Night fell like a final curtain, swallowing the last vestiges of color from the sky and plunging the world into a profound and absolute darkness. The waiting was a unique form of torture. Alex sat in his chair, a sentry in his lonely outpost, every muscle coiled tight. The only light came from a single lantern turned down low, casting long, dancing shadows that seemed to hold their own threats.
His radio, clipped to his belt, was silent expect for the faint, steady static that signaled an open channel. Elara was there, listening with him. Her silence was as companionable as her voice, a shared vigil against the encroaching dark.
Hours passed. One hour, then two. The forest was deceptively peaceful. A gentle wind whispered through the pines, and the distant call of an owl was the only sound that broke the quiet. Doubt began to creep into Alex's mind. Maybe it wasn't coming. Maybe the message on the tree was just a bizarre, inexplicable act of a creature that had now moved on.
Then he heard it.
Click. Click-click. Click.
The sound was soft at first, but sharp, like a pebble striking glass. It was the same rhythmic clicking they had heard before, but now it felt different. It wasn't random It was a signal. It was an announcement.
"I hear it," Alex said into the radio, his voice a low whisper.
"I hear it too," Elara replied, her voice strained. "It's not coming from my direction. It's there, Alex. It's with you."
The clicking grew louder, moving around the base of the tower. It was deliberate, mocking patrol. Alex gripped the flare gun on his desk, his knuckles white. He resisted the urge to shine his flashlight down, knowing it would do no good. The creature was toying with him. It wanted him to be afraid. It was succeeding.
Then, a new sound began, and it was infinitely worse. A voice cried out from the woods below.
"Help! Somebody, please! Help me!"
Alex froze, his blood turning to ice. The voice was weak, hoarse and filled with pain. It was the voice of a man.
"Oh god," he breathed. "Elara, that's... that sounds like a person."
"No," she said instantly, her voice sharp and commanding. "No, Alex it's a trick. Don't listen."
But the voice came again, closer this time, from just beyond the treeline. "I'm hurt! My leg is broken! Is anyone there? Please!"
It was a cruel, perfect trap. What if it was Ben Carter, the missing hiker, who had somehow escaped and crawled here, drawn by the faint light of the tower? To ignore a man's pleas for help was an unforgivable act. But to open the door...
"It's the creature, Alex," Elara insisted, sensing his hesitation. "It mimics things. It's trying to lure you down."
He knew she was probably right, but the sound was so real, so full of desperation. He was torn apart by the conflict. His humanity screamed at him to help, while his survival instincts screamed at him to hide. The voice cried out one more time, a long drawn-out of agony that ended in a wet, gurgling sound before falling silent.
Alex squeezed his eyes shut, his stomach churning with guilt and horror.
And then the physical assault began.
A deep, guttural roar erupted from the base of the tower, a sound of pure rage and power that vibrated through the soles of Alex's boots. It was followed by a deafening BANG as something of immense weight and strength slammed into the tower's northeastern leg.
The entire structure groaned and shuddered violently. The lantern on his desk rattled, the axe leaning against the wall clattered to the floor, and Alex was thrown from his chair. He hit the ground hard, his head striking the wooden floorboards.
The siege was no longer a game of sounds and shadows. The monster was trying to tear his world apart.