Cathrine walked through the woods as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened. Yesterday she had brought her little brother to the park because he needed to go outside and play… and she had a date.

Well not a ‘date’ date… but…

She held the wand in her hand as she remembered her ‘date’ ditching her when that… thing... tore through the woods snatching up her little brother. How he didn’t even give her a second thought ditching when the forest surrounded her.

She could feel the pit in her stomach grew as she just… she had just ran away when the monster just tore down a tree with ease almost as if it was putting on a show. How it seemed to have mocked her grabbing her little brother’s arm and holding him up in the air.

The look of fear in his eyes as he was left dangling in the air… as she ran.

She ran as her little brother screamed for help. Her legs had grown tried trying out run the almost beastial laughter as if the monster had been mocking her. How tired she felt when she escaped the mysterious forest… only to realize her brother was still missing and nobody cared.

The police didn’t believe a word she said. Her former ‘date’ didn’t want to remember and claimed that she should just forget she even had a brother… he hadn’t even been missing for an entire day and he told her to give him up for dead!

So a day had passed… then another day… she spent the second day finding out that it was like clockwork as a child always went missing within the park for the past three months at the exact same spot! That nobody listened to her when she tried zoning off the area as the police took down yellow tape and improvised blockade she had set up!

Nobody believed her… expect for the odd kid.

Catherine stared at the wizard… he had to be a wizard after all. Magicians did stage tricks and no child she knew of had access to ‘props’ that doubled as flamethrowers. Even if it was ‘fake magic’ having a portable flamethrower felt like a miracle.

She chuckled as all she had brought was a… Well ‘sword’ was a strong word for the hunk of metal she bought. She gave it a few swings to make sure it wouldn’t break, but her friend Roy claimed he didn’t make cheap junk.

The rustic long sword looked like it belonged in one of those LARP things than… actually being used to hunt a monster. Pulling out her cell phone she was happy that it was on full bars as she would need the battery life to continue recording this… insanity.

The woods seemed endless as the timer was counting down on her phone. Just ten minutes to find something… anything… otherwise they would focus on leaving this creepy place without her little brother.

While she did feel that something would be done considering the kid had a lot more equipment on him than she did… there was a mixed feeling of hope that she would find more people who actually believed her… and fear that this child was like her.

That he knew the truth and nobody believed him including the adults they knew.

She crept around every tree almost expecting the monster to jump out of the bushes as fear clenched her heart. Marcus on the other hand was walking around without any fear as he was actually wearing headphones and was listening to music of all things!

Wasn’t there supposed to be some horror movie rule that you don’t wear headphones and listen to music while a monster was lurking around the woods?

She could even hear a few bits of the song from his headphones “Just a day in the life, With Science and a Knife.”

She held the sword tighter wishing she had a gun… that she could buy a gun without having to wait three days to get a license to use one. She was going to get a license and learn how to shoot one if she survived this mess.

“Let’s pin it down and rip it out… an… se…” The song started to stutter as her phone started having problems.

Instantly the boy went tense hiding behind a tree as Cathrine followed suit. The monster hadn’t apparached them yet, but Cathrine recognized the remains of the shed she had run into… and from. There was an odd taste in the air and her electronics didn’t seem to be working.

With a deep breath Marcus took a sigh of relief letting her know that they were safe… or as safe as you could get within these cursed woods.

“Just a Mage Hold… freaking wizard space…” the boy seemed to curse underneath his breath before looking at her “This is a discarded wizard space that they forgot… or the idiot who made it didn’t tell anyone allowing a Grim Song to take up residence within it.”

The boy walked to the edge of the shed before pulling out his flare gun and pressed his hand against… something. She couldn’t tell what it was, but it looked like he was pressing his hand up against an invisible barrier.

“Okay the space is safe in there at least… Wards are flimsy… and Vanish markings are here.” He spoke with annoyance “This was a hidden stash or hold and the owners were lost during The Vanish. Still the wards should be good enough to keep a Grim Song out, but not anyone with ward breaking skills.”

