Taker Waker

It was spring break during my junior year of college when my friends convinced me to spend it camping. The park they decided on was quite a drive, about 2hrs exact up north from our college. It was going to be surrounded by towering redwoods and a bit isolated from your normal state park. My friend Henry kept hyping me up and telling me that I won’t regret it this place is fantastic as he was the only one who has been there himself.

Henry was one of my closest friends and also from here. So he always knew about the coolest spots to hang out.

Camping had never really been my thing. In fact, I had never been camping before.

Yup, I was a city boy my parents never took the time to adventure to the outdoors so I never had an interest myself. I preferred being inside, warm in my bed, playing videos games until my hands and butt got numb. Having the four walls between me and whatever might be crawling around outside I wanted it to stay outside. Plus sleeping on the ground in the middle of a dark forest wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

But I also didn't want to be the one missing out on this fantastic opportunity as my friends convinced Henry to explain.

I can see it now all my friends sitting around a campfire, joking, drinking, telling embarrassing stories, and just enjoying being together.

Meanwhile, I'd probably be sitting alone in my dorm room eating loads of junk food, barely showering and staring at the ceiling and thinking, Wow. I really missed out how stupid of me.

So, against my better judgment, I said fuck it…why not?

At the time, I thought the worst things I'd have to worry about were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, using the bathroom outdoors, a possible bear encounter, and waking up with a terrible backache from sleeping on the ground.

I had no idea what I was actually walking into.

We packed our bags and set off early morning to try to catch as much daytime to explore. Man!, driving toward the park almost made me forget exactly why I hated the idea of camping in the first place.

All around us massive redwoods stood on both sides of the narrow road, their branches stretching overhead and blocking out most of the early morning sunlight. I pressed my face against the window, trying to look all the way up as we drove. They look kind of funny seeing my nose and lips smashed against the cold glass.

I had seen redwoods before, there everywhere here up north in California, but never this many at once. Definitely never this deep in a forest. Trunks so big you would need at least 10 people holding hands just to hug them.

But the farther we drove, the darker it became. The redwoods seemed to swallow us whole as the road disappeared deeper and deeper between them. I couldn't explain it, but an uneasy feeling started growing in my stomach.

Of course, my friends noticed.

“Patrick, relax yourself,” Henry said, laughing. “It's just redwoods and camping. It's not like we're walking into some horror movie. As I said this place is unreal. There’s this little spot where a stream passes by and sometimes you get to see some cool looking things. Your an animal guy this is definitely up your alley”

Henry gave me a reassuring smile which made me smile back.

“Trust me, you'll love it.” Henry reach over Emmanuel put his hand on my shoulder to assure me yet again. “By tomorrow, you're going to be thanking me.”

“I doubt that.”

“You will.” said Henry

I laughed and shook my head, but the uneasy feeling never completely went away. I turned back to the window to gaze at the redwoods once more. Our campsite was still a few miles away when James suddenly slammed on the brakes.

My body jerked forward. The seat belt snapped hard against my chest, sending a sharp pain through me as it stopped me from flying into the back of the driver's seat. I felt as if my breath was taken trying to gasp and talk and force out any words.

“Whhhat theee hell?” I shouted, grabbing my chest.

James didn't answer.

Samuel in the passenger seat: “Damnit! I hit the dash.”

James: “Well you should have had your damn seat belt on as I told you.”

Henry, who was sitting behind the passenger seat, leaned forward, trying to get a look at whatever was in the road.

Samuel, sitting directly in front of him, stared through the windshield.

Samuel: “Do you guys see what I see?”

“Well, maybe if Henry moved his big-ass head, I could,” Emmanuel said from the middle seat.

“Shut up,” Henry said, laughing as he leaned back.

I was still rubbing my chest, trying to soothe the pain from the seat belt, but curiosity finally got the better of me.

I leaned forward slowly to the side and carefully peered over the driver's seat, trying to get a closer look at whatever everyone else could seeing through the windshield.

My eyes widened and begin to water a bit.

Patrick: “What is that?”

It was a deer lying directly in the middle of the road…Dead.

For a few seconds, nobody said anything.

Then Emmanuel broke the silence.

“Damn. Poor thing,” he said. “Do you think another car hit it?”

