Dating : The Mad Hunter

Out of a warm spring night in the woods came the mad hunter. It was almost midnight as he drove gleefully back to the city. He has been in the Black Glass Forest all morning, day, and evening hunting whatever he could find. Whether it was a small infant rodent or a large adult mammal, the mad hunter loved to murder them all. He blew up whole families and burned entire nests, leaving trails of ash, grimly graves and fleshless chunks. He never ate any of his catch. He would either leave their solid bodies to rot, skin their flesh letting bare bones and cartilage bake under the afternoon sun, or bring them home to be stuffed and placed onto his mantel with hundreds of his other poor victims.

The mad hunter laughed horrendously as he relived his bountiful day. He shot and killed 5 random scattering rabbits, 4 large birds of prey, a nuclear family of 3 frolicking deer, 2 loving squirrels, and even a full grown moose. He bellowed again. The moose will make a fine and unique addition to his already massive trophy room of death. As the mad hunter drove on, the moose haunted his mind with pleasure. He could not believe his good luck, when he quickly retrieved his gun shaking with glee. He made sure it was loaded. The gun cocked loudly. The moose heard this and looked up and directly at the mad hunter.

The moose did not try to run or attempted to attack the hunter. It just stood there staring down at the man with old, wise blackish eyes like a sage’s. The mad hunter shot the moose in the torso. The poor animal fell grunting to the ground. Its eyes continued to watch the mad hunter, until he made the final kill shot and cut off its head. Without hesitation, the mad hunter packed the head up in a huge black garbage bag and tossed it in the back seat of his oversized truck. The moose will be just another sad, dead trinket hanging on the mad hunter’s walls. Thinking of this, he smiled turning up the radio and sang along with stimulating passion and joy. Empty beer cans flew out the window and landed on the outskirts of the peaceful forest.

Many hours passed by before the mad hunter suddenly began to wonder where he was. By now, he should have been out of the forest and merging on the main highway with the city skyline in the distance. He couldn’t have missed the turn off. The signs are clear as day even in the darkest of night. There were only trees in every direction and no other roads or even other traffic in sight. The hunter knew he didn’t miss the road signs.

Abruptly, a gray murky fog flowed rapidly across the road making the air thicker and suffocating the warmth. It reached like a hawk’s claws into the vehicle and under the hunter’s skin. The stars and the moon disappeared from the sky. The trees and the road faded into thin green and black lines. The hunter furrowed his brow and squinted. He turned on his brights. They reflected off the glistening cloudy vapor. The truck’s lights made no difference in the mad hunter’s vision, high beams or low. He pulled his truck over onto the grass and stopped.

The mad hunter groaned as he searched for the GPS in his backpack. He struggled to find it among the many small guns and extra magazines and pulled it out. The device wouldn’t turn on. He inspected the batteries, and they were brand new. He took out his cell phone next, but it had no reception. It beeped loudly and consistently before shutting itself off. Frustrated, the mad hunter threw both devices on the floor.

Suddenly, loud noises broke the frigid silence. They were dim and distant like squawking of an eagle, then slowly drew closer and intimidating like the growling of a pack of coyotes. It’s loud and diverse with yelping, howling, cooing, and screaming as if every animal were crying all together as if they suffered a great loss and were preparing for battle. The mad hunter looked out his windows and could only see the black of the night and the outlines of trees behind the growing smog. The horrifying wails continued and grew louder. He covered his ears hoping to block out the sounds cursing them loudly. They sounded as if they were closing in. Bright red and yellow and white glowing ominous eyes appeared all around his truck. They combined with the piercing sounds and sizzled the mad hunter’s senses like boiling magma. Hotter and scorching it burned, as they became turbulent and rambunctiously tortured the mad hunter.

