That Horror Story I Promised a While Back

The man awoke to the darkness of the woods, the only light coming from the full moon. He was lying on his back on a huge, mossy boulder. Something was wrong, he sensed. There were no sounds, in the forest. All he could hear was his own breath, ragged and set to the hasty beat of his own heart. He had no idea what he was doing out here at night. He tried to stand, but found he didn't have the strength.
Then the headache kicked in, like a disgruntled mule fed amphetamines and kept awake for three days straight. His stomach struggled with cramps. Had he been drugged? He didn't drink neither much nor often, and when he did he usually woke up in hotel rooms with strange women. Not like this. He tried to get up again, and made a better effort of it, but found himself tied down with rope.

"Uh oh." he managed. And then "Hello..?"
Nothing.
"Someone there?"

Still nothing. A wind kicked up a few leaves, they rustled as they went their own way. And then he did what all desperate people do, when they are no longer in any position to help themselves.

"HEEEELLLP!!" he cried, only making his headache worsen.

After that, he laid on the rock for maybe twenty minutes. Trying to think. It was proving difficult. All he could feel was the chilling night air, the hard rock on his back, and his own sweat. It felt cold on him as it trickled down into the small of his back. What had he been doing last night?

He tried talking again, if only to have a sound to focus on. The forest was too quiet.

"My name is Louis Douglas. I... I work as a charter pilot. I own a small business. I have money, if... if that's what you're after."

The woods answered with it's silence. He strained his memory, trying to rustle up some kind of image of what he'd been doing before he woke up here. The last thing he could remember was locking his car door in his driveway. After that... Well.

A low growl cut the silence like a prison shank, scary and ugly. A ball of ice knotted itself in his stomach. He instinctively started rocking back and forth on the rock, hoping to chafe the rope.

The minutes went by like snails on glue, the only sound being rope upon rock. No joy, though. The only thing he got out of it was a sore back. The rock he was tied to was big; big enough to tie a man down like a sacrifice upon an altar. As soon as that thought passed through his head, he winced involuntarily. Was he a victim of some twisted serial killer? Drugged, dragged to the forest at night and bound with rope to a slab only to be eaten by... whatever was out there.

He laid his head back, and looked up at the night sky. The stars were out. The wind picked up, and his sweating back took the worst of the chill.

"I'll probably catch pneumonia.", he muttered to no one in particular.

"No you won't." a voice said, from out of nowhere.

Louis' head snapped to attention like a whip! Someone there? Someone in the darkness? Someone who could release him, and explain to him what was going on, or just get him to safety?

"Hello!? Is anyone there?"

Nobody answered.

"Hello!? I heard you! Who's there? I know you're there!"

Again, not a sound. From his vantage point, he tried as best he could to scan the area. The forest was full of trees; and the trees held the darkness of night close to their chests. There was some underbrush, fallen leaves, bushes, some tangled roots here and there. For a second he thought he could see a pair of eyes in a thicket. Two glinting eyes, reflecting the moon at him. Without wanting to, he remembered the growl. The growl he was sure of. The voice though... Had he just imagined it? The mind does weird things to you when you're alone. Especially when you're alone at night. In the woods.

Louis laid his head back down on the rock, and looked up. A shooting star crossed the night sky. He immediately wished to be released. Just then, he heard a car in the distance. It was pretty far off, but that didn't matter at this point. Fear and frustration was making him desperate.

"HEEEEY!!" he yelled. A deep breath. "HEEEEEEYYYyyyh..." He broke into a fit of coughing. The damp, cold air was definitely not good. The car closer. He hacked and coughed for a good thirty seconds. For a moment he thought he was never going to draw breath again. Then he regained his ability to breathe. The car was moving away now. He felt tears cropping up in the corners of his eyes. He was going to die out here. Alone. He would die even if nothing came to eat him. He wouldn't even have time to dehydrate, much less starve. He would simply freeze to death, and that would be it.

He tried to think of reasons why he would deserve something like this. He'd never been religious, so on the off-chance there was a god, there might be that. He'd never hurt anyone. Never been unkind, he was always polite to strangers, even. He had few friends, but the ones he had were the loyal and good kind. Not much family left, but the sister he did have he kept in touch with. The only thing he could think of that was, to him, morally unsound was a botched suicide attempt about a year ago. He'd been depressed, but so what? Plenty of people were depressed. Plenty of people attempted suicide, and not everybody succeeded. Some times it's just a cry for help. And he'd gotten help. Plenty of help, actually. And he was feeling better.

