Didier and Philippe stood frozen, struggling to understand what they had just seen. The phantom before them had calmly reattached his arm as if nothing had happened. Fighting was no longer an option as their enemy could simply reattach himself again and again. The only choice left was to run, nothing more, nothing less.
Driven by fear, Philippe glanced over his shoulder to see whether Gabriel had finally made it up the embankment. In that brief instant, he caught sight of him reaching the top.
Yet, even with Gabriel safely above, escape remained uncertain. The phantom would overtake them long before they could attempt the climb.
Before Philippe could react to that realization, the phantom leaped toward them.
In that split second, its nail barely grazed Didier's left cheek, leaving blood flow out of the small wound. Then, an arrow sliced through the air and passed straight through the creature's skull. The force sent the phantom, still midair, hurtling backward into a tree.
This time, the phantom wasted no time reclaiming control of his body. He had already adapted to the pain. Without hesitation, he turned toward the source of the arrow, then shifted his gaze to the two figures climbing the embankment. The monster decided to remain still.
And then, it smiled.
The expression warped his face beyond recognition. The corners of his mouth, his oral commissures, began to split. At first, it was slow, then the flesh tore wider and wider until it ripped apart entirely. His jaw stretched unnaturally, revealing far too many teeth, rows upon rows meant only for tearing flesh from bone.
As his mouth continued to split open, his once blank and lifeless eyes began to change. They slowly turned red, a deep, unnatural red, like fresh blood. During all of this, the phantom's nails started to slowly grow. For the phantom, the hunt had finally begun as he slowly transformed his body in preparation for the feast. For the hunt within shadows, within his home.
Didier and Philippe hurried as much as they could, climbing with all their strength in an attempt to escape the phantom. When they didn't hear any sound behind them for a moment, Didier glanced back to see where it was. To his surprise, the phantom's appearance had completely changed. Yet it did not pursue them, instead, it lingered, as if deliberately giving them time to flee.
Of course, that only meant the creature was confident it could easily catch up, which was not a good sign for the group. It was clear that slowing down was not an option, since if they did not run, the phantom would likely lose patience quickly.
As the pair neared the top, Jacob and Mathieu reached out to help, pulling them forward to speed their progress. From what they could tell, the phantom would wait until they were out of sight before coming after them.
As they finally reached the top, they did not stop to see what would happen and kept running deeper into the forest. After a few more seconds of silence, Didier glanced back again, and to his surprise, the phantom had already climbed the embankment. It stood motionless near the edge, watching them with his gruesome smile.
"SHIT, GUYS, HE'S ALREADY BACK."
Gabriel quickly glanced back in disbelief. Even if phantoms possessed far greater strength and mobility than humans, it had scaled the embankment in an instant which personally took him 3 minutes. The sight drove the group to run even faster than before, adrenaline surging at full force to keep them alive and kicking.
Yet again, the phantom was motionless, waiting for them to advance, waiting for them to run.
The group sprinted through the dark, eerie forest, their breath ragged and uneven. Behind them, the phantom did not give chase. It simply lingered, watching, as if allowing them a fleeting head start before the hunt began.
After what felt like hours, a piercing screech split the silence. The group turned to see in the distance that the phantom started to move towards them at a slow, deliberate pace. For a moment, it advanced with unsettling calm, then without warning it surged forward, breaking into a run with that horrifying smile stretching wider as it closed the distance.
Arnaud broke away from the group, hoping to find another chance to slow the phantom. He slipped behind a tree, drew an arrow from the quiver at his side, set it into his compound crossbow, and steadied himself as he waited for the perfect moment to strike.
The others quickly understood his plan. They urged Gabriel and Mathieu to keep moving while they stayed behind, ready to distract the phantom and give Arnaud a clear shot at its head.
Philippe hated the idea, but now was not the time to dwell on the horrors of recent events. His focus had to be on countering the phantom, on finding a way to adapt to its attacks.
Since the phantom's nails were far longer than before, the creature could likely use them like spears, striking multiple people at once. Philippe knew he had to warn the others, or the consequences could be disastrous.
"Watch out for his nails when he attacks," he said. "From what I've seen, he uses them like a spear for a single clean strike, one shot, one kill."
Jacob did not like the sound of that. He had already imagined the worst, and now it seemed all too possible.
