The figure was small and hunched over, but it was walking at a quick pace toward a swampier area thick with cypress trees. He thought about calling out, but something held him back. The man didn’t seem to have noticed him yet, and he wanted to get a closer look before he announced his presence. So he followed him.

The path they took wound along the edge of a small swamp, and as it got closer to dark, Tony began to regret his decision and consider turning back again. But then the man reached a rocky outcropping that appeared to lead into a cave. As he grew closer, Tony could see the flicker of firelight inside as well.

It was then that he called out to the man. The figure had just disappeared into the cave entrance a moment before, but there was no sign of him coming back out after Tony yelled. He yelled again and again, wanting to avoid having to follow the man inside the cave to try and make contact. But again, there was nothing.

Seeing how quickly it was growing dark now, he forced himself to approach and enter the cave. Firelight moved along the walls, throwing everything into shift shadow as he went deeper in, still calling out. He said that the cave smelled terribly, a strange, rotten smell that burned his nose. It was that smell that made him decide to back out and try to find his way back to me.

He only saw a second of movement from the shadows before the man was on him, grabbing his neck with one hand while using the other to bring a knife down on his chest. Tony caught his knife hand at the last second, and it took both his hands to push the knife to the side enough that it only cut his arm. They continued to fight, with the man silently snapping his teeth less than an inch from Tony’s face as they struggled for the knife. Eventually Tony managed to wrench the knife free long enough to stick it deep in the man’s side. He pulled it out and struck again. After the second time he stabbed the man, the fight seemed to go out of him. The man slumped to the side, his teeth snapping one last time as his breath rattled and then stilled.

Tony said that after he was sure the man was dead, he searched the cave but found little aside from a small hatchet and a bed made out of grass and moss. He searched carefully for any hidden cache of food, but there was none, despite the fact that this man had clearly made this place his home for some time.

Then he thought back to how the man had tried to bite him.