The Woods Devil

(Depictions of gore and horror. Strong language is used.)

Nobody believed in me... that was their first mistake.

It was camping season. I know, I know, very stereotypical for a story like this. My friends didn't believe me either, thought I was pulling a prank on them. To be fair, I wouldn't believe me either if I heard the story. So here it is.

May 29th, it was a Thursday. My friends and I had all planned this camping trip. I have Fridays off so I went to the spot the night before to set up. Everything went smoothly, got all the gear set up, collected firewood and kindling then sat down to start the fire. Besides the occasional breeze and rustling of leaves, it was quiet, surrounded by trees and wildflowers with the sun high in the sky, the cool air blowing through my hair. It should've been peaceful. It should've been relaxing. There was just something off. I couldn't place my finger on it. I shrugged it off as just being in the forest alone. Once it was time to go to bed, which was earlier than my usual bedtime, sleep came easily. I was exhausted.

I woke up before the sun rose, 3:30 AM to be exact. I realized that my bladder woke me up and moved to unzip my tent when I heard a rustling, not like leaves or trees moving in the wind, more like a panicked rustle. Something moving fast past tree branches, feet crunching the fallen, dead leaves. I paused to listen, half in curiosity and half in fear. I quietly reached into my bag for my gun, I always bring it on my camping trips. I waited for a few minutes before slowly, cautiously exiting the front of the tent. I shone my light in the direction of where the noise was coming from, nothing there. Then it hit me, that ungodly stench. The smell made me recoil, that… odor, was unlike anything I had smelled before. It was almost like a skunk, but worse. Smelled more like a dead, rotten skunk. I figured it must have been a bear or something, sometimes they stink. The coast was clear, seemed to be anyway. So I went and found a nearby tree and did my business. I kept an eye out as I got my breakfast ready.

After I gathered enough sticks and twigs, I started the fire, got some logs to toss on top and enjoyed the warmth coming from the flames for a while. I got my breakfast cooking over the fire and turned around, looking into the trees. I saw a figure covered in… something. Grayish hair? Light brown fur? It looked pretty shaggy. It was still kind of dark so I couldn’t see too well. I rubbed my eyes and as I went to look closer I heard a car engine. I turned to look back where the sound was coming from. It was Liam. He was always the first person to show up on these trips, excluding myself. When I went back to look at what I had seen before, my eyes couldn’t find it again. Like I had lost track of it, it was gone. Liam parked his car and immediately hopped out.

“Well look what the cat dragged in.” He said, walking towards me.

I scoffed as I shook my head. “Did you expect anything less?” I said in a sarcastic tone. “I’m always the first one here.”

Liam put his hand on my shoulder and smiled. “You get to scare off all the boogeymen for us on the first night. Very useful.” Liam laughed and patted me on the back before walking back to his truck. My eyes found their way back to that spot where I had seen the now missing - uh - fur?

The rest of the group trickled in throughout the day, we all had a good time. Everyone was sat around the fire. We were playing a card game when Liam shook his head and sniffed the air, then scrunched his nose and frowned with his brow furrowed. “Oh, dude - OH, Mav, that is rank!” He stood up, laughing. Everyone smelled the air and started groaning, laughing and making retching noises. I stood up quickly once I understood, once I caught a whiff of that repugnant smell again. “Everyone, I think it’s a bear.” I said in a hushed tone. The girls, Kayla and Mia looked to their boyfriends. Sadie went to me, which I kind of liked. I always had a crush on her. “What do we do?” “Where are the car keys?” Everyone started scrambling in a slight panic. Before Tyler asked me “Wait, dude, how you know it’s a bear? Bears don’t smell.”

I sighed, the image of the grayish-tan mysterious hairy… thing I saw earlier flashing before my eyes. “Uhh, I saw one this morning when I woke up. Well, I heard it. Then smelled this horrible scent.” I shrugged and grabbed my flashlight to look into the trees surrounding our campsite. “I’m sure we’ll be fine if we just make some loud noises and whatnot.” The girls had huddled together in the middle of the camp, by the fire. I walked to the treeline, trying to identify the source of the smell. “Probably a dead animal carcass wafting from down the mountain.” Liam said, trying to dismiss the whole thing. “Or Mav trying to play off his sour fart.” Tyler joked. “Ooooh, scary bear, he’s coming to eat us all!” He continued on in jest. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I scoffed at him as I continued to scan the trees.

My light landed on… something. “What the- Hey!” I yelled out, there was a person, or something in the trees. As soon as I found it, it was gone. All I could see was movement, no shape, no defining features, just a grayish tannish blur. “What is it?” Liam said, joining me by my side, Tyler was there not long after. “I… don’t know. I saw something move.” I stated, all of us looking into the thick, dark woods in front of us. “I have a gun, I am not afraid to use it.” I yelled out.

