Frostbite

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. I saw the flame grow then it quickly dispersed. My heart beat went up a little more than usual, but I tried so hard to keep my head leveled and my composure steady. I gripped the straps on my book bag and kept walking to my car. The hushed forest, felt so loud late at night. Nonetheless, I was more than twenty minutes away, if I kept at a steady pace and didn’t stop. It was a magnitude of tiny twigs in the forest. It was so cold as well, I could feel frostbite in my fingertips even with my gloves on. I pulled out my phone and continuously kept pressing my finger to enter in my passcode. I almost locked my phone cause of the constant pressing. Once into my phone, I noticed an abundant amount of bars on my screen. For me being in the forest, it was quite a dumbfounded amount. I clicked onto the weather app and for some reason, I felt as if my phone was glitching. The app told me it was ninety-four degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature outside was awfully cold and it didn’t feel anywhere close to ninety-four. This was startling me, on top of the fact, that it’s really dark, but the time is only six pm. I just know, this may be my last time in this god forsaken forest for a couple of years. The vibe is more ominous and dire than usual. I got to my car that was parked in between some trees. I threw my backpack onto the ground and scavenged for my car keys. I kept coming across tiny trinkets and broken chargers, but I finally got them. I tried unlocking it, but for some reason, I had to press the unlock in a succession of four times. It was really odd in a matter of sight, but I chose to ignore these small instances and just get home to get some sleep. I could already hear my boss yelling at me, for failing to comply with the protocols from my previous incidents. I just want to go home and just get some rest, maybe think of a couple ways to lie out of this one. I put my key in the ignition and began driving. Something felt off about the drive, it kind of felt like I was seeing the same exact trees. I accelerated slowly at a gradual speed of around seventy miles per hour. As I looked up, I saw something below the corner of my eye, but ended up hitting something. I tried to brake and swerved into this fairly deep ditch. I got out the car and inspected the damage. The damage was major, busting out of my headlights and on top of that, my front axle got badly damaged. I ran almost a hundred feet, to look at what I hit. It was a deer laying straight on the ground. The deer looked dead on the impact, but I kept trying to feel for a pulse. The deer was awfully cold. Its body didn’t look collapsed at all, more so it was in a stiff fashion. If I can remember correctly, usually when an animals body is stiff, that indicates signs of rigor mortis. If I’m able to use context clues, that means the deer was already dead way before I hit it. That means, I just don’t pay attention when driving, or it’s not specifically what I think. I just know I needed to call a tow company. I pulled out my phone and thankfully I still sustained my service. As I was clicking through my phone, my bars started to drop for no reason as well. I got my book bag out my front seat and started walking. I needed to get service or get close to a cell tower, because the time was moving faster than usual and I also had to get home before I had work. I walked in the cold forest and could feel the night sky. The trees, lacked branches, I also didn’t hear any owls or crickets. The way the leaves crunched as I walked, made me feel as if I wasn’t alone with what was transpiring. I saw in the distant a faint cell tower, something about it seem kind of off, but at the same time, the wires and all seem perfectly intact. I got closer to it and the technology seemed so preserved and intact. The cell building underneath there tower, was covered in vines and insects, but yet it made absolutely no sense. I stood by the entrance and tried loading the app on my phone, but it seemed to be something interfering with my taps on the screen. When I tried to tap the settings application, my phone shut down for no reason. I was at fifty-one percent, so it brought in a lot of confusing questions, messing more and more with my anxiety. It was something about it, I started to speed walk through the forest, to go back to my car and get my charger, I just wanted this to be over with, as soon as possible. After walking for twenty minutes, I finally got back to my car, but it wasn’t there. I looked around and couldn’t find it anywhere. I thought to myself, maybe I’m to far or its close, but then I saw my front bumper in the muddy humid grass ditch. As I looked closer at the bumper, I felt some wack me against my skull from the back of my head. I knocked out and even with my body not moving, I could feel the pulsating bruise against my skull. I felt dirt and tiny flowers graze violently against my skull for a weird reason. I slowly opened my eyes and saw someone dragging me by my ankle through a part of the forest. My eyes shut again, then finally I opened them and I was conscious. I started screaming and angrily tried to kick away the pursuer. The person turned around and punched me in my right nostril. It gave me so much adrenaline and I punched him in his funny bone, trying to momentarily stop him from what he was doing. I felt his grip loosening up and I managed to slip out from him. I quickly got up and started running past the trees and the wildlife. The immediate incline of the ground made me so anxious. I tried so hard to climb away and could feel his hot awful breath behind me. I managed to fight the incline and started to run full speed then gradually slowed down as I lost breath. I saw in the distance, a two story building. I thought to myself, maybe I could find something fight away the person. I slowly jogged to the building and saw two gigantic metal doors with bolts placed evenly throughout the outer rims. I ran inside and saw an awkwardly placed lever, by the far right of the door. I ran to it and gripped the switch as hard as I could. The interior of the lever was rusty and I could feel the corrosion entirely. I didn’t want to do it to hard, to the point where it broke off. After over a minute, I finally was able to close it. I took a breather and started walking around. I saw a lot of pig bodies and chicken bodies, halfway mutilated and rotting as if its been a few months. I tried looking for the stairs and on top of the staircase, was just nothing but dripping feces and piss on the walls. Thankfully the smell was deteriorated but I could still smell the dead pigs and bulls in the downstairs holding station. I avoided touching the railing, but it just looked so disgusting, I was afraid I would loose my balance. There were so many rooms on the upper floor and almost every door was locked and they held no key holes, making it less beneficial. There was one room with the knob almost fully turnt, but at the same time it wouldn’t budge. I could hear banging from one of the sides of the building. I tried to use all my strength to open the door and could feel awful chills go through my lower back that wouldn’t go up farther. I kept twisting and ramming into the door, but I could hear the banging getting louder and louder from downstairs. I finally broke through and immediately closed and locked the door. I slowly backed up against the wall and fell down to the floor. The room I was in, was the most normal I’ve ever seen in this horror palace. I breathed in and out slowly then my heart rate dropped back to normal. I saw a light flickering and a normal light adjacent to it. I looked around and saw rusty chains with dangerous ends on every other chain. I got up and began walking, when I almost slipped on a piece of paper. It had some wrinkles but it didn’t come off as being unreadable. It was labeled, “Henry V. Bei Corporation”. Supposedly Henry Stevens had a lawyer named Christopher Buais, and Christopher cost them the case by not having some of the evidence not been fully reviewed before submission. I glanced over my shoulder and there was a brief case flipped upside down with multiple papers. Some of the papers short and others carrying his description. The case belonged to Christopher, but then I brought up the question, why would a lawyer be at a butcher shop? His given case has nothing to do with being at this shop, it was wildly confusing. It was a wild allegation, but what if the person is him? It just felt like the most logical idea, regardless of the proof not correlating. As I was thinking to myself, I heard the loud door clash open and could hear the killers heavy foot steps. I gathered the chains, but really wanted to see what else he had in the case. There was a photo of his family and him smiling for Thanksgiving pictures. There smiles were so contagious, to the point where its throwing me off how he could have mentally got here. I put the picture in my pocket and picked up the heavy rusted chains. I threw on my shoulder and wrapped it around my arms, so I wouldn’t draw any attention cause of the sound. I quietly opened the door and crouched ominously around the second floor looking for him. He was in a deep part, around the break-rooms and broken vending machines. I held the chain and was ready to kill this guy. I creeped slow, then suddenly swung with all my might at the top of his skull, knocking him out cold, but I felt he would wake up if I didn’t hurry and kill him. Realization occurs when I understood, even If I killed him, I would still be lost and hurt. I remembered seeing a metal pillar. I could drag him down there and chain him up till he woke up. I dragged him downstairs and tied him up in the most makeshift way possible. I removed his hoodie and saw a man with a beard, it looked so unkempt and there were so many acne scars, including a lot of missing teeth. As I awaited him to wake up, I went to close the door he bashed through. After about forty minutes, he eventually woke up and just stared at me.