Pulling out a steel knife he grabbed the air as it struck something that was akin to a rainbow… except more colors including a few darker ones that just sort of spiraled out of the air before he began to chant. She couldn’t hear the words, but the light show was something she wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

The… magic… it had to be magic.

The wild array of magic danced in the air as her heart ached for it. She saw the magic twist and bend as something tugged on her heart calling out to her as the world seemed to vanish from her eyes. All she saw was the display of lights that flowed into the flare gun… and the array of lights full of every color she had even seen including a few she never thought possible slowly expanded before her eyes.

She was lost in the colors that danced forth as she felt like a blind person finally being able to see for the first time as it… was… horrifying. To see something she only heard of and only able to now see… to now truly see…

It was mystifyingly horrifying… and beautiful.

She was nearly completely lost in the lights until she felt something prick her skin as a voice called out “Cathrine?”

Her mind focused on her brother as she looked around her in a panic “Where is it? What happened to the monster that…”

“Oh thank god you're okay…” Marcus breathed a sigh of relief “You were just… never mind… just…”

She blinked, rubbing her eyes as she wasn’t outside anymore. Instead she was lying on a cheap couch as various crates and boxes surrounded the area. The wall was filled with countless clocks (non-digital and all of them telling a different time) along with an entire wall filled with countless pictures, nails, and red strings.

The wall sent a shiver down her spine as numbers had been dug into the wall as if by a knife. The boxes were filled with various objects, and judging by the crowbar Marcus had taken a peek into some of the crates while she had been unconscious.

She glanced at her wristwatch only to frown as it was dead.

How long had she been out?

“Just an hour… and a half.” Marcus replied, answering her hidden thoughts “I forgot I needed to be more careful when practicing with Higher Arcana and… you got blinded by it for a lack of better words.”

“Blinded?” Catherine spoke rubbing her eyes as she tried to make sense of the… warehouse they were in.

“It’s complicated. Long answer short… you heard of the expression rolling for insanity?” He meekly smiled “You failed your wisdom save and needed to rest. I took the time to lock the door and set things up until you woke back up.”

He motioned towards a crate that had been used as an end table “Sorry about borrowing your stuff, but you needed some protection on it… and even if the modifications to the sword are illegal… we kind of need it.”

The once pink phone now had small black lines across it as her index finger had a band-aid around it. She questioned exactly what happened, but those thoughts died when she saw the phone was working while her wristwatch wasn’t working.

Her best guess was that it was… magical protection for a better lack of a word. Tech just stopped working when in the presence of magic… which probably explained the headphones. The moment the music stops is the moment something magical approaches.

When the music stopped playing the monster would be nearby.

That thought alone made her shiver as it meant trying to take a picture of the monster with an electronic camera or phone was useless… no it would have been useless, but now she had a phone that could do it.

Cathrine glanced at the sword as it had changed. It still looked like a basic long sword, but now it had silver engravings along the center of the sword. She felt her hand itch as it felt odd not having her sword near her side.

Her sword… When did that happen? When did she refer to the sword as her sword when just a few hours ago it was that heavy piece of junk she was borrowing because she couldn’t get her hands on a gun?

Cathrine picked up the sword and felt like it had always been in her hand. She gave it a few swings as they were a far cry from the awkward swings of her swinging around a lump of metal she never held before.

Now it felt like she had been playing baseball… no fencing. Fencing with a long sword for a couple of years somehow!

“Okay no offense, but why is this illegal?” The teen spoke as she now had a magic freaking sword in her hands! “Because it feels a lot better than before.”

“Because of what it does to magical things when the blade hits it.” Marcus simply stated “And right now wizards are ‘magical things’ but that also includes the monster in the woods.”

Did that make this an anti-magic blade or something? Catherine shook her head as she didn’t know, but having a slightly better sword and a working phone was good… also she made a note not to look at him doing crazy magic stuff.

“Thanks little merlin.” She couldn’t help, but speak with a smirk.

To her surprise the boy frowned as he muttered “I am not little. Now we just need to be careful and continue… following your idea for now.”

