notices the two hollowed out carcasses hanging from the branch behind her . One quite smaller than the other .
A sharp pain just under his right ribs sends him to his knees . He gasps for breath and begins to drown as blood fills his punctured lung . He rolls over to his back and sees a small ape-like creature wearing his son ’ s lifeless face like a mask , bloody eyelids surround golden , gleaming eyes like puckered lips ; it holds a bloody dagger carved from rock in its hand . “ Michael !” it says .
The larger one wearing his wife ’ s skin stops to rifle through his pack with the deer meat , it takes a bite through the breathable mesh and into a leg , and then slings the pack over its shoulder . It hovers over him for a bit before swinging the stone end of its club into his face .
Kolby Diaz is a published author with six short stories available in e-book and print in Thriller Magazine , Grotesque Magazine , and Sanitarium Magazine . He also writes the game premises for an escape room in Sacramento called Enchambered ; in 2019 they were ranked the most popular escape room in the United States by USA Today .
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