“Of course,” Samuel said. “You ever hear those stories about deer eating cigarette butts off the side of the road? I heard that when a deer smells a cigarette, they get lured into the middle of the road and once they eat it, it messes up with their brain to the point where they can’t move…ooooh”

Samuel chuckled as he said those words and turned around looking back at us.

Henry looked at him.

Henry: “That's not true.”

Samuel: “It absolutely is.” With a big grin on his face.

Henry: “No, it isn't.”

Samuel now shouting playfully “Yes, it is!.”

“Children cut it OUT!,” James said.

They finally went quiet and exchange looks. Well, Samuel was trying to hold back his laughter seeing him made me chuckle a little bit.

James waited a second before turning around to look at us as well.

James: “You know what? I think Samuel's right.”

We all burst out laughing.

“Thank you!” Samuel shouted. “You see? I'm not crazy.”

“You're both crazy,” Henry said rolling his eyes.

As they continued arguing about whether deer actually ate cigarette butts, my mind seemed to wander off, and the voices seem to fade away as I couldn't seem to pull my attention away from the one lying in front of us.

No matter how hard I tried, my eyes wouldn't move beyond the deer.

“Hey, man. You okay?” Emmanuel's voice snapped me out of my trance.

I looked at him. “Yeah. I'm fine.”

Emmanuel: “You sure?”

Patrick: “Yeah, there's just... so much blood everywhere.”

Emmanuel looked back toward the deer.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I know.”

James glanced into the rearview mirror.

“You know what? We're stopped in the middle of the road. We need to pull over before another car comes out of nowhere and hits us. And then we won’t be going to no campsite anytime soon.”

James slowly pulled the Jeep around the deer and continued down the road until he found a safe place to pull over.

We hadn't driven far. The deer was still visible behind us, though the shadows from the redwoods made it harder to see clearly. It wasn't a long walk back, but standing there surrounded by trees, the distance somehow felt farther than it actually was.

While passing the deer, I turned my head and looked through the window. Again, sort of having my face smashed against the glass, trying to get a better look at it.

Up close, I could see just how badly mangled it was.

“Maybe the car that hit it is still nearby,” I said.

“I doubt it,” Henry replied.

I looked at him.

Patrick: “What do you mean, you doubt it? Look at the size of that deer. A car hits something that big hard enough to do all of that, it has to have some serious damage.”

Everyone became quiet.

“Maybe they went off the road,” I continued. “They could be hurt.”

James turned around. “Are you suggesting we get out of the car and become a search party?”

Patrick: “I'm just suggesting we make sure nobody's dying in a ditch somewhere.”

Emmanuel nodded in agreement. “I think he might be right. We should at least check.”

Samuel sighed. “Yeah. Fine. Let's make sure nobody's hurt.”

One by one, we unbuckled our seat belts (besides Samuel) and opened the doors.

Before stepping into the road, we looked in both directions to make sure no cars were approaching. Then we slowly walked back toward the deer.

Samuel rubbing his face as we approached the deer saying “Dang I could’ve broke my nose. I see why seatbelt safety is a thing” chuckling.

We all looked at him annoyed but, chuckled. And then we were not that far from the deer

At first, we kept our distance.

We weren't exactly sure what we were looking for, but we started with the road. If a car had hit the deer and gone off into the forest, there had to be some signs of it.

Tire marks.

Broken branches.

Something.

“There,” Samuel said, pointing toward the pavement. We gathered around him.

There were tire marks on the road.

We followed them for a short distance.

Then they suddenly stopped.

All of us stared at the pavement.

“That's weird,” Emmanuel said.

I looked toward the forest on either side of the road, searching for any sign that a car had gone through the brush. Nothing.

No broken branches.

No damaged trees.

No car.

Nothing.

Emmanuel looked back at the deer and said “Should we move it out of the road? I mean, we don't see anything that looks like a car went into the brush.”

James nodded and said “Yeah. We probably should. Before someone else comes through here and runs over it again.”

We started walking toward the deer.

“Wait.” Samuel held up his hand.

We all stopped.

Samuel: “That thing could have a disease or something. We shouldn't be touching it with our bare hands. Let me run back to the Jeep and see if we have any gloves.”

“Good idea,” James said.

Samuel: “I’ll be back”

Samuel jogged back toward the Jeep while the rest of us waited. Henry looked at me.

Henry: “So, Patrick, you never answered the question.”

Patrick: “What question?”

Henry: “Do you think it's actually true that deer go into the road to eat cigarette butts? You're the zoology major.”

