The Woods | Teen Ink

The Woods

November 7, 2019
By tha529194 BRONZE, Appleton, Wisconsin
tha529194 BRONZE, Appleton, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
I know we hate to fall but the Fall is only seasonal


A man named Henry lived far far away from any city and any other homes...Alaska, as we call it. No towns in sight, not even a single soul in mere view. He was in a little tiny shed that he lived in. It was small and could only fit a bed and a stove. Right through the door of the shed was the bed and a window behind it, With the stove to the right of the bed and a little space between both the bed and stove. Outside the window was a big snowy field with patches of dead grass along the floor. It all led towards a forest, the woods, a jungle of coldness and ice. Nobody ever went into that forest, of course, because he owned the land and no one was to trespass. But he was fairly new to where he was and he didn't even set foot in it yet. Until he saw the deer.

Henry was looking out the window one morning and saw a deer standing far out by the brink of the woods. It was a buck. The buck wasn't beautiful, not strong, and not so healthy looking. Henry thought that it was odd since there was no vegetation and no other animals in sight. He got up, put his coat on, put an extra layer of pants on, then grabbed his boots and headed straight towards the woods.

The footsteps against the hard frozen snow was crunched beneath his feet as he walked towards the deer. It was a long walk and the deer just stared creepily at Henry like it was stuck in some headlights. No words spoken, just the sound of the snow, the heavy breathing while walking, and the movement of his jacket sleeves rubbing against his body. Henry took a step once more and had rolled his ankle on a chunk of icy rock. He fell and kneeled on the ground.

"Goddamnit," he muttered under his breath, not trying to be loud and not trying to scare off the deer. He thought that by now the scrawny sickly buck would have taken off due to fear of Henry himself. Henry was wrong. He looked up and saw the deer just a few feet away from him. Henry looked in disbelief. Henry was the deer in headlights.

The smell of the deer was disgusting, rotten almost. Balding patches on the deer showed and looked as if it were maybe the deer had been attacked. "What the hell?" Henry whispered. The deer tilted its head and said

"We are all dead here." Henry jumped back up on his feet onto his hurt ankle and ran in terror as the deer spoke words, human words. Henry ran and ran back to his shed, a good 10-minute run. Once he got back to his shed, his stomach churned and he threw up right outside the door of the old small shed. He felt dizzy, dazed, and confused as he walked inside. It was still very bright outside, too bright. While tired, and still in a complete shock, he got some water from his cabinet and drank a big gulp. Soon right after, he fell asleep and plopped onto the bed.

He woke up to a nasty, rotten smell, and puked once again beside his bed. It was dark, pitch black. Henry grabbed his lantern as he knew where it was. He had matches in his pocket and sohe lit the match and turned on the lantern. Still dizzy, he kneeled on his bed and looked out the window with his lantern close to his face, he breathed and it fogged up the window, the temperature was so cold, so harsh. As Henry looked out the window he saw a shadow walking towards the shed, and the stench grew. It was the deer, limping towards the window. Henry screamed in fear and fell backward but still on his bed. "GO AWAY, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE" He screamed.

"We are all dead here" the deer said with its deceased mouth. Henry was angered and annoyed that this deer followed him back to his shed, he ran outside of his shed to follow the 

deer. Henry grabbed his lantern and a hatchet. Running after the buck he lost his breath right as he got to the edge of the woods. "Where the hell is you, you stupid deer" Henry muttered. "I'm

going to kill this deer and slaughter it, once and for all!" he shouted. The angry man, Henry, ran into the forest and instantly had gotten lost, he turned around only to see that the opening of the forest had disappeared. As he carelessly moved forward, the smell of rotten flesh was ten times as strong as it was before. It seemed to be everywhere. He put his sleeve up to his face to mask the smell, but it didn't help, the stench was still there. As he had put his sleeve up to his face he could smell the rotten flesh even coming from himself. Henry kept on walking, trying to ignore the smell. It was so dark but he could still see a few feet in front of himself.

There it was, the buck, following along with a pack of rotten doe all staring at him, no emotion, not even a heavy breath from a single one of the deer. Henry was silent and knew that if he swung the hatchet at any one of them they would all swarm out of the way. "What am I supposed to do? I need to get the hell out of here, that's what I need to do."

He took a step back and turned around to head back to the thicket he came through. Right as he turned around there was a big tall beast, almost as if it represented a man. Blood on the hands, it seemed like there was blood everywhere. The beast looked to be smothered in rotten corpses of some other deer. The beastly creature's face wasn't able to be seen. Not even it's the whole body, it's hands, the blood. The rest of the body was covered in the darkness of the woods. Henry tried but couldn't scream, he was in too much shock so he bolted. The beast groaned a long groan and as followed with it were the deer. The deer chased after Henry all of them whispering "We're all dead, we're all dead, we're all dead" The deer repeated. The buck had rammed right into Henry, he fell and blacked out as he hit the ground.

Henry woke up in a dark place, tied up and in the middle of a circle of dead deer corpses. Torches surrounded some of the areas so it was dim enough to see. The beast standing from a distance spoke in mumbles, walked towards Henry and opened his mouth only to let out a smell of rotten flesh. Then a voice coming from the beast but not visibly spoken said:

"we as beasts must know we are dead."

"But I'm not dead and I'm not a beast" Henry explained in terror

" we are beasts, and we are dead." The voice said

Henry squirmed to get out of the rope. He got out, the ropes somehow loosened up and he ran but couldn't find an exit. No exits insight and for some odd reason, the beast was gone.

"Is this a dream?" Henry questioned. He slapped himself a couple of times but nope, it's a reality, a reality so morbid. What was happening? Why is this happening? He felt the walls for maybe a way out since it isn't bright enough to see the deeper depths of the room. Finally, he felt a kind of door and so he pulled it open to slip out. Once he left the room he was able to get out.

Henry felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck. He felt his neck with his cold bare hands and noticed there was a big cut that seemed to ooze with infection.

"What is this and why does it seem like it's growing" Henry questioned in disbelief. He looked down at his hands and realized that there was fur growing and that his legs and arms were distorting into something else. Henry freaked out and fell to the ground as his body was changing and growing hair. He screamed and screamed but no words could come out of his filthy mouth and passed out. 

Henry awoke as another being he was a rotten deer and walked the forest slurring words he couldn't even make out himself. His head dizzy the light outside of the woods was bright. The lights compelled Henry the deer to walk to the brink.

As he stood at the brink of the woods he saw a small shed in the distance. A man in warm-looking clothes seemed to be making his way right towards the deer. As the man was close enough to the deer he fell and muttered

"Goddamnit"

The deer looked at the man in silence the two of them just stared at one another confused and trying to make out the appearance of each other.

What the hell?" the man whispered

Surprised and scared Henry tried to make out words but all that came out of his trembling face and mouth was:

"We're all dead here."


The author's comments:

This piece was very fun to write, I was able to put a lot of creativity into this morbid short story.


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