“I don’t think the bear speaks English.” Liam chided. “I don’t know what it was, okay? Could be a serial killer who preys on campers, I don’t know, dude… I saw something else the morning you got here too Liam. I saw… a figure?” I said, hesitantly.

“What, like a ghost?” Tyler asked, confused. “No, it was like… something hairy? Or furry? I couldn’t see it too well, but I don’t think I was a person... Liam scared it off with his truck when he got here.” I looked to both of them who were listening intently. “It… didn’t really look like a bear either.” I stated slowly. I didn’t want them to think I was crazy but what I saw was not normal.

There was silence for a moment then Tyler laughed and clapped. “Okay, okay, you had us for a second.” He nodded and stepped back. “It’s not gonna work, bro. We’re not in high school anymore.” He walked back to the camp. “Maybe Mav wants Sadie to sleep in his tent tonight so he can keep her safe.” He made a jab at me.

He stopped when he got to the fire, looking around. “Hey, where’s Mia?” He asked. Kayla and Sadie shrugged. “I didn’t see her leave.” Kayla spoke and started looking around as well. “No way she would wandered off alone when there could be a bear around.” I said, starting to worry. “Mia is a big girl and she isn’t afraid of the spooky bedtime story you’re spinning.” Tyler snapped, turning to me. He was worried, I could tell. Even if he didn’t want to admit it. Tyler began walking off and yelling out her name. “Mia? Miaaaa?” He yelled. “You probably got her in on it to try and scare us.” Liam laughed lightly, nervously. “Mav with his spooky creatures and scary stories. Maybe he wants me to protect him.” Sadie looked at me with a flirtatious grin.

We all headed back to the camp and sat next to the fire after we looked for a bit longer, not seeing anything else, and no sign of Mia, we came to the conclusion that it probably was a bear or another large animal. We continued our card game, Sadie and Kayla sat off to the side just talking when lo and behold, now Kayla had to go to the bathroom. She was afraid to go alone so Liam accompanied her. They were gone for longer than they should have been. “Well, I guess Liam is out there getting lucky.” Tyler said as he leaned back in his chair. “Hey, babe?” He yelled out to Mia, who was still gone, “Take notes.” He nodded to the direction in which Tyler and Kayla headed off. “Fuck you.” Tyler jumped when Mia slapped her hands down on Tyler’s shoulders, she wore a smile as she sat down next to him. “Gladly.” He retorted, to which she rolled her eyes at. “Smooooth.” I commented and nodded. “You were gone for a while.” I said then took a sip of my beer. “I was looking for your bear out there.” She said sarcastically and sat down beside Tyler. “Could be a bear, or a mountain lion.” Tyler said and wiggled his fingers at me jokingly. “Or bigfoot.” Sadie chimed in with her eyes widened in faux amazement. “Guys I’m serious, there was something out the-”

Something flew past me, over the fire, and landed just past the circle of chairs. The loud thud it made when it hit the ground was… awful. It was Kayla. Mia was already standing, screaming and grabbing at Tyler in fear. Sadie stepped back, her eyes wide now in fear, her hands were shaking badly, she was in shock, as we all were. “Oh my God, Kayla!” I rushed to her body and knelt down to try and help. She was dead, very obviously dead. No pulse, no breathing, she had been mutilated, mauled. She was attacked but not for food, she was just murdered. Brutally, mercilessly. Liam. Where was Liam? He didn’t do this, no human did this. No regular mountain predator would be able to throw a human body like that. “Tyler, Mia, get Sadie and get the hell out of here.” I said, panting. Kayla was trying to dial 911. “I-I don’t have service out here.” She cried. Sadie stood where she had before, still staring at Kayla’s bloodied corpse. I went to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Hey, Sadie. Look at me. Go with Tyler and Mia. I’m going to go find Liam.” I told her. Her blue watery eyes met mine. She began to speak then froze when she looked past me. Her face went from shock to fear stricken. “Mav. It’s looking at us.” She whispered, standing still as if that made us invisible. I turned slowly, as if not to scare “it”.

Mia went from cry-screaming to horror-screaming, that’s when I heard a blood curdling shriek. An unearthly sound, as if it came from depths of hell. I landed eyes on it. What. The. Fuck. It stood on two legs, hunched over in a defensive pose. It was a coppery tan color besides the dark red blood all over its… hands? And it’s face. It had an elongated snout and soulless black eyes. The antlers that came out from it’s head were also covered in blood. It had a tail, a long hairy tail, like a horse. It’s face resembled a horse, it was just… wrong. It lowered it’s stance, and put one hand on the ground, long nails digging into the dirt beneath it. This could not be real, no fucking way. I raised my gun and started firing, I shot about 4 or 5 bullets before I stopped, conserving my ammo. It jumped into the air with terrifying speed and agility. It crushed Tyler’s car with it’s massive weight. We all watched as it jumped away into the trees and out of sight.