“Who are you,” I asked, “Why did you knock me out?”

“What,” He said, “Why would I tell fresh-meat why I want to eat them? I’m gonna wear your large intestine like a necklace after I’m done.”

“You were literally a lawyer not to long ago. How could your mentality deteriorate like this?”

“What the fuck are you on about? Do I look like a stupid lawyer to you? You’re nothing but an awful whore!”

I pulled out the picture from the brief case I took and shoved it deep into his face.

“Explain,” I screamed, “What is this picture? Aren’t these your children?”

“Now,” He yelled, “Why is that fucking picture in your pocket? Don’t touch shit that doesn’t belong to you!”

“What is this picture?”

“I’m not telling you, you stupid corpulent!”

“You’re not dumb, how do you know that word? Tell me who are these people in this picture now!”

“What will you do? You don’t have any strength to fight me, I’ll kill you and have so much fun with your body, you have no clue you skinny slab of meat!”

“I’ll rip the picture up and smear that piss filled wall over it!”

“You wouldn’t fucking dare!”

“Tell me who you are or I destroy this photo!”

I began to rip the photo and once he heard the minor tear, his demeanor changed.

“Wait,” He said softly, “I’ll tell you, just please don’t ruin it. That’s the only picture I have with them.”

I stopped ripping it and sat down the edge of the wooden bucket behind me.

