a deep crimson red. Questions started to flood his mind. What animal could do this? Bears and wolves have been extinct for centuries and there have been no humans for miles. He stood over one body and looked into his lifeless eyes, but for some reason it seemed the man was staring back at him. A shiver was sent up his spine as if someone was breathing down his neck, he jolted around to find no one standing there. He started to get the chills so he ran back from where he came from, hoping he could find his captain or first mate.

The dawn started to break as Thomas finally found his captain. “Sir, I found the people we were searching for, but they have all been torn to pieces by some kind of animal”. The captain looked at him like he was a madman and hesitantly requested for Thomas to take him there. Thomas had retraced his steps back to the campsite, but when he got there his bones felt like they were about to collapse. Everything was gone; The bodies, the shelter, even the fire pit. It was like someone came by to clean up everything and made it spotless. The captain looked at Thomas with demonic eyes. “Thomas you’ve really done it this time. Not only have you wasted my time, you have pushed back the search giving them a bigger gap to escape from us.” Thomas was still in shock, he couldn’t move. It was as if something was holding him down. He was speechless. Out of nowhere there was a scream, it was a loud screeching noise that came from in front of them. Thomas looked at the captain and started to run towards where the noise was coming from. As they ran over a giant hill Thomas saw something that paralyzed him on the spot. It was the family he saw the night before, all limbs were put together and their guts were back their bodies. The captain looked at Thomas. “Looks like we really lucked out this time.” As he said that he started to run towards the family. When he approached them he said “In the name of the king, I sentence you with treason.” But there was no response, he turned one of them around and fell backwards. Shocked at what he saw, all of their eyes were a deep red. The man came up with an axe and slashed the captain's head off. Thomas tried to run but it was too late, they were already right behind him. The red demons had taken over their souls and were about to consume his. With one last breath he whispered a prayer. But god wasn’t there to save him, for he was already a dead man walking. The axe came down across his head and a deep crimson blood covered the snow.