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Chapter 3: A Good Actor

Hazel wakes up in her apartment, covered in filth. The creature stands stock still in her living room, looking around like they're lost. A nature deity out of its element in a building. The actor is good. She decides she can safely ignore it while taking a shower.

She rinses off the grime and muck from the woods and watches it swirl down the drain endlessly. When the water is finally clear, she dries off and gets dressed.

Sadie has warmed up to it, wagging her tail and begging for pets. The actor obliges and gently allows Sadie to sniff the branchlike fingers.

It takes Hazel a few minutes to notice that the plants she's come to accept as dead are very much vibrant and alive now.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you've gone so far as to replace my dead plants. How-and so quickly, and in the same pots?" She looks at the plants, amazed.

And then she remembers what exactly she signed up for and her guard goes back up. This is just a segment meant to lull her into a false sense of security. It's that early part in a horror movie. Or..is it the middle? Something big happens and then it takes some time for the characters to be introduced and then-

Hazel stops herself before she gets too carried away. This isn't traditional. She's not in a horror movie. This is a survival experience. Something meant to toy with her. It would probably be like a roller coaster. Start off hard, the most intense part of the coaster for her is the anticipation of the fall. The first time the coaster ticks up and up and up until you're almost vertical, just waiting for the drop.

She toys between trying to talk to them and altogether ignoring them. In the end, she decides it's time to do some shopping. The fridge is looking bare, and she hasn't eaten since the night before.

The creature follows her everywhere. To her car and to the store, it lingers just close enough to reach out and touch her and she feels very self-conscious having a tall, tree-like monster following her. But no one around seems to give her odd looks. In fact, no one pays any mind to her or the walking tree at all. Not to the smell or to the sight. And the smell is definitely strong enough that it is impossible to not notice.

When the creature goes ham on the produce section, fruit rots into mush at its touch and seems to disappear like it's being absorbed. The company had really gone all-out on the costume design and paid people off to ignore it.

She stops at a gas station next, and while the tank is being filled, she goes inside for a couple of snacks and, in her opinion, the best coffee in town. She talks to the creature as though the actor cares why she's buying gas station coffee.

"Look, I know I can get coffee anywhere but, the coffee here is the best. My favorite. They have a floral coffee. I swear you can't get anywhere else."

Hazel goes to check out and tries to hand the cashier one of her bags to put everything in.

The cashier blatantly ignores her, rings up her items, and puts them in plastic.

"Hey, sorry, I don't need a bag, I'll just use my own."

He takes the bag full of her stuff, dumps it back onto the counter, and throws the bag in the trash in the most dramatic way possible. Hazel holds back her annoyance as she shoves everything into her own bag.

Despite the fact that the incredibly rude cashier doesn't see the giant deer-skulled creature looming before him, that doesn't seem to exempt him from being gored.

Hazel covers her mouth to keep from swearing too loud.

Intestines squelch off the creature's antlers and slop onto the counter as its head pulls out of the cashier's body. It paws at the remains on its antlers, picking off bits of flesh.

Hazel tries to move, but her body is frozen.

The creature does a full-body turn to face her. Dark, eyeless pits stare blankly at her, and then its head tilts to the side, questioningly, like a dog.

This was one weird experience. She'd expected all the horror to happen to her, but here it was happening around her. Is it survival horror if you aren't worried about yourself getting mauled? She was confused, but it was all just a scary, realistic act and the scary stuff would happen to her soon enough.

The smell is unmistakably strong and realistic. The set-piece grosses her out so much she turns and tries not to vomit.

When she turns back, she sees the cashier's remains. A twitching mess, head face down on the gore-streaked counter. Fingers curl and elongate. His skull cracks and sharp points protrude and grow, red, covered in slimy goo. They grow and branch out into wicked sharp horns as tall as his face. His skin blooms green and blue with mold.

His neck cracks as he twists his head around to look at her. Long, razor-sharp teeth poke from his unnatural grin until they threaten to cut open his bottom lip. He starts toward Hazel.

She backs up until her spine touches the glass of the door. She tries to push it open, but it must be a pull door because it doesn't budge. The cashier lunges and the creature's body writhes and grabs the cashier, holding him back.

They stand in silence for some time, the cashier and the creature staring at each other. The cashier's intense wild eyes droop and his body goes limp.

The creature drops the cashier in place and reaches for Hazel.

She flinches, but when its fingers brush her shoulders, it's gentle and she feels a sort of warmth alongside visions of a calm place. A purple sky, a deep blue lake, and a forest full of life. It has to be the drugs, she thinks.

Hazel watches the grotesque thing the cashier has become. The cashier's body grows in new ways. Fungi blooms from the hole in his abdomen in bright colors, smelling sweet and floral. His limbs become woodlike, a tree sprouting in a convenience store, reminiscent of the trees she saw in the hallucination. The blood on the counter blooms with red moss-like vegetation. It soaks up the blood like a sponge, and Hazel notes how strange it is that nobody has yet to come into the store, even on a late Sunday afternoon. No shift relief, and no second staff worker. No customers coming in to buy gas or snacks. There doesn't even seem to be a camera to monitor who goes in and out of the store.

It's not too long after thinking that, Hazel blinks and the mess has been cleaned up as though nothing out of the ordinary has occurred.