'From the woods' By C.W.Phoenix

FROM THE WOODS

Jared moved into his new house with his wife and young son, just over a month ago. They moved to the country so they could have more space for their two-year-old to play outside, compared to the small townhouse they were living in previously. The new house was located at the edge of some farmland close to a large woodland, out in the middle of nowhere. The house wasn’t huge, a moderate three bedrooms but came with a large lawn area that surrounded the whole property, all fenced in with a small rustic picket fence. The move had been rather straight forward and it wasn’t long before Jared and his family had settled into a routine.

Jared’s wife Sue, worked shifts at the hospital while Jared worked from home, looking after their son Junior. One evening after Sue had left for another night shift, Jared was sat down working on his laptop with a clear view across the room to where Junior was playing with his toys by the bay window. After a while it soon became apparent that something outside had captured Junior's attention. He would keep turning to look out the window, disrupting his play, occasionally even walking over to the window and looking out for a short time before returning to his toys. Intrigued, Jared placed his laptop to the side and walked over to where his son was playing to look out the window. He didn’t notice anything of significance so after a quick tussle of his son’s hair, Jared returned to his work. Within minutes the cycle of Junior looking out the window then returning to his toys continued. Jared ignored it for a while, although still curious of what his son kept looking at. That was until Junior returned to the window and started giggling and jumping up and down, obviously excited about seeing something. Again Jared placed his laptop to the side and returned to the window. It was late and the sun was almost completely below the distant treeline making it hard to see much in the dim glow of dusk. Still not noticing anything, he crouched down next to his son, to look from Junior’s perspective.

“What are you looking at little man?” Jared asked his son, not really expecting a reply. Junior let out another giggle, pointed out the window, then said “woffy.”

Knowing that was Junior’s word for dog, Jared again peered out the window, looking for a stay dog or something that could be mistaken as one. That’s when a slight movement in the distance captured his attention.

Past the small picket fence surrounding their land was a crop field, and past that was a large woodland area. Jared’s eyes were drawn over to the treeline that stretched along the crop fields edge, where a large dark silhouette paced back and forth in the shadow of the trees. It was too dark now to make out any details but it was bigger than a dog. Concerned as much as fascinated, Jared told his son to stay by the window where he could see him, while he made his way to the front door to try and get a better look. Blinded by the porch light, he walked down the wooden front steps, squinting into the distance in hopes of capturing a better look at the silhouette in the distance. It was still hard to make out any identifying features, just a black shape against the dark woodland treeline. Whatever it was had now stopped pacing back and forth and was now stood still, seemingly staring right at him.

“Daddy, No.” A small voice spoke from behind him.

Turning to see Junior stood in the doorway, Jared returned to the front porch drawn to the call of his son, looking back one last time to see the creatures silhouette disappear into the woods and out of sight. Jared didn’t place too much concern on what the creature could’ve been, assuming it was a large deer or maybe a loose horse or cow from a neighbouring farm. Jared soon forgot about it and continued life as normal.

A few weeks past and Jared was tidying the house while Sue tucked Junior into bed. As he was picking up his son’s toys, the urge to look out the window for a chance animal sighting overwhelmed him, sparked by the memory from that night weeks earlier. The sun had already set and the absence of street lights made the treeline almost impossible to see in the darkness. Silence filled the room as Jared stared across the field looking for any sign of movement. To his surprise, hidden in the treeline in roughly the same place as before there was the same large black silhouette, weaving in and out of the woods. He wasn’t expecting to see it again and wondered how many nights it had been there lurking in the distance while he sat with his family blissfully unaware. He still couldn’t tell what the creature was, but remained certain it was just an escapee from a local farm or stable. Jared returned to his chores, trying to discount the sighting but found himself continuously glancing out the window to check if the animal was still there. Sometimes it was hard to spot but eventually its movement through the trees would give away its position.

