Content Warning for: Visceral horror (intense imagery), death, ...uh, how do I even do this?...a human is consumed
Feet propped up on the dashboard, I press my head against the side door and watch the thin black trees rush by. The ever churning street ahead of us, slick with water, reflects the moon and stars in tiny blurred pinpricks of light. The radio softly plays a discordant mix of a twenties radio show and fuzzed static. Cara absentmindedly drums her fingers against the steering wheel, humming a quiet, tuneless melody. I’m about to slip into a drowsy half-sleep, when a pained shriek tears through the air, followed by a cry for help, not too far ahead of us. My feet fall from the dashboard and I sit up quickly. Cara is already nodding to my unspoken question; the car ambles gently to the side of the road.
I throw the door open and tread on the soft, plush grass, ready to plunge into the tall, vast forest in front of me, when something urges me to stop. Instantly, I can smell something rotting. It’s overwhelming, and makes my eyes wet slightly and my mouth go dry and bitter. I don’t know what it is or where it’s coming from, but to make matters worse, I notice a pair of green gleaming eyes staring up at me.
A deer. It could be a statue, for how still it is. I can somewhat make out its face, long and pale, with gleaming silvery antlers twisting into a thorny crown over its head. The rest of it was shrouded in darkness, like it was bathing in a pool of shadows. Its luminescent eyes bore into my soul.
“Keep clear of it,” Cara warns me.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a deer.” Any time I could step forward and it would probably dart off deeper into the forest.
She makes a small keening noise, something to suggest concern and hesitation. The deer continues looking at me. Its ear twitches once.
“Lilah–” Her voice all of a sudden grows quiet and dangerously urgent. “Get away from it.”
I start to turn to face her, when I’m made aware of, with a certain icy horror, an arm, reaching limply from the shadows, alabaster under the moonlight, lethargically grasping at a lifeline that would never appear. I think my ears are deceiving me when I hear a low moan. The deer tears its gaze away from me and fixates on the man, lying numbly on the ground.
All I can do is watch helplessly as the deer starts to open its mouth. The teeth are sharper, longer, and more numerous than any other deer I’ve ever seen before. Its jaw keeps stretching, further and further until it looks like its mouth splits open its face. First in two. Then in four. A tongue, thick and wet and hot slithers from the depths of its throat and wraps around the arm. With awful purpose, it slowly drags the man attached. Limbs twist and bones snap as the deer fits him into its mouth. I can hear it greedily slurping and crunching loudly.
The few minutes it took to eat dragged on until it felt like hours. Soon, the deer that was likely never a deer at all, resets its face and looks around the forest. It stretches its mouth open again to emit an earsplitting screech for help in a way that is awfully human sounding, and awfully similar to the cry we heard before. Its ears are upright and alert.
“Run,” She whispers. I obey. Whether the creature was full, or didn’t care enough to chase us, it let us dash back into our car and drive away in terrified silence.
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