Night's Annex

The full moon shined its menacing light through the little crevices allotted by the forest’s thick trees, casting shadows ten times as big as their tangible counterparts. Trees stretched, their trunks forming into spindly ghostly bodies across other surfaces, their branches appearing as arms reaching for something solid to hold too. Gavin walked on, wrapping his body and arms even more tightly within his cloak, as though it would serve as security against the cunning terrors and mysteries of the forest.

His path journeyed through the map’s portion was labled,  “Night’s Annex,” a forest so named by the locals who were convinced that night’s obscurities found sanctuary from daylight in the densely covered forest. Stories told how night’s darkness fled for the sinister shade of the old trees upon sunrise, and no source of light could penetrate the solidity of Night when it was so concentrated. The general store owner warned Gavin that many a traveler travelling his path found themselves lost in the forest, forever to wander in circles or kidnaped by the Devil’s Bats. Gavin hated Bats. But, he was being paid a handsome sum to enter the forest, and he had a reputation to uphold. And Fate was delivering a message that he could no longer ignore.

So, Gavin started at Point A, heading to his Point B, guided by the vague map he bought at the general store. “All Things and More” was a well-respected shop, and they warned him that the shortest path between Point A and B was not necessarily the quickest...nor the smartest direction to take; especially at night.

The trees above Gavin rustled with one of the sinister mysteries. A panicked yelp leapt from his throat as he thought about the furry rat like body of a flying creature beating it’s wings against the back of his head. His neck hair stood up in response to this thought, and poked at his upturn hood. As he lifted his lantern to try and shine light on the source of the disturbance, goosebumps on his arm rubbed against his woolen cloak; which just wouldn’t pull any tighter around him no matter how much he tugged. He closed his eyes and concentrated on calming his speeding heart rate.

His subconscious yanked at the memories of a cave, full of rodents flying at him. Furry bodies brushing against his face, beating wings in his eyes, little claws scratching his scalp; yelling and then feeling a leathery touch against his lips. Since that dare, in which he forfeited his prize marbles for losing, he searched for some way to defeat his childhood nightmares that disturbed his slumber. the nightmares which plagued his childhood slumber by trying to find bravery in conquering other people’s fears. Twenty years later, bites and scratches healed (but with many scars remaining), Bats were the fear he avoided. Until, of course, he was paid to do it.

Gavin had encountered many folk legends in his travels. He started to help partly because he wanted to and partly to compensate for his lack of confidence. Soon, Gavin found his name spread and he developed into a supernatural detective. His current assignment was to disprove the Devil’s Bats in the Night’s Annex were at fault for kidnapping the village Lumbersmith’s daughter. The father, claiming they dragged her off into Night’s Annex, left a jury ruling with unquestioned knowledge.  Upon finding themselves lacking evidence to prove a more sinister motive, the Town Council moved to employ Gavin to disprove of the Devil Bat theory, requesting he capture one of the cursed creatures and bring it back as evidence. With a reputation to uphold, Gavin felt himself tongue tied and unable to say no.

Gavin accepted the assignment upon receiving Fate’s message, “It’s Time!”  Upon crossing the threshold at the forest boarder near the Village Propper, he sneered into Fate’s smirking face and began his journey towards the Lumberjack’s land through the forest path, where the creatures supposedly kidnapped the daughter.

Another step…another step…He couldn’t turn back yet.

Tugging once again at his cloak, he felt a cold gust of wind swoop in font of his face, blowing out his lantern, then relighting it just in time to make out faint shadows swooping against the backdrop of a thick tree trunk; the night’s reflection flapping with a wingspan stretching almost as wide as the trunk. Panic hit a high note in his throat. Gavin’s back tensed and he involuntarily started running. Disoriented by abandoned self-control, he ran straight into the swarm that casted the shadows. Gavin’s hood fell away as he flung his arms up to cover his face. Matching memories clicked into vivid empathic pictures as the wings beat against his face. Desperately employing calming methods he learned during his travel’s, Gavin’s memories soon started comparing themselves to the present. The wings seemed smaller, the claws were less sharp, and as a bug flew by his nose, the hungry creature didn’t even try to bite him. Gavin put his arms down, breathing nervous laughter upon acknowledging the disproportion between memory and present.

Despite the new found and welcomed courage, Gavin did not want to invite new nightmares. He decided the best approach to capture one of the fury creatures was to set a trap rather than reach for one.  He pulled out his contraption specifically designed and put together by the village blacksmith, caught some of the insects by lantern light, and waited. Not three minutes later, he had one. Holding one up close for the first time and actually seeing it, exploring it, adult observations broke through his childhood impressions. Promising the creature that he would be returned, and in the interim he would have many more bugs to feast on, Gavin walked out of the swarm, and headed back as day’s dusk began to filter through the forest’s canopy. Another Urban Legend solved and Justice was arriving on morning’s horizon.