“Miaaa?” I heard Tyler call out, just like he called out earlier. I looked to Tyler who looked to me. I saw Mia clinging to Tyler, both of their faces turned pale. “Miiiiiaaaa.” Tyler’s voice called out again, this time, in a more playful manner with a deep growl behind it. Tyler’s mouth didn’t move. It sounded like it was all around me. I looked around, my flashlight flicking all around the tree line searching for the source of this sound. There was a person, wearing a flannel. Liam, he was standing at the edge of the trees. I began running to him. “Liam, we have to get the fuck out here!” I yelled. That’s when he lifted. Yes, lifted, like he was levitating. Except his head was lulled to the side, and now I could see he was drenched in blood. There was something sticking out of his abdomen. It was an antler, stabbed through his stomach. That thing, it was playing with us, with our friend’s dead bodies. It was just wanted to kill us, not to eat, not because we were a threat. Because it just wanted to. “Hey babe.” It growled in Tyler’s voice as it stood up fully, throwing Liam’s body to side as if he weighed nothing.

I will admit it. I screamed like a little girl as I sprinted back to what remained of my friend group. They had all crowded around my car, my keys. I had my keys. This devilish creature was chasing me. It ran after me, it’s long legs moved with incredible speed, it was catching up to me, and fast. I turned around and fired a few more shots at it blindly. It let out another ear-piercing scream, it had a high pitched whistle to it, an airy sound, along with a low bellow. I hit it. The creature darted to the side, through the trees, towards my friends. I had to go around the area full of thorny bushes and thick shrubs., the creature just blew right through it. “Run!” I instructed my friends. “Fucking run!” They all started running, as I said to. I saw it chase after Tyler and Mia, I kept running, aiming at it and firing off 3 more rounds. How many bullets were left in this magazine? I had lost count, honestly. It grabbed Tyler, he screamed and tried to wriggle out of it’s dark blackened fingers, Mia turned and cried again, screaming at it. “Stop! Please, no!” It's head snapped to look at her. “Mia, go, run!” Tyler groaned, still trying to escape it’s grasp. It raised an open hand, while maintaining eye contact with her. “Miaaaa.” It croaked out again, it sounded like Tyler again, and about 10 other voices, all speaking at the time time. It plunged it’s hand, long sharp nails first, into Tyler’s’ chest and ripped his heart out, causing Mia to start running again. It quickly lost interest in Tyler’s lifeless body and began the chase after Mia.

I finally reached my car, Sadie coming out from behind the trees. “Get in.” I told her as I unlocked the car and got in. It started right up. “Good thing this truck has four wheel drive.” I said before driving off after this creature, running over small trees and bushes, I had to save Mia. Tyler, Liam and Kayla were all dead. My hands reached down and handed Sadie my gun, maybe she could kill this thing. “There she is.” Sadie shouted, pointing outside the truck. I booked it, pulling up to her where she was still running. “Come on Mia.” I shouted at her through the rolled down window. She was still crying, running even though she was tired. She looked at me and stood there, shaking her head. “No, it isn’t real. This is just a bad dream.” She huffed. “Mia, get the fuck in the truck, now.” I opened my door to get out and throw her in the truck when she went flying back with a short yelp. It had killed her before she could even scream. It’s claws dug into her and teared her body in half. Blood went everywhere. Sadie started emptying the gun into this thing, this evil being. This thing was too fast, it ran off into the trees, limping and huffing, groaning in it's demonic octave. I got back in and pushed the pedal to the floor. We had to get out of there. There was no hope. I felt so bad, leaving my friends like this but we had to save ourselves. They were all already dead. Sadie began crying now, the reality of everything crashing down on her. I found a road and we drove home, neither of us spoke a word to each other the entire time. Only sniffles and tears falling silently from our cheeks. I was also crying. We made it out. I felt relief, but that was quickly replaced with grief. All my friends, excluding Sadie, were dead. They were gone, there was no doubt about it. When we got back to town, we went to the police. Long story short, they didn't believe us, they chalked it up to a young group of kids out drinking getting attacked by - you guessed it - a bear.

We never went back, at least I never did. I don't imagine Sadie did either. Sadie and I grew apart, we stopped hanging out as much and we pretty much moved on with our lives as best as we could. I don’t think we would’ve worked out, the memories would stick around. If only they would have taken me seriously. If only they would've listened. If only they would've believed me. Maybe they would still be here.