This is a fictional horror story.

I set up my tent and started getting ready for sleep. It had been a long day of photographing wildlife, and I was ready to lay down. It was dark out, and I decided to set up a video camera next to the tent so that I could capture some of the wildlife if any came by while I slept.

I have been photographing animals since the age of ten, and although I’m not the best photographer, I haven’t stopped since. I usually photograph whatever I can find that’s alive, but I’m not so sure that I’ll be able to continue this hobby, let alone camp by myself. Not after what I’ve experienced.

I woke up the following day feeling fine. It was more of a foggy day than I had expected, but I thought nothing of it. I stood up to check the video camera, reviewing its footage. Most of it was nothing major, the occasional squirrel or bird being the highlights. However, near the end of the footage at about 4:25 AM, I saw something that made me deeply unsettled.

It was some figure of a deer that seemed to peek around one of the trees. It was unusually long for a deer. It had seemed malnourished with visible veins around its colorless, hairless gray skin. Its jaw was completely unhinged.

It appeared as if it was the remains of what was a deer. Decomposing.

For at least half an hour, it was just staring towards my tent, occasionally walking around, and at one time, uncomfortably close to the tent.

I wanted to pack my things and leave as quickly as possible, but I ultimately decided that if it was a threat, it would have attacked me in my sleep. I wasn’t sure what it was, and it definitely wasn’t normal, but I don’t get the chance to camp very often.

I took a deep breath, walking towards the hiking trail to capture some more wildlife.

Oddly enough, there was nothing around. Not a bird, not a squirrel–there were not even the sounds of leaves blowing. It was too quiet.

Whether it was the eerie silence or the dense fog, I couldn’t stand it. I quickly turned around to head to my camp, just ready to leave for the day.

I took it as a sign, but only once it was too late.

The creature was in between me and my camp as I arrived. It had taken down my tent and began eating into my food that I had saved for later, its jaw unhinged from its head, digging into my bag as if it was a carnivorous predator eating from its prey.

I didn’t know what to think of it, I just pulled out my camera and went to take a photo of this creature, before it quickly stood up, noticing my presence.

It stared at me with its soulless, dead eyes. I was left in shock, taking a step back and throwing the camera down. I didn’t want to take a photo anymore, and I wasn’t sure if I could outrun the creature if it wanted me dead either. 

That’s when it suddenly charged towards me, knocking me down with its antlers and began eating me alive. Every spot its teeth dug into was a scream in agony left from me. The forest quiet no longer.

The pain I had experienced was unlike any I have ever felt. It continued to attack me relentlessly. I begged for it to end, unable to fight back. I was expecting my consciousness to leave my grasp at any moment. But I didn’t fall unconscious. I didn’t die.

Instead, I woke up in my sleeping bag in sweat.

I got up from the sleeping bag and gathered what my possessions as fast as I could, rushing out of my tent and getting out of that place. I didn’t turn back, and I have no intention of ever returning.

Leaving my camp, everything seemed normal. It wasn’t silent, there was no fog, everything seemed okay. Except for me. I was practically dead, traumatized from the event.

Whether it was a nightmare or not, the pain I felt was real, and I still feel it to this day. I have no doubt in my mind that something wrong went down in that forest.

I left the video camera there.

I still haven’t checked the camera footage and I’m not sure if I want to.