The sound of running water from the bathroom signalled to Jared that sue was getting ready to settle down for a relaxing bath. Not wanting to concern her, Jared continued with menial tasks about the house whilst continuously intrigued by what could be wandering the woods. Every time he had looked out of the window, the animal had been close to the treeline but this time when he looked out, it was walking away from the woods and towards the house. His curiosity turned to concern as he thought about the amount of time his son would spend playing outside. Deciding to stand his ground, Jared made his way outside. He’d expected the porch light flickering on would have scared the animal from creeping any closer but Jared had made his way right across the lawn and was stood at his border fence with the light shining bright behind him before the creature stopped in its tracks.

to see the animal clearer now, he could make out the distinct shape of antlers. It was on all fours and at first look would be easily identified as a stag deer but there was something that just didn’t look quite right. Jared stood in the cool breeze of night staring at the creature in front of him for what seemed like hours while the creature stared right back at him. Jared was about to turn around and head back inside ready to write off his experience with a brave loan deer when the animal took a few steps closer and did the last thing he’d expected. It pulled its shoulders back, then stood up on it hind legs, still with its gaze fixed on Jared. In a moment, the creature in front of him had gone from an average harmless animal, to a beast that nobody would want to encounter on a dark blustery night. Shocked he just stood frozen in fear. This thing was no deer just rearing up in supremacy or fright. It was standing like a man, not just standing, now walking. One step of its cloven hooves in front of the other, progressively getting closer and closer. Jared snapped out of his trance and turned to run back inside, hoping he could at least outrun whatever that thing was. He slammed and locked the door behind him, letting out a sigh of relief before rushing over to the window to look out at the creature, now stood still but watching Jared in the window.

The slam of the door caught Sue's attention who came rushing downstairs in her dressing gown to see what the commotion was.

“Is everything ok? I heard a loud bang.” Sue asked, as she made her way over to Jared by the window.

Still in disbelief of what he just saw. He turned to Sue, knowing she would have to see it for herself or he would just sound crazy.

“Quick! Look out there.” He said. Gently encouraging Sue over to the window, now with a befuddled look on her face.

They turned to look out the window at the same time. The creature was still there but was now back down on all fours and much further away.

“Oh wow, that’s a big deer!” Sue said, none the wiser.

Jared wasn’t sure what to tell Sue but knew he would have a hard time explaining what he actually saw, still is shock, his eyes wide he somehow fumbled a sentence together. “Yeh, I was outside and it just started coming towards me”

After a sympathetic eyebrow raise, Sue kissed Jared goodnight and disappeared off upstairs, leaving Jared swimming in the confusing memories from the past hour. He turned back to the window just in time to see the beast disappear back into the woods from where it came.

woods

The next few weeks Jared found himself checking out the window constantly. He just couldn’t shake the picture of that creature in his head. At night he would have nightmares of it stood in random dark corners of the house, its eyes glowing red and the sound of his family’s screams in the distance. Many a night he would wake up in a cold sweat and generally seemed distant. Some nights he would see the creature looking out from the treeline but never venturing too far. Friends and family started to notice his increasingly strange behaviour and obsession with staring out the window. Sue tried on many occasions to ask him what was going on but never got a straight answer. She knew it was something to do with the woods visible from that bay window and found herself glancing out into the distance from time to time but never saw anything of concern. As time went by Jared started to slowly return to his usual self.

It was a weekend and Sue was off work so they had planned to have a family film night in front of the TV. They tried to make the most of their weekends together, their hectic lives made these occasions few and far between. Jared was feeling upbeat and had a grin on his face for the first time in a while, excited to spend some quality time with his family. He bounced down the stairs and turned to look at his wife stood in the front room. He stopped in place and the grin washed off his face by chills that ran through his whole body. The feeling of dread returned as he watched his wife staring out the bay window, white as a ghost, the look of terror on her face. He knew exactly what she was looking at.

“You see it don’t you?” Jared asked timidly, while walking towards Sue, frozen in spot, not taking her eyes off the thing she was staring at.

“What in hell is that thing?”

Jared joined his wife, turning to look out and see the beast had returned and was stood just on the other side of the small wooden fence. Mere meters away from the house, stood on its hind legs, watching their every move.

“I’ve never seen it come this close before.” Jared said, walking round Sue to the other side of the bay, watching the creatures gaze follow him.

“What do we do?” Sue asked, Surprisingly calm, yet with an apprehensive tone.

“Get Junior. I’ll go make sure all the doors and windows are locked.”

