THE IDYLLIC WILDERNESS

Panting, I ran through the dark woods as fast as my legs could carry me. Something was chasing me, something no person should see. Even now, I couldn’t see it, only a void stalking me and hunting me down. My lungs burned and my legs felt as though they were about to break. I rushed into a clearing, I don’t know what I was thinking- I was only trying to get away. But I couldn’t escape. I felt something crash into me and knock me down, I blacked out…

A groggy feeling came over me as I woke up in the car of my boyfriend, Nick. I’d had that nightmare on and off for the last year, but it had started reoccurring more and more the last few weeks. Bad memories from a bad trip… I brushed it off like always.

Nick and I decided to go on a camping trip together. It was August and neither of us had gone camping all summer. Too wrapped up in our jobs, obligations, and tiredness to manage a couple nights in the mountain forest. But finally, we were driving up the windy roads to the only lush spot for miles. We left behind the desert and entered a whole new world full of pine trees and little creeks- if the weather allowed it. It snowed up here in the winter, but it could also catch fire in the summer.

The mountains were home to many animals: Snakes, coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, and I’d even heard about some black bears being spotted. I’d never had any trouble with the dangerous wildlife myself, so I wasn’t too worried about them. Nick, on the other hand, brought plenty of weapons with him. He had a robust collection of pocket knives and various types of axes. The axes, at least, would be helpful for chopping up logs.

Our camp was set up quickly since the only things that needed to be done were putting up the tent and chairs. The campground offered amenities like a bathroom, a fire pit, and a picnic table. Anything else we needed could be pulled from our car as needed.

The Californian sun was strong and beat down on my skin through the small openings in the foliage, one could get a sunburn even in the shadiest part of the county. But the heat wouldn’t last when the sun went down. These woods had always creeped me out at night. You can’t see anything, and it’s quiet except for the singing you can sometimes hear coming from a summer camp a while away. It doesn’t sound right from this far.

“Let’s get some hiking in before the sun sets,” Nick said. I agreed and we set out. South of the camp was a meadow and a creek that was probably dried out from the current drought. The meadow was filled with yellow wildflowers and bees that buzzed around from one to the next as they drank the nectar. There was something else in the meadow, too: It was something like a crude podium and many stumps that function as seats. It’s as though sermons were held here many years ago.

“I had the worst time here last year,” I said with a chuckle. I stepped onto a stump as Nick looked at the podium. He glanced at me then back.

“Worse than whatever happened to this guy?” Nick pointed to a dried red stain- blood- on the faded wood. I looked at it and tilted my head.

“I think that’s my blood, actually,” I said. Nick looked at me with concern. I approached the blood and touched it gently. “I made the stupid choice to come out here and do some shrooms. I got freaked out and I hurt myself. Woke up the next day with blood all over myself. Nothing bad, just a bunch of cuts from branches and thorns.”

“You did shrooms out here? By yourself?”

“Yes- I mean-“ I paused. There was the vaguest feeling that someone was there. If I knew myself at all, I surely would’ve asked someone to be there. But I was alone in my memory, aside from the thing that wasn’t actually there... Any attempt to recall a friend was met with a blurry, black idea of a person. Just like…

“You good?” Nick snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I was by myself.”

“Let’s go check if there’s any creek this year.”

There was a small bridge in the forest just in case the currently nonexistent stream ever filled up. It wasn’t even muddy, just a dry bed filled with brown pine needles. They crunched loudly as we stepped on them instead of the bridge. There would be plenty of kindling for the fire we’d light later.

I noticed something white on the trunk of a nearby tree. I walked around to see a missing persons flyer. A black and white photo of a man that was last seen in this forest. There were a few posters of different men and women stapled onto this same tree, one on top of the other. I felt a pit in my stomach. They all looked… familiar. I looked at the dates they’d gone missing, they were all a year apart from each other. Maybe I had just seen these posters last year. But I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I knew them.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Nick said as he placed his hand on my shoulder. He looked at the posters. “You know any of them?” I shook my head and he pulled me away. We continued our hike away from the strange, fleeting impressions of memories. We saw no wildlife the entire time- not one squirrel or woodpecker or anything.

The air started to chill as the sun began to set behind the mountain. We returned to our camp as the sky turned amber. Nick chopped up a couple pieces off a fallen tree and lit a fire for us. He looked at me with a devilish grin. I raised an eyebrow at him. He leaned down into his rucksack that sat beside his camping chair and he pulled out a small book. It had a campfire on the cover and a generic title, Campfire Stories. I shook my head at him but I too had a smile on my face.

“You know I spook easy,” I said.

“That’s exactly why I brought them. You’ll have to cuddle up to me tonight after I read these.”

The golden sunset turned to black night as Nick read classics that still made my skin crawl. After finishing one more he closed the book and leaned towards me. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something but paused. After about a minute he spoke in a lowered voice like he was telling me a secret, “Have you heard the local stories? About something that lives here.” Nick pointed at the dark woods around us.

