He Who Lurks

The Woods

                Ben and Jennifer looked to each other in shock as the realization of what happened sank in, Ben then asked to Jennifer "are you alright, you hurt?" jennifer stood in silence for a few seconds shaking before answering "y..yeah I'm alright, you?" he replied "not hurting anywhere, so pretty much, god that happened so fast" Ben shook his head and looked out to see the woodline of a dense forest. Between two trees laid a small path that didnt appear to be accesable by a vehicle, the night was cold with the various sounds of wildlife. Ben walkedup to the hood to see the mangled body of the deer, fur and blood covered the windshield as he gazed at the deer as if in a trance Jennifer shined the flashlight at her husband she had been gripping it tightly since the impact, Bens face seemed pale with a look of disgust. Curiously Jennnifer slowly stepped foreward wondering what was so disturbing, what she saw left her speechless and trembling; the corpse of the poor creature had deep cuts all around its body, the face was disfigured and mutiliated to the point that the lower part of it's jaw was exposed and hanging loosely from the head, the left eye appeared to have been removed as they stood there looking upon the animal Jennifer turned away and began violently vomiting on the ground.

                Ben turned away from the horrible sight "I think it was already hurt before we hit it" he pointed out, most of the body wounds had many cuts which did not appear to have been caused by the crash. he found it disturbing to notice part of the flesh from its face missing, he tore himself away from the scene once he heard whimpering from a short distance away, he thought "digger?" down a path close to the woodline he heard the noises from his dog, he knelt down next to him as digger lowly growled as he kept his focus upon the smal path that ran through the woods "whats wrong buddy?" as soon as Ben spoke the dog darted down the path quickly into the consuming darkness disappearing from view. Jennifer came up behind Ben with a shakey tone "w..what was that about is he alright?" Ben shrugged his shoulders "I dont know, he may have saw something like a rabbit, either way were not going anywhere for a while" she nodded her head "so do you think anyone lives out here, if so we could get some help" Ben considered it as he stood up straight, "not much else we can do, cant hurt to atleast see, just stay close it wouldnt surprise me if coyotes lived out here" they started following the path as Jennifer kept the flashlight pointed foreward, the small road had a small amount of overgrowth covering it but it was still easy to keep on track, as for the wildlife there was not many animal residence except for the occasional chirrping grasshoppers and owls that called out., the woods turned out to be nothing short of creepy and silent despite the few noises here and there to indicate life. About a hour passed of walking before jennifer stopped and said "lets take a break, I need a moment" Ben agreed and they sat down along the side of the path, they kept quiet just in case but kept the light on after they rested up they stood back up and prepared to contiue until a faint sound of light steps could be heard from the deep woods to their right and jennifer shrieked "whats that!" shining the light to the spot showed a man sized silouette which approached closer and to them appeared as a pale humanoid, with a flash it knocked Ben down on the ground as it ran across the path disappearing in the thick of the woods on the other side.