creature

Having moved to a village tucked away in the middle of nowhere, you soon realized that your neighbors were strange. At first, you chalked it up to provincial peculiarities. One day, a chicken carcass would appear on the porch, only to vanish the next morning. After ten o'clock at night, at precisely 10:30 PM, all the doors and windows in the houses were locked tight. Your inquiries about the reasons for this secrecy were met with only sidelong glances and silence. You tried to ignore them, unable to understand the reason for such isolation.

But one morning, as you stepped out onto the porch, you froze. A dead chicken lay next to the door, and next to it, a lone, delicate flower. Your heart sank: who could have planted this on you? The neighbors, seeing your find, stared at you with a kind of horror and deep regret, as if predicting something terrible.

An old woman, her face covered in a network of wrinkles, approached you. Her voice, quiet and hoarse, told you the terrifying truth: a monster dwelled in the surrounding forest. The creature was tall, with gray skin and enormous claws. It was crowned with deer antlers, and in place of eyes were two bottomless pits, like a human's, but a third, smaller one gaped on its forehead. Tiny eyes, like berries, were perched on the sides of its head, on its cheeks, and its pointed ears twitched nervously.

The old woman lowered her voice and continued, "This monster brought you this chicken. It chose you... and, it seems, fell in love." The words hung in the air, chilling your soul. You froze, gripped by icy horror and silent fear.

It was a restless night. You sat at home, glued to the window, peering into the darkness. Suddenly, through the dense canopy of trees, you saw it. A huge, dark figure, its outline slowly emerging from behind the trunks. It peered out, its many eyes glowing like embers in the night. You remained motionless, petrified by the nightmare you had just experienced.