1 The Operator

A radio sparks up, full of static, the broken voice calling out instructions. The noise breaks the quiet of the dark woods around it, and alerts the man leaning against a nearby tree. He sits up with a sigh before leaning forward to grab the radio. He had been waiting in the woods near some old structure for hours. "Operator....time..enter the..relic in the statue" the radio repeats the phrase a few times, with different parts coming in creating a whole message. Sometimes he wondered why he took these odd jobs creeping through wilderness, or decrepit abandoned buildings. Poor connection always made things difficult to get information. That didn't bother him during most jobs, but this job gave him a bad feeling. The location felt far off the road, the woods seemed eerily silent around the structure, bark had been scraped off some trees. His first assumption was that someone had marked the trees for cutting. This steadily changed the closer he was to the structure. He had crunched a few bones in the way of small animals, and passed a mangled deer. The deer looked mostly eaten, but had been torn into ravenously. Pieces of deer were all over. "That can't be good.." he said choosing to avoid the obvious predator he circled the structure before stopping.

The Operator paused for a moment to look over the area. The structure seemed to have withstood abandonment and being reclaimed by nature. "How old is this place?" He wondered to himself. The radio chimed up "Operator you've sat...it's...enter..relic.." The radio repeated. "Copy that, copy that." The Operator responded finally, gathering his gear and gun. He lifted a paper up in front of his face. The paper had a graphic image of a mutated creature biting a woman from behind. He shuddered when looking at it. He had seen some strange things on odd jobs but this statue gave him chills. The fear in the face of the woman it tore into was immortalized in the stone. After placing the image back in his pocket he began to trudge along. The lack of animal noises set him on edge and every step felt like it could be heard for miles.

As The Operator entered the grim and gothic looking building he observed the statues on the outside. Some resembled the creature he was looking for, just as graphic in its mauling and just as horrifying in it's depictions of fear and agony, however the people they were mauling and their poses were not the same. "Why did I take this job?" He muttered, though it was so quiet he was sure he could be heard. He knew the money was worth it, but now he was beginning to have doubts. "Just some relic in a statue..that's all. Those kinds of things don't exist anyways.. just decor like gargoyles." He says raising his gun and muttering to himself. After searching for a moment he found a decrepit stair case that lead up a level. The structure felt like a church, but not like any church he'd ever seen. Like something from another world all the creatures appeared foreign, yet instilled a deep sense of dread. Slowly climbing the creaking stairs he pulled his flashlight off his chest, shining it up the stairs and observing dust slowly floating through the air. Moonlight shining ahead through an opening allowed him to see more of his surroundings as he reached the next floor.

"There it is, even stranger in the flesh..well..stone.." he thought to himself as he reached for the statue. It had been sitting directly across from the window when he climbed the steps. With the moonlight he could better see details of the creature, standing like a man, yet down like a beast it bit into its prey, a woman who looked young yet clearly had seen much hardship. Her clothes were rags, like that of a farmer. The fear in her face resonated with him as though he too were facing that death. "What an awful way to die..." he sighed. His fingers slide across the smooth stone before falling to his chisel, raising it to eye level. "A few taps and I should be able to guess.." he said softly tapping the hammer to the chisel. With an ear pressed to the statue he listened for a hollow sound, the stone felt cold, and full of dark energy, a feeling he couldn't explain in any sense but dread.

Clack,clack,clack,clunk,clack.....clunk."gotcha!"he exclaimed, but lowered his voice as it echoed. Every swing echoed through the area, and he could swear he heard shifting, but the sound was faint so he continued. Slowly chipping away at the statue revealed a relic inscribed with a language he doesn't understand, and more images of creatures that sent shivers through his body. The radio began emitting white noise after turning on by itself. The deeper he chiseled, the louder the noise. He tried to ignore the noise, though he swore he heard chanting in it. As The Operator reached for the relic a horrifying noises erupted from the radio, like the sound of a feed back loop. The structure began trembling beneath his feat while statues crumbled and fell from their posts near the ceiling."Oh No!" He shouted, reaching for the relic, and checking above him. To his relief there was no statues perched above him, but to his horror the ones that fell crashed through the floor opening a large hole.

Normally falling objects didn't bother him too much, but when the radio went silent and the building stopped shaking something else caught his ear that made him shiver. A heavy breathing came from the hole, it sounded guttural, like something huge fighting the drool in its mouth. It sounded almost as though it was smelling for food. Slowly, he chose to shine his flashlight into the hole, which he immediately decided was a mistake. A beast the size of a bus stared back, it's large cloudy eyes showing signs of time underground, the light likely blinding it temporarily as it pulled back for a moment. "Oh god what the actual fuck is...?!" he was cut short as the beast, having heard his voice became alert and tensed up. Realizing that it was preparing to lunge upwards The Operator turns jumping into the window. After realizing that though he was two stories up, he noticed the ground below had broken statue stone scattered all over. After turning back for a split second he made the decision to jump, as the beast had pulled itself over the edge of the balcony crumbling where the statue had been. He leaped out hearing the beast howl behind him.

"Too late", The beasts claws caught his pants, narrowly missing his leg itself, causing his forward momentum to become downward momentum. This led to a mostly full one-eighty ending with a hard crack of The Operators skull on the side of the church. Though dazed he didn't completely lose consciousness and could feel himself being dragged back inside like a deer in a panthers mouth. The beast pulled him into the window and bit into his arm. With a tortured scream The Operator's adrenaline surges refocusing him into reality."oh fuck, fuck, shit, fuck"he said scrambling for the knife on his hip with his one free arm. "This thing is going to eat me!" He thought to himself as it lifted him up by his left arm and started dragging him down into its den. The searing pain from the bite rushed through his body and he was hit by a wave a nausea almost fainting as he felt the teeth scrape bone."aaaargh!" he screamed as he freed the knife, stabbing the beast in one of its eyes. To his horror this hardly affected the beast, though the distraction caused the beast to lose its footing.

The feeling of weightlessness and the relief Of pressure was instantly replaced by another horror. He was free, and falling into a pit of darkness with this beast. His flashlight had fallen when he struck his head. All these worries passed through his head as quickly as the flash that appeared below them. A swirling vortex of dark energy began forming below them. The Operator screamed as they passed through it, losing consciousness.