The Unholy Three: Hell Hound.

The night's once clean, healthy air was no longer fresh. As it spoiled silently into the early hours of the morning, no evidence of an approaching warm dawn had rolled over the massive hills of the wilderness for this new day; the New England countryside remained bathed in a haunting darkness, a darkness that seemed to forebode an impending danger, a danger that was lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce.

 The air was thick with an eerie stillness, a silence that seemed to echo with the presence of something sinister. It was as if the very air held its breath, waiting for the impending danger to reveal itself. The couple could almost feel the weight of the silence pressing down on them, a tangible force that made their hearts race with fear.

In the distance, a pair of watery glowing eyes appeared over the tree lines, and the exhausted engine of a poorly aged Jeep cut deeply into the silence of the night. Inside the vehicle, a young couple was finishing the final moments of travel, their hearts pounding with a mix of excitement and nervousness as they approached their mysterious and foreboding destination for a macabrely thrilling and unwisely passionate vacation. The time on the dashboard was 2:46 am, only a few minutes until the "Witching Hour," a time believed to be when supernatural forces are at their peak. The Jeep's high beam moved past the mighty hills and into a thin but tall forest of skeletal trees, their nervousness growing with each passing moment.

As the pair drove deeper into the family of decaying trees, their surroundings felt narrower and rather helpless in the night's realm. The trees, like bony fingers, seemed to reach out to them, their twisted forms casting eerie shadows on the ground. Sitting in the passenger seat, a moody emo girl yawned as she moved closer to the warm body next to her, an act of affection she would never display in public. The warmth of their shared body heat was a stark contrast to the chilling darkness outside. Acknowledging the girl's secret, the somewhat shy, good-hearted boy readjusted his rimless glasses as he glanced in the rear-view mirror, as an awkward feeling crept over him; he wasn't sure why he felt the need to. After all, this was the open countryside, and he hadn't seen another soul for hours now; he rubbed it as sleep, trying to get the better of him.

Within seconds, an unborn fear awoke from the pit of the female's stomach as she pulled away from her lover to stretch out. Oddly, she felt a slight chill as she took in the night's empty stillness - even though the heater was on, she couldn't explain it. In a childish attempt to fix the eeriness of their environment, the woman reached forward to switch on the radio; unfortunately, the only thing playing was a dim whisper of static, adding another layer to their isolation. But as she reached for the switch, her lover stomped sharply on the brakes as a full-grown deer dashed across the wet road out from the darkness. As the tires screeched and spun until the Jeep rocked to a painful stop, thankfully, neither of them was injured. They looked at each other with wide, shocked eyes, their bodies still trembling with the fear of what could have been. But then, a wave of relief washed over them, and they nervously laughed, their laughter a stark contrast to the chilling silence of the night.

Tragically for the couple, their laughter of momentary safety was soon transformed into a terrifying experience. A ghastly pale, humanoid figure, its eyes glowing with a hunger that sent shivers down the couple's spines, chased after the deer from the darkness. It effortlessly leaped onto the Jeep's hood, its bony fingers leaving scratches on the metal. It crawled along the roof, its movements like a nightmare come to life, and then, with a mighty leap, it was after them. Confused and terrified, the pair scrambled out of the Jeep and into the uncertain darkness.

" Hon?! " the frightened female asked as the pair moved in front of the Jeep, " What the Hell was that?!"

But her lover did not respond. Driven by an untrusting curiosity, the man opened the back passenger door, took out a floodlight flashlight, switched it on, and pointed it out in the darkness. All the while, his lady stood in amazement at the significant dent that the shape had made on the Jeep's hood.

" Hey, Babe? Are you seeing this?" The man inquired.

The woman silently walked up to him; she saw it too. A little over twenty feet in a field of tall, clean grass, standing dead center, they saw the same deer they almost hit. As their eyes began to adjust to the night, they noticed several long and deep wounds across the animal's ribs. But just as quickly as it appeared, the deer frightfully raced off back into the night. Confused, the couple turned back towards the Jeep to continue their travel. That's when they heard a faint chorus of hungry breathing. Turning the light back to the grassy field, the couple could make out the shape of the white figure, which was accompanied by a pair of nightmarishly blood-red eyes gazing back at them.

Foolishly, the man moved towards the figure to get a better look. Though his lover insisted that they leave, he didn't listen. As he drew closer, the man noticed that the figure resembled a teenage male, no older than nineteen, who stood on his hind legs proudly. His bare body was pale, with thinning silver hair covering about seventy percent of it. The figure stretched out two sharply clawed hands at the man like a starving child begging for food as it drooled fresh, warm blood between its jagged fangs, which dropped onto the cold earth.

Acknowledging the growing danger, the man slowly stepped back from the figure. He believed it best not to take his sights off the figure, as this would help reassure this creature that he wasn't going to harm it. This would be a mistake the couple would soon regret. With a hellish, unnatural growl, the figure purposely steps toward the man, shifting its skeletal body into a threatening and confrontational stance - then, time froze dead. The figure unleashed a long and powerful howl as it charged toward its prey with incredible speed, and in a matter of briefest moments, it mercilessly attacked and viciously consumed the young couple's warm, sweet flesh...