“Start,” I exclaimed, “From the beginning, tell me what is this picture.”

“The picture,” He said, “Was taken almost five years ago, at my celebration party, for a big case I won. The woman, is my wife Taylor. The little boy, is my son Antonio and the little girl, is my daughter Valentina.”

“How did you end up here? You look so happy and well kept together in this picture. What made you want to try to kill me?”

“It wasn’t me, I swear. That thing made me do this.”

“What thing?”

He just looked down and I could slowly see tears dripping onto the nasty white floor.

“What thing,” I asked, “We all have mental problems and we just need someone to talk to, in order to put us on a better path to resolve our issues.”

“I’m not,” He said softly, “I’m not talking about a mental disorder.”

“What are you referring to then?”

It got silent for a few minutes, then after a while, he began speaking to me.

“I don’t even want to tell you,” He said, “But here’s go nothing. My name is Chris Buais. I’m a thirty-six year old man that lives in a Villa four miles away from here. There was this case for my client, Henry Stevens. He had evidence towards Bei-corp, apparently they had shifted a specific ingredient in there product, making there material cost lower, but at the same time, made there products more cheap, but no one seemed to care, even though it was a really big deal, ruining the longevity of the products. During the final week of the trial, I brought in unverified evidence, that the judge saw and it cost me the entire three billion dollar case. I went into depression for a few weeks, I also lost a magnitude of sponsors, declining my yearly salary. My children wanted me to go to the forest and role play sword fighting with them. I told them their father wasn’t right mentally. They would go to the forest every other day while their mother sat in the car and kept an eye on them. It was two in the morning and I was sleeping before I went to workout that morning, but my phone kept blowing up. I had thirty-four missed calls from my wife. I answered the phone and she yelled at me deep in my ear, telling me Antonio went missing in the forest. I grabbed my shotgun and waited for them to get home, so that I could go out to the forest. My wife was crying in my arms, saying she hoped nothing bad happened. I told them to get some rest and by the time they woke up, Tony will be in his bed safe and sound. They felt relieved and went to bed, as I went to the forest. I had my flashlight tapped to my shotgun, I was leaving with my son. I walked around for hours, then the sun slowly began to show. I started yawning and got super tired, then suddenly it got really chilly, to the point where it made no sense whatsoever. I heard howling from the distance and saw a pack of wolves running in my direction. I thought to myself, I didn’t have enough bullets to kill them all, but it got strange. The wolves ran past my direction. The last one in the pack, made eye contact with me. You would think it would wanna kill me, but it gave me the look, that what it was running from, I should run as well. The wolf joined the pack and I looked behind me and saw it. It was three feet taller than me and had six legs.”

He started crying and I could see snot running down his nose.

“Chris,” I said, “Can you please finish your story?”

“That,” He yelled, “That fucking thing had my own sons head in its mouth! His head wasn’t even attached to a body anymore, just blood dripping from its tooth through his eye socket. It resembled a wolf, but it doesn’t look of this world. It walked closer to me and I was so stunned to move. I just stood there. It dropped my sons rotting head, right in between my shoes. It’s purple eyes, I would rather watch someone kill my mother than to have to see those eyes. It looked down at me and spoke fluent English to me. “”This is your hell, you must submit to chaos, or your whole family will be murdered. I’ll make it my life’s mission to kill your future bloodlines. You must do horrific and gruesome things in order to submit to me. If you fail, then your family will pass away due to circumstances of me.”” That’s what it told me. I’ve had to kidnap women and children. I’ve been forced to do unimaginable things to them. I just want to see Taylor before it kills me.”

“Is it, is It still in the forest?”

After I asked my question, I heard a grizzly bear struggling outside the window. I grabbled my flashlight and ran to the back window. It was pitch black, but I saw a brown bear split down middle with blood oozing out its rib cage. I glanced to the top of the window and saw chilling light purple eyes.

“Wait,” I screamed, “You weren’t lying. I gotta get the hell out of here!”

“Don’t, “Chris said, “Don’t leave me here, I know how to kill that thing.”

“How do we kill that thing?”

I heard metal clanging and bending from the door I came in from. The metal sounded as if it was going to give out at any given moment.

“Please,” Chris cried, “Just unchain me, I don’t want to die today! Please save me before it murders me!”

He put his head down and started sobbing hard. My heart, wouldn’t let me keep him chained up. I unchained him and we both ran through the door from the other side. We got to the door and the thing had already broke through the metal door that quickly. Chris began opening the small side door and I looked behind me and saw the eight foot wolf on the other side of the room. Right as the door opened, it began running so fast, I had thought it made us move in slow motion for a second. Im closed the door and started following Chris.

