Holder

Fate would have him standing at the top of a slide with no apparent end. Perhaps it was a metaphor for something. To Jacob, it just looked rusty and dangerous, like a tetanus shot waiting to happen, if he ever came to its end. The four lanes of the slide ran off into a thick forest. For all he knew, he would end up wrapped around a tree that had grown up through whichever lane he ended up choosing. That didn't leave him confident or hopeful. The sounds of snarls and howls were approaching from behind. If he didn't face the slide his future was assured, and it included dismemberment by a pack of rabid werewolves.

They were practically at his heels. He sat on one of the center lanes of the slide and tried not to look up at the ominous sky hanging over the forest ahead. He pushed off and was surprised at how quickly he picked up speed. He was sliding through the treetops of the forest in no time with no sign of when the slide would stop. Then he saw a cliff ahead through the trees. The slide was aimed over the edge. Before he could formulate a solution to his new problem he was sliding down the slide along a canyon wall. Above a thunderstorm stirred the clouds and darkened the sky.

The slide seemed to go on forever deeper into the canyon the unseen sun set behind the opposite wall of the canyon. The slide moved out from the wall of the canyon turning to aim toward it. Jacop gasped sure he was about to smack face-first into the wall. Then his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the canyon. Ahead, as in the slid was aimed right at it, there was a large opening of a cavern. He tried to slow his descent but for all the slide looked like a rusty death trap, it was smooth. Some time after entering the cave, the angle of the slide leveled out and he came to a stop. He stepped off the slide and went to the opening of the cave and looked out. The mouth of the cave was still a good twenty feet from the bottom of the canyon, a sheer drop. He was stuck. He sat heavily. How had he come to this?
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The sign said "Danger! No Entry." Jacob soon realized they should have taken it at that. The road didn't go very far beyond the rusty gate. Actually, he realized they shouldn't have left the designated picnic area. "Howard!"

Jacob heard a childish chuckle from up ahead in the trees. Then some low branches rustled.

"Howard, I really don't think we should be here."

"Come on Jacob! It's just an old farm or something!"

"Dude, a farm doesn't have a six-foot chain-link fence around it with a danger sign!" Jacob followed his brother's voice deeper into the woods.

Howard kept darting further in and taunting Jacob into following until the sky began to darken. Jacob looked at his watch, it was nowhere near sunset. He looked up at the sky. Clouds heavy with rain loomed in front of the sun. "Dude it is going to rain we should get back!"

Howard popped his head into the small clearing Jacob occupied. "Yeah, Bro, I think you are right! Let's get back, which way is the gate?"

"What? I was supposed to keep track of how we got here?"

"Of course, you're the responsible twin!"

Jacob wanted very badly to swear, but he suddenly couldn't think of a single swear word. In front of him in the forest, just beyond his brother, he saw a half-man half-wolf creature standing in the tree line. "Howard! Run!" Jacob turned on his heel and headed for the other side of the clearing.

Jacob looked back over his shoulder. "Yeah, right, Bro! Why," Howard asked turning to look over his shoulder. He screamed. Jacob glanced where he was going just in time to miss his brother's scream cut off by a savage snarl and the sound of a body being shaken.
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Prompt ▼

687 words