Sorry it’s been so long since my last post.
I’ve been in mourning.
It took me all day to decide what my plan was going to be. The aroma of dinner wafted through the air as I walked into the warm glow of the kitchen, where my parents were engrossed in a conversation while preparing dinner. My heart thudded hard against my chest, and I let out a soft hum to test if my voice was going to be as shaky as I was expecting it to be. I’ve never been a good liar; in fact, I hate lying to my parents. I usually avoid it at all costs as I’ve found it usually gets me into more trouble. But being that this was only a half-lie, I tried to control my breathing for long enough to ask a simple question.
As I did, I stood there for awkwardly for a few seconds as my parents discussed when our family would next visit my aunt Kate. I couldn’t wait for the right moment to interrupt. “Hey, Mom, Dad,” I interjected, breaking into their conversation. “I was thinking of heading over to Charles’ place for the night. You know, just to hang out and stuff. Would that be alright?”
They exchanged glances, considering my request. “Don’t you have school tomorrow?” my mom asked. “He’s on winter break until next week” dad responded. “Oh, right.” After a moment, they nodded in agreement, “Sure, Chris. But let’s eat first. We’re having beef stroganoff for dinner.”
After putting my dirty dishes into the sink, I grabbed my backpack and in an attempt to run to my car flew right onto my butt due to the ice-covered ground. After arriving I gave a quick greeting to Charles’ mom and little brother, and then we headed upstairs.
“Alright man, what’s this about? Not that I mind having you over or anything, but your messages have really been getting my gears turning”. He flashed me his phone’s screen, which held the texting conversation between us in which I had told him that I needed to talk to him in person.
After a moment of hesitation, I decided I needed to tell somebody what had happened, so I launched into the bizarre tale of our hunting trip. The suicidal deer on the road, the buck that hadn’t reacted to my two bullets piercing its chest, and the unnatural gathering of deer around our cabin.
Charles, obviously skeptical, raised an eyebrow. “And if that’s all true, why the hell would I want to go out there with you? Sounds like a death trap to me. They were going to eat you or something, get revenge for trying to kill their leader.”
I took a deep breath, “Look, I can’t explain it. But there’s something off about that place, and I can’t shake the feeling that I need to go check it out again. It’s really bugging me. Are you in?”
Charles paused; his reluctance was evident. “Man, this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I’m sorry, but I can’t. In fact, I should tell your parents about your batshit crazy idea, but I’m no rat.”
I felt hope drain from my body, pulled by gravity and flowing straight out of my feet. I was terrified of going alone, and a small part of me even figured that this would be kind of exciting to investigate with a friend.
“Nah, it’s alright man, I get it. No hard feelings.” I swung my backpack over my right shoulder and opened his bedroom door, stepping into the hall.
“Woah, you don’t have to leave, you just got here. Don’t you wanna watch a movie or something? We can watch a scary movie instead, like ‘Antlers’. I’ve heard that’s a good one about deer.”
“I told you man, I have to figure this out or else it’s going to keep bothering me. I’m totally down to hang out tomorrow though when I get back.” As I walked down the stairs, I prayed that he would give into my request and come with me, but he just stood at the top looking at me.
I started to become really nervous after I closed the front door of his house because he didn’t give the last second ‘WAIT!’ that I was waiting for. After climbing back in my car, I tilted my head backwards and moaned aloud. I rocked my head back and forth for a minute, trying to decide if I should go tonight or rethink my plan for another day. As I was backing out of the driveway, unsure of my final decision, I saw Charles’ front door open and put on the brakes. “Alright!” he shouted.
“Alright what?”
“I’m coming with you!”
The wavering lingered as we gathered essentials and Charles’ ATV onto the small trailer now hooked up to my hummer. Sneaking out unnoticed, we drove towards the national forest. Charles, ever the independent spirit, chuckled, “My mom won’t even notice. She never supervises me, it’s like I’m invisible.” Without daring to answer him out loud, I thought “No, it’s because you’re the man of the house and she hopes you will do the supervising, not that you ever do”.
Near the roadblock, we parked the car, squished together on the ATV, and ventured into the woods. I could see the look in his face that he had changed his mind, but he must’ve figured he was too far in because he didn’t say anything about turning back. Every once in a while, my already sore butt became further bruised by a rock or log we stumbled over. The cold night air whispered through the trees as the ATV rumbled beneath us. We didn’t try to speak over the noise except for one question he asked me.
