Dimensional (9th grade story)

III: The monsters in the woods

It looked like... a lantern? I walked up and sure enough, there was a lantern sitting on a small foldable table. I looked at the scene and was in shock. It looked like someone had made a campsite, with three identical tents. I then spotted the zipper of the tent being opened and a creature stepped out, the light of the lantern on its face.

It was the creature I saw in the woods. The creature looked animal-like with large dog-like ears and a bird-like face with a large yellow beak. I stepped back another step and a twig snapped under my foot. The creature turned its head in my direction.

''Zyroc, get over here!" said the creature.

Another one of those things stepped out, only now looking like a mix between a housecat and a raven. It then turned its head and looked right at me.

"I can see you," Zyroc said blankly in a strange accent I couldn't quite place.

"Enik, prepare the sampling bag"

I stayed where I was while this Enik went into the third tent. There were bags of foul smelling things that I had no idea what they were. Enik got a large plastic bag and then pulled out an arrow launcher. He put an arrow in and launched it at me.

I jumped out of the way right before the arrow hit me. Enik was about to put another one in when I launched myself at Enik. I snatched the weapon out of the creature's hand. I pointed at it, the weapon trembling in my hand.

"W-what were you going to do to me?!" I asked suddenly.

Enik went still with the other creature Zyroc also not making a move.

"We- we are just scientists," Enik said quietly.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused

"We come from the dimension 27 and we are collecting samples of your people,"

The bags made sense, they were capturing people and killing them for science? From another dimension? I had to stop them, they couldn't keep doing this. I shut my eyes and pressed the launch. I heard a scream fill the air and Enik fell with the arrow in its face.

"What about you, are you going to keep doing this?"

The creature didn't move.

I pressed the launch again. The creature dodged and started to run. I chased after it and then, as best as I could while running, shot again.

"No! Please..." the creature stopped talking as the arrow sliced through its eye, it was dead.

I slowly turned around and caught my breath and walked back home. I knew that what I did was necessary but I was still bothered by those peculiar creatures taking human samples. I slowly opened the front door. No one was in sight.

I walked up the stairs. The next day, it was all over the news of those animal-like creatures found in the woods. How they had died from unknown causes. I watched knowing exactly what happened.