Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 310

This week's picture prompt was created by Jeffrey Smith, it's called Summoned. I used one of his recently on Week 307 & couldn't miss this one with the build up to Halloween! He has some incredible art worth checking out.  

A short dark one this week, with an edge of hope. 

The General Guidelines can be found here.

How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here. 

There is also a Facebook group for Mid-Week Flash, if you fancy getting the prompt there.

The Hunt

From our hiddenburrow we saw it; the sequel had gone up to call them to him. It blazed with itsevil grin and we shivered in the darkness.

We could hear the rumblings of the otherscoming to the call. All the depraved and twisted faces flashing past, lit up bythe burning orange light making them more grotesque than normal.

We scuttled deeper under ground, runningthis way and that, hoping to be far enough away by the time they were gathered readyfor their hunt – their ‘trick or treat’ as they liked to call it.

Both were for their benefit: the trick wasto catch us, the treat was to eat us. Our bodies would join the blaze in thefield. We only hoped they weren’t fast enough, clever enough, or thin enough tofind us.

Some of us climbed trees, becoming likefour legged creatures as we scurried to the tallest limbs. They rarely lookedup making it would be the safest way. They would be expecting us to beunderground, where we had burrowed for generations, since they cast our goodnessout. And there would be weak among us who would not manage to remain hidden andfrom the tree tops we would watch their sacrifice as they were torn androasted.

The only hope was that each year there wereless of them and more of us. They were dying out, along with their rituals,which took place is fewer places. Each year they looked more ragged and feeble,some only there to watch, no longer able to walk. As they fed on our weakest,we grew in strength.

Our time would come soon and the only thingablaze would be the remains of their lives.