text: Nine hours later, you're ready to go. You've somehow convinced Dad to let you go out, not daring to tell him your actual destination and instead claiming you're staying at Lucy's house. You meet up at the Lucy's house with the group, and walk into the living room, where they're all sitting around.
  
  "Are we ready?" you ask.
  
  "Damn straight!" Ant smiles, holding up a large backpack. "Spare food, water bottles, lighters, matches, rope, fireworks, some knives and flashlights. What'd you guys bring?"
  
  Carter holds up half a chocolate bar he's been chewing on.
  
  "Half a M-Mars bar," he says, before taking another bite. "A q-quart-quarter of a Mars b-bar."
  
  "I brought a penknife and a lighter," you shrug, and Ant looks around disappointedly.
  
  "No one brought anything?" he pouts. "You guys suck."
  
  You hear a horn outside, and look outside. A large RV drives up the driveway, stopping outside. Lucy skips out the door, before running up to him, and you follow her outside.
  
  "Hey, Hazel," Drake says.
  
  "Drake's friend, Ed, has the pick-up, so we're driving to the woods, meeting him and switching vehicle," Lucy tells you.
  
  "OK," you say, walking into the RV. You raise an eyebrow as you notice that the RV's windows are covered with shutters and bin bags, and the actual interior looks like a scene from Breaking Bad, covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners and other Chemistry gear.
  
  "Well, you're blatant," you say.
  
  "Hey, it's effective."
  
  "I mean, yeah, but Breaking Bad made this a trope. Don't police search RV's for this."
  
  "Breaking Bad helped my sales enough that I'm bribing the deputy. You'll be surprised how much extra meth heads are willing to pay for a product when you add some blue dye."
  
  You shrug, and take a seat in the RV, as your friends pack in.
  
  "Be careful back there. Knock one thing over and this place could blow."
  
  "Really?" you ask.
  
  Drake grins and shrugs, and begins driving.
  
  "Maybe. I mean, there's a distillery back there as well as the lab. I'd imagine one speed bump and boom!"
  
  "That's unnerving," Ant says.
  
  "I guess. So, why the hell am I dragging all your friends into the middle of the woods to the old freakshow cage?"
  
  "I told you already," Lucy reveals.
  
  "That nightmare bull isn't convincing me. What's the real reason?"
  
  "That is the real reason."
  
  Drake turns around to stare at you in annoyance.
  
  "What...?"
  
  "Eyes on the road, Drake," Kyle says.
  
  "Fine," Drake says, turning around. "Still, I want an explanation why I'm driving into the woods because the new girl had a nightmare."
  
  "It wasn't a nightmare!" you say.
  
  "Sure," Drake says.
  
  You all sit in awkward silence until you reach the outskirts of the woods. Drake pulls over, and you stand and head out the door. Although you couldn't tell because of the shutters and blacked out windows of the RV, you can now see that night has fallen. An empty red pick-up truck with four seats sits next to the woods. Drake strides forward, pulling out his phone.
  
  "Ah, shit," Drake says. "Of course Ed left the truck here and went off on his quad rather than just take back the RV like he was supposed to."
  
  He locks the RV and hides the keys in the wheel well.
  
  "I'll text my friend and get him to pick up the RV. Come on, get inside. Let's go drive to a dumbass cage in the woods."
  
  Drake, Lucy, Carter and Ant go in the seats while you, Mason, Becca and Kyle sit in the back of the pick-up. You sit, half-lying on Mason who wraps one arm around you. The emotional part of your brain momentarily forgets all fears in favor of a childish infatuation and hormonal lust towards Mason that causes you to blush and your heart to flutter, the rational part of your brain reminds you to stay vigilant in case the cultists or that beast do show up. You and the rest of your friends pull out flashlights and fire the beams off into the darkness, illuminating trees and undergrowth.
  
  "We're nearly there," Drake shouts. "It's a hell of a lot easier to get here because a path's been made."
  
  Your ears perk up at that.
  
  "What do you mean?" you ask, as Drake rolls down his window fully.
  
  "What'd you say?"
  
  "I said what do you mean? You said there's a path."
  
  "Yeah. It's like a big RV drove over the undergrowth and knocked a dirt path along."
  
  "What, you think Ed's been driving out here to work in the RV?" Lucy asks.
  