“So what are we going to do once we get there?”
I considered for a moment.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure.”
I could feel him tense up a bit, annoyed at me. Thoughts trickled into my mind that maybe this was a dumb idea. Finding deer is always difficult, a venture that often takes multiple hours, and what were we going to learn even if we did find another one?
Arriving at the cabin, we hopped off and he slipped the ATV keys back into his pocket. I watched Charles as we both scanned the surroundings, a mix of apprehension and curiosity in his eyes. Outside, everything looked untouched from yesterday. The padlock was still untouched and attached to the front door. But as soon as I walked inside, I noticed it.
On the wall sat a large, empty space where the antlers from my first kill had been. Confused, I replayed in my mind over and over whether my dad had moved it while we were here, and I was sure he hadn’t.
Where did it go? Who moved it? Charles walked in behind me.
“Man, it’s been forever since I’ve been here. Looks the same, for the most part.”
I pointed at the empty space. “Charles, the antlers are gone.”
“You mean you guys took it down when you were here yesterday?”
“No, I mean we left them up, and now they’re GONE!”
Charles scratched his head as I confirmed all the windows were closed and locked. “Someone has been here man, I’m telling you.”
Charles frowned, his eyes narrowing as he processed the missing antlers. “Gone? Like, vanished?”
I nodded, a sense of unease settling over us. “I swear, they were right here. This is messed up.”
We searched the cabin thoroughly, turning the place upside down, but there was no sign of the antlers or anything else missing. Charles, now caught up in the mystery, became more serious. “Okay, this just got weirder. What kind of place are we dealing with here?”
I hesitated before answering, “I don’t know, but it feels like something really freaky is going on. The officers mentioned strange animal behavior and mass migration, but it seemed like that’s all that they knew.”
Charles raised an eyebrow, skepticism still evident. “So, what’s the plan?”
“We need to find more of those deer and observe them. See what’s up with them.”
Charles sighed, glancing around the cabin. “Yeah, okay, whatever that means. I say we stay in here and play some chess or something.”
“Come on, we won’t go far. We’ll stay within sight of the cabin.”
We equipped ourselves with flashlights and headed outside, the cold night air biting at us. The eerie silence of the forest added to the tension. As we walked, Charles spoke up, “So, what’s your theory on the antlers?”
“I don’t have one,” I admitted. “Maybe someone took them. But who would do that in the middle of nowhere?”
Charles chuckled nervously, “Maybe we’re dealing with some forest thieves. They saw our cabin, thought we had valuables, and took off with the antlers.”
“Forest thieves?” I raised an eyebrow. “That sounds unlikely, but I guess anything’s possible at this point.”
We reached the area where the deer had gathered the previous night, next to the campfire pit. It felt different now, almost foreboding. I shone my flashlight around, trying to discern any unusual signs. Charles scanned the surroundings with a wary expression.
“I don’t like this, man,” he muttered.
“Me neither,” I replied, my eyes darting between the trees. “Let’s keep moving, maybe we’ll find something.”
As we ventured deeper, the woods seemed to close in on us. The wind whispered through the branches, creating an eerie symphony. Suddenly, Charles halted, his flashlight fixed on one of the tree’s.
“Look,” he said, his voice hushed.
I followed his gaze and saw a faint glow on the tree. We approached cautiously, and as we got closer, I realized it was a circle of glowing symbols etched into the bark. The air around it felt charged with an unexplained energy. The symbols seemed to pulse with an otherworldly glow.
“What the hell is this?” Charles whispered.
I had no answers. The symbols were nothing I could ever recognize; my best guess was that it was Viking or something. As we circled the mysterious formation, a low hum filled the air, sending shivers down our spines.
“This has to be related to the strange animal behavior,” I mumbled.
Charles eyed the symbols warily. “And the antlers? What do they have to do with this?”
Before I could respond, a distant sound echoed through the forest – the haunting cries of distressed deer. The noise grew louder, and a sudden realization struck me.
“They’re coming back,” I said, my voice barely audible.
The glowing symbols pulsed faster as the cries intensified. The ground beneath our feet seemed to vibrate with an unknown force. Fear gripped us, and without exchanging words, Charles and I sprinted back towards the cabin.
As we ran, the cries of the deer echoed in the night, blending with the mysterious hum. The forest, silent only seconds ago, now teemed with an otherworldly symphony. We were running past the firepit when Charles suddenly grabbed me and pulled me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me. I turned to him ready to curse him out but stopped when I saw he had his pointer finger over his closed mouth with a terrified look on his face, signifying not to make a sound.