Cathrine paused as she realized that something was wrong. He said they only had thirty minutes (which were long up) yet he was willing to stay to help her find her brother? More than that her 'pay attention idiot' sense was tingling as something was off.

"Did I say or..." The words felt odd in her mouth "Do anything I'd regret?"

The little wizard turned around and gave her possibly the most fake smile she had even seen as he tried to pretend nothing had happened "I think trying to stay here instead of getting out of here is something you should regret."

She sighed trying to sound relieved, but that was a deflection.

He did something to her phone, her sword... and he was avoiding her question. Glancing at the sword and then at the mysterious little wizard. She tried not to bite the inside of her check as asking might risk them leaving... instead of trying to find her little brother.

"Your right... I'll probably regret it, but it's my choice." She told him and more importantly to herself.

Cathrine pulled herself off the couch before getting a good look at a ton of expensive looking junk in one of the crates. Some sort of liquid silver that glowed? Whatever the stuff was Marcus had already stuffed a few water bottles with the junk as she could see some sticking out of his bags.

“So what happened to the folks who owned this place?” The teenager asked glancing at the liquid silver crate “Did the monster get them or…”

“The Vanish happened.” Marcus spoke with a sigh “Twenty years ago half of the magical population just… vanished. Nobody knows, how, why, or what happened. Just that they vanished, it left everything in a bit of chaos and then a few civil wars broke out.”

She stared at him in disbelief as… How exactly did half the (magical) world just vanish overnight? Did someone find a golden gauntlet and snap their fingers or something?

Shaking his head the kid muttered in annoyance “Places like ‘this’ were suddenly forgotten and things moved inside these areas. Everyone is still trying to find these spots, but this was an illegal warehouse filled with a lot of useful, but highly illegal things.”

That made Cathrine facepalm “So this entire mess is caused because some idiots were smuggling magical junk!”

To her shock the boy shrugged “Wouldn’t surprise me. Just wish they left some proper wands or a handgun, but the latter was probably wishing for too much.”

She stared at him trying to figure out why a gun would be less likely to find than a bunch of magical sticks? Okay sure this was a magical illegal warehouse, but...

“Wouldn’t wands be better?” Catherine spoke out in disbelief “I mean… ‘magic missile’ sounds a lot like using a handgun only without having to reload.”

Marcus just gave her a flat look before pinching the bridge of his nose “Shotguns works just as well. You do not need to chant ‘Shotgun Fire’ to pull the trigger right behind something larger than you to make it work.”

The teen glanced at her magical monster slaying sword… and suddenly felt a little bit less thrilled about it as she realized one tiny flaw with the weapon. A gun meant she could shoot at a distance… a sword even blessed with monster slaying… that required getting close to the monster for it to work.

The next half hour was spent wandering the woods again as Cathrine tried quizzing her ‘little merlin’ as she tried getting a feeling for what was going on. He warned her that she might not want the answers thinking that living in ignorance would be easier… but after her brother got kidnapped by this ‘Grim Song’ she wanted as many answers as she could get.

Turns out there were a lot of monsters that actually went bump in the night… including a few that were located within the city she lived in. That something like this wasn’t uncommon, but the only ‘uncommon’ bit was that nobody else had stumbled upon its den.

Each new fact filled her with uneasy prompting more questions in which the boy just smiled and answered every question. It would have made her uneasy if it wasn’t for the fact that he seemed happy that she wanted to know more.

Cathrine actually had spent her time writting down as much as she could into her phone along with a few reminders of what she should ask once they were out of here. Still she followed him as she felt strangly at ease now walking through the forest instead of jumping at every branch breaking under foot.

What exactly did she forget after Marcus did his magic trick on the shed (with a warehouse stuffed inside it somehow) before he decided to upgrade her sword and phone?

All questions died when the music from his headphones stopped. They both took cover and moved carefully foward fearful of the hidden monster or "Grim Song" as the little wizard refered to it. The den of the beast was easy to find since it was the only cave out in the middle of the woods.

