No one seems to know the real and forgotten truth that is shrouded by mystery and

complete raw uncertainty about the man-creature that dwells and roams in the forest. Legends
has it somewhere near the mountain, there exist a dark and gloomy cave that is surrounded by
jagged and sharp stones at the foot of the entrance. Shredded pieces and garments of clothing and
items could be founded on the lush grass and flowers that seems to continue blooming in that
desolated area. Inside that cave rests something that appears with the bodily stature and features
of an ordinary man yet resembles nothing what humanity is. Rumors that are spread amongst
passersby, travelers and even locals distort the actual image of the creature and what
consequences entails of confronting such an entity. Some says the creature is an apostle of nature
with the duty to purge against anything that brings imbalance and danger to life of the forest;
others say it is a reincarnation of a death, a vanguard of apocalypse whose sole purpose is to
eliminate and kill anything that gets close to it. Skeptics obviously believes that these are invalid
claims and stories stemming from the paranoia of easily frightened and unprepared people. They
boast and claim on how can you be afraid of something that you don’t have evidence for its
existence and asserting that words alone can't exempts facts. However, what if the very words
and thoughts of a heightened senses and delusional person are honest and correct with their state
of fear and pleading dismay proof? Nonetheless, the case remains the same- who or what is the
entity, monster or life form that lives in the cave and what is this thing hiding? This was the
question that the two-paired explorer team of a father and daughter set out to do. In one of the
rumors it was said that deep within of the cave lies a Golden treasure of immeasurable worth and
value. There were variations of what this treasure could according those who attempted to seek
this out but failed to even find the cave- one claimed that it was a golden apple, that a single bite
can cure any disease while another said it was a golden scroll, that list entire history of mankind
and the secrets about of our origins. While the credibility was put into question by these
stories, consisted features that are occurring in several of these stories is that this object is
invaluable and has a golden hue.
The middle-aged father himself was a well-rounded and respected explorer as he hopes to
uncover the mystery behind the legend and gain further notoriety at Archeological Associate
Guild. The young daughter, who was in her early adult years fresh out of college, herself was a
trainee for the guild and wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father. The father himself was a
very crafty and clever problem solver as he utilized the stories and trail knowledge of the locals
to fill in the missing holes of the maps of where might the cave be. After a single day of
exhausting hiking and trail blazing through the forest, the father decided it was good time to rest
since they’re practically an hour away from the infamous cave site. While the daughter was
setting up the tents and the father was perusing the map thinking it how easily it was to locate the
cave, a sudden burst of sheer coldness drew down his spine. Sensitized and alert raised a gun
from his hilt and started observing around his peripheral vision area feeling an intense penitent
stare pressuring and weigh both his mind and body down. As he looked at his daughter who was
utterly aware of his actions and appears unaffected by the external force, he looked back at his
surroundings. But as sons as he turned his head back away from his daughter, he saw something
that immediately shocked his nerves making his muscle tense and stiff to move. In the dark about
12 feet away from where he is standing what could be a severely paled skinhead with two
enormously wide black eyes that seemed endless and void of any light or even eyeballs. The
father himself remained motionless and paralyzed unable to move despite him being consciously
aware of his predicament. He began to walk hypnotically towards the face unable to control or
warrant any resistance from walking. In his mind, he started to scream and beg for his body to
stop and try to warn his daughter, but it was useless as the dark face extended hand out of his
mouth. The hand had human flesh but was pearly white with fingertips shaped like of a skeleton
as it was inches from grabbing the man’s face with his eyes closed and shut. However, just
before a single touch could be made upon the father, he felt a slight tapping on his shoulder and
immediately turned around with complete motor over his body again. The daughter looked
worrisome and was wondering what was he doing so close to the edge of the cliff. Speechless
and terrified by the events that happen to him, the father couldn’t bring himself to tell his
daughter what he saw and feigned that he wanted to get a closer look at the terrain of this
vicinity. Puzzled but nodded away, the daughter told the father that the tent is ready and that’ll
she will be going to bed away. As the man kissed the daughter goodnight, he lied down beside
her with in the tent, he couldn't help but think whether that man-creature was real or not. Because
of this, the father couldn’t get a wink of sleep until dawn was surfacing. As the morning dew was
glistening and the birds chirping, the daughter woke up happily and full of energy. On the other
hand, the father seemed weak and exhausted which concerned and asked if he was okay to
continue the exploration. With his reputation as a discoverer and sanity as a human was on the
line, the father made a quick qualm and encouraged the daughter to not worry about him and
continue the trail. Both the father and daughter walked down the trail that would lead them to the
cave, however, as they kept walking they noticed the purity and mesmerizing beauty of the
healthy flowers and growing bushes in the area. With some knowledge of botany, the daughter
exclaimed that it would be impossible for plants to grow in the area. While the daughter engages
the area to find some information about the soil composition, the father told her he was going
ahead of her. As the father approached the site of the cave, something kept haunting the back of
his mind and made him shiver with his entire body. He felt an undeniable sensation and positive
doubt that he shouldn’t been trespassing here. While he was freely thinking about his
unreasonable feelings and hesitation, he appeared in front of the cave. He was astonishing how
ordinary and simple the cave structure looked with smooth gritty stones being the dominated
feature with green grass at the base of it. The father walks towards the cave to get a closer look
of the cave until unexpectedly a rustling noise appeared in the bushes. The father got into high
alert and drew out out his weapon pointing it at the direction of the sound. To his amusement, a
baby deer emerged out the bushes and runs away from him. A relief of sigh spaced from his lips
as put the gun down. As soon as he turned back, the father bumped into something falling back.
