Hellish nest

This particular tale began during a rather stormy evening. Dark grey clouds clutter the sky, and droplets of water pour from the heavens above, splashing against the dirt and grass like bullets firing out of a machine gun. Powerful gusts of wind shoved the trees with ease, causing them to violently sway, almost snapping due to the sheer force applied to them. The animals, big and small, cower in fear of this display of nature's fury. A powerful surge of electricity fired down from above towards the earth, followed afterwards by a thunderous boom that echoed throughout the land.

A thick forest consisted of a dark green colour scheme, which was due to the current lack of sunlight. The natural expanse stretched onward for miles on end. Trees acting like umbrellas shielded everyone from the rain, providing what little warmth they could. To best describe the situation at hand, using the words dreadful and gloomy could suffice.

Through this beautiful yet nightmarish scenario, when the sky lit up, a figure with blond hair, blue eyes, a zipped-up black coat, blue jeans, and black sneakers could be seen rushing through the maze of bushes and leaves, using their hands to aggressively swat branches as well as shrubs aside as they rapidly marched forwards, trying to find at least some kind of shelter with preferably four walls and a roof that would allow them to be warm once more; however, they were not having much luck.

They were silent for the most part, aside from the heavy breathing caused by the cold air constantly attacking their bodies as they reacted by shivering and shaking to try and warm themselves up. They may have had some clothing on, but unfortunately, it was still not enough to combat the conditions they were working in. They stopped for a moment and, with a shaky hand, grabbed their phone out of their pocket. It was what people would call a flip phone, and a particularly old one at that. They attempted to turn the phone on several times in a frantic manner to no avail, leading to frustration and anger as they kicked a nearby tree, which caused them to scream on the inside as they did not want to waste their breath by shouting. After a few minutes' break, they continued on their way.

The stranger continued their hopeless trek across the seemingly infinite expanse of this hellish place. They moaned in great annoyance as they remembered how they ended up in this situation. They were simply walking home and thought that going through the forest would act as a shortcut, which was not necessarily the smartest idea, but they nonetheless thought it would work; however, now it is clear that it was a terrible choice. They noted how there was a lack of animals, though they swear they saw what seemed to be blood on some plants and trees that they had passed. They merely thought that this was their mind playing tricks on them due to the stress they were experiencing both physically, as they were running out of steam having pushed themselves to try and quickly leave this place, and mentally, due to the many sounds swirling around them, some of which were strangely abstract. They could also feel their bodies quickly succumbing to the cold as they had feelings of malaise, low mood, and muddled thinking.

After what felt like hours upon hours of walking, they finally came upon a clearing. They stumbled onward and stopped for a moment as they peered at a small brick structure in front of them. It had windows and a door, yet it looked abandoned, with wrappers and bottles littering the floor. The stranger did not want to stay out in this weather, so the seemingly creepy house, or what they assumed to be a home, would have to do, and with that thought, they quickly entered the structure and shut the door behind themselves, causing a loud bang sound then they sighed in relief as they finally escaped the horrendous weather of the outside world.

Once they had caught their breath and warmed up a little, they finally looked up and around. It was dusty, dirty, and claustrophobic with how close the walls were. The stranger had only one direction to go, and that was forward into a long hallway, with dim lights hanging down from the ceiling being the only thing to scare away the darkness. They walked down for a while, as curiosity got the better of them, and came upon a room with several doors; however, these doors were placed along the walls and ceiling, which immediately puzzled the stranger enough that they opened one of the doors and stared down into the abyss, watching the shadows swiftly move as if something was in hiding, which caused the stranger to turn and run back down the hallway they had just come through. As they ran, they heard the tapping of several feet behind them, which caused them to try and run faster. However, every time they would speed up, the amount of sound behind them would also increase to the point where it sounded like something was right on their tail, until they suddenly stopped with a puzzled face as it had become completely silent.

"What the hell?"

They turned around and saw nothing behind them. Something was wrong. They swore that something was chasing them and chasing them with some kind of intent; however, they also noticed that the hallway they had just gone down previously was not this long. It was almost like it had increased in length. They turned around, and an expression of absolute confusion covered their faces, as they were now in a room with several dozen doors surrounding them.

"Wait? When did I... Am I dead? Did the weather outside kill me, and this is hell?"

They quickly shrugged off the ridiculous idea they just had, and because they could not go back since there was a wall where the hallway was, they decided to keep going forward, so they placed their hands into their coat pockets and took a deep breath for a moment before choosing one of the hallways at random and slowly making their way onward to whatever was potentially living here. They assumed something was living here, or maybe the house itself was haunted. They didn't know, but they had to keep going. As they stepped down the hallway cautiously, looking around, they walked into a rather spacious room. The walls, which this entire time had been white, were now covered in splatters of crimson red, which dripped down to the ground. The floor was a black carpet, or at least it felt like a carpet. In the centre of the room was a table with four chairs surrounding it and plastic plates placed upon the table, with several kinds of food just out in the open, seemingly untouched.

"Huh?"

The stranger approached the table slowly. They pulled their hands out of their pockets and sat on one of the chairs while glancing around and seeing nothing. Normally this would be a rather odd sight, and you would never approach the food; however, it felt like something was calling to the stranger. Guiding them. A gentle and soft voice of persuasion, giving them the illusion of safety. They had not eaten for a while, and with great speed and aggressive action, they grabbed what they could and ate till they could not move.

For a while, they just sat on their chair, now stuffed to the brim, before turning their heads wildly as they heard several sounds akin to the tapping of feet. The same sounds they had heard while being chased.

They tried to stand but fell right back down upon the seat, both because they were too full and due to a fear that caused the very hairs upon their bodies to stand and their hearts to beat like a drummer going crazy. Out of the numerous dark hallways surrounding the table approached things with long beaks that opened to reveal fleshy mouths and big black soulless eyes, and overall they resembled birds, or at least something akin to bird masks, as their heads were spherical and white like a skull being revealed to the world.

Their clothing consisted of chequered red and white shirts, blue jeans, white dresses, belts, and other items that, while the stranger recognised what they were, also seemed to be quite old in terms of style. The crowd of whatever these things were approached the stranger. Closer and closer they got. Now touching him and feeling him with their inhumanly long fingers and razor-sharp nails. Staring and chirping, or at least making unfathomably alien-like sounds that the stranger could not decipher. After a few moments, the crowd stepped back; they all gathered on one side of the table, which gave the stranger the opportunity to leap right over the table to the opposite side of the creatures and rush down one of the hallways. The stranger pushed their legs to the limit. They did not want to stop. Stopping would likely mean death.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! What the hell is this freaky place?"

As the stranger ran, they could hear the loud footsteps and animalistic screams of rage that the creatures emitted. The hallway had many confusing twists and turns that the stranger would narrowly miss, attempting to keep their momentum so as not to slow down and be ravaged by the tsunami of nightmare fuel behind them. Unfortunately, it seemed their fate was sealed as they ran back into the room with the table, chairs, and endless hallways.

"What the fu-"

Before they could even finish their sentence, their bodies were slammed into the ground as their clothes were torn to shreds. Powerful bites ripped through the skin and crunched on bones as the stranger screamed and screamed until only silence and crimson-red floors were left. The creatures then crawled, walked, and sprinted into their twisted hallways full of shadow and mystery, where the very laws of physics were distorted into a trap for the unsuspecting.

The creatures, as a family of flesh, starvation, and predatory nature pass a window and outside is shown a group of people ranging from kids to adults who approach the entrance of the building, seeing it as a shelter from the storm. However,  they are none the wiser as to the threat that hides and waits for their prey to enter, so they can feast once more.