I looked at him.

Patrick: “You know what I am actually not sure.”

Henry smiled. “Some zoology major.”

Patrick: “Man, shut up.”

We laughed.

Then the smell hit us.

All at once, every one of us covered our noses.

“What the hell is that smell?” Henry shouted.

The smell was foul. Not just bad. It was thick, like I could actually taste it in the back of my throat. We all quickly took several steps away from the deer. I bent forward, gagging and desperately trying to keep my breakfast down.

I managed, still covering my nose with my shirt and said “The deer didn't smell like that before.”

In unison: “What?”

Patrick in a concerned voice: “It didn't smell like that when we drove past it. Why does it smell like that now? I think we need to back up a little bit more.”

We all take several steps back.

“Jesus Christ,” Emmanuel said, pulling the collar of his shirt over his nose.

James did the same.

For a moment, the four of us just stood there staring at the deer.

“Emmanuel, go get Samuel,” James said. “He's taking too long.”

“Why don't I go get him?” I offered.

No one answered me.

We all looked back down at the deer.

Something wasn't right. I was a zoology major, not a forensic scientist, but the smell coming from that deer reminded me of something that had been decomposing for days…possibly weeks. But the blood didn't look old. At least, I didn't think it did. And there was something else bothering me.

Why hadn't we smelled it before? Everyone else had stepped farther away, but my curiosity got the better of me.

I walked toward the side of the road and picked up a long, fallen branch and walked back towards the group. Right before I was about to approached the deer. Henry grabbed my arm.

Henry: “Dude, no. Just wait until Samuel gets back with the gloves.”

Patrick: “I'm not going to touch it.”

Henry: “Patrick!?, come on man that’s disgusting”

Patrick: “It's fine, I have a stick” showing him but feeling uneasy myself.

I pulled my shirt higher over my nose and slowly approached the deer. With each step, the smell became stronger. My stomach turned. I gripped the branch with both hands and tried to breathe as little as possible. My eyes began to water as I held my breath. When I reached the deer, I stopped. Then I used the end of the branch to carefully push against its body.

Nothing happened.

I pushed again. Part of the mangled flesh shifted. I swallowed hard and used the stick to peel back what remained of the tissue covering its chest.

Then I saw it.

A large, gaping hole in the center of the deer's body. I stared down at it. Something was wrong. Thinking back to my classes, I knew enough about teeth and bite patterns to recognize some of the signs of an animal attack. But I couldn't see any.

No obvious bite marks.

No clear puncture wounds.

No claw marks.

Just a fucking hole where most of the deer's insides should have been. It looked as if something was wearing this deer.

I stepped back immediately.

“Patrick?” Henry said. “What is it?”

Patrick: “I don't know.”

James threw his hands into the air. “That's it. They're taking too damn long. I'm going back to the Jeep and getting the gloves my damn self.”

He started walking toward the Jeep, shaking his head. “We're supposed to be damn near at our campsite by now, drinking beer, giggling and laughing like a bunch of children, and these two fuckers are probably over there playing around.”

Henry laughed. “Bring the gloves back this time!” he shouted after him.

James threw up his middle finger without bothering to turn around.

I laughed and shook my head as I watched him continue toward the Jeep. Then I turned back toward the deer. Now it was just Henry and me. For a few seconds, neither of us said anything.

Henry looked at me, then at the deer.

“You know,” he said, “I'm starting to think camping might not be your thing after all.”

I looked at him.

Patrick: “Thank you for convincing me to come, by the way. This is turning into a real shit show.”

Henry laughed. “I thought you wanted to get out of your comfort zone.”

Patrick: “I think I've changed my mind.”

Henry: “Of course you have.” He shook his head. “But we're going to have a great time. Trust me. This campsite is magnificent.”

I gave him a doubtful look.

“I'm serious,” he continued. “You see these redwoods around us? Now imagine being surrounded by them at the campsite. We'll have a fire going, some beers and…”

“SKRRAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!” A scream ripped through the forest so loud it echoed down the road.

Henry stopped talking and I froze. Slowly, we both turned toward the direction of the Jeep.

“SKRRAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!”

“Samuel!” Henry shouted. No answer.

My breathing immediately became heavier.

I looked at Henry.

“What the hell was that?” I said

He didn't answer me.

“James!” he shouted again.

Nothing.

