The Monsters Of Grotto: A Short Story

Every time I pulled, the ropes seemed to tighten around my wrists. There was no way out. After struggling for hours, maybe days, I simply gave up. This was my end, my demise. These beasts have taken me and I cannot escape. The cave echoed with each drip, drip from the ceiling. I could hear nothing else. The sun was leaving the sky quicker than I remember. The darkness engulfed the cave I stood in. I thought back to the moment I realized things were going wrong. We were walking through the woods. It was probably mid-day and Quinten, Xavier, Molly, and I were looking for adventure. In this small town, there was always rumors, tales, and myths about these woods. When we were children, our parents use to tell us, “The Monsters of Grotto, lurk through the sticks, searching the meadow, munching their kicks,” before we went outside, to keep us away from the thick forest at the end of town. It

This deep in the forest was dark and damp, even with the sun overhead. The trees covered any light there was in the sky. We carried onward and tried to make sure we remembered each turn we took, so we couldn’t get lost. Eventually, we came to a clearing. It was fairly large and seemed out-of-place, but we decided to stop and have a look around. Quinten went over the far side of the clearing. Xavier and I went to the center, while Molly began walking around the outside of the misshapen clearing. All was quiet, minus Xavier and I’s murmuring about how odd the opening was. Suddenly, Quinten called us over. In a hesitant voice, he said, “Hey, guys. This is pretty weird. You might wanna come over here.” So we all made our way to him. He was couched down, just at the edge, looking at the ground and pushing aside the foliage. He pointed to a print in the dirt. It was massive, compared to any animals around here. The biggest we had here were probably bears and their tracks weren’t quite as big as the one we