Blood falls from somewhere up in the canopy, pittering against the ground and staining his clothes as he sprints away from the skeletal hands tearing their way towards him through the undergrowth. His friends are nearby, unseen and only gasping for breath further out in the dark.
He hopes they are his friends but a part of him is screaming that they already died and theirs is the blood on his clothes, falling from the canopy and slicking the ground beneath his feet as he chases their frantic footsteps with his own. At first he wanted to catch up to them - any one of them - now he keeps an even pace behind them and prays they don't realise this before they hit the car park.
Luckily he was the one that drove them there, he had his keys clutched between his knuckles and as the trees begin to thin out, he slows down even further and veers away from the others. He crouches behind an oak tree and tries not to vocalise his terror as he sees bear-like creatures wearing the skins of his friends.
They look around the clearing for him, not realising where he was watching them, not smelling him through all the blood on his clothes and all the blood gently trickling from the fresh skins around them. Were they more cunning they would have faked walking away and hidden near the car instead.
Tonight the stars were in his favour as the creatures walk back into the forest, completely missing his shuddering form. He waits as long as he dare and runs as quietly as he can, hands shaking so badly he drops the keys again and again and again and surely they must have heard him by now?
He doesn't see them standing behind the car until his foot hits the floor and the car shrieks away from it all. His friends will not be found, the blood on his clothing only makes him appear to be the culprit as much as he claims it was a bear or bears.
He will not be believed but he will survive and that in itself is a happy ending.
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