The forests of Midtown have always enclosed mysteries, at night you can hear songs coming from its depths, and in the distance, see the light of large bonfires illuminating shadows that stretch between its tall trees. Travelers who must cross them, only do so during the day, for fear of the strange figures that lurk among the trees, few are those who have ventured into them after sunset and even fewer have managed to return.
Some campers who have ventured into its depths have found stone circles with extinct bonfires in the middle, remains of animals piled up, with signs of having been eaten by some kind of beast, and strange carvings carved into the walls of the mountains, no one has dared to go beyond where the river enters them, it is said that fearsome and deformed shadows are projected on its walls, horrible noises and deafening buzzing sounds are heard in the surroundings.
Henry Wilson knew the dangers of going into the forest, but the night before a bear had plundered his pantry and winter was about to begin, so he had to resupply himself with meat, and that morning he had to catch some prey to replace what he had lost. He set out at dawn along the banks of the river in search of the deer that came to drink. He got to where the river entered the mountains and stopped behind some rocks to wait, the sun was directly over his head, the river ran peacefully almost silent, the only thing he could hear was a light breeze blowing through the trees.
He was attentive to the movements of the bushes for almost two hours, he could feel the breeze on his face, it was icy, a sign that winter was almost here. Already the shadows of the mountains were beginning to lengthen over the trees when a large male deer approached the river, about fifteen meters from where he was. He hurried to prepare his rifle as quietly as he could, aimed carefully at the space between the shoulder and the ribs where the heart was, slowly exhaled all the air from his lungs and simultaneously pulled the trigger, the bullet penetrated the side of the animal, right where he had arranged it. The huge deer walked a few steps towards the river, apparently stupefied, then its front legs arched and it fell with its muzzle on the mud, while its hind legs remained erect and pushed forward, rubbing its plexus and trunk in the mud, until it finally collapsed with its hind legs extended backwards.
It all happened within a deafening and disturbing silence, the animal made no sound, not a snort, nor did it seem to have made any noise when its heavy body hit the mud. Henry rushed to where it had fallen, to drag it as soon as possible out of the vicinity of the mountains, he tied it to some thick branches that he picked up, as a stretcher and began to drag it back to the cabin, he had not gone fifty meters when one of the branches broke and the animal's body leaned to one side, making him lose his balance, Henry and the deer rolled down the slope, to fall on a rock at the edge of the river hitting his head and becoming unconscious.
He woke up in the middle of the night, his face was sticky and he had an intense headache, the right side of his face was numb and he felt an object blocking his tongue, he felt the inside of his mouth with a finger, perceiving something embedded from one side to the other, when he touched his cheek he could feel what looked like a piece of wood that had pierced it, sticking in his tongue and pulling out some teeth, As he tried to get up he felt an intense pain in his ankle, as best he could he rolled over and got up on all fours, the dead deer was next to him, he lay down on it, then turned around and sat down leaning his back against the corpse, he stretched his arms to feel his foot, he could feel it turned backwards, supported only by the calf muscle.
How would he get out of there now? he thought, obviously taking the animal was out of the question, the important thing was to get away from that place as soon as possible; It was then when a shadow moved quickly by his side, Henry looked for his rifle, but it had fallen far from him, when he tried to reach out to take it, someone or something grabbed him by the shoulders and before he could do anything, he saw his face covered by what he supposed was a cloth bag, he could not speak, he only managed to emit some moans while he felt being squeezed and lifted from the mud, he tried to struggle but whatever was holding him exerted much more strength than what he had left.
He was lifted and carried with his body in the air, while being held by the shoulders and legs, for what seemed to him to be about twenty minutes, during which time he never stopped moving. Try as he might to resist, as he groaned and snorted, he did not perceive a sound from whatever it was that was carrying him.
He was dropped heavily on the ground, his head and back hit violently on what seemed to be grass, then he felt an intense heat at his side, between the fibers of the bag he could see the glow of a flame, he tried to sit up, but was again pushed back against the grass.
Strange voices began to whisper unrecognizable and dirty words around him, they seemed to sing in a strange language, while a guttural voice recited a sinister litany that resembled some kind of prayer. Suddenly they pulled the bag that covered his face, he could see around him several human silhouettes swaying from side to side, to the rhythm of the horrible song.
He felt that he was grabbed by the shoulders and a strange force lifted him vertically, to the point where his feet did not touch the ground, in front of him he could see a horrible silhouette that covered everything, an amorphous being was looking at him with bright amber catlike eyes, long and disgusting purulent appendages, Henry was completely paralyzed, but it wasn't because of fear, his body was simply shut down, he couldn't feel anything from his neck down, only his eyes and brain seemed to be awake, witnessing that horror.
Henry Wilson became one of those who never again left the dark woods of Midtown, he was never heard from again, his wife and children left the cabin and went to live in another county, fleeing a winter they could not endure alone, his cabin was never occupied again and even today its ruins remain on the outskirts of the forest, on the banks of the river.