This time, the group did not need to wait for the phantom to appear. Its speed was beyond comprehension, reaching Philippe's face in an instant as if time itself posed no obstacle.
Philippe barely managed to react, swinging his sword in a desperate block. The force of the phantom's strike sent the blade spinning through the air, embedding itself deep in a tree.
The phantom wasted no time. Its nails twisted and transformed into a deadly spear, poised to end Philippe's life in an instant. Victor lunged from the left, his blade slicing through the air, but the creature was already gone.
One moment it appeared to the right, the next directly above, then behind, each movement faster than the eye could follow. It was as if the phantom tore through space itself, vanishing and reappearing in impossible speed.
Suddenly, he vanished for good. He didn't reappear, at least not in front of Victor. The phantom then gripped Victor's neck from behind with terrifying strength.
Before the creature could inflict more harm, Didier swung his Viking axe into its back. This time, the phantom made no sound of pain. Instead, it twisted its head backward, wearing a smile more dreadful than anything they had ever seen.
The phantom then let go of Victor, who gasped and clawed at the air, desperate for each ragged breath. The creature slowly twisted its gaze and body locking onto the trembling Didier. With deliberate, almost theatrical slowness, it lifted the axe from its body and took a few measured steps forward.
Then, as if mocking him, it let the weapon drop to the ground with a resonant thud, the sound echoing in the tense silence. The phantom then pointed the axe with his index and then Didier's hand. It wasn't mocking him, it wanted Didier to fight, it wanted him to struggle.
It wanted a fight.
Throughout it all, the phantom had completely forgotten about the hidden Arnaud. He waited, calculating, for the perfect moment to strike, and that moment had finally arrived. He knew chances like this might never come again, and so he squeezed the trigger.
The arrow shot through the air with breathtaking speed, aimed straight for the phantom's head. But this time, it never found its mark. The phantom caught the arrow effortlessly, without even glancing at Arnaud. Slowly, it turned its head, eyes fixed on him at last.
The phantom released a deafening scream. The surrounding shadows froze in place, even as the objects casting them continued to move. Then the phantom stepped onto its own shadow and slowly sank into it.
It vanished completely.
Tension spread through the air. Everyone knew it was still nearby, yet no one could see it. Leaves rustled, the wind whispered, but no one dared to move, not even the shadows themselves. Only Philippe broke the stillness, seizing the moment to run for his fallen sword before the creature could reappear.
Arnaud reached for his side quivers to reload, but his hand found nothing. He froze. He knew he still had arrows left. They had been there moments ago. Now they were gone. Then, Alexis screamed with all his might.
"ARNAUD! BEHIND YOU!"
Before he could turn, a nail drove into his shoulder, stopping just short of the glenohumeral joint. Pain tore a scream from his throat, sharp enough to reveal his position to the rest of the group. The phantom had found him.
The others did not stop to think about death. Instinct took over. They rushed toward him, driven by the desperate hope that reaching him might somehow keep him alive. The phantom then threw Arnaud against the very tree he had chosen as shelter moments before, turning his refuge into his last home.
Then the phantom raised a hand to its own neck.
Its fingers pressed inward, and something shifted beneath the surface. The movement was wrong, too precise, too deliberate. Joint cavities adjusted, ligaments and tendons pulled into new alignments, the surfaces of bone ground softly against one another, arteries pulsing as if being repositioned. It was not harming itself. It was reshaping itself.
The group froze in shock. Why would it do that? For what purpose?
Then a sound began to crawl out of the phantom's mouth.
"Tr… o… un…"
Arnaud reacted on instinct, the word slipping out before he could stop it.
"What?"
The sound came again, lower now, more controlled, as if the thing were tuning itself.
"Try… to… run."
A silence fell, heavy and suffocating. Then the voice rose into a jagged, deformed scream.
"TRY TO RUN. TRY TO HIDE."
The phantom extended its arm and pointed toward a building deeper in the forest, the gesture sharp and unmistakable. No one followed its direction. No one even turned. They were too stunned.
The... thing standing before them had just shaped its own body to form their words, their language. It was speaking a language it had never been taught, forcing meaning out of flesh and bone.
How it was possible was the only thought in the group's minds.
Then the phantom spoke again. This time, the voice was different.
It came from its mouth, but it was no longer rough or broken. It was clear, desperate, and unmistakably human. A woman's voice.
"TRY TO RUN, PLEASE, SWEETIE, HIDE!"