As he recollects his thoughts, thinking it was misplaced wall, he eyes widen and hands started to
sweat involuntarily. In front of him lies a 6-foot-tall pearly white skinned man- but wait. As the
mean look closer at the individual, he noticed that his rib cage was very visible, and his hands
were shaped like that of a skeleton. His entire head structure was that of a skull and his wide
open black eyes gaze down on him. The father couldn’t move- he was looking at something that
was wearing human flesh as clothes. Before the father react or even a make a feeble response,
the man-creature kneels and grabs the man head. The father was tearing up as he stared into the
dark endless pours of this entity’s eyes and pushed the creature pulling out his gun and shot the
thing at it’s shoulder blade. The bullet was stretching out the skin but didn’t pierced it or leave a
wound.
The creature picks up the bullet and tilts its head wondering what it was while the father
with fear and disgust on his face attempted to flee away to find his daughter. While he eagerly
tries to run away, the creature started chasing him down running all fours and leaps high in the
air over him and lands perfectly on its legs right in front of the man. The father stands before the
skeleton looking man unable to do anything. The creature stares at the man’s eyes without saying
anything and finally opened its mouth peeling off some of its skin saying “you…are…dead”.
The father trembles in fair as he started feeling a burning sensation on his skin and was soon
found himself on fire. The father quickly panicked as he rolled on the ground and grass to put out
the fire, yet nothing seemed to be working. He runs around frantically begging the pain to stop
and sees a lake jumping in to put out the flames. To his surprised feeling the cold water washing
all over his body, the flames were still as bright and hot than before, and he started splashing
around trying to put out the fire. The man creature simply stares at the man as he starts to drown
in the water unable to calm down. There were no smoke coming of the water and there was no
evidence of fire burning on the floor or flowers. Except that the flowers were pummeled by the
man’s weight and the man-creature buries the crushed flowers in the soil. The creature then starts
walking down the lake to follow the dead man’s body that wasn’t burnt at all or show signs of it.
Elsewhere, the daughter was shaking and breathing heavily as she found remaining bones of
people under the soil of the flowers. She tried to calm herself down but the mere sight of holding
a skull that still had decomposed flesh on it rattled her mind and skin. As she tried to stand up,
her body begins feeling heavy and difficult to me. Using whatever strength, she could muster
tried to turn her head but what she saw startled her. The pale skin walking skeleton was looking
dead at her eyes and continues to walk passed her with a different task in mind. The girl regained
her control and screamed going to the cave site to look for her father. As she reached the sit of
the cave, she only founds the pistol of her father and his head. Fearing the worst, the daughter
takes in a deep breath holding the gun in her hand and rushes in the cave. Although, the walls
and lighting are horrible and bleak, her eyes adjusted to it and she turned on her flashlight. She
looks around and points the flashlight to anything she noticed until a golden light glim into her
eyes. She rushed towards it and flashes the light on it blinking confusingly at it. The golden
object of invaluable worth or prowess was an ordinary locket. She slowly picks up the locket and
examines it closely trying to pry it open with her fingers. Suddenly, her body stopped responded
and she started shaking with the locket falling off her hands. Before reaching the ground, a long
malleable hand reached for it and grabs it before hitting the ground. To the girl distress and fear
the man-skeleton was upon her looking down with his piercing open black eyes. The daughter
was sucked into a hypnotic trance and was longer able to show any sense of awareness. The
man-skeleton raises the locket in front of her while he breathes very closely to her ears and
whispers softly, “I…was…once…a…man…with…a…family ...to love…”. He opens a locket
showing a little girl holding the flower and a loving looking man with his wife. The only
resembles between the man in the picture and the skeleton was their similar height. The creature
continues to speak while rubbing its hand on the girl neck. The daughter tears were falling as its
dry and jagged skin rubs wraps around her throat. “I…came to…these mountains…with my wife
and daughter….to have…a …good time…one day… my daughter …. stumbled in…this god
forsaken…place…I looked for her…and saw her…standing inside…the cave…I go…inside
….to grab her…. but her…body was…pale and cold…she stood there…dead…I screamed in
horror….and soon…realized …. spirits of…. an ancient curse…were embedded…and they
soon…. warped around…me and turning me…into this…horrific. …monster….my first
victim…was my wife ….as she came looking for us…. I couldn’t…control…myself …I felt the
need to…kill anyone…who…would approach this cave…. you know…my daughter would…be
the same…. age as…you if she …was alive…still...” The man skeleton grips her throat and
whispers in her ears “…. you …are …. dead”. The daughter drops the flashlight and pulls the
gun towards her head and places it on her head. A loud gunshot was echoed in the cave and fades
soon into silence. The tall man-skeleton drags the bodies out of the cave both the father and
daughter to a patch of soil near the cave. Using his sharp fingertips and nails started to peel off
the skin of both individuals with their blood soaking the ground but the flowers remained
untainted. It swallows bit by bit of their flesh reinvigorating its body and then buries the bodies
deep in the soil with flowers resting over them. The man skeleton looks up at the sky and reaches
its hand up. It then looks back down and returns to its dark safe den walking towards it and pets a
small baby deer before going inside. Now the truth remains a mystery and no body are once
again uncertain and unclear on what happened to the two explorers. Reports of people saying
they found traits of the missing father and daughter but ended up in a cold dead end. The remains
of the dead father and daughter decomposes and fades into the ground while newly grown
flowers from their carcasses. And the man-skeleton remains in the shadows watching and staring
out in the woods waiting for the next victims to dare to try to steal the “treasure away” come near
it’s peaceful paradise of a cave.