I dropped the stick. Fear clamped around my chest, squeezing tighter and tighter. Suddenly, I remembered the seat belt snapping against me when James slammed on the brakes.

The pain.

The pressure against my chest.

The way it had knocked the air out of me.

“Henry...”

He started walking toward the Jeep.

Then he began to jog.

“SKRRAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!”

“Henry, wait.” He moved faster.

“Henry!” Then he broke into a full sprint.

I tried to follow him, but my body wouldn't move. I can hear him shouting their names out, Emmanuel! Samuel! James! No answer.

I couldn't breathe.

My legs felt frozen beneath me. Move. All I had to do was move my feet.

Just move…just move damnit…why can’t I move.

“SKRRAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!”

Henry was already far down the road.

Finally, my body listened. I ran. The redwoods seemed to crowd closer around me with every step. I could still see Henry ahead of me, but my vision was starting to blur. The mist of the morning air, making my eyes even more watery and the stench of the deer decomposing body. The shadows beneath the trees became darker. Longer. They stretched across the road toward me, reaching for my feet as if they were trying to drag me into the forest and make me disappear.

“SKRRAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!”

The sound getting loud and closer.

“Henry! Please slow down!”

I held my chest and kept running.Then Henry vanished.

I stopped.

The Jeep was nowhere in sight.

“Henry?”

No answer.

I turned around. The road behind me looked wrong. Longer than before. Darker than before almost pitch black. Like it was stretching itself between the trees.

“Henry!”

Nothing.

“Samuel! Emmanuel! James!”

Silence.

“Cut it out! Please!”

My voice echoed through the forest.

“This isn't funny!”

It seem as the shrieking sound stopped as

I turned in circles, searching for anything familiar. But all I seen were redwoods and shadows and the creeping darkness and the deer. Still lying in the middle of the road.

“Please!” I shouted. “You guys, where are you?” My voice sounded small beneath the redwoods. I waited for someone to respond or even laugh. For Henry to call me an idiot for my irrational fear of camping. For someone to jump out from behind a tree.

For anything.

Nothing happened.

My heart began pounding harder.

“Guys?”

My voice cracked.

The road was empty.

The Jeep was gone.

Henry was gone.

Everyone was gone.

A cold feeling moved through my body as the truth began to settle in. I was alone.

Completely alone. I turned toward the forest. For the first time, I noticed just how many places there were for something to hide. Behind every redwood. Between every shadow. Inside the darkness beyond the road. I spun around when I thought I heard something behind me. Rustling sound.

“Henry?”

My voice was barely a whisper now.

The only thing still there was the deer.

I was scared to run back toward it.

I don't know why, but something inside me was screaming not to go back. But I couldn't stay where I was.

I looked at the deer again.

Then I ran.

I sprinted back until I reached it and stopped in the middle of the road.

“Henry!”

Nothing.

“James!”

My voice cracked.

“Samuel! Emmanuel!”

I turned in circles.

“Where are you?”

My eyes filled with tears.

“Stop fucking around! I'm scared!”

Nothing.

“I don't want to do this anymore!”

My voice broke.

“Please!”

Then the forest became silent.

Completely silent.

All I could hear was my own breathing.

No birds.

No insects.

No wind.

Nothing.

I listened harder.

Nothing.

The silence was worse than the scream I heard earlier. The burning in my chest became worse. I looked down the road where the Jeep was supposed to be.

Then I looked behind me. The road seemed to move. I started walking forward, but the farther I walked, the farther away everything became.

I walked faster.

The road stretched.

I started running.

It stretched farther.

The trees bent around me, and the road seemed to twist and warp beneath my feet.

I reached into my pocket for my phone.

I needed to call someone. Anyone.

My hands were shaking so badly that I dropped it.

“Shit!”

I bent down and picked it up. I looked ahead of me. Then behind me. The deer was still there. I turned away from it and took another step.

Crack…

Something cracked beneath my shoe. I froze. Tears begin to roll down my face I couldn’t hide my fear anymore, and my emotions were pouring out.

I didn't want to look down.

My breathing became heavier. Slowly, I lowered my head.

It..it..it was an arm.

It was bent backward in a direction they should never have been able to bend. I fell backward.

“Oh, God!” I scrambled away on my hands and feet. Sliding across the black pavement of the road. It was too dark. I couldn't see anything.

