The forest was supposed to be a shortcut. That’s what the map had said.
Ethan adjusted his backpack, his boots crunching against the damp forest floor.
“We should’ve reached the highway by now,” he muttered, glancing back at Mia.
She wiped the sweat from her brow. “Are you sure we’re following the map?”
Ethan checked his phone. No signal. “Just trust me.”
The trees loomed taller, their gnarled branches intertwining like skeletal fingers. The path, once clear, now seemed narrower, almost like the forest itself was closing in.
Then, the smell hit them.
Rotting meat. Pungent. Overpowering.
Mia gagged. “What the hell is that?”
Ethan pushed ahead, heart pounding. The trees thinned, revealing a clearing.
A wooden hunting lodge stood at the center. The walls were splattered dark, too dark for mud.
A gutted deer hung from a rusted hook on the porch, its ribcage cracked open, entrails pooling beneath it.
Mia clutched Ethan’s arm. “We need to leave. Now.”
A snap echoed from the trees behind them.
Something was out there.
The Hunter’s Territory
The lodge’s front door hung ajar. Inside, the shadows stretched long against the wooden walls.
Ethan stepped in first, gripping his pocket knife. It was too quiet.
The living room was lined with mounted animal heads, their glassy eyes gleaming. Dust motes swirled in the air.
Mia hesitated at the threshold. “Ethan, this place… it’s not abandoned.”
He turned to her, about to respond, and then he noticed something.
The mounted heads weren’t animals.
They were human.
Skulls, stripped of flesh, mounted like trophies. Jawbones missing. Eye sockets hollow.
Ethan’s breath hitched. “Mia—”
The door slammed shut behind them. They spun around. The lodge wasn’t empty anymore.
A set of muddy footprints stretched across the floor, fresh.
From the darkness beyond the hallway, something breathed.
The Hunt Begins
Mia grabbed Ethan’s wrist. “We have to get out—”
A figure stepped into view.
Towering. Clad in animal pelts, its face obscured by a crudely stitched mask of human skin.
In one hand, a bloodstained hatchet.
The other?
A severed head, fresh, eyes frozen in terror.
Mia screamed.
The thing moved fast, not running, but closing the distance in unnatural strides.
Ethan yanked Mia backwards, sprinting toward the back door. He twisted the handle, but it was locked.
Footsteps thudded closer.
Ethan grabbed the nearest object, a rusted chair, and flung it.
The hunter didn’t flinch.
Instead, it laughed.
A deep, guttural sound that sent chills down Ethan’s spine.
Mia grabbed a rusted poker from the fireplace. “We fight, or we die.”
A hand shot through the darkness, grabbing Mia’s arm.
She shrieked as the hunter’s jagged nails dug into her skin.
Ethan lunged, stabbing his knife into the figure’s forearm. The hunter didn’t react.
Instead, it grinned.
Mia ripped free, blood streaking her arm.
“Run!” Ethan shouted.
They sprinted for the stairs, the floorboards groaning beneath them. Behind them, the hunter’s heavy boots followed, slow, deliberate.
It wasn’t chasing them. It was herding them.
No Way Out
They burst into a room at the top of the stairs, slamming the door behind them.
Mia panted. “That thing… it’s playing with us.”
Ethan’s eyes darted around. The room was filled with makeshift cages, iron bars, chains, and dried blood smeared on the walls.
A rotting corpse hung in one corner, half-eaten, jaw unhinged.
Then—
A whimper.
Ethan’s breath caught. “Did you hear that?”
He turned. In the farthest cage, a boy no older than ten curled in the corner, wide-eyed and shaking.
Mia rushed forward, grabbing the rusted latch. “We’ll get you out!”
The boy shook his head violently.
“Don’t,” he mouthed.
The floor shuddered.
The hunter was outside the door.
The Feeding Ground
The lock rattled.
Ethan grabbed a rusted crowbar. Mia backed against the cage, shielding the boy.
The hunter wasn’t alone anymore.
More figures stood behind it, wearing masks of skin and bone.
The door shattered inward.
Mia screamed.
Ethan swung the crowbar, the hunter caught it mid-air, twisting it from his grip with unnatural strength.'
A cold blade pressed against Ethan’s throat.
The hunter’s voice was hoarse, ancient.
“Run.”
Mia froze. “What?”
The hunter leaned close, its breath reeked of decay.
“RUN.”
The figures behind it stepped forward, arms outstretched, blades glinting.
The boy in the cage sobbed. Ethan grabbed Mia’s hand.
They ran.
The Final Chase
The lodge came alive.
Doors slammed on their own. The walls seemed to shift, stretching the hallway endlessly.
The figures closed in, footsteps growing louder, faster. Mia tripped, tumbling down the stairs. Ethan lunged to catch her, his breath ragged.
The front door was open.
Freedom.
They sprinted. The hunter laughed behind them. Ethan’s lungs burned.
The treeline was in sight, but then a trap snapped shut.
Mia screamed in horror.
Ethan whirled around, she was on the ground, her leg caught in a rusted bear trap.
The figures stalked closer.
Ethan dropped to his knees, hands shaking as he tried to pry it open. “Hold on, hold on—”
The hunter stood directly behind him.
Mia sobbed. “Ethan, go.”
“No.”
The hunter raised its axe.
Ethan lunged, grabbing the flare gun from his pack.
He fired.
The flare hit the hunter’s chest, flames licking its furred coat.
It shrieked, a sound not human. The others hesitated. Ethan yanked the trap open, dragging Mia up.
They ran.
Behind them, the flames roared. The lodge burned.
The screams followed them into the trees.
Not Alone
They didn’t stop running until the road came into view.
Mia collapsed. Ethan held her tight.
They made it.
Police found them an hour later. They reported the lodge. Authorities found nothing. No bodies. No lodge. No fire.
Mia never spoke of it again.
But Ethan?
Sometimes, he drove past the forest at night and in the shadows he swore he saw a figure standing at the treeline..
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