Come Back Witch

Standing face to face with something that looked exactly like his friend, David didn't know how to react. Nearly every instinct told him the person standing there was Vinces. But his mind remembered what Vinces had told him just before he went up the mountain.

Grabbing the door handle with one hand and a small hammer with another, he continued to stare at the impostor. His blond, half-curly hair fell nearly to his ears, resembling a short wolf cut. His wrecked student uniform, with the exact same ID on it. Even his slightly above-average height matched perfectly.

But there was something off, his stance. He stood there like a well-rested person that hasn't been through a hellish day and just returned from climbing a hill. In other words, the impostor just seemed to be too perfect to be real.

The copy slowly walked towards the car, not cautious at all. ''Vinces you're back; that's nice. Could you be so kind and check out the trunk of the car.'' Before the fake could even answer, David opened the truck door and took a step away.

The impostor seemingly sensing his cautiousness slowly walked towards the trunk. "Sure, you're looking for something?" it asked in a bit too happy and energetic voice while opening the trunk.

David took his chance. He knew attacking could be meaningless if he didn't know anything about his adversary. Instead, he chose to escape. While it was occupied with the trunk and not watching him. ''Yeah in the box back there is a gun; we could need it.'' If there had been a gun, he would have taken it long ago for protection; he only prayed it would buy him a few moments of time.

Slowly taking one after another step back away from the fake, trying to get as much distance without it noticing. After gaining roughly two dozen meters of distance, David turned away from the fake and started sprinting as fast as possible.

Running towards the forest, he could hear the fake slam the trunk shut and start sprinting after him. Meanwhile, David managed to get off-road and into the forest; each step had to be taken carefully to not fall over any undergrowth but also as fast as possible, hoping to gain enough distance to find a hiding spot.

As the adrenaline started to flow through his veins, his tempo only increased. Risking a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw the impostor following him, his movements unnatural, like somebody using their legs for the first time. The distance between them had increased, looking ahead again, he noticed something coming close towards him.

Blond hair was waving in the air, but its movements, too, were just as inhuman. ''There are multiple?'' David asked himself already, changing his escape route to the left so both monsters would be roughly the same distance from him.

A familiar voice called out; no two did. ''Where are you going? DAVID. You're safe with us. Come here, David, just a bit closer!'' Both creatures spoke in perfect sync. But their voices had lost all warmth, instead replaced with annoyance and an undertone of madness.

They seemed to act in a group, both closing the distance at an equal speed. Because of his direction change, their distance only decreased each second. The new path was barely passable as the slope gradually steepened.

His legs were burning; stumbling over a small stone, he nearly fell. Each step, the hope of escaping seemed to fall.

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Already running for over half an hour, his endurance had reached a limit, and with the steadily falling slope, he couldn't hope to hide anywhere. Just as hope was about to be lost, the slope ended abruptly with a cliff.

Standing in front of a cliff, daring only a glance down, it was roughly a fifteen-meter free fall down. As the voice seemed to get close each second. ''David come here, I just found a way out.'' The fake voice of his friend seemed to be hypnotizing. His heart hoped there was an easy way out, but he wouldn't fall so easily. Running along the cliff side, he found a few trees growing exactly at the cliff.

Without thinking, he jumped down. A branch pierced his arm, and a wave of pain stunned his whole body. His upper body slammed into the tree, stopping his fall, breaking probably a few ribs. Rebounding from the tree, he fell on his back, blinding him for a second.

Opening his eyes just a second later, he stared up, seeing two blond-haired faces. Staring at him from the top of the cliff. They seemed to debate whether they should follow down but seemed to be hesitating. David took his opportunity, moving his broken body.

Each second the copies seemed to get more irrational and try finding a way down until one of them seemed to have had enough and took a few steps back, leaping down the cliff. Not having as much momentum as David, it missed a branch of the tree, instead hitting the ground directly without any protection.

Letting out a last horrifying scream, it stared at David with its twisted body. Its legs were splintered open while blood flowed down its entire body, its arms twisted in unnatural positions beyond repair.

''David, help me, please david help me.'' Blood and tears ran down the creature's face, but it seemed to notice its deception wouldn't work on David, so its sad face slowly turned into madness. Then it laughed. The sound of his broken lungs wheezing through the air was horrifying.

"You will die today, David, just like your friend did and your daughter will be a feast for us."

Hearing the monster mention his daughter, David flew into a rage. Grabbing his hammer tightly, each step towards the monster was faster.

Just a moment later David stood in front of the dying fake, bringing down his hammer again and again. ''If one of you tries to touch her, I will burn you all on a cross!'' The lights in the eyes of the monster finally seemed to disappear, as its body suddenly started shaking and growing smaller and smaller. Until only a small wooden puppet remained, with the words ''Vinces Carver'' carved into its small body.

Maybe the name was part of the magic that allowed it to imitate people, though David did not know how a motionless wooden puppet could carve a name into itself.

Picking up the wooden puppet, which slowly started to disintegrate, he continued to destroy it with his hammer, refusing the magic to take away his kill. Finally exhausted from his actions, David fell to the ground on his back, staring up the cliff. But where the second fake should have been standing, nothing was there.

Just as David was wondering if both puppets were connected and died together, a loud laugh was heard. ''Oh David that really hurt a lot. Now stop hiding and come here!'' David instantly stood up and started limping towards more trees, trying to find cover.

''I know you're here, David. Come out and let's talk about it!'' Its voice was like honey, far too sweet to be real. But it seemed to get closer; the creature seemed to have taken a different route down the cliff and wasn't as hurt as the other one.

David wanted to run but knew that in his current state he wouldn't escape and hiding was the better play. Especially because the creatures didn't seem particularly intelligent. But they had different methods to find him.

The most obvious one was bringing David to reveal himself, either by him running away or other means. But David also just couldn't stand there and wait for it to find him, either something has to change or David would need to engage to have a chance.

His chance of winning a fair fight would be low. Judging by their speed and durability, they were only slightly weaker than the original Vinces. His last short confrontation with Vinces certainly hadn't gone his way, but this time both are hurt and drained of their endurance. Even while the creature tried to taunt him, he could hear its heavy breath and limping footsteps. It seemed to be weakening much faster than he was each second.

In the long run David would surely win their confrontation, but it seemed those puppets didn't die as fast as they should, the other one would've died instantly from the fall but survived for several minutes after even though David himself tried to kill it at the end.

In terms of weaponry, he was in the lead, even though he had left his hammer behind, he still had several other potentially lethal tools. He probably only needed to endure a few more minutes and then prepare a surprise attack to finish off the monster.

He knew thinking about all this in this situation was risky. But his mind simply couldn't stop racing.

Having decided to wait, he continued listening for the fake. But he couldn't hear anything, maybe it had less power left than he thought. After waiting just a moment more, David slowly peeked outside his hiding spot behind an old tree, staring towards the location where he had last heard the creature.

But he couldn't see anything, maybe it had already disintegrated like the other puppet at death. But before he could investigate further, a cold, heavy breath washed over the back of his neck.

A familiar voice whispered behind him.

''I FOUND YOU.''