  "Nah, Ed's terrified of the woods. Said something about a monster or something."
  
  You feel a flash of fear as you remember the RV from last night. You stare outwards, illuminating every shadow, both hoping to and terrified of seeing something hiding in the dark.
  
  "Here it is! The old freak show's cage!" Drake says dramatically.
  
  As Drake pulls the pick-up into the clearing in the woods, you see the massive, rusted cage, although there's no RV. You shiver in fear, and Drake steps out of the truck.
  
  "Let's investigate and get home," Drake says, firing his flashlight beam towards the cage. 
  
  The flashlight beam illuminates the cage and its insides. The old rusted gurney sits there, now encrusted with dried blood.
  
  "Well, that's new," Drake mentions.
  
  You step back nervously.
  
  "Hazel said there was a gurney in her dre... when she was abducted," Ant points out. 
  
  "Fuck, this is some creepy shit. I'm calling the sheriff," Drake says.
  
  Drake takes out his phone, and makes a call. 
  
  "Hello, Sheriff Buckly? I just found a gurney in the middle of the cage in the woods covered in dried blood. I think some weird... oh, really? OK, you know where the cage from the... oh, great.. Cool, see you in a few minutes, or an hour, or whatever."
  
  "What was that?"
  
  "The sheriff said he'll come here straight away."
  
  "Good," you sigh in relief.
  
  You really can't imagine having to deal with this without the help of the law. Now, it's out of your hands. You wait patiently for Sheriff Buckly to arrive. Eventually, you spot a flashlight heading towards you.
  
  "There he is," Drake says.
  
  You shine your light ahead, illuminating the figure of Sheriff Buckly. He swears, and holds his hands to block his eyes.
  
  "Turn that off!" he says, and you do.
  
  "Fuck, how'd you even get the truck out here? I can barely walk through the undergrowth," he says. "Where this bloody gurney?"
  
  You point at the cage, and Sheriff Buckly walks over and looks at it. 
  
  "Jesus... who else saw this? I'm going to need to gather all the witnesses and find out what was going on," he says.
  
  "We're the only people who've seen this, although Hazel got a bit of a closer encounter."
  
  "So you didn't tell you pa about this?" Sheriff Buckly asks.
  
  You shake your head, and Sheriff Buckly nods.
  
  "Good," Sheriff Buckly says.
  
  Sheriff Buckly draws his revolver, and quickly aims at Drake's head and fires. Drake's head snaps back as it explodes partially, sending chunks of gray brain matter, pale skull and pieces of red flesh at you. You scream as Lucy runs over to Drake as his body collapses backwards. Mason runs for the truck, before the Sheriff barks an order.
  
  "Stop! Move another muscle and I'll blow the brain out of everyone of you!"
  
  Mason stops, raising his hands. Sheriff Buckly points his gun at all of you, forcing you to raise your hands into the air.
  
  "Everyone, calm down. Nobody needs to get hurt," Sheriff Buckly says.
  
  "Fuck you!" Lucy screams. "You killed him! You killed him you piece of..."
  
  Sheriff Buckly steps forward and cracks her across the head wit his revolver.
  
  "Shut up! Carter, Mason, Ant, Kyle, get in the fucking cage!" he shouts.
  
  Mason, Ant, Kyle and Carter slowly walk into the cage.
  
  "Now, back the fuck up to the end of the cage!"
  
  The boys comply, and the Sheriff draws a set of keys from his pocket, locking the cage door. He turns to you, Lucy and Becca.
  
  "Just don't move. They'll be here in a minute."
  
  You stand in silence, the cold wind blowing, the silence only broken by the occasional soft sob by Lucy as she stands over Drake. After about half an hour of waiting, you see the RV pull up along the path. It stops, and four masked men step out.
  
  "Anyone escape?" one asks.
  
  "No," Sheriff Buckly responds. "Fuck, I didn't even know they were coming out here. You said whatever the fuck you injected the girl with would make her forget everything."
  
  "I said it probably would. Her phone's bugged. How didn't you find out?"
  
  "She didn't make any calls saying she was going to do it!"
  
  "Well, at least no one escaped," the masked man says, pulling off his mask.
  
  The group remove their masks. You vaguely recognize them, one being the mechanic who found you, one being the town doctor, Doctor Kessel, another being a German teacher from school and the final one being the bartender of the local bar.
  
