You're not sure how long you wander the woods, but it doesn't take long until you regain some confidence to determine you're not lost anymore. It was a simple matter of following the path of crushed vegetation and disturbed soil; heading in the direction that you had run from in your futile evasion of that bat before making it back to the familiar forest trail.
As you jog with long strides, parallel to the trail, you occasionally look up at the forest canopy and the dancing shadows cast by the moonlight upon the leaves. Said shadows, however, begin to shift and twist. They dance among the leaves as though a breeze was blowing through the forest.
You're observant enough to stay in the middle of the path, preferring to avoid any chance of a latex beast scurrying around in the foliage from snatching you. Though your wariness definitely played a part in that precaution.
Treading down said path, of course, inevitably led you onto a somewhat familiar street that served to somewhat reinvigorate your spirit. Still, your mood isn't exactly one to joviality; still trying to wrap your head around all that occurred in the past hour or so.
Your feet carry you with haste, and soon enough you've made it to the edge of the main street of town; flooded with utter darkness save the occasional streetlamp every now and then.
However, as you draw closer, you realize that there's something... off about the atmosphere. A stale air and a feeling of dread that presses down on your chest, and incredibly uncanny since you were outside where the air should've been fresh. It almost feels… cold, in a sense.
Although you can't make out much else besides the fact that it's... well, deserted.
You slow to a halt as you grow close to the outskirts of a neighborhood, examining your surroundings in apprehension. The buildings stand tall and foreboding, windows darkened and undoubtedly without power. Your eyes scan the buildings on either side of you, hoping to spot anything...or anyone.
Only, nothing stirred, nothing moved, nothing made a sound. It was if the entire population of the town had simply vanished off the face of the Earth.
It isn't till you draw close to the front of one house in particular that you stop at the sight of its front door being wide open, a detail so seemingly innocuous yet unnerving beyond comprehension. Not a light inside nor out was on, but you could see it. Reflective, akin to a shifting puddle of sludge on the path leading towards the open doorway.
Your head snaps to the adjacent house, the exterior differing vastly, though it too, had an open door. A smashed window even. Shards of glass litter the ground in front.
Then, you look back to the house before you yet again. There was no wind to carry the stench that emanated from the black abyss that lay beyond the doorway. However, there was something else.
A sound.
You pause, eyes widening as you hear a sound from within; a shuffling thud, as if something was walking about.
You're not imagining things.
You turn your head, spotting a pair of feet protruding from behind the corner of the house. Glossy and inhuman, tipped with claws and distinctively digitigrade.
A low rumbling emanates from deep within your belly, and fear of the unknown seeps through your pores.
You needed to get out of here.
Now.