The cave looked like one of those caves you'd see bears live inside during those nature documentries you'd see on TV... except bears couldn't boldoze through trees and hunt you for it's own sick twisted ammusement.

“Wait outside of the cave and count to thirty.” Marcus stated as he carefully crepted towards the entrance of the cave.

Catherine wanted to just go rushing into the cave, but the garden shed with the space of an industrial warehouse on the inside made her pause. If she ran head first she might set off a trap that could make her explode… or run face first into an invisible wall.

Just watching the little wizard remove the wards of the last wall knocked her out for a while. If she saw him pause she’d look away for a few seconds before glancing back to see if things were safe… or if she needed to close her eyes unless she wanted to pass out in the bushes.

Marcus crept towards the cave as nothing seemed out of place until he reached the shadows inside the cave before he sort of… vanished.

It was probably magical. Definitely magical since it annoyed her as her brother might be inside the cave. She clipped her phone onto her belt making sure that it was going to record everything as she was going to make sure she didn’t forget any of this stuff.

Once the time limit was up Cathrine tried her best to creep into the cave after the young wizard. Each twig before her felt like a landmine as all she had was a sword... a magic monster slaying sword... against a monster that tore through trees and claws that dug deep into stone.

The cave itself was unsettling not because it was a cave… but because of the bones left thrown about on the floor and the nagging questions that assualted her mind and the smell of rotting death and decay didn't help.

“How long had they been here? Is this what happened to the other missing children?” Her fears whispered in the back of her head “How has nobody noticed this many people going missing?”

Some of the skulls were large enough to be an adult though some… some were small like a child. She knew that something had happened to them… it was just…

The truth was that she didn’t want to admit that wait laid before her on the floor… could have happened to her little brother. He had to be still alive… She was here to rescue him so he had to be alive.

She carefully crept into the cave as her heart began to race. The sword emitted a soft glow ensuring she wouldn’t step on any of the bones. Her fears were put a little bit at ease as she had a magic sword… a magical sword that specializes in killing evil magical things.

It needed to be stated as she wasn't helpless. It might harm her, but she could kill it!

“Scrap and bind, by claw to find. We sing the song, for so long.” A voice spoke as the sound of metal scrapped against stone “Your Flesh shall rend, and your bones shall bend. To fill my gullet forever more.”

Catherine froze as she saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Logs had been dumped into the center of the chamber to feed the roaring fire. She saw her brother tied to a stone slab as the monster stood over him with a cleaver in it’s claws.

It wasn’t human… fear nearly paralized her as the monster chuckled, twisting it’s spine so that it could be at face level of her little brother as it spoke “Wake up… wake up! Can’t have you passed out for the scene.”

The hand was made out of moss and broken wood bound together in the crude image of a human hand. The body itself was a twist of flesh and wood seemingly stitched together and bound by vines as the monster’s claws drew a small line of blood against his face.

Cathrine hid behind one of the stone altars within the room as she tried to figure out where Marcus was… where was he? She looked around the room and wasn’t able to find him. What was he doing?

The creature raised the cleaver as… She felt the knot in her stomach grow as her brother was missing a leg. The dam monster had cut off his left leg!

Biting her lip she tried not to rush out blindly screaming as the monster turned its head… one hundred and eighty degrees. She hid behind the stone altar as the monster chuckled before she glanced behind her cover to find it staring at her brother again.

“Wakey, Wakey. Strips for Bakey.” The monster sang as it placed the cleaver against his arm forcing him awake “We need to cut and strip, Rip the flesh and so it may drip. So scream out loud…”

She charged forth trying to stab it.

The monster did a backflip flying over her head.

Her sword was now going to impale her brother.

The blade twisted in her grip, dogging her brother’s chest and cutting the vine bindings on his right arm only for the monster to grab both her arms and raise her up into the air.

“Ah, Ah, Ah…” The monster spoke in a sing-song tone “The maiden must watch the prince’s demise. To sing the song to the folks outside. To let them hear my song each night and fear the night.”