A chill ran through them.
The mystery was unraveled in an instant. It had not learned their language. It had taken it. The voice, the tone and the urgency. All of it had been heard before, torn and eaten from one of its victims and reshaped into something it could use.
It was not speaking. It was echoing what it had heard from one of it's previous victims
Jacob couldn't take it anymore. He bolted in the direction the phantom had pointed, screaming at the top of his lungs:
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING? DO YOU ALL WANT TO DIE? RUN!"
It was cowardly, yes, but it was the only choice left. The group scrambled toward the building ahead. As they drew near, they realized it was a supermarket. Food was not the problem now. Gabriel had the backpack, and he was not with them, having left earlier with Mathieu.
When the small group reached the supermarket doors, Didier froze.
"Umm guys? The doors are locked."
Arnaud let out a sharp laugh and coldly said, "This is not the time for jokes. My shoulder just got pierced by that monster, and I know supermarkets have bandages so we have no time to waste."
"I am not joking," Didier replied.
"Just break the door like last time," Arnaud coldly answered
"Last time, it was a wooden door. This one is a metal one." Didier finally said.
While Didier and Arnaud were yelling at each other, Alexis noticed a security camera mounted on the wall. It was functional, though it barely moved. Just as he thought about looking away, the lens shifted and pointed directly at him, catching him off guard.
"Guys, the camera is watching us."
Arnaud replied in a cold tone, "And what Einstein?"
"Doesn't that mean someone's inside the supermarket? They could open the door."
"Holy, you might be right," Philippe said.
Before they had a chance to signal anyone, a noise came from the door. Didier reached for the handle, and to his surprise, it opened.
Before they had a chance to signal anyone, a noise came from the door. Didier reached for the handle, and to his surprise, it opened.
When he pushed it open, the first thing he saw was the countless bodies scattered across the ground. Blood pooled everywhere, dark and thick. Then something shifted in the distance, and the group froze. A voice followed, one they knew all too well.
"Guys? Why are you all here? I thought we said we would go to the bunker?"
It was Mathieu, carrying Gabriel's bag, full that food and bandages spilled from the top.
"Gimme that please."
Arnaud quickly snatched a bandage.
"Holy shit, what happened to you?"
"Oh shut up, isn't it clear?.
"Anyways, did you kill it?"
The group fell completely still, and with each passing second, Mathieu's fear grew.
"Guys?"
Then, Philippe answered :
"No, the phantom is toying with us, it told us to run here and hide."
"Wait how did it told you anything?"
Arnaud then cut the conversation and quickly reminded everyone that the phantom might come at any moment.
"Shouldn't we like... close the do-"
Before he finished his point, Alexis ran and closed the door which automatically locked.
"But are you sure it's coming? I can't hear anything."
"Yes, he is. But anyway, where is Gabriel?"
"Oh, follow me. He's in the security room."
Even without immediate danger, the group kept trembling from what they had just witnessed. After a few seconds of walking, they entered a room where Gabriel stood, eyes fixed on the cameras. Before anyone could greet him, he spoke.
"The phantom from earlier is at the door."
Mathieu leaned toward the screen to confirm it. Just as Gabriel said, the phantom stood there, completely still and again, still smiling.
This time, it began to open its mouth, not wide, but just enough to let a voice slip through.
Then, the voice of a small girl came from the phantom.
"10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1. Daddy, did you hide? In any case, here I come."
Mathieu and Gabriel did not grasp the horror of what they were witnessing, but the others did, and it left them deeply unsettled.
The phantom slowly curled its hand, shaping it into a spear. Just before it reached the metal door, it stopped. Its whole body began to tremble.
"What is it doing?" Didier asked.
The phantom tilted its head upward, staring into the sky behind him, trembling more and more with each passing second.
The boys urged Gabriel to move the camera toward whatever it was looking at, but his answer only made things worse.
"I cannot move the camera up, and I cannot angle it down either."
On the screen, the phantom hesitated for a long moment, shifting its gaze between the sky and the door it was barely touching. Then it looked to the side and suddenly bolted, running as fast as it could before vanishing into the shadow of a tree.
What the boys did not know was that the phantom had been staring at the enormous crack in the sky. Within it, a light was shining, a blue glow taking the shape of a star. Whatever it was, it had driven the creature away and, in doing so, allowed the group to survive their first encounter.