In the obsidian night, my eyes darted around to see what had spooked him, when I saw that there was an enormous shape in motion beside our cabin. In the darkness, I could hardly make out more than just the silhouette.
It was a colossal deer, larger than any I’ve ever seen, its torso slightly higher than the cabin front door. Large, uneven humps like that of a camel fit in what should have been a smooth back. Even from a distance I could tell it had hardly any hair, the faint lining of its ribs showing across its side. Its mouth hung open in an unexplainable manner, and its neck seemed stretched, like it was slightly too long. The most unsettling feature were its legs, impossibly long and skeletal, as if the beast was walking on stilts.
I’ve seen animals that are hurt, animals that are scared, and animals that are dangerous, and you can always feel their emotions just by looking at them. The air thickened with an aura of malevolence, and what I felt was every instinct in my body screaming of an unholy presence that transcended the realm of the ordinary.
“What the hell is that?” Charles whispered.
I had no answer. Coming back out here was a mistake. They were just animals, but what if they saw the ATV and somehow knew we were here?
The creature was sniffing around for a moment, and then it unleashed another piercing cry. Fearing the worst, we scrambled behind a tree and watched it. The vibrations of the ground proved to be coming from a massive herd of deer which quickly surrounded the colossal beast. Within a few minutes there were dozens, maybe even a hundred deer in the area.
They all looked sick, like they were extremely malnourished. Some were bloodied, others were limping. They were all looking towards the monster, as if waiting for a command.
I could see several dim lights surrounding the area pulsating, and I reckoned they were more of those strange markings on different trees. The entire area was humming, chanting with light.
The beast walked around a moment, inspecting the deer one at a time, as if it were looking for something. It then stopped as if it had chosen one, a smaller fawn with tiny antlers growing. Suddenly, it opened an enormous maw and grabbed it by the head, swinging it high into the air so that gravity could assist with devouring it whole.
My stomach lurched as I watched, but none of the other deer reacted to the cruel scene. They all just stood there, stone-faced as if they were caught in some kind of trance, eyes vacant and glazed over. Maybe I’m imagining it, but it seems like a few of them even stepped forward towards the giant creature. I turned away as the large creature began to swoop up a large doe.
Standing next to us was a deer, staring at us. A large buck with two obvious bullet wounds on its side.
I stood there for a moment, frozen before tapping on Charles’ shoulder, who hadn’t been able to look away from the gruesome scene.
Then, it shrilled.
Time slowed down as I looked back at the group of deer near the cabin and watched as the colossal deer turned its attention to us, and the entire herd followed suit. The ground continued to vibrate with an unsettling force, amplifying the feeling of impending doom.
Charles and I zigzagged through the trees, desperately trying to outmaneuver the pursuing herd. We could hear the relentless pursuit just behind us, the distorted cries of the deer blending with the unearthly hum that permeated the air. I made the mistake of glancing back to see the colossal deer in the front the herd, moving with an unnatural grace, its skeletal legs covering ground effortlessly with its eyes locked on us.
We weren’t going to be able to outrun it and I knew that.
Unfortunately, Charles tripped on a large tree root at that moment and pummeled into the snow. I continued running, cringing as I heard Charles give a loud scream which was quickly extinguished. The next time I glanced back, I saw no deer and took the chance to lunge into a bush, ignoring the jagged thorns which scaped my arms and face. I held my breath when only moments later the herd moved past me, the enormous creature still at the front. It was sniffing around as it passed and I prayed the pine oil scent I had put on earlier would work in saving my life.
And it did. The herd continued their search for me, and after at least 2 hours of silence I worked up the courage to work my way back to the cabin. I didn’t find any hint of Charles other than his imprint from falling into the snow and his footprints leading back to the fire pit.
After taking the ATV back home, I immediately called the police and told them everything. At first they weren’t buying my story, and after speaking to a supervisor over their radio they were advised to bring me in to the station. After an officer sat with me for a while a man in a suit came in to interview me. He acted differently than the other police officers and asked every question you can imagine at least twice, studying every answer I gave as if they were scripture. As if he believed me. He then told me I probably wouldn’t be charged with any serious crimes and let me go, which the other officers weren’t expecting based on their surprised looks as I passed them.
I think I know why the deer have been jumping in front of cars now. It’s a far better option than the fate that awaits them by living in those woods.