Re: Hunt; deep in the woods Nightmares. A truth covered up. As soon as the monster-thing croaked out the chilling words from his throat of bones, the boy knew that he was right. He’d said he was bad, but not everyone bad was… well, bad. He does bad things, he always told me that. But he’s a good man. He’s the best man I know. Those things out there in the woods? They were wrapped up in some sort of evil, and they wanted his blood. The were the kinds of bad things that would run him down into the ground and peel back his skin and slurp the spongy marrow from his bones like it was Thanksgiving gravy.
“How can you be a bad man, if you’re after the… people out there? Are they worse?” He couldn’t help but ask, his quavering words half-pressed into one of the bear’s furry ears. A step closer, crunching over the deadfall. He didn’t recognize the quick glimpse of something that hinted at protectiveness, because he had nothing to compare it to – no, he was used to rough words and the occasional gentle whisper in his ear in the soft hours of dawn. There was nothing in between.
A sideways glance then, curiosity getting the better of a boy who should have been wiser when it came to monster stuff. He peeked up at the dead-thing through lashes that were as dusty as his skin and the mop of hair that lay, unkempt, atop his skull. What did this skeleton man know of being alone?
“I don’t think so,” he objected with a stubborn shake of his head. There was forgetting and unforgetting, here. The boy was both safe and in peril in the moments that he was alone. Things he would forget in the derlium drowning haze that carried him about, back and forth, propped up against overturned willows, minutes mused over and dismissed out of hand. “It’s dangerous to be alone. I could help you, y’know.”
And perversely, when he looked to the skeleton that towered over him, the boy actually managed to project a hopeful expression. This thing was a monster, sure. That didn’t mean it had to be so scary. Maybe it could even be trusted. He nodded once, more to himself than the man with bared and blackened teeth on his cheeks.