Catherine struggled in the monster’s grib as it’s head wasn’t human. The mouth was full of various mismatched human teeth crammed along every open spot. The face was bare with only a hole the size of her fist. The rest of the flesh had been sewn on by needles leaving a patchwork mess of every skin color including one white ear and one black ear.

“One eye for the right to see for sight.” It spoke as a third hand came out of it’s chest “One blue for the light. To sing my song until the nigh…”

The hand had reached to pluck out her right eye only for something to pop. The creature twisted it’s head around as a small flare had somehow deployed three prong-like claws digging into the monster’s back... except a silver light was coming off it instead of the normal smoke and fire.

She immediately closed her eyes remembering the last time she stared at odd colors.

Then the screaming came as the monster tossed her aside screaming in agony as the smell of burning metal filled the cave. She opened her eyes and saw her brother and quickly cut the vines binding him to the stone slab.

Turning around she saw two more shots go off as they were coming down from the ceiling. She looked up as somehow the little wizard was on the ceiling before the darkness hid him from her sight.

The monster roared in pain thrashing about as she held her sword before rushing it. The twisted abomination of wood and flesh moved to doge her attack, but the shadows around it’s feet rose up dragging it back down to the ground as her sword bit into it’s flesh.

It howled as she continued to hack and slash.

Hands moved to grab her.

The blade tore through them.

It screamed profanity.

She screamed back.

She kept swinging and swinging until her arms grew numb.

When she finally stopped it was a mess of blood, flesh, and twigs.

Marcus was now on the ground trying to pull out a bottle of some sort of liquid. He handed it to her as she took the gunk and drank it whole as it tasted bitter. Still, it made her body not feel as tired as before as the bleeding wounds her brother had were gone now.

The problem was he was still missing his left leg. She could see where the flesh had been slowly carved off as there was no telling what would have happened if she hadn't arrived right away. What might have happened if they hadn't rushed in to save him and simply hoped for someone else to save him.

She looked at Marcus as Marcus stared at the creature behind her before cursing under his breath “Grab him and run.”

She shoved her sword into its sheath before lifting her brother up… she felt sick at how light he felt. As if he would break in her arms if she held him too tight.

The creature roared in a garbled speech “br-kath, te-ard, Ren-fles!”

Bone snapped back into position as bits of wood hacked off crawled back to the mangled corpse… no the mangled body of the monster.

“Run and C4.” Marcus shouted as he pulled out a block of what looked like C4 that she had seen in movies.

Either the magical shed had explosives or the little wizard brought it with him. The answer didn't matter as she saw Marcus toss the block at the creature before they both ran hearing the monster's cursing stop as it had to have seen the block of C4 tossed at it.

The moment they got outside the cave as the first ray of light hit their skin Marcus pulled out the trigger and hit the button wtihout a second of hesitation. The explosion went off as stone and dust pelted them from behind before the ground seemed to fall out from underneath them.

The sounds of cars, children, and people filled their ears as she felt a small sense of relief having escaped the monster until she saw a dozen tiny magical creatures running towards her. Trying to protect her brother and pull out her sword only to stop when she realized they were carrying bags and what looked like a medkit.

“Not now little souls.” Marcus spoke in horror “We need to run.”

A bloodthirsty scream born from a horror movie tore through the air. Catherine made the mistake of looking behind her as she heard cars crashing into each other as suddenly every vehicle and light died. Screams soon followed afterwards as one of the trees came crashing down.

Moving out of the way she saw the little wisp like creatures jumping onto the little wizard before the monster from the cave clawed itself onto the playground. The adults were screaming in panic as the monster lifted it’s mangled head and upper body. The lower half was torn off like some sort of horror movie zombie… except it was slowly pulling itself back together.

The empty socket on the monster’s face focused on them as it screeched “Rip face off! Hang you by your guts!”

Marcus said ‘run’ and she didn't argue. It was outside and it was only a matter of time before somebody noticed the monster and killed it. The only question was not if it would die... but if they could run away from it long enough for help to arrive.