Sora yawned as he walked back from the grocery store after buying ingredients he was running low on.

Not that he managed to find fresh ones. But the ones he found were good enough. He needed to start saving so he can move himself to a better working and living environment. The old town was simply dying at the moment.

"Stupid mutt! GET LOST!" Sora stopped as he heard shouting and found a man waving a metal pipe at the direction of another dog.

The man was bald and had a tattoo of a serpent on his face. He was wearing a leather jacket over a black shirt and ripped jeans. The dog, just like the one Sora saw earlier, was simply standing and staring at the man with an emotionless expression.

"Excuse me, is there something wrong?" Sora asked as he walked towards the man.

"Huh? You this shit's owner?" The man turned to the therapist and pointed the pipe at him. "Tell your mutt to fuck off! It's been staring at me for hours!"

Sora managed to get a general idea of the situation. The man was paranoid and started panicking because of the dog's odd behaviour and he was taking it out as anger as a defensive mechanism. Thinking quickly, he understood how to defuse the situation.

It helped to be a therapist.

"It isn't mine. I was just gonna tell you that it's staring because you're waving something at it. It thinks you're playing a game or gonna give it a treat. If you drop the pipe and walk away, it'll leave you alone," Sora explained while rasing his hands in mock surrender.

The man looked at Sora and the dog for a few more times before clicking his tongue and throwing the pipe away. He walked away with hands in his pockets while looking over his shoulder to see if the dog would follow him.

Sora sighed as he dropped his arms. If humans didn't naturally prefer the easier route with the less workload, this could have gotten ugly with the man desiring to simply beat up the dog rather than leave it.

With a sigh, the therapist looked at the dog. "Listen, buddy. I don't know why many of your kind has been around, but you should be more careful. Humans tend to react in a rash manner to what they don't understand," he said before continuing his own way.

The dog kept looking at him as he went away before another dog, with the same emotionless look, came up to it. They nodded to each other and they both walked towards an empty alleyway.

Meanwhile, Sora was checking on his schedule in a small notebook he keeps in the pocket of his jacket. He was pretty much free for the rest of the week. Next week was his last meeting with the man that was afraid of change, and yesterday he finished the last appointment with a woman that had Mysophopia - or fear of germs - and those were the only notes in his schedule.

"I need to find a better spot for business," Sora mumbled to himself as he closed the notebook and placed it in his pocket.

~X~

Sora closed the door to his apartment and locked it before he started heading for his office. He doubted he would get more patients out of nowhere, but his job required that he spends time there every day in case of an emergency or a sudden visit.

Sora simply walked without a care in the world until he noticed another new dog standing in the sidewalk. He decided to ignore the dog and simply keep walking forward, believing it would just stand still like the other two.

However, that wasn't the case. Just as he was about to pass by the dog, it leaned forward and held his coat with it's jaws. Sora stopped and looked at the dog as it held his coat in its mouth. It wasn't a dangerous bite, just one meant to stop him.

"Do you... need something?" Sora asked with a raised eyebrow.

The dog let go of the coat and turned around before it began walking towards the alleyway. It looked over its shoulder at the therapist before nodding in the direction it was headed.

The situation was full of unknowns and suspicion, but Sora was someone who believed the unknown can be understood given effort. So, while keeping cautious, he began walking behind the dog as it started leading him into the alleyway.

Unknown to either the dog or Sora, several red-eyed crows were watching them from the top of the building.

Sora kept following the dog until it came out of the alleyway and headed to the direction where buildings end and trees begin. The therapist stopped for a moment and narrowed his eyes.

The situation was getting more and more suspicious, but there was still the possibility that the dog was leading him to an injured person that was left outside of civilization with no other way to contact people.

Taking a deep breath, Sora began walking where he saw the dog headed and entered the treeline. He kept following the dog further and further until he reached a large clearing. The dog wasn't alone. The entire clearing was surrounded by many dogs, all of which Sora remembers seeing at the town at one point of another.

"So, why did you bring me-"

*Crunch*

"AAAAAHHH!" Sora fell forward to his knees as great pain pierced his right leg.

Looking back, the therapist saw one of the dogs biting into his leg hard enough that he was almost tearing the flesh clean off. Using his other leg, Sora kicked the dog away, causing it to let go of his leg and leave it to start bleeding.

Sora turned around and pulled his wounded leg. The back of his pants leg was completely torn and covered in blood. The wound was bleeding and ran deep. Best case scenario, his leg would be weak for the rest of his life even if he survived.

"You've done well, brother," Sora turned to the one speaking and found the dogs making a path for one.

What came from between them was undoubtedly a Devil. It was larger than a tiger, and while it generally looked like a dog, that's where the similarities ended. It had six bulging eyeballs on its head, hair so spiky that a part of its back looked like it was hedgehog. It didn't have lips revealing a mouth full of fangs and sharp teeth.

"You... you're the one who made this happen?" Sora asked as he - painfully - turned his body to face the Devil and started sliding back.