“My phone. Where's my phone?”

My hands moved frantically across the ground completely forgetting that I dropped it and never actually picked it up. Then my fingers touched something.

Wet.

Soft.

Warm.

I had finally landed on what felt like my phone and I picked it up, but didn’t move my other hand until I managed to turn, on the flashlight.

My hand was touching something I couldn’t make out but the smell and feeling alone made me shouted and ripped my hand away. I turned to the side and vomited.

“No. No, no, no.” My mind racing knowing what I was touching was something that was impossible,unimaginable, disgusting and vile.

I tried to stand, but I couldn't.

My entire body was shaking.

Blood covered my hand, making the phone slip between my fingers. Tears poured down my face until I could barely see. I turned, trying to crawl away on my hands and knees.

My flashlight on my phone, waving darkness, then it landed on James.

I stopped.

And I said hey man, “why’d you guys leave me” as I approached him still on the ground. I looked straight ahead and my mouth

seemed to hit the floor. I put my hand around my mouth, shaking as more tears rolled down my eyes.

What I could make out he was unrecognizable.

I covered my eyes.

“Please stop.”

I squeezed them shut.

“Why are you showing me this?”

Something touched me. I stopped breathing.

It was cold. The touch felt almost claw-like, its sharp tips pressing against my shoulder digging deep into my flesh. My chest tightened. Suddenly, it felt like the air around me had become heavier. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't seem to pull enough air into my lungs.

Slowly, I turned around.

“Henry?” I said softly.

His body was twisted behind me, his head bent at an impossible angle.

Then I saw everything else. Bodies. Pieces of them.

Some looked old.

Some looked new.

They surrounded me.

I dropped my phone yet again.

The flashlight went out.

Everything became black.

“Stop,” I whispered.

Something moved in the darkness.

“Please.”

I closed my eyes again as tightly as I could and grabbed my chest.

Something ran by me.

Something scratched my face. Blood rolled from the cut.

“GHRRLLLKKK… GLLRRRHHKK…”

Did I heard the scream again? No this sounded different. It was a wet gurgling noise. I turned my head to try to make out something in the darkness Than it felt like branches tore across my skin cutting me more. The branches were pulling at my clothes. And something is trying to grab me.

I could feel scratches across my arms, my neck, and my face.

I let out a blood cuddling…

“STOoopP!”

I swung my arms blindly.

“WHhhyY?”

Something pulled at me again.

I shout and fought against it.

Then I saw something ahead of me. Light?.

A small glow in the darkness. I forced myself onto my feet. I ran toward it stumbling wobbly. More branches tore across my face, but I kept going.

My legs burned.

My chest felt like it was being ripped apart.

My lungs were collapsing.

But the light was getting closer.

Brighter.

Closer.

Then I heard something.

“SKRRAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!”

Emmanuel: “JAMES LOOK OUT!”

SCREEEEECH!

The tires screamed against the pavement before the Jeep shot off the road.

Samuel:“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!”

The jeep swerving and tipping to its side

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

Gravel and dirt hammered underneath us as the Jeep bounced violently over the uneven ground.

CRACK! SNAP! CRUNCH!

Branches broke against the windshield and scraped along the sides of the Jeep.

Silence.

Everything went white.

Opening my eyes felt impossible. My eyelids were heavy, but somehow, I managed to force them apart. I was upside down. For several seconds, I couldn't understand what I was looking at. I was trying to make sense of the situation wasn’t I just on the road.  Everything was wrong. The ground was above me. Broken glass covered the roof of the Jeep beneath my head.

The seat belt was pressed tightly against my chest, holding my body in place and preventing me from falling.

I tried to breathe. Pain exploded through me. I looked down at my chest. A massive broken branch had come through the Jeep and pierced straight through my body.

I tried to say help, but I could feel the excruciating pain. I have lost quite a bit of blood. Nothing came out.

My mouth was too dry.

My throat burned.

I tried to move, but the branch held me in place. Then the smell reached me. I knew that smell. It was the same smell that had come from the deer. Rotting. Death.

I slowly turned my head.

Emmanuel was beside me.

His neck was broken, his head hanging unnaturally to one side. One of his arms was twisted upward into the crushed remains of the Jeep.

I looked toward Henry.

His body was folded against the other side of the back seat like a piece of paper.

One of the deer’s antlers had pierced through the wreckage and into his body.

I wanted to look away.