“Um, no, I don’t think so,” I said as I looked at the silhouettes of trees I could barely make out. The moon was gone tonight, something we hadn’t thought about when we planned to come out here. A sense of unease came over me. As long as I’ve lived here, which was my whole life, I heard no stories about any sort of “something” in the mountain. Suddenly, I tuned into my surroundings and I heard the singing from far away, the wind blowing gently through the pine needles, and the crackling of the fire.

“Damn, how did you manage that? Well, I’ll tell you.” Nick glanced around before he continued, “People say something lives here on this mountain. Nobody really knows what it is, as far as I know it’s never been seen. Not by anyone that lived to tell. You saw those missing people posters? How they all went missing a year apart?”

“Yeah. And that’s the fault of some monster that nobody’s even seen?” I laughed. “Why would people even think that if there’s not even any sightings?”

“Well, I said it’s never been seen, but people have found prints. Weird prints, like really weird. Like a bear’s but if it was skinnier and longer- way longer.”

“So, like a bear with a mutation?”

“Ah, forget it,” Nick waved his hand and leaned back in his chair. “You’re no fun.” We smiled at each other but mine faded quickly.

I felt something nagging me at the back of my mind. I looked down at my hands that were resting on my lap. For a split second, I thought my fingers looked longer. It was there, then gone. I felt a haze falling over my thoughts. Everything felt so familiar, too familiar- I had heard that story before.

But there was more to it than that, I think. I knew more of the story than Nick. I knew more of it than anyone.

My eyes were drawn back up to Nick. He was looking at me, but not with the usual love or kindness in his eyes. I saw the sparks of the fire dancing in his eyes, and behind that I saw something that excited me: Fear. I smiled and felt my canines grow longer and sharper. My claws began to form. The rest of my body grew and soon I was looking down at Nick, he looked so small and weak now.

“What the fuck?”

Nick stumbled back in his chair, falling over. He scrambled for his axe, something that looked much more intimidating to me just a few hours ago. He gripped it tight in his hands but was hesitant to wield it against me, I wanted to laugh at the thought of him hoping there might still be a bit of her left in here. Maybe there was, but she couldn’t help him now. I swiped the axe away with my claws and inched closer and closer to my prey.

It wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t give the smallest hope that he could survive, so I let him reach for another weapon. I let him plunge a knife into my head. It felt like nothing. I let him reach into the fire pit for a burning log. I don’t know why he thought I might be scared of fire, I wasn’t scared of anything now. He swung it back and forth in front of me. He kept backing up as I continued encroaching on him, and I saw the terror growing on his face.

“You should try running,” my true voice came out, it was a ghastly amalgamation of the thousands I’d been before. Not one voice was discernible from the rest anymore. They melted together inside me, shallow mimics of what they used to be. Nick dropped the burning wood and ran to the car. The sound of an engine revving filled my ears.

The hot embers lit the dry undergrowth ablaze. I walked through the new flames on all four of my legs as I watched Nick drive away. After a moment, Nick’s car wasn’t visible anymore but I wasn’t worried about him getting away, the story he told was right about no one ever seeing me and living. I waited for a few seconds longer then I bursted into a sprint. My senses were back at their full potential and I could smell him: His sweat, his blood, his fear.

Soon he was back in my sights, he was driving back towards town but we were still miles away. I chased down his car and when I got close enough, I leaped onto the back, crushing the glass and metal with my weight. Nick tried to shake me off but I dug my claws into the roof. The car jolted around as I began to tear off the roof, revealing Nick and his frightened face. He slammed on the brakes and the car spun tightly to a stop. Nick leapt out and started running back into the forest that was quickly catching fire.

He must know he’s fighting a losing battle.

Smoke rose from the trees as they turned shades of red and orange. Nick’s abandoned car would turn to rubble in the heat of this next forest fire. Bounding towards him, I smelled him through the scent of burning wood, and then I saw him. Running as fast as he could through the burning brush, but that was not fast enough. The sound of wood cracking rang through the forest. Adrenaline flowed through my veins and I chased him faster and faster until finally, I pounced.

Crushed under my weight and against a tree, Nick gasped and whined. I turned him over and saw flames flickering once again in his eyes. Then I saw myself, in them, through them. My vision was switching between two perspectives: The hunter and the hunted. There was a thrill in being one or the other, and being both was a rare pleasure granted to me.

Jaws opened to swallow Nick’s whole being, the last thing this Nick would know were the fangs of a beast he wished had stayed unseen.

…

…

…

My head was pounding as I woke up, and my eyes didn’t want to open, but I forced them to anyway. What surrounded me was the burnt remains of the wilderness. What the hell? I could hardly remember anything from the night before, what happened? I looked at myself and I was a bit bloody and bruised, but nothing I couldn’t walk off. I must have inhaled a ton of smoke, it had to be a miracle I survived. I walked around looking for my car but when I found it, it was a total wreck. I would have to walk all the way back to town. When I finally got back to civilization they called an ambulance and my family.

“Nick, we’re so glad you’re alright, but what happened to your girlfriend?”

“My… girlfriend?”