"Yes, I am, human," the Devil replied, mouth drooling. "I am the Dog Devil, and I'll kill you now."

"Why... Why did you lead me here? Why are you gathering these dogs?" Sora asked.

"You humans call us dogs 'man's best friend', and yet you treat us as inferior pets," Dog Devil raised it's head and began shouting. "But no more! Me and my brethren shall rise up and show you humans which of us is truly superior!" The dogs began howling with Dog Devil's shouting. "As for Why I led you here? I was hungry but I didn't want the humans to know of my plan before I gathered enough of my brethren to take on this whole town. So, I asked one of my brethren to lead a human here, one who is alone most of the time so that their disappearance would not be noticed."

"You intend to attack the whole town?" Sora asked as his back hit something hard.

"Of course, I cannot attack a populated city where there is many dangers. But, this town has little humans, and many of my brothers. It is the perfect place for us to begin our revolution!" The Dog Devil shouted again and the dogs howled.

Sora looked down for a moment... before chuckling. "Ah, so that's your plan?"

Dog Devil tilted it's head. "You're... laughing? Have you gone insane from fear?" It asked.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Sora leaned back on whatever was behind him. "Fear of dogs is rather weak, and stronger Devils than you got hunted down. If you brought me for a meal, then sorry but I have no fear for you to feed on."

"Why? Your about to die and I just told you that I'll kill this entire town! Why aren't you afraid?!" Dog Devil yelled, smacking it's paws on the ground.

"Because I'm a therapist," Sora answer like he was asked what color the sky was. "My job is to study fear... and then understand its source to overcome it. If its fear you Devils are after, then we therapist are the most dry well out there."

The dog Devil stared at him before grunting. "You humans are stupid. Kill him," he ordered and the dogs around began walking towards Sora as they bared their fangs.

The therapist simply huffed as he smacked his head back on the metal pole. He wasn't afraid of what's to come, just worried that the pain would last long. It would be-

(Wait... metal?) Sora's eyes widen. He was in the forest. What could possibly be made of metal?

Quickly looking at what he was leaning on, Sora found the jagged scarecrow he saw the other day. He would have wondered what it was doing here and how it got here in the first place since he was absolutely sure it was not there before, but his vision began growing blurry as blood loss began getting to him.

"Dammit," Sora groaned as he leaned back on the scarecrow's pole, his head feeling lighter with each second. The dogs were almost upon him. He spared the scarecrow one last look. "If it means anything... I think you'd be a lot scarier than this Devil give the situation," he said before he closed his eyes as the dogs finally reached him.

The dogs all opened their jaws and started closing them, ready to pierce his flesh and-

Caw

Sora suddenly opened his eyes as he felt no pain. Even his wounded leg did not hurt anymore. Sora saw that the dogs had stopped, but not for any normal reason. It's because they weren't moving. Their teeth were just touching his skin yet they didn't go deeper than that.

It was not just the dogs. The clouds, falling leaves, and Dog Devil. All of them seemed completely frozen in place and unable to move.

The only thing that was moving was the swinging lantern on the scarecrow.

"Do yOu WaNt PoWEr?"

"Who said that?" Sora asked, looking around.

"dO YOu WanT POweR?"

Sora didn't know what was talking to him or how, but he had a pretty good idea.

It was a Devil asking for a contract.

He didn't know what the devil was nor why was it asking him now specifically. But, it was obvious that the devil was offering him a way to survive this situation.

Did Sora want to die here? No. He did not. He didn't fear death, but there were still things he wanted to do in life. He wanted to see the big city, help more people, and hopefully understand the true source of all fear.

"Do yoU wANt PoWeR?"

"I don't know what you want or why your offering this to me, but yes, I want power. I want to survive!" Sora cried out.

A red glow came from the scarecrow's chest-cage and slowly drifted into Sora's own chest. A form of demonic magic circle appeared under him as the glow slowly entered his chest vanished.

The lantern on the scarecrow stopped dangling while the world began moving again and the dogs' fangs finally cut into the therapist's skin.

Dog Devil watched as the dogs piled up at where Sora used to be... before they started breaking up and revealing the spot to be completely empty.

"What?! Where did he go?!" It yelled and the dogs began sniffing around before turning to it and shaking their heads with a few whimpers. "What do you mean his scent vanished!? He couldn't have just disappeared. Find him before he warns-"

Caw

Suddenly, an atmosphere of dread filled the entire clearing, causing Dog Devil to stop speaking and for the dogs to look around with fearful whimpering. It was only then that Dog Devil noticed that all the trees around were filled with crows, looking at it wand the dogs with red eyes.

Caw

Something moved, and the next thing Dog Devil knew was that three of the dogs were gone. There was no traces, be it scent or blood.

"Show yourself!" Dog Devil roared, looking around.

It was then that he heard rusty creaking. Turning around swiftly, Dog Devil found itself staring at a jagged metal scarecrow. The creaking was coming from a lantern that was dangling back and forth from one of the hands.

