Third Person POV
Somewhere in Sherwood forest lies a group of fifty-three people. All of them are armed with weapons and armors. One may think that they are hunters, but they are actually a malicious bunch. They are hired by a certain merchant to search for an orphan.
While most of them are criminals, their leader is one of the servants under said merchant. He is the strongest among the group, and he is the one with a good sense of crisis, hence why he was entrusted with the task of capturing the orphan.
"Found any clues yet?"
Said the leader named Danny.
"Nothing so far."
Said the sub-leader of the group.
"Damn it! It'll take a whole month to search this entire f**king forest!"
He cursed as he shouted angrily. He looked at the map of the forest while having a headache. He recalled what happened back in the mansion.
It all started when his master decided to 'buy' an orphan. He is a merchant with a considerable amount of wealth who runs illegal trades and businesses. He also runs a slave trafficking business in which disguises as "running an orphanage" in Holgate. There, he found an orphan who he 'bought' by 'adopting' them. While he is rich, he's much of a cheapskate as he just hired only two people to transport them. Security has become a lot stricter because of the recent murders in the town, hence why he decided to order them to go to the forest to avoid detection.
While suspicions can be avoided by many solutions but he doesn't want to spend a single gil more, and that is why he's in this dire situation.
The carriage was found by some hunters and was reported to the guards of Holgate. They found an empty cage on a carriage with two decomposed corpses of humans and a horse laying around. Because of this, they decided to investigate.
The news spread to Silper, and now he decided to lay low for a while to avoid suspicion and let the ruckus fade away. With almost a month passed and the tension seemed to be dying down, he decided to search for the missing orphan. Leaving with no loose ends, he hired a group of thugs led by his servant Danny to capture the orphan. Danny decided to search the forest as it is the most likely place where they could've hidden.
After checking the map, he called out to the group.
"We're going to the deep parts of the forest."
"Are you serious?! I heard stronger monsters are lurking there!"
Said one of the thugs.
"There are even Orcs in there!"
"Shut up! If there is a place where they'll hide, it's in there!"
The deepest part of the forest is the perfect place to hide. While the area where the orphan is used as a place to hide may be surrounded by dangerous monsters, they also serve as protection against any outsiders.
"Really? But how come a defenceless orphan managed to go through there and survived?"
Said the sub-leader.
"Someone must've helped them..."
The only reason why the carriage was left in that state is because someone helped the orphan escape. That is the conclusion his master has thought, and that is why they've come with 53 armed people to kill the helper and capture the orphan.
"There's no w-..."
"Shut up and just follow me dammit!!"
Thinking that they were a stupid bunch, he smacked their heads and led the group to the deep forest.
After an hour walking, and now that they are somewhere in the deep parts of the forest.
"Prepare your weapons and be ready when a monster comes."
Danny said as he drew his sword. He is quite confident about his strength since he can fight three orcs at the same time while his group can only manage one. Of course, if a group of orc or stronger monsters appeared, he would order the group to hide and sneak around them.
Twenty-five minutes passed, and they haven't encountered any monsters yet.
"...Strange."
There are no signs of monsters. Even any activities made by them seem to be lacking.
He looked around to try to find anything, but all he could see was just trees and bushes. The deeper they are, the darker the forest becomes.
Everything seems to be quiet.
No sound,
No movement,
Not even a breeze of wind.
He felt nervous, and his sense of crisis was ringing. That also rings true to the rest of the group.
Suddenly, they heard a sound behind them. It is the sound of someone or something stepping on a grass.
They immediately looked behind and found nothing there.
"W-who's there!"
Said one of the thugs who got so scared his voice cracked.
There is no answer, and then they hear the same sound behind them.
And like before, they found nothing when they looked behind them.
"A-are you messing with us, Huh?!"
Then, the three of them went running towards the sound.
"Hey, stop!"
He tried to stop them, but they were already gone.
He ordered the rest to form up on him.
They waited five minutes for the three of them, but they did not return.
Danny now knows that someone or something is hunting them.
Before he could assess the situation calmly, one the thugs behind him shouted.
When he looked behind him, there's three heads from the thugs earlier laying there. They could see clearly the fear on their faces, which makes the rest of the group panic.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
One by one, they shouted in fear as they ran away to escape.
"Dammit! Don't panic! It may be trying to scare us!"
He tried to calm down the running thugs but since they are originally low lives, they did not listen.
The only ones remaining are Danny and the sub-leader.
With the rest of the group no longer in sight, Danny tried to stay vigilant even though he felt a little scared.
And then, there was a sound.
It is the sound of whistling.
Each note sends shivers to his spine.
The feeling of dread keeps creeping unto him as his heart beat keeps beating faster.
As the whistling continues, it is followed by a dreadful scream.
It continues until the whistling stopped, and so is the screaming.
The silence made it more eerie and terrifying.
"H-hey, L-let's-..."
He turned to look at the sub leader, but he is nowhere to be found.
He remains frozen in fear as he begins to anticipate his end.
He wanted to shout, but he couldn't get his voice out as his fear gripped his heart.
And then he heard the whistling again, but this time, the tune is much slower, which makes it more terrifying than before.
His heart beat quickens,
Hands trembling,
Body shaking.
And then he realised what the tune was...
It's the sound of death.
All of sudden, the whistling stopped.
Then he heard footsteps from behind.
He looked behind and found nothing.
As he kept looking behind him,
A hand emerges from behind him and then grabbed his head.