Mushroom Psychosis

“For the last time it’s wendigo psychosis not Winnie the Pooh psychosis!” I yelled at Marcus as we trekked through the forest.

“Let’s meet in the middle. Winnie the go psychosis. Imagine someone so starved of honey they go nuts.” He joked walking backwards to face me.

“ Coming to a theater near you.” Damian said sarcastically as he caught up to us. Being the shortest of us he had a bit of a harder time keeping up.

It was our occasional camping trip. We would pick a random spot and go. This time it was Damian’s turn.

So far we’d been hiking for a few hours when things got weird. The trees began to have white trunks and bark that seemed to be one big piece. The leaves took on a solid dome like shape. We came to an open area that led down to a lake. It’s water was crystal clear and a small island was in the center of it. The island had what looked like red grass.

” Wow, he was right. This place is beautiful.” Damian said, staring at the lake. He seemed almost mesmerized by it. Marcus didn’t even have one of his signature dumb remarks. Wait a minute.

“What do you mean he was right?” I asked, looking at Damian like he had just said he saw a unicorn.

“A guy in my marketing class suggested this place. He told me it was unlike anywhere I’d ever been. I just thought it’d be a nice camping spot but nothing like this.” He answered before approaching the water. Marcus and I followed Damian’s lead. You could see directly through to the bottom of the lake. There weren’t any fish and the dirt at the bottom was white. It was like the dirt turned into one huge tile.

“ This place is kinda freaky.” Marcus said, looking a bit uneasy. I don’t blame him. The place was freaky. We had no idea what caused things to look like this. I walked around the lake to see if I could find anything familiar. I grabbed a stick and went to poke the tile looking earth under the water.

Suddenly Damian jumped into the water and began to swim to the small island in the center of the lake.” The hell are you doing! Get out of there!” I yelled as he climbed onto the red patch of land. Damian seemed confused as he inspected the crimson lawn.

“It’s not grass!?”He yelled before he grabbed some of the Not Grass and put it in his pocket and swam back to Marcus where he inspected the plant he picked. It looked like a magic mushroom had a baby with a Mario mushroom. Aside from being thinner than usually it had the shape of Psilocybin, However the top was blood red. I slapped it out of Damian’s hand just before he put the thing in his mouth.

“ What are you doing!” I yelled before picking up the mushroom.Damian looked at me like I just kicked a box full of kittens and puppies into a river.

“I was about to go to space.” He responded as he pulled another mushroom out of his pocket. Before he could do anything Marcus wrestled it out of his hand and took the rest out of his pockets.“Come on man, they could be poisonous.”

Damian gave up his stupid attempts to get high. More like he knew Marcus could restrain him with no effort and that we will tie him up again. Don’t ask, it's a weird story. After thinking about it I pocketed one of the mushrooms. I could see if we discovered a new type later.

After we all calmed down we decided to set up camp. Finding firewood was a pain since we had to walk a good distance until we could find even a stick. Once we ate I decided to turn in for the night first. Marcus and Damian were talking about some new anime, I honestly wasn’t listening.

I couldn’t focus with how dead quiet it was.The absolute quiet kept me up. Well the silence was enhanced somehow when Marcus let out the loudest and most disgusting sounding fart I’d ever heard.” Are you even human?!” I shouted from the tent only to get laughter as a response. Those two are idiots but they’re my idiots.

A scream jolted me awake. Stumbling over my sleeping bag and grabbing the hatchet I brought, I ran out of the tent. What I saw didn’t make sense. Damian was gone and someone was dragging Marcus toward the treeline. At first I thought they were messing with me but the moonlight illuminated who or what this guy was.

He was emaciated and tall. He wore torn cargo pants and a white mask. Marcus was thrashing and trying to get away from this guy but it was futile. Despite possibly being able to throw this guy like a pebble he was struggling to break the grip on his leg. I saw genuine fear in Marcus’s eyes.” HELP!!” He yelled desperately grabbing at the ground trying to find any way he could to anchor himself.

I ran faster than I thought I could and swung the hatchet at the masked man’s face. I missed and he kept at his task like a robot. His only focus was on dragging Marcus away. I brought the hatchet down on the guy's wrist and it cut like butter. I know I’m not strong enough to do that. Once he was free we ran back over to the tent. Marcus steamrolled poor Damian.

“ What the hell happened?” Damian asked as Marcus helped him up.

“Something tried to drag me away. Where were you?” Marcus said, shaking and pointing in the direction of the masked man. The man and his hand were gone, the only thing remaining was a small puddle of what I could only assume was blood. I scanned the area with a flashlight but there was nothing.

We decided to sleep in shifts and leave as soon as the sun came up. Fortunately nothing else happened that night. As we were packing up something was bothering me.

“Who told you about this place?” I asked, looking at Damian.

“ It was a guy in my physics class. I was telling him about how crazy people on drugs get during Mardi Gras and he told me that I could get some weird but great shrooms here. He never mentioned crazy crackheads.”

“ Hey guys!” Marcus shouted, drawing our attention to the small mushroom island.

The man with the mask was standing on it. We were roundhouse kicked by the uncanny valley. His skin was pure white and the thing I thought was a mask was his face. At first I thought it was someone else until I noticed that his hand was missing. Actually it wasn’t missing. He was holding it in his other hand.