As Jared moved out of sight from the window, rushing towards the front door, the beast darted off in the same direction with a strange hunched stance, running on its hind legs. Panicked by its fast movements, Sue ran as fast as she could to the rug where Junior was playing, swooping him up in her arms and taking him to the base of the stairs where they couldn’t be seen from the windows. Jared ran around franticly checking every potential entrance to the house. As he past his now slightly wary son on the stairs, he stopped for a moment to reassure him everything was fine and told him they were going to play a game, before running upstairs to check the bedroom windows. He ran into the master bedroom and rattled the window catches. Assured they were safe and secure, he moved through to his office. As Jared reached the window, something caught his eye, over by the garage. The recognisable black silhouette of the creature stepped out from the corner of the garage. For the first time Jared got a good look at the beast as it stood in the glow of the security light. Stood on its hind legs, its antlers that were covered in moss and a dark reddish brown substance that looked a lot like dry blood, reached high over the roof of the garage. Jared estimated that it must have been at least 11ft tall as it rounded the garage in jerky, hunched over movement. Its face was thin, almost skeletal, its eyes black as night and followed Jared’s every movement. Long matted fur covered most of its body, missing only in random bare patches where the grey skin was visible. Its noticeable backbone was overly bony and pronounced by the hunched over stance. Every sighting of the beast sent chills through Jared’s whole body. It was something that should only be seen in your worst nightmares.

Jared slowly raised his arm to the window latch, keeping an eye on the creature. The moment he clicked the latch across, the beast darted back into the shadows, disappearing from sight for just a moment, before leaping up onto the garage roof. It’s hooves denting the corrugated metal with every step. Their eyes locked once more before the beast slowly turned is head to the rear of the house, looking up towards the back bedroom. Juniors room. Jared suddenly remembered he had left the window slightly ajar to let in some fresh air. He ran as fast as he could, jumped over the bed and slammed the window closed. As he looked out, there was no sign of the creature. Then a deafening bang hit the roof above his head followed by two heavy footsteps and a scraping sound.

As Jared stepped back from the window, he looked up to see the creature’s antlers and then head, peering down from the roofs edge. It reached out an arm towards the window, but on its front limbs, there were no hooves, there were four long fingers with dirty black claws that proceeded to tap at the window. Jared backed out of the room, closing the door behind him, then ran down the stairs to join his family.

They sat at the base of the stairs, loud bangs coming from the roof then brief moments of quiet before it would begin again. Junior, now terrified despite Jared and Sus’s best efforts to calm him, was tucked as close to his mom and dad as he could, tears running down his cheeks.

“What do we do if it gets in? It could easily break through any of the windows.” Sue asked quietly.

The thought hadn’t evaded Jared either. He had been trying to figure that one out from the moment he saw it.

“If it gets in, I want you to run to the bathroom with Junior and lock the door, or to the car and get as far away as you can. Hopefully it will stay outside.”

The sound of loud bangs around the house continued, then turned to scratching on the doors and tapping at the windows. It was trying to scare them. Make them feel more fear than they had ever felt before. Occasionally it would rattle the door handles but never made any real attempts to enter the house. Hours past with the torment continuing endlessly. The family trapped in their own house, things outside being thrown about, scared that every bang was the sound of the beast breaking into the house. Thoughts of what would become of them if it did get in, danced it their mind. The clock ticked on, it was 4.10am when Jared looked at the time. Silence fell upon the house, yet they were too frozen with fear to move for a good while. Eventually Jared stood up and walked over to the window for the first time in hours. Wondering if the creature had finally gotten bored and skulked back into the woods. As he looked out, he saw the beast was still there, but it was back at the other side of the fence. They watched each other from a distance, both of them pacing back and forth.

Just as dawn was breaking, the creature slowly turned and dropped back down to all fours before crossing the field returning to the treeline, turning for one last look, before disappearing back into the woods. Jared knew that the nightmare was over for now but there was every chance the creature would be back. He didn’t know what it wanted or what it was, but he did know he wasn’t going to risk his family staying in that house another night. He told Sue to start packing up their things while he went out to assess the damage. As the light of day broke over the land, Jared cautiously walked outside. The front porch was covered in large scratch marks, plant pots knocked over and smashed. The once manicured green lawn was now full of divots and covered with trash pouring out of their household waste bins that had been thrown across the garden. Slates were missing off the roof and smashed on the ground. As he looked over to the truck, panic hit as he wondered if it was still in working order. It was pretty scratched up and had a dent on the bonnet from a stray roof tile but otherwise looked ok. He grabbed the keys from the house and jumped in behind the wheel, holding his breath as he turned the key and letting out an audible sigh as it grunted to life.

That day Jared and his family moved out. They stayed at Sue's parents’ house for a few days before finding a new home in a quiet cul-de-sac. They never told anyone the truth about why they moved out, instead telling people there were dangerous wild animals they wanted to protect Junior from. As time went on Junior forgot about that night but retained a fear of the dark for a long time. For Jared and his wife, that was a night they would never be able to forget.