Silver Thread
August, 1996 — A forest on the outskirts of a city in Puerto Rico
FUCK.
Of all the damn times for my cousin to get lost in the woods, why today of all days?! In the dead of fucking night, no less. No rest for the worried apparently! For all her ridiculous ravings about spirits and demons and monsters, I never would have thought she would actually act on it. I suppose the grief of losing your mother will make you do anything. Even go looking for ghosts on Tuesday the 13th.
It’s already been nearly two hours of searching. God, I hope she isn’t dead, or worse. I don’t even know where I am anymore. All I have is this little needle she had found, now threaded to the fabric on Malea’s sweater. The string hasn’t broken yet from what I can feel, so this has to lead me to her somehow, right? It leads down and to left over here —
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There’s a snarl from somewhat far in front of me. Something inside me, instinct or reason or whatever else, tells me to stop. Instantly. The hum of the animal’s insidious growl vibrates my bones, and I can no longer tell the difference between my trembling and the beast’s sound shaking me. It approaches me before I get a chance to turn back, not that I think I could outrun it anyways, and I find myself towered over by less of an animal and more of an alien creature.
Reptilian scales old and unshed dress its figure. Black, soulless eyes sink into its alien head, a head lined with bony spines that wrap all the way to its back. I could only watch in awesome terror as the creature’s mouth opens to reveal canine teeth pooling with blood. Malea’s? I open my mouth in turn, to scream and cry to the heavens for help and some hope that my cousin has not just been killed by this monster. But nothing comes. The creature cuts me off, brushing a clawed paw against my hair.
Its face morphs a smile.
Self preservation finally kicks in. The next moments feel slow motion, all of it. The creature’s jaw widening, me plunging the silver needle straight through its eye, the unearthly shriek as it rips through and across the optic until it pops. My hands overflow with an ooze of blood, but I don’t care. I take my chance and run. I leave the needle in its eye, but I can still make out the string trail. Malea, wait for me. Hold out there just a little while longer. I’m —
The body was found at approximately 1:26 pm on August 14th, by two hikers in the woods. The woman was covered in blood with a long piece of string lying atop her, though it appears to have been cut. Current forensic observations suggest that the blood does not belong to the body — in fact, it had none. Police suspect foul play. Others, however, believe something far more fearsome. A creature we all know, but rarely speak of.
The chupacabra.
