Keep To The Trail

During my days off from work, I like to take long walks. Normally, I put in my earbuds and just stare straight ahead. Listening to a book that I have downloaded onto my phone. Or a playlist that I have as well. Today, I still had my earbuds in. And I was listening to my favorite Halloween playlist. But I was paying much more attention to my surroundings this time around.

A lot more attention to my surroundings.

Today I was headed down this path that I noticed a couple of months ago. But I didn’t have the guts to go down it. Mostly thanks to the fact that I feared walking places by myself. I’m a little paranoid about not being in well-populated areas. The whole idea of being murdered by some serial killer…let’s just say that I shouldn’t listen to true crime podcasts late at night anymore. Or maybe I should. Thanks to what I have seen today.

I’m kind of getting ahead of myself right now. When I took the turn down that trail, I glanced around the whole new area. This part of the forest was a lot different than the rest of the woods. There were several flowers lining the trails that were beautiful. Some were light purple and white. One after another. For some strange reason. They looked like they were deliberately planted there. I’m sure that I’m only imagining that as I continue to stroll down the path. Looking around, I spotted several bushes that were covered in berries. Ones that I didn’t recognize in the slightest bit. Though I have never really known much about berries or any other plants.

It seemed strange to me.

Sometime during my hike, I spotted antlers in the distance. They were deer antlers. As far as I could tell they were deer antlers. But I wasn’t too sure about the height they were from the ground. Something about it seems off. Somewhat like it wasn’t supposed to be. While I slowly found myself getting nearer the antlers, I realized they weren’t the right height. Weren’t they supposed to be shorter than…I shook my head to dispel those strange thoughts that were forming. There was no way in the world that there could be a tall deer in the woods. Maybe I was wrong about how tall deer are. In fact, I probably was just wrong in my thinking. Taking a few deep breaths, I felt my heart pounding hard in my chest. The eighth chapter of ‘Clown in The Cornfield’ playing in my ears as I walk in the direction of the antlers. My stomach twisted as I could hear my own breathing over how loud I have this chapter playing.

I never get winded while walking. Yet here I was breathing hard like I was running a marathon. It was. Why was a simple deer making me so damn scared for? There was something strange about it. More than height. Despite how close I was getting to this supposed deer. The deer didn’t seem to be any bigger than when I was walking towards it. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought that it was getting smaller. It is a lot smaller somehow. Chewing my bottom lip, I tried not to stare too much but I couldn’t stop myself from doing so. While I walked to the spot that was closest to the deer, I could only see the top part of the thing’s head. Ears perched back like they were listening to me as I walked behind the thing.

Soon as I was a few good feet away from it, I realized what was wrong with the ‘deer’. Its head looked like it was facing away from me. So logically its body should be faced that way. Yet…yet…its head was at an angle most living deer shouldn’t be at. It’s almost as if it had been hit by a car. Then again it wasn’t the right size. Most deer are larger than humans. This ‘deer’ was the size of most common bears. What stopped me in my tracks was when the ‘deer’ turned its head towards me. The muzzle was broken with loose teeth hanging from little roots around what was left of its mouth. Eyes sunken into its skull as its ears moved forward to me. Fogged over and pale as paper. For a second I stood still as the creature looked me over. It tilted its head to the other side and that nearly fell off as it did so. Sending blood down its disgustingly loose neck as it seemingly stared straight in my direction. Soon as its foot moved in my direction, I couldn’t stop myself from screaming as I turned away. Despite knowing I had a good distance on the ‘deer’ I couldn’t stop myself from being scared. From sprinting down the trail as fast as my legs could carry me. Unsure of what direction I was going to.

But anywhere was better than here.