Author's Note: I wrote this all tonight. Another one of my attempts at horror, but it just doesn't amount to get that 'horror' feeling. I don't think it's really that great, but tell me what 'you' think.Distorted Revenge
Three shadowed figures crouched huddled close to the small campfire. Above, the night sky blanketed the quiet land with an impenetrable blackness. Not even the stars were visible for the cloud cover stretched from horizon to horizon.
A soft glow of orange lit up the nearby trees as one of the humans threw on another log of wood. A shuddering breath escaped one's lips.
"damn, I'm cold… I don't get why we couldn't bring the truck up here to sleep in."
"I thought you said you wanted to sleep under the stars, Cinus."
Cinus held his hands out by the fire as he spoke. "Theron, it was you who said that…"
A chuckle escaped from Theron's chapped lips as he pulled the other figure closer to him. It was Ira, his outdoors-loving girlfriend. "Oh, you just don't like the cold, that's all."
He then took two sodas out of his cooler and tossed one to Cinus, sharing the other between himself and Ira.
Cinus just held it in his gloved hand squinting to read the label. "Hmm… I still wonder why you never brought hot cocoa or something like that," then he popped the can open and sucked up the carbonated overflow.
After Ira had stiffly passed the can back to Theron, she spoke for the first time in quite awhile. "You guys ever hear the local ghost stories about this county?"
Cinus and Theron looked at each other, almost breaking out in laughter. It was if they were laughing through their eyes. You could tell that they were both amused.
Ira looked suspiciously up at her boyfriend, her head against Theron's chest. "Well I'm just asking. I never expected you to be reluctant of a little story."
Theron took another sip out of the can before saying, "Sure, let's hear it."
"Well… not very long ago, it's said that there was a hunter who used to live in this region. A very avid deer hunter, they say. Of course, he hunted everything else in these woods, but he had a special attraction to shooting deer. Even the does he shot.
Some rumors suggested that he did strange things to his dead specimens. Kind of a hunter/scientist, I suppose, but they said that he'd experiment with the different parts of animals and find many different useful ways for them."
Cinus cut in with a question. "So how is this supposed to scare us? If it doesn't pertain to humans, it certainly doesn't scare me."
"Oh, it's just a story. I never said it was meant to scare you," countered Ira, who then continued with her tale.
"Anyways, this hunter was found dead in his cabin. A gunshot to the head, the authorities said. No one was found guilty to the murder and they didn't have enough evidence. No other human DNA or boot tracks were found inside the cabin or out. Some people said they thought it might have been ghosts, but as we know, ghosts aren't known to handle firearms."
Theron finished off the soda and chucked it into the nearby woods where it struck a tree and fell into the underbrush. "Gee, nice story. Creepy."
"Heh heh…" chuckled Cinus nervously. "That 'was' pretty mysterious. But you said that this hunter did experiments on his… 'specimens'. Like, what'd he do?"
"I never really heard. At least they were dead-" Ira was cut off by a crackling sound somewhere near the river which lay twisting behind a short expanse of trees they were camped next to.
Theron immediately switched on his spotlight lantern and shined it in the sound's direction. There, just a few feet into the forest, was a buck.
It's terrified eyes locked with Theron's own just before it crashed off into the undergrowth.
Cinus sat there trembling as Theron looked down to see Ira's face buried in his fleece. "It was only a deer, guys. Nothing else…" but Theron trailed off in thought.
Cinus gently put down his half empty soda can as he turned to Theron. "You see that nasty gash in its side?"
"Yeah, I did. Strange," stated Theron as he revealed Ira's nervous face.
"It was a deer?" she questioned.
Trying to calm her, Theron spoke in a soft voice. "Yeah, only a deer."
A ruffling noise came from Cinus as he crawled into his sleeping bag. "Let's just go to sleep, guys. It's really late and plus, I don't want to hear any more stories. Keep the fire going, though."
An hour later, Cinus had his head inside the sleeping bag and Ira was gently snoring in Theron's lap, for the two hadn't gone into their sleeping bags. Theron was wide-awake as he rested his right hand on Ira's shoulder and his left on the flashlight's 'on' switch. Since the deer had crashed away into the underbrush, he couldn't sleep. He just couldn't get those fearful eyes out of his head, the strange gash in it's side, and what he didn't tell either of the two, the mysterious object that the deer had been trailing behind.
