The Hellish Hirsute Horror (Part 1): The Demon's Whiskers

Deep in the foreboding Black Pine Forest, an ancient evil dwelled among the twisted, gnarled trees. Old Man Kreznic was the town's oldest resident, having walked the earth for nearly a century. His face was gnarled and creased like the bark on the trees, with only two beady black eyes peering out from the tangled nest of wiry hair that engulfed his entire head. 

Kreznic's beard was the stuff of legends - a matted, filthy mess of gray and black tendrils that dragged along the ground behind him, easily spanning over 10 feet long. The grizzled bushman was a local legend, a source of dark folklore and hushed rumors that few dared to even speak of.

For that mangy bird's nest of facial hair was no ordinary tangle of human strands. It was an accursed, hellish thicket composed of thousands upon thousands of malevolent spirits, wicked demons, and tortured souls - all bound to Kreznic's demonic will.  

The twisted old crone could, with but a thought, animate and control any part of that ethereal bramble patch to do his bidding. By simply plucking out a gnarled tendril, he could give life to those strands and command them to become a slithering, malicious entity. 

The manifestations took on myriad terrifying forms - begrimed serpents that could crush the life out of their victims, amorphous oozing globs that smothered human prey, or ethereal wraith-like spectres with gnashing jaws and ravenous appetites. Death beasts at the old man's beck and call, birthed from his very essence.

Yet the townspeople sorely underestimated old Kreznic's dark powers. For decades the grizzled crone was dismissed as a batty mountain man - his true nature a source of myth and ghost stories told to misbehaving children to scare them into behaving.  

That all changed one fateful summer when three young friends - Zane, Ronin, and Akari - became the targets of Kreznic's maleficent fury.

It was the first day of their summer break from college, and the trio was overjoyed at being free from responsibilities and homework for the next few blissful months. They joyously packed up Zane's beaten-up pickup truck with supplies and camping gear, intent on roughing it in the Black Pine backcountry for a guys' weekend.

As they set off on the winding mountain road, they passed by old Kreznic shuffling along the shoulder in a hunched lurch. His massive tangle of beard hair dragged behind him, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake.

"Hey, check out that freaky dude!" Zane shouted as he spotted Kreznic in the rearview mirror, causing the others to whip around to look.

"Whoa, what is that thing? Beast Jesus?" Ronin chuckled in amusement.

"More like a Chia Pet that took a steroids bath!" Akari joined in on mocking the leering codger.

The cruel laughter of the three youths drifted back to the seething Kreznic, instantly provoking his wrath. The old man's sunken eyes burned with hellfire fury at their callous ridicule. They would pay dearly for their insolence.

That night, as the trio was gathered around their campfire telling stories and jokes, an unnatural chill swept through their campsite. An ominous fog began creeping out of the tree line, growing thicker with every passing second until it obscured everything more than 10 feet away in a churning gray mist.

"What the...?" Zane shivered, grabbing a log to stoke their dwindling fire.  

Before the friends could react, a massive, writhing tentacle-like tendril burst forth from the fog, lashing straight towards Zane. It coiled around his throat with blinding speed, wrenching him off the ground and sending him crashing into the trees.

Ronin and Akari leapt to their feet, reaching for the camping tools and equipment to use as weapons. Another two sinuous tentacles whipped out of the miasma and struck at them.

That's when the true extent of the trio's unique abilities was first revealed...

Ronin deftly swatted aside one of the grasping tendrils with a glowing orange forcefield that appeared in his hand. With a shout, sizzling plasma coalesced out of thin air and turned the other probing tendril into a smoldering pile of ash.

Meanwhile, Akari focused his mind, causing the very earth itself to rupture and upheave. Towering earthen spikes burst forth from the ground and pierced the first demon tentacle about to crush Zane.

The hideous being let out an unearthly wail of agony as its tendril construct was obliterated. In a whipping blur of motion, the injured demon retracted back into the fog bank from whence it came.

"What...the hell... was that?!" Zane wheezed, finally able to speak after being released from the beast's grasp.

"I think we just pissed off one angry forest spirit," Ronin gulped as he readied himself for another attack. The lingering miasma hung low and heavy like a suffocating funeral shroud upon their camp.

For what seemed like an eternity, the three friends huddled back-to-back in a defensive circle, their strange powers at the ready to combat the resurgent demonic force. Just when they thought the worst was over, the mists parted and the abomination emerged in a new horrific visage.

From the churning haze materialized a gargantuan, featureless humanoid mass easily 10 feet tall. It lumbered towards them, shapeless slimy tendrils sloughing off its body in a grotesque semblance of facial hair gone horribly awry. It let out an ungodly, hollow moan as it sensed the three young men.

"That thing's going down for good this time!" Ronin shouted as he projected twin plasma blasts from his hands, bombarding the titan. Akari's telekinetic power rent the ground asunder, toppling the towering behemoth before it could get close.

The monster flailed in the dirt, wracked by the pulverizing energy blasts and terrakinetic bombardment. But like a horrific melted wax effigy, the abomination soon began reconstituting itself, its ravaged form oozing back together to a singular sludgy mass.

Prepared for a drawn out battle against the resilient demon, the trio readied their next barrage of attacks. But the beast had other plans. Faster than they could react, a torrent of filthy bandril-like tendrils whipped forth from the thing's body and encased all three in their snaring, crushing grip.

The young men struggled against their unyielding bonds, summoning their powers to no avail as the restraining horror-limbs only squeezed tighter in response to their attacks. Their strength was fast waning as they were lifted up, coming face to malformed face with the demon. 

Its singular mouth, an empty void rimmed with jagged fangs, formed into a sadistic grin as it prepared to deliver the final, lethal constriction...

Just then, a thunderous explosion boomed out from the forest behind the creature. The entity whipped around in time to see dozens of white-hot ethereal spears streak through the air. The flaming javelins lanced into its mass, their searing energy weakening its physical form to a splattering ooze.

There stood Kreznic, plucking a fresh handful of whisker-demons from his beard with cold indifference. The old crone merely watched with detached bemusement as the surviving specter remnants were reduced into scorched ruin by the surprise barrage.

As the youths crashed to the ground, freed from the evaporated horror's hold, the ancient hermit turned and regarded them with thinly veiled disgust.

"So...you three whelps have some misbegotten powers, hmm? Consider yourselves lucky I decided to spare you...for now."

And with that brusque warning, Kreznic spun on his heel and vanished back into the foreboding Black Pine Forest just as swiftly as he arrived. The three battered friends were left in stunned silence as they processed what had happened.

They quickly realized they had made an enemy of a force far more ancient and primordial than they ever could have imagined.