Then, the cries stopped. The eyes disappeared. The hunter uncovered his ears. There was still nothing but blackish green and thick icy gray. The hunter manically drove straight back onto the road. The engine moaned as he hysterically slammed on the accelerator. There had to be a main road around somewhere, a sign or a landmark. The dark road and the thick trees and fog appeared to go on forever. The mad hunter drove faster with the rhythm of his vicious heartbeat. The GPS suddenly beeped on out of the blue. The hunter struggled to reach down and grab it. He pressed the locator button. The GPS gave an error message, and broke into static. He threw it out the window cursing heinously and beating the steering wheel.

The mad hunter saw a tall, dark figure walk out of the trees in the headlights view. Slowing to a stop to see who it was, he prayed that it was another hunter. The truck came to a complete stop. He shouted at the figure that was barely visible. It turned to look at him revealing itself in the headlights. The mad hunter stared eyes widened and watering.

What was standing as clear as light before the hunter was a moose, but not a real moose. It had the exact head of a moose that looked poorly severed under the neck and was dropping chunks of hair and veins. Its body was the bright bloodied corpse of a man with no skin. The shiny red muscles oozed thick fluids that dripped viciously all the way to the ground. The moose head was still and lifeless with no movement as if it was a mask hiding a more hideous horrific face. Its morbid black eyes aimed themselves right at the hunter. It breathed slowly struggling to take every punishing breath and made no other noises or cries. The beast just stood there staring down at the mad hunter haunting his brain and burning his soul.

The mad hunter broke away from the creature’s horrid trance, quickly put his vehicle back into drive and sped off. As he looked back in the rear view mirror, the monster was still there. It walked onto the road’s center and watched the mad hunter as he drove away; its flaming dark eyes still made his skin hot with fear yet cold and bumpy with tremor. He drove faster and faster. The truck ran over rocks and hit branches. The mad hunter overlooked the inevitable dents and scraps, but cannot ignore the low fuel light when it beeped on. Ignoring it, he hysterically continued flying down the empty road.

Like an aberration, the beast appeared out of complete darkness in the middle of the road. The mad hunter slammed on his breaks and swerved out of the way smashing into a tree and shattering all the windows. Flames flared up from the wreckage, but were quickly drowned out by the hefty icy air. The mad hunter moaned trying to move his bleeding head. Glass shards slid off his broken arm and legs. He wiped the blood off his face painfully groaning and struggling to catch his breath.

The mad hunter heard footsteps. They were coming closer, coming for him. He panicked, and his good arm stretched out attempting to reach the closest gun. The beast ripped off the car door making the mad hunter fall out landing at the creature’s feet. It reached for him with viciously long claws. Ignoring his excruciating pain and fear, the mad hunter cocked his gun. It’s loaded. He aimed. The gun fired. The creature stepped back and crouched over. The mad hunter laughed weakly and manically, but his slim hope dissipated. The creature got up. There was no evidence of a wound. It stood up tall undamaged and undefeated.

The beast of all beasts paused with its eyes facing and stared through its enemy breathing more deeply as if trying to growl or crow. The mad hunter could see into those abyss-like eyes all of his evils. He felt every painful gun shot, every slice of flesh peeled and every neck carelessly severed. This creature, created out of the hopes and fears and hate of all animal kind, had rid the forest of pests like this hunter since the dawn of humanity.

The mad hunter began to weep and pleaded, but no remorse was left for this man. The beast stretched its arms and claws out as if beckoning. The animal cries came back. They blared and cheered thunderously and were blasting from every direction. The mad hunter covered his aching ears and screamed into the chilled grass. The sounds split his eardrums and ripped his insides apart. The beast turned his insides out and scattered his organs, fertilizing the greenery. It took its prize and held the mad hunter’s head up for all the forest to see!

The wreckage disappeared. The forest was silent. The animals were at peace. The mysterious creature walked back into the forest. It vanished with the chilling fog, but will one day return. There will always be a mad hunter with a beast behind him watching closely, carefully, waiting for the right time, for the right place.