Dog Devil took a step back, cautious of the scare-

Caw

A faint whimper was all Dog Devil heard before turning around... and finding ALL the dogs under its command completely gone.

Looking at the scarecrow, Dig Devil found that it was gone as well.

Growling in anger, Dog Devil roared into the air. "YOU THINK THIS CHANGES ANYTHING? I'LL GATHER MORE OF MY BROTHERS! YOU HUMANS CAN NEVER-"

"HuUuNgryYy"

A voice that even the Devil found unnatural groaned out, causing Dog Devil to slowly turn around and see as the scarecrow was now right in the middle of the clearing, but that wasn't the only change.

The bodies of the dogs that just vanished were now all hung from the trees by robes. They were all tied in various ways and none of them were tied in a similar manner to the other, implying each was killed in a different way.

"FACE ME, HUMAN!" Dog Devil cried out as it tensed its legs, ready to jump.

The scarecrow's hand suddenly dropped and dangled to the ground. The head also dropped before it started cracking around. Slowly, the head turned to look at Dog Devil just as the mouth and eye of the scarecrow began glowing bright red.

"FeEeAaar..." the Scarecrow groaned out.

"I DON'T FEAR YOU!" Despite the claim, the tips of Dog Devil's four feet were shaking.

The scarecrow fully dropped to the ground before it suddenly began charging forward towards Dog Devil, who in turn charged at the scarecrow, fangs and claws bare.

The scarecrow, charging one all four, suddenly jumped just as Dog Devil snapped its jaws. Landing on Dog Devil's back, the scarecrow's metal claws clutched the head of the canine, the sharp claws cutting through flesh and four of the six eyes the devil has.

Roaring in pain, Dog Devil began shaking their body, trying to throw off the scarecrow, which jumped off on it's on. As soon as it touched the ground, Dog Devil attacked with it's jaws aimed directly at the head of the scarecrow.

The scarecrow caught the jaws with each hand and Dog Devil was surprised that it had strength to stop it in its tracks in its small body. However, that was not compared to the surprise of seeing an extra arm made from a dark substance grow from the scarecrow's shoulder.

A rusty jagged scythe suddenly appeared in the new arm's grasp and, with a powerful swing, it sliced one of Dog Devil's legs completely clean off, causing it to scream in pain and jump back.

Dog Devil's breathe grew rapid as it began to panic. The scarecrow didn't move, however, and looked at the fallen limp before thrusting it's chest towards it.

The canine's eyes widen in shock as the chest-cage on the scarecrow opened and Dog Devil's fallen leg and spilled blood began slowly began turn into dark smoke before it was sucked into the scarecrow's open chest-cage, which revealed a dark red core of some kind.

"W-... What are you?" Dog Devil took a fearful step back as the chest-cage closed after fully consuming the parts he just lost.

The scarecrow turned to look at Dog Devil, the way that the mouth on the sack was cut made it appear as if it had a sinister, red glowing grin filled with jagged metal teeth.

"FeEeAaar."

~X~

Later that day, as the sun began setting, two figures were walking through the forest. One figure clearly feminine while the other figure, which was small like a child, was round and had a pair of circular ears on top of it's head.

"Urgh, you better be right about this, stupid bear. We've been walking for hours," the woman groaned out, obvious annoyance in her tone.

"Of course I'm right! I told you the devil is this way so that means they're this way! When did I ever lead you wrong?" The smaller figure replied with bravado.

"Do you want an alphabetical or chronological list?" The woman deadpanned at the bear.

Caw

Both figures suddenly stopped and looked around to see that they're not alone. The trees around were all filled with crows, each looking at them with red eyes.

"Dammit. We're doing our job, so can't that walking masochist fanservice bait leave us alone?!" The woman yelled out while crossing her arms.

"... These are not Makima's," the smaller figure stated.

"Wait, what?" The woman looked at the smaller figure with a raised eyebrow. "Then... why are those crows-"

Both figures went quiet as they started hearing the sound of metal being dragged on the ground. Turning to where the sound was coming from, a figure slowly appeared from under the shadows of the trees.

A jagged, metal scarecrow appeared, dragging one of its metal arms behind it as it walked on thin legs while a third arm held a large rusty scythe. The two figures looked at the scarecrow as the head craned to look at them.

"H...H.... Help... me..." the Scarecrow weekly groaned out before it suddenly dropped forward.

The scarecrow was covered in dark red smoke for a few seconds, before it disappeared and revealed Sora in place where the scarecrow was.

"Holy shit," the woman mumbled before a large grin spread across her face. "I think we just found an excuse for us to lazy off today!"

"Yeah! Up for lazy bums!"

".... oh, I'm sorry. Did I say 'us'? You still have to work by carrying this guy."

"WHYYYYYYYY!?!?"

(A/N: Thank you for reading this.

This was the first time I wrote the horror genre. So, I hope I did well.

Please comment, review, and give me your thoughts on my story.)