As the fire began to die, he started playing with the flashlight's switch. A click sounded and when Theron registered the idea that he had accidentally turned the flashlight on, he looked to where it was shining.
Right in the clearing on the forest edge, it stood. Theron stared in horror as the buck's reflective eyes stared straight back. Except this time, there was no obvious fear in those eyes. It was emptiness, a dark and horrible emptiness.
It stood there staring at Theron with its piercing eyes like a stone gargoyle, unflinching, unmoving. Theron just stared back, terrified. But this deer, it just didn't look like a normal deer. It looked more built, as if-
Like a nightmare, the buck slowly began to change. It's back legs revealed more sinewy muscle as its fore legs slowly began gaining distance from the ground. It was standing up, straight up like a human.
Then Theron realized every bloodied gash, bullet wound, and skinless patch of this nightmarish monster. Even half of its right antler was sawed off and a chain hung from its now left 'arm'. Half of this deer was bloody, matted fur. But none of it was fresh. It was all dried blood.
The buck slouched over and began stumbling towards Theron, who saw that this deer didn't even have eyes, they were just white orbs streaked with minuet veins. Not to mention the overgrown teeth that stuck through the lips. In fact, upon closer examination, this thing didn't even 'have' lips. But such details were lost to Theron as he frantically pushed Ira's head to the ground and chucked a bug spray can at Cinus's sleeping bag, from which emitted a sharp yelp.
Ira immediately sat up and Cinus poked his head out into the cold air, but neither noticed the new arrival. Even after seeing Theron's horrified look did they not understand.
Ira found herself being hauled up onto her feet and rushed away into the forest from which they came by Theron. Still being groggy from sleep, Ira couldn't totally keep up… until the crack of a rifle shot echoed through the empty forests.
Theron found himself crashing to the ground with his foot stuck under a root. He couldn't understand what exactly was happening because everything was going by so fast. He only looked back to see a fast-moving, limping figure rushing towards him.
Tearing his foot away, Theron jumped up and grasped a terrified Ira. She had seen the running figure rushing toward them, too.
Another bullet zipped overhead as a loud crack emanated from somewhere far behind them.
Suddenly, the two found themselves in an empty parking lot with only one truck there; Theron's own. He thrashed around in the fleece pockets searching for his car keys all while his eyes were constantly jerking around, searching the tree line.
Finally revealing them, he messily jammed the keys into the lock and twisted, thus opening the door.
Once Ira was in the passenger's side panting and Theron messing with the gear levers, she spoke in a frenzied manner.
"Theron… where is… Cenis… … I think-" but Ira's pant-broken words were cut off by the roar of the truck as it screeched out of it's parking position and sped down the gravel road.
Theron's lead foot sent the truck whipping past narrow corners but on a straightaway, the brakes slammed stiff as Theron saw another running out into the road. It was Cinus, who was clutching his shoulder and tried stopping the speeding truck. But Theron's reactions were too slow; he reduced Cinus to just another bloody lump on the gravel road as an intense shock went through the truck.
This caused Theron to falter and miss the turn up ahead from which they veered off the road and struck a tree head on. He didn't know how he doing all this through his immense shock, but Theron hugged Ira close and led both of them out the driver's door, into the empty night-filled woods. They stumbled down the road through the impenetrable darkness as their footsteps and panicked breathing were the only things that echoed through the lifeless forest. Not even a birdcall or rustle of a squirrel was evident as they hurled themselves through this nightmare.
As they rounded a corner, Theron made out the thin outline of the entrance booth to the park. They sprinted hard down the path but a sudden crack filled their ears and Theron stumbled forward onto the ground.
Ira halted and kneeled to help Theron up, but she quickly realized that he was gone. He was dead. She looked up and just about 50 feet away was the shadowy figure standing there. A soft click sounded far off as if a rifle bolt had been moved into place.
She thought she could see the undead buck's revengeful eyes, bent on killing.
Ira whispered towards the nightmarish deer right before the unavoidable darkness consumed her.
"My uncle must've done some awful things to you…"
