The ranger warned her: "Do NOT feed the animals. Do NOT leave any food available for them..."
Blah-blah-blah. Lisa just ignored him. Her plan was to get as many pictures as she could, and why spend hours wandering through the woodland? It is much easier if the animals come to you, right?
So her first night in the wild she went outside the tent cautiously looking all the while for rangers and hikers. She spotted not a single soul.
The dying reddish light of the sunset covered the small valley, smothered the dark thick fir, and the warm moist air undulated like streams of blood.
Lisa smiled. She felt herself The Queen of Evil.
"Oh Spirit of the Forest!" she screamed, starting to throw food around the vale. "Send to me your children!"
Far away a loon uttered its own mournful cry, and Lisa laughed, taking this as a response.
After she emptied the first bag, the photographer calmly returned to the tent and slept peacefully until the first beams of the rising sun touched the grass wet with dew.
She took her camera and carefully looked outside. She smiled in triumph; she saw raccoons, two families with broods. The cubs seemed like puppies, big headed and short-legged.
Lisa snapped a few pictures of them, and then suddenly noticed a big dark spot not far away that she first thought was just a bit of shade. It was no shadow but a real black bear!
Why are the raccoons not afraid of him? The sight surprised Lisa.
But the beast seemed so shy and even humble.
Animals are much more fearful of humans than people are of them. How many times had she read this, and she always said the same thing herself.
She kept hold of her camera and crawled outside the tent. One adult raccoon disappeared behind the closest trees in the blink of an eye.
The mothers stared at Lisa, but did not move until the little ones rushed in the bushes. Then they ran away as well. But the bear stood still.
Lisa wanted to take a picture as close as possible to the bear. She had in her pocket a small package of cookies, and took it out as she started slowly walking towards her quarry. Now the animal didn’t seem so big; a little bit bigger than a kitchen table.
The bear did not move at all, and Lisa wondered if it was real.
She got a few pictures, but thinking there was not enough light yet, she decided not to stop until the beast ran away.
The next flash reflected in the tiny eyes of the bear like emeralds. But even now the animal just stared at the advancing human.
Lisa took out a few cookies, and stepping forward again, threw them to the bear.
It happened at once: the thunderous clamor of a roar and an immense dark blast that hurled Lisa back as a gust of a storm would a feather.
When she regained the capability of thought again, Lisa found herself lying on her back on the ground. She did not realize at once why she could not see with her right eye. A black enormous figure blocked her view.
She looked up with her only remaining eye to see claws as long as kitchen knives. In its left paw the beast held something that looked like rotten grass.
Suddenly Lisa understood—it was her own scalp. Her hands flew up to her head, and her trembling fingers touched bare slippery bone.
The animal towering above seemed to reach the sky. The bloody scarlet sun rising behind the beast blinded Lisa. She could see only the red-rimmed giant silhouette of the two-legged creature.
Spirit of the Forest! she thought, in her state of shock. No, it's an envoy from Hell!
She saw devil-like horns on its head, but maybe it was just bristled hair. She had no time to think further.
The huge dark mass fell heavily onto her, ending all thought, ending everything.
Happy Halloween. A volume of Horrible Haunts & Twisted Tales taken from the horror books La Belle Rouge has written every October for a decade and a half. If you have read her works in the horror genre, you know the invitation is for you to enjoy thr
In the end they'll all be dancin'--all them ones that didn't die.... Dance with me in the shadows amidst the lightning and the thunder, and all that nu-cu-lar debris. See the big bang from the other side, and then open that cellar door. Go down into
The Butcher's Boy
- 2011 Readers Favorite Award Silver Medal Winner in Horror - Fiction
A Paranormal/Chiller by Michael Robb
Thirty-one years ago, Buxly the Butcher went to trial for killing h