Louis looked up at the night sky. He found it very beautiful. The moon lit up a couple of clouds, the stars were twinkling the way you only notice when you're out camping. He thought of campfires, and s'mores, and barbequed campfood, and corn on the cob. There was another growl, but this one came from his stomach. He realized then, that he really didn't want to die.

"I don't want to die." he muttered under his breath. Then, a voice very close to him whispered; "Oh, but you will."

Louis was looking frantically around him, trying to locate whomever it was. He was getting very frightened now. His legs were trembling so bad he started to notice it himself. Getting them under control again was an effort.

Then came another low growl, directly behind him. Oh god. A wolf. No other forest creature made a sound like that. And now it was just a few yards from his head. He became completely still. A calm came over him, a type of calm he had never experienced before. He growled back at the wolf. Leaning his head back as far as he could, he found out there was no way to look behind him. He felt he wanted to see the wolf, to gauge it's reaction, to see if his counter-growling would make it retreat or not. But he didn't hear any paws moving across the ground. Good. It wasn't coming any closer. But it wasn't moving away, either.

Growling again, Louis tried to put a little more anger into it. All it got him was a lungful of coughs and hacks. Then pain shot through his leg. The first thing his mind visualized was a wolf with it's teeth deep into his flesh... But when he looked down, he saw nothing but his leg, the rock, and the woods. Just a cramp. He realized he was tensing up. With some force of will, he made himself relax a bit. As he did, he also realized he had wet himself. Not the full bladder, but enough to make a cold spot down the inside and back of his left leg. The wind blew and gave him another good chill, as if just to punctuate his situation.

It was at this point he caved, and started praying.

"God? It's me, Louis Douglas." he began, quoting the only prayer he knew. The rest he had to make up himself. "I realize we haven't been close, and... If you can find it in you to forgive me, and help me out of this mess, then I promise to devote some time to correct that mistake.... You have my word on that."

"God cannot help you, mr. Douglas" the mysterious voice said. Now Louis knew that the voice was not in his head, there was actually someone out here with him. For a split second he wondered why the wolf had not attacked this stranger. But then the voice spoke again. There was an odd quality to it, but definitely male, he thought.

"Mr. Douglas. How far are you willing to go to get your life back?"

Louis was looking every which way he could, but he couldn't see anybody. "Step forward! Come out here, so I can see you! Where are you, you coward!?"

"Tut-tut, mr. Douglas. Such behaviour will get you nowhere. And, if you hadn't noticed, that's exactly where you are. In the middle of nowhere."

"Who are you? Why can't I see you? Why are you hiding from me? Why am I here? Why have you done this to me!?"

"Why do you believe anybody did this to you, mr. Douglas? Is it not entirely possible that you got yourself into this mess?"

An idea popped into Louis' head. "Are you..." He had to swallow. "Are you... the Devil?"

Laughter followed from the stranger. "You can call me that if you wish, mr. Douglas. Now, tell me the answer to my question. To what length are you willing to go to get your life back?"

"What do you mean? Do you mean like... Sell you my soul? If so, I got to tell you, you're a lousy salesman!"

A loud bark directly into his ear made Louis empty the rest of his bladder. The sensation was a welcome warmth in his pants for a few seconds, but he knew it would only get even colder again. He tried to look around, but couldn't see anyone, or anything.

"Answer the question, mr. Douglas."

"Are you going to kill me? If you're not, then get me LOOSE! Otherwise just kill me and get it over with. I'm cold and I'm freezing and I don't want to be here anymore and I can't take this I CAN'T TAKE THIS I WANT TO GO HOME!"

"Are you done, mr. Douglas?"

Louis waited a moment before answering, collecting his thoughts as best he could. "Why do you keep repeating my name?"

"To ensure your attention. Now that I have it, please answer my question."

"The answer is any. Any length, you bastard. Cut me loose and I will do whatever you want. I'll give you whatever you want."

"But I don't want anything, mr. Douglas. You have nothing to offer me."

"Then what is all this about?"

Silence again. Louis tried once more to look around, but saw only the forest and the clear night sky. He started rocking himself a little back and forth again, hoping to weaken the ropes enough to pull them apart while he still had some semblance of strength in his body. The drugs were wearing off now, and adrenaline was taking over. His heart was into overtime. His lungs were raw. His stomach was dancing the polka somewhere in the general area of his throat. And fear was now terror. The only thing worse than being strapped to a rock and tortured by a psychopath, if that's what he was, he realized, was being strapped to a rock and knowing a psychopath was out there. The waiting was the hard part, he'd read in novels, and seen quoted just as equally often in films. And it was true. The not knowing what was next was gnawing at his insides. The wind was doing an equal task to his back, groin and left leg, but he wasn't thinking about that anymore. Survival instinct had kicked in, and rational thought had left the building. He rocked back and forth for maybe ten minutes. Nothing gave. Nothing weakened. Nobody came.