  "What are you going to do with...?" Becca asks, before Sheriff Buckley lets out a bark.
  
  "Hey! Shut the fuck..."
  
  "No, Jake, let the girl ask her question," Doctor Kessel says. 
  
  "What are you going to do with us? Who are you? Why did you send a monster to hunt me?"
  
  "What are we going to do with you? Nothing, ideally. We only need to borrow you. Who are we? Well, surely you must recognize us. Louis, Sheriff Buckly, Mrs Jordan, Alison and me, Doctor Kessel. "As for the monster, I assume you're referring to the Black Beast. That's not an issue, I assure you. Although I'm not sure of its origins, if you look at town records, it actually kills most of the bears in the area, which reduces the amount of attacks so much it's saving lives. If I was in your situation, I'd be much more worried about us."
  
  "What do you want? Are you going to sacrifice us to Satan?" Becca asks again.
  
  Doctor Kessel lets out a chuckle. 
  
  "No, Rebecca, we're not. We're not satanists. Real satanists don't even believe in Satan. We're... researchers. We're humanitarians. We're explorers. When we were little kids, we used to be the best of friends. We played in these very woods. When we were little, we found... a book in one of the caves. We took it and read it, and we found out the most amazing things. Do you know how insignificant not only we are, but this planet, this solar system, this galaxy and this universe is? There are so many amazing things we learned about these beings that we can't even comprehend, but compared to what's out there, we learned so little. So we kept reading. The book included some instructions to summon them, to summon these beings that are stronger than any gods we've ever imagined, more alien that any alien we've created in fiction, more incredible than anything you could experience here. If we create a Key-Bearer, we can create a portal to these beings."
  
  "That's insane! How do you know they won't wipe us out, or enslave us all, or worse!" you cry.
  
  "I don't," Doctor Kessel admits.
  
  "It could destroy everything!"
  
  "You just need to calm down and listen!" he hisses. "Imagine you're stuck in a room. There is a small tap for water, a toilet and a small machine that creates a nutritious yet tasteless paste. You have everything you need to survive and continue your blank, boring existence. Now, one day, a door appears in the room. It's unlocked. Do you go through?"
  
  "What the fuck does...?"
  
  "We are trying to open that door. Just as the person in the room doesn't know what's on the other side, anything is better than the bland, boring existence of the room. We're trying to open the world up to experiences unknown to man, good or bad, because it has to be better than this meaningless existence."
  
  "What are yuo even talking about? What the fuck's a Key-Bearer?" Mason shouts, as Sheriff Buckly aims his gun at his head once again. 
  
  "Shut up," Sheriff Buckly grunts.
  
  "Ah yes, the Key-Bearer. That part's the worst for you guys. A Key-Bearer is a creature birthed of the beings' power of a human womb. We've had several attempts at this, but every time we failed. Instead of creating a Key-Bearer, we created half-human, half-monster children who aged rapidly. Finally, we settled the problem. The mother of the Key-Bearer had to be a virgin, post-puberty, below 21 and to have AB Negative Blood. You'd imagine my luck when I found one such target walking around the cave where I was sacrificing some former mothers to keep the beings' interested in our world. I simply pumped out some gas I had on hand to help knock her out, and voila! I got to work."
  
  You stare at him in horror, putting a hand on your stomach. There's a series of gasps and shouts from the group, before Sheriff Buckly fires his gun in the air.
  
  "SHUT IT!" he roars.
  
  "I'm sorry, Hazel. It'll be over in a few hours."
  
  "A few hours? It's only been two days, how...?" you ask in horror.
  
  "The Key-Bearer grows incredibly quickly. It should be able to be birthed within a day at most."
  
  You feel something wiggle in your stomach, in your womb, and a pain shoots through you.
  
  "Listen, Hazel, it'll be OK," Doctor Kessel says. "In a few hours, you'll be fine, and we'll be in a whole new world."
  > break down
  You drop to your knees and begin sobbing, as Doctor Kessel walks over, grabbing you. You scream, as a needle enters your neck.
  
  "Don't worry, I'm going to help you sleep for the next few hours. When you wake up, it'll be all over..."
  
  You scream as you begin to feel sleepy, before closing your mouth. Your heavy eyelids close, as the needle presses into your veins, sending you into a deep  sleep. Knowing what they're planning to do, you hope you overdose on this rather than waking up...