What are you?

“What are you?” she asked the creature. Its arms hung long by its sides almost to the ground, sharp nails dug into its naked legs leaving furrows of black blood. It was mostly nude with a few scraps that may have once been a dress. It was mostly bald with a few wisps of scraggly hair caked in mud that a face that was too sharp to be human. It growled, a long low sound that prompted her to take a step back. Its skin was grey and mottled with wrinkled skin. It looked like a child had tried to draw a nightmare and ended up with this creation. Umm... I’m Trisha. Can you speak?” she asked the thing. Might as well try to be pleasant. Maybe if she nice it won’t try to eat her.

It growled again and hissed at her, teeth flashing in the pitiful light of her flashlight. “Yeah, not friendly. I’m just going to go. Nice and slow, I’m leaving.” She told the creature as she took another step back. Her heels crunched the dead leaves underfoot and the creature snapped its head up. Its eyes were blood red as it stared straight at her and hissed showing long sharp teeth.

She swung the flashlight up, bracing it in front of her as a makeshift weapon. She knew they should have moved the campsite closer to the bathrooms. Mary and Lisa wanted to try and camp primitively. They wanted to have the full country experience and decided to set camp away from civilization, in the middle of nowhere, in the woods with no cell service. When she woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to use an actual bathroom instead of finding a tree somewhere she wandered toward what she thought was the campground. Instead, she walked further than she thought was right and ended up lost. “I’m just going.” She tried again. “Nice thingy…”

The creature lunged. She screamed and slashed out her arm with the flashlight. It hit the creature in the head, and she felt the flashlight break. The creature grabbed her arm and sunk its teeth into her skin. She screamed again and beat the thing on the head with the broken light. Pieces of plastic and glass flew in all directions, and a few sliced her hand, but the creature finally let go. It looked a little dazed. She slammed the thing in the head one more time and the creature fell. She didn’t stop to see if it had stayed down. She took off running.

She tripped in the dark, tree branches snatched at her hair and clothes. Strands of hair yanked out as she ran. She slammed into a creek and the ice-cold water sloshed down her throat as she swam across. The water was only about waist high, but she could barely stand and the few feet across felt like an ocean. When she made it across, she couldn’t stand up again. She looked back across the water and heard the creature coming closer. It came out of the woods and stood on the water’s edge. It screamed at her, a sound of pure hatred and clawed at the wet ground. Trisha pulled her wet legs up and wrapped her arms around herself. The creature clawed at the ground a few more times before snorting and staring at the water.

It couldn’t cross. She didn’t know why but it couldn’t cross the water. The creature screeched and turned away, ambling off into the dark. Trisha shook as she stared into the woods. She was cold and alone in the middle of the woods, and she didn’t even have a light to see by. “Mary, I hate you.” She cursed her friend who right now is probably peacefully sleeping in her sleeping bag snoring. We should camp, why would we stay in a nice warm hotel room when we can sleep on the wet cold ground instead. Why have a bathroom within walking distance when we can wander the forest of nightmares instead. She thought sarcastically. She looked back up where the creature walked back too. I hope it doesn’t find them. She walked a pretty good distance, hopefully far enough away that the thing wouldn’t stumble upon her sleeping friends.

She tried to force herself to stand again and her legs wouldn’t move. She couldn’t feel her feet anymore. She realized she was shaking. It’s cold. She thought. It’s the cold and you’re probably going into shock. She tried to sit up and the world spun. Her vision turned black and she fell back onto the ground unconscious.

She woke up to the sky starting to lighten. Her face felt cold and tight, and dew covered her clothes. She sat up and although her vision still swam, she stayed awake this time. She looked down at her arm. The creature had bitten her hard and she was still slowly bleeding. “Maybe its blood loss.” She muttered to herself. She forced herself to move and tore a strip off her shirt. She tied it around her arm and pulled the fabric tight. Even that small movement was too much. Her vision swam and she tuned to the side throwing up her dinner into the river. She tried to pull her hair away from her face and chunks of her hair fell off into her hands. She pulled the thick dark strands to her face in confusion. She felt true fear build up in her chest.

Mary and Lisa awoke to their friend who was missing. She had been gone for a full day. They searched the woods till the sun started to set. “We need to go” Lisa told Mary. The Camp rangers said they were going to bring dogs in to try to find her. When they couldn’t find her in the first hour, they assumed she had gone to the restroom to take a shower. When she didn’t come back, they eventually went to try to find her. They searched for her at the neighboring campground, but she was gone. They went to the rangers and called the police. They said they couldn’t do anything. Trisha was an adult and they needed to wait at least 24 hours. Mary and Lisa tried to explain that she wouldn’t have left without telling them. Her flashlight was gone but all her things were still packed away in the corner of the tent. So they looked all day long. The sun was setting and the woods were getting dark. “We need to go back.” Lisa said again. “If we don’t, we will be the ones lost next.” Mary nodded, tears cogged her throat, but she knew Lisa was right. “Ok let’s…” she was cut off by the sound of a scream. “That’s Trisha!” Mary yelled and they both took off on a run. The screech came again closer this time, and they ran into a small clearing. Someone stood at the edge of the woods. “Trisha!” she yelled. They stepped closer and the creature stepping into the moonlight. It was pale, torn clothing covered its body, but they could see scratches were dark black oozed out. Its arm was wrapped in fabric, covered in mud and dirt. Its face was sharp and wrinkled like a dried-up husk. Its red eyes snapped on them. Mary gasped in horror. It wasn’t human. “What are you?” she whispered.