“We’re going,” He said quickly, “to the abandoned house, its half a mile away from here,”

I didn’t say anything, I just kept running but could hear it getting louder and closer. It got inches away from me, and bit me deep into right shoulder.

“Argh,” I screamed, “Argh, what the fuck!”

Chris pushed me in front of him and told me to stay going forward. After five or six minutes of running, I saw Chris slowing down, I believed he was running out of breath.

“Chris,” I yelled, “Run faster, it’s going to get you!”

I glanced behind me again and he was just standing there with his hands on his head, trying to catch his breath.

“Chris,” I said softly, “What are you doing!”

He just stood there and waved at me. I saw the thing come from above and ripped his body in half, spilling his organs and blood everywhere. The way it gulped him, was so unsettling and nerve-racking. I ran in zig zags, hopefully slowing down its speed and then eventually I saw a fallen tree, but there was enough to slide underneath. I slid and it threw off the creature and it had to find another way around it. I made it to the abandon house and rammed my shoulder into the door breaking it almost immediately. The smell, was so awful and made me very close to throwing up. I pulled out my phone and tried to power it on. It worked, but unfortunately there were so many cracks in my screen, to the point where my finger started bleeding, as I tried to activate the flashlight. I had to suck the blood off my finger, so it wouldn’t drip on to the floor. I took off my shoes, so it wouldn’t hear me running upstairs. I got upstairs and felt liquid get into my socks. I saw dead animal bodies and human carcusses scattered throughout the top floor. There were a few rooms and they seem to just have the same content as the hallway. I saw maggots that stretched a foot, just slithering through the floor and through the corpses. They were chowing on the brown liquid on the floor. I heard the footsteps and I had to find a room to hind in. I purposely opened a random door and closed it, so if it could hear me, it would think I went into that room. I then silently, opened the bathroom door and closed it. The room was covered top to bottom in nothing but maggots and a moldy bathroom. Blending in was so difficult. I sat in the corner as the maggots covered my body trying to snack on me. I could hear the footsteps in the hallway, going into the rooms looking for me. I tried so hard not to throw cause of the smells. The maggots tried to dig into my bite on my shoulder. The pain was immense and trying not to puke was even harder. It walked for twenty minutes and I was praying so hard to god that it wouldn’t check the bathroom. As I sat there, I thought to myself, that creature is really the reason why it’s so cold in the forest. Did it eat my car? Is it really going to kill me once it gets its hands on me? I’m so scared and terrified, I really don’t want to die today. I want to see if my ex will take me back after this. I hope she will, this has given me a reason to want to live and keep going. I hope I make it out of here alive. The footsteps went quiet then silent. I waited an extra ten minutes for extra measure. I clinched my shoulder and slowly got up and threw up everywhere on the maggots. I could feel the throw up hugging my upper teeth and lower lips. I crept downstairs and took off my socks and the smell was so horrible, I couldn’t fathom the shower when I got home. I went towards the kitchen looking for food that wasn’t spoiled, but found the shot gun Chris was talking about in his story. There were six bullets on the table and two in the chamber. I’m killing that thing before it gets to me. It was four forty-eight in the morning and I planned to get home before six. I’m gonna be home before work. I held the shot gun by the handle and put it on my shoulder. Walking outside, I didn’t hear or see anything.

“Here little creature,” I screamed, “I just wanna talk to you, it’ll be really quick I promise.”

My other arm felt so useless cause of the bite it did to me. I heard horrible growling from the distance and once I started looking in between the two trees, I saw purple eyes staring me deep into my soul and they kept getting closer. I shot at it and it disappeared, but I knew I wasn’t done. I was going to use all these bullets rather it liked it or not. I had to reload the shot gun on the muddy ground, my arm felt super weak. I could hear it walking around back and forth. If I didn’t reload this gun, this monster will murder me and I can’t let that happen. I only got one of the bullets in the dual chamber and and aimed it towards the sky. That thing is getting shot, I don’t care. I felt it get closer behind. I rolled out of the way and shot its body while I was on the ground. I need to shoot it again, it’s moving as if it’s weaker than usual. I reloaded the bullets and cocked it back. You’re getting one more shot from me. I ran around the forest and heard nothing but ominous sounds and tree branches breaking. I heard it from the right running towards me. I quickly aimed my gun at it and shot it again in the face and it disappeared. I felt it getting warmer and the sun started shining. I threw the gun on the ground and gripped my arm tightly, thankfully there was an open path to my left. I won and now I can finally go home. This day, I’ll never speak of to anyone. I limped through the path for almost forty minutes, till I froze. I could feel my heart beating through my chest. I saw the purple eyes again in front of me. I attempted to turn around, but it was right behind me. Every direction I turned the creature had made clones of itself. My knees collapsed to the ground, who knew a night in the forest would be my last day in this world.