He lay there, physically exhausted, mentally drained, and felt a warm trickling sensation down his back. He understood then, that all the movement had done was rub his back raw, and then bloodied. With nothing else left, he managed to stammer out, "H-Hello?"

The voice returned. "Hello, mr. Douglas."

"Why am I here?"

"Only you can answer that."

"What does that even mean? I've done nothing to deserve this. I don't want to die. I just want to go home! Please..."

"Oh, please, is it? Please what, mr. Douglas? 'Please release me'? Because only you can free yourself from your current predi... Oh GOD! LOOK OUT!!"

With that, the voice went quiet. Other voices, much further away and somewhere in the woods, were shouting as well. Then there were what could only have been gunshots. Shotguns, he believed. More commotion.

"Hello..? Hello? What's happening? Are you there?" He swallowed dryly. "Satan..?"

The bushes in front of him parted, and as he looked down between his strapped-down, tied-up and urine-soaked legs, a massive grizzly bear appeared out of the forest. It stood up on it's hind legs, and let out a roar that felt like it shook the entire world. Louis' eyes were as large as saucers. Everything else in the world fell away as he looked into the eyes of the enormous creature before him. There was no more fear. No more terror. There was only him and the bear now. It advanced on him quickly. It was probably attracted from the blood in the air. Louis didn't know why he knew that. He'd probably seen on it some documentary or other. Or read it. He realized then that his life was actually flashing before his eyes. The bear was only a few feet away now, another second and it would... The bear stopped. And then it fell down, to it's side. Louis understood later that he hadn't heard the guns go off, but he could remember the pops they had made afterwards. It was as if he hadn't registered the shots at all when they fired, but the memory itself was clear.

Behind the bear's fallen figure were three men with tranquilizer rifles. Besides them, a man with a camera was filming the whole ordeal. A few more silhouettes were coming out of the woods, but Louis didn't see them. He had already passed out.

He awoke in the hospital, two days later. The doctor had told him he was dehydrated, his back was ripped up something fierce, and he had the symptoms for urinary tract infection and a cold. But he'd live.

His friend Carl was sitting by his hospital bed. Carl was looking down at his folded hands, saying nothing anymore. He'd told Louis how ashamed he and Dennis was, for signing Louis up without his knowing, and how sorry they both were.

Another man was standing on the other side of the bed. He claimed to be a producer for a new reality TV show. They were apparently going after people who had attempted suicide through their concerned friends. The pitch of the show was to kidnap and scare someone who was depressed so badly that they got a new taste for life. They felt that Louis fit the profile, and had shot him with a tranq dart near his home. Then, he'd been hoisted from his driveway, driven into the woods and tied up. They had then placed microphones and a couple of mini-speakers around him so they could scare him as best they could. Then they would attempt to utilize psychology to make him realize that life was worth living.

The man from the show had admitted that they had not built up a psychological profile, nor had they filed any legal paperwork of any kind. It was a half-assed production, and he admitted as much. He also understood if Louis wanted to sue the network.

But Louis had already gone to sleep again. He didn't care that people could act so callously towards others, in the name of wanting to help them. He didn't care that a system of human beings could be so broken that it would allow such things to happen to individuals. He would later, but not right now. He was alive. And at the moment, that was more than enough.

THE END.

Bravo, that was pretty good...

I expected there to be Spiders in there somewhere...

spiders would be a real horror for fred............LOL

I know, that's why I expected them...

Na, I'm not afraid of spiders. I panic and lose control when they get big enough and/or their proximity to me is less than I'm comfortable with. But fear has nothing to do with my phobia.

Anyway, I hope the story lived up to what you expected. That it was scary and horror-y enough for you guys.

It was kind of a challenge to get started, but, once the ball was rolling, the path was set. I just hope it didn't all go downhill

-Fred

I wasn't planning on reading this story but the first paragraph was so wonderfully clean and focused that I had no choice but to read the whole thing.

I completely enjoyed this. The ending was a bit of a let down (aren't they always?) reminding me of the movie "The Game," but it sure as hell held my attention.

This is the kind of thing Weird Tales would have published back in the day, but I'm afraid they now only publish "modern" stories with cryptic endings. Cut off the last few paragraphs and end on an abrupt note that answers nothing and you might get this published these days.

Anyway, I really liked it.

Tuco, good to see you posting, it's been far too long... Do stick around awhile...

Bafitis,

I'm always lurking around in the background, reading most of the posts. Lots of really smart talented people here.