A woman who looked like a porcelain mannequin walked up to him from seemingly nowhere and fed him a handful of mushrooms. His mouth suddenly went from an almost invisible slit to a gaping maw with rows of shark-like teeth. As soon as he finished the mushrooms he tore into his own hand like it was an apple. As he ate, the missing hand began to reform. First the nerves and veins, then the bone and muscle, Finally the skin. We just witnessed wolverine levels of regeneration in front of our very eyes. Once it’s hand regrew the thing smiled at us.

We were so focused on the horrific sight in front of us that we didn’t even notice that it was somehow night again. It was instantaneous, we blinked and suddenly the creatures were gone and the full moon was out. We let out a collective “ Nope!!” before grabbing our bags and anything that could be used as a weapon. Before we could leave Damian grabbed the mushrooms I'd slapped from his hand and took count of the ones he still had.

” Alright I have fifteen. We each get five just in case.”

We didn't argue and took our shares from his hand. Having real life Senzu Beans was only a little reassuring.We began hiking the way we came only. The good thing about this was that it was a straight shot from the road. All we had to do was stay calm, watch each other's backs and don’t get turned around. We should be fine.The silence was deafening. All of us were so scared we couldn't talk. Even though Marcus was directly behind me I couldn't help but imagine one of those things grabbing me. Not being able to see that far ahead of me made it so that I couldn't see how far it was until we got back to normal forest. Even if we didn't make it to where the car was, Just getting to a road would be a win. The light between what I now know are possibly giant mushrooms began to become less abundant before we were in complete darkness. Damian turned on a flashlight and led the way while Marcus and I used our lights to check our surroundings.

I turned around to see the porcelain faced man directly behind us. It was like a weeping angel. Refusing to move as I stared at it. I began to grip my hatchet harder as I prepared to defend myself. I suddenly heard the ping of Marcus’s cast iron skillet hitting something that was too close. All of a sudden he grabbed the back of my shirt and we took off running. I nearly tripped over another one of those that had a visible dent in its head and black blood leaking out of its slit of a mouth. The lack of noise made me even more jumpy. These things moved like owls. One suddenly tackled Damian. They both rolled to the ground and it started pummeling him. Marcus went full barbarian. He grabbed the thing and threw it like a ragdoll. It landed at my feet and I buried the hatchet into its head until it stopped moving. I hit the ground as Marcus threw the skillet in my direction hitting the one behind me. It stumbled back and I took the chance to trip it and get back up Swiping the skillet as I ran over to Marcus and Damian. Damina was unconscious so Marcus threw him over his shoulder.

We needed to keep moving. I took the role of bodyguard while Marcus carried Damian. Marcus carrying an unconscious Damian while I fend off attackers. Why does that sound like a normal Friday night for us? After an eternity fending off these whatever they are we could finally see the regular forest. We were so close when Suddenly something got Marcus’s attention.

“What the hell is this place?!” He shouted as he stared with a look of absolute terror. These things were coming out of the white trees. One face looked like that of a middle aged man frozen in a silent scream before changing to the featureless face that we’d seen so far. It was pulling itself out as if the tree was trying to pull it back in. This distraction was just what the ones chasing us needed.

Everything happened way too fast. Several of Them blindsided Marcus causing him to drop Damian. They easily lifted Marcus and began carrying him off. I ran after them and somehow managed to catch up. Taking the hatchet I buried it into one of the monster’s legs. As soon as one dropped Marcus he was able to slip out of their grasp. But the moment he got to his feet the several more of them rushed him.

“Get the hell out of here!” He yelled trying his hardest to shake off his attackers. I grabbed Damian and did my best to drag him away. My legs felt like lead weights but I used every ounce of strength I could muster to keep moving. I suddenly heard a bloodcurdling scream come from Marcus’s direction.

Damian finally woke up and we both looked in the direction of the scream. I nearly puked at the sight of those things ripping Marcus apart. One tore a chunk of his leg off. The mushrooms from his pocket fell to the ground and they swarmed them like hungry piranhas. “I’m so sorry.” I sobbed as I ran like a coward from one of my best friends.

Damian did his best to keep up but one of those things grabbed him. It bit his arm and ripped his bicep off. I grabbed a rock and smashed its head until it stopped moving. Before I could think of anything. Damian pulled one of the mushrooms from his pocket and ate it.

His arm began to regenerate immediately.Seeing this we started running again. Damian suddenly slowed down and grabbed my shoulder to try and keep up.” Something’s wrong.” He said as I felt him begin to slow down even more.

“ You’re probably just high.” I said before I heard the familiar sound of a stomach growling. That’s when I realized why the thing ate its own hand after the mushroom. Damian is probably starving at an accelerated rate.We were passig what I assume was the last mushroom tree when one of those things tackled me. I was suddenly blinded as I hit the ground. It was like someone switched the sun on suddenly.

The head of the thing on top of me suddenly exploded. A man in his forties wearing cargo pants and a flannel shirt ran over to us.” You two alright? You’re those missing campers. It’s been weeks. we nearly gave up.” He said not even paying attention to the monster he just shot.”

I managed to get the mushrooms from Damian’s pocket before the ambulance took him. I later found out that we’d been missing for weeks despite it only feeling like a few days. I was able to come up with a half assed story about getting separated after a bear attack. They never found Marcus’s body or the mushroom forest and the dead body somehow disappeared.

I lied and told Damian I burned the mushrooms. Three of them are kept in a backpack I take everywhere with some calorie dense protein bars. The others are in a safe I have hidden in my house.a guy from the government talked to me about what actually happened. To my surprise he listened. Before he left he said to be careful and that another fairy circle could be my last. I gave him one of the mushrooms and he said he’d keep in touch.