I couldn't.

My mind wouldn't accept what my eyes were seeing.

“No,” I whispered.

The word barely came out.

I tried to shift my body, but the branch inside me sent another wave of pain through my chest. Through what remained of the windshield, it was gone. I did not see Samuel.

He most be outside.

Then I looked forward at James.

He was still in the driver's seat.

Or what remained of it.

I closed my eyes.

And then I remembered.

Not all at once.

Piece by piece.

We had been going nearly eighty miles per hour when the deer stepped into the road.

James saw it. His entire body jerked forward as he slammed his foot hard onto the brakes.The tires shrieked against the gravel.

We all shouted.

The Jeep shook beneath us. Too late.

We hit the deer head-on. The sound of the impact was deafening.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”

The windshield exploded. Samuel, who hadn't been wearing his seat belt, was thrown forward through the glass as the deer's body crashed into the front of the Jeep and exited through the back

Everything happened so fast. It’s antlers ripping into James. His hands slipped from the wheel. The Jeep swerved. Then we left the road. I remembered the hitting tree after tree. My body snapping violently against the seat belt.

Then another tree.

And another.

Glass shattered around us.

Metal ripping as the Jeep crushed inward.

Branches snapped against the vehicle, slapping through broken windows, stabbing into the Jeep, scratching and tearing at anything they could reach.

I remember the branch puncturing my chest.

I remembered Emmanuel body being thrown in the other direction.

I remembered the Jeep spinning.

I remembered being thrown from side to side.

The sky.

The ground.

The trees.

The sky again.

I remembered the flipping.

I remembered the pain in my chest.

And then...

I remembered silence.

I opened my eyes. No one was talking.

No one was laughing. No one was arguing about cigarette butts. I looked at my friends.

Samuel had never gone back for gloves.

Emmanuel had never followed him.

James had never walked back to the Jeep.

Henry had never run down the road.

They had never disappeared.

They had been here the entire time.

Dead.

And I had been here with them. Alone.

I looked around the wreckage again.

“No.”

My lips trembled.

“No, no, no.”

I tried calling Henry's name.

Nothing.

I called for Emmanuel.

Then Samuel.

Then James.

One by one.

I knew they were dead.

I could see that they were dead.

But I still called their names.

I needed one of them to answer me.

Just one.

“Please guys please Henry!.”

Nothing.

I was alone. The realization frightened me more than anything I had seen in the forest. Because that forest had never existed. There had been no road.

No search.

No running.

I had never left the Jeep.

My body was weak. My mouth was so dry I could barely move my tongue.

I had no food.

No water.

I was losing blood.

The smell told me we had been there for a long time.

Almost two weeks.

For almost two weeks, I had been drifting in and out of consciousness, trapped upside down inside the Jeep with a branch buried inside my body.

I had hallucinated everything. My friends. The road. The search. All of it. None of it had been real. At least, that's what I wanted to believe. Then something moved between the trees. I stopped breathing. A dark shadow passed behind one of the redwoods. Then another. Closer.

I stared through the shattered windshield.

“SKRRAAAAAEEEEHHH!”

The sound tore through the forest, somewhere between an animal’s shriek and a human scream. It was the same scream that had followed me through my dreams.

Something stepped out from behind the trees. It seemed hurt as it limped closer and closer towards the wreckage. My chest tightened. I knew that shadow. I had felt its touch.

Cold.

Claw-like.

It moved closer to the Jeep, dragging something behind it.

Scrape.

I held my breath.

Scrape.

The sound moved closer.

Scrape.

I squinted. A broken portion of the deer's antlers dragged across the forest floor behind the shadow.

Then I understood. The deer hadn't wandered into the road. It hadn't been eating cigarette butts. It hadn't stepped in front of us by accident. It had been placed there. Because something had been waiting for us. The shadow stopped near my side of the window and I could see it feet hooves and its arms long and batter and bloody holding onto the antler.

I looked at my friends.

Samuel.

James.

Henry.

Emmanuel.

For two weeks, I had believed I was the only one left alive. But maybe I had never been alone. Maybe it had been here the entire time.

Waiting.

Watching.

Collecting them one by one.

And now there was only one left. Me.

The shadow moved closer seems to begin to crouch down. As it let out The same scream that had followed me through my dreams ripped through the forest. Only this time, I knew I was awake. And it had come to collect me too.