An Effigy to Contagion
We devour in excess
Is it too late for one last horror story as the Halloween clock chimes for the horrors to come to an end? I don’t think so…
I hadn’t been out on the old Ohio backroads in a while. The kind of roads where you’re just as likely to hit a deer as you are to hit a pothole so big a door on your car might pop itself right open. The old state line. The locals this side of the line weren’t my biggest fans. They didn’t like when I told them a few years back that the illness passing through their livestock couldn’t be cured as easy as injecting a medicine and putting them back up for sale. That was the kind of sickness no vet was going to cure. That was the kind of sickness that takes over the prey so the predator can hold it. Become it. The kind of stuff that eats at your inside ‘til you’re not you anymore. That’s what they didn’t understand. Still don’t.
Shame it doesn’t matter though. Dead is dead sometimes.
When I got out of my jeep and stepped down onto the old tar-soaked road, there were already two local police cruisers pulled off to the side of the road with their lights left on and blazing. I bet I’d look ridiculous dressed in my ranger uniform next to a couple of good old boys. And I bet this wasn’t what they meant when they asked for backup, but this was all the combined power of the Ohio and Pennsylvania state government had to offer. So much for small town pride. Here’s hoping they don’t blame me. Only a few feet into the forest, I saw the two officers crouched over something. I went to go introduce myself - I didn’t recognize these guys as far as I could tell, but it was hard to be sure way they were dressed - but before I made it to them, the smell overtook me. It was worse than anything I’d ever smelled in my life. It was as though the rot of death and decay had climbed inside my nostrils and curled up in the deepest sulci of my mind to die, fumigating my very will to live. I let out an involuntary cough as I brought a hand over my mouth and nose. Burned a little. Just a little.
The two officers turned around. I looked over their hazard gear and realized I was either underprepared or they were paranoid. I was willing to accept either’d be true.
“You the ranger?” One officer asked through the muffle of his suit.
“I’m a biological specialist with the state of Pennsylvania.” I replied. That was my job title. I didn’t want to admit that I was just a park ranger. I did my two years at the local community college and my park training. I was a biological specialist and they could eat it.
“PA, huh?” The officer said with surprise.
“This close to the state line, I’m closer than anything you’ll get out of Columbus.” I replied. Guess I could’ve told them no one this side of the line gave a damn but I didn’t think they’d like that very much.
“We’ll take what we can get.” The officer walked away from where the two of them had been staring at the ground and walked over to me. “Look, I’m gonna level with you,” The officer brought his voice down to a near whisper. As he began to speak, he clicked something on his chest under his hazard suit, “it was one thing when some hunter went missing, you understand me? But when the cows up the street started dropping off? That’s money down the drain. What’s another hick hunter from out of state? But the cows? That’s a thousand pounds of gold just disappearing in the dead of night. Ain’t nothing like that happening around here without the entire countryside perking up. So any ideas you got, we’re open to ‘em.”
“You haven’t found any carcasses?”
“Carcasses? Shit no.” The officer scoffed. “We haven’t gone any further than this before we called in for help - glad you made it so fast by the way.”
“Happy to, mister. I just want to rule out predators.”
“Oh, so you’re like a wildlife detective?”
“For today, sure.” For when they don’t have anyone else worth a damn. “The only predator around here that could take out a cow is a black bear, but bears don’t usually just go on killing sprees. Coyotes have been seen out here recently, but they don’t usually attack people and there’d be evidence if they took out cows. Could be the missing person and missing cows are unrelated I guess.”
“So you don’t know?”
“Honestly, if they hadn’t been wiped out in the 1800s round here, I’d say a wolf pack did it, but… no carcass, and not being around in damn near 200 years.”
“You don’t know. Great.” The officer grumbled.
“I just got here, officer.” I tried not to look annoyed but my furrowed brow gave me away I’d bet. “What have you found?” I asked.
“Well, we’ve got this.” The second officer who had yet to speak at that point announced. “Kind of worried ‘bout picking it up.” The officer pointed down at the ground. I walked over to check out what he might be pointing at. Sitting on the ground was a rifle. A relatively new looking hunting rifle, but in terrible condition. It was covered in something. There was a black mass of what looked like weeds with no roots wrapped around it. As I glanced it over, up and down, I realized the smell was emanating from the rifle. I covered my nose again.
“Oh God.” I coughed out.
“Yeah, whatever it is, it's pretty rancid.” The officer agreed.
“Why we put these suits on.” The other agreed.
“I - okay. We’ll need to collect some samples. Maybe there’s some sort of new fungal strain or something out here that’s killing livestock.” And a man hung in the air, but no one bothered to pick it up. “Let me grab some stuff from my jeep.”
I walked out of the forest and popped the hatch. I rifled through my equipment until I came back with my heavy-duty filtered mask secured to my face and sampling equipment. I crouched down and began collecting spindles of the black vines with a pair of forceps. With the ginger precision of someone who spent years collecting bug carcasses out of park drains, I collected the strange black fibers. The officers stood directly behind me and watched with curiosity.
“Huh.” The vines fractured like crisp unwashed hair left to stew in the sun on a long camping trip. Strands of hair broke away from their braids even under the most gentle pressure I could bring myself to use. The snap was visceral, like little bones snapping beneath my boot. I placed several strands of the ‘hair’ into a test tube before placing the tube in a secure bag on my waist. “Whatever this is, never seen anything like it.” Before I sealed the bag, I saw the strange black fibers seem to glisten and twist inside the tube. As though they couldn’t hold their shape when removed from the environment. Maybe it was the lack of sunlight. Or maybe it was the unnatural, inorganic, alien thing that was a sterile environment that began to starve it. I sealed the bag and considered the lesson I had learned in school: By removing an organism from its context, we remove the story. Course these officers had already done half that job for me, stomping around as they were. This rifle alone was proof enough that the context was already lost.
“You and me both, buddy.” One officer agreed. I forgot what I had even said at that point, but I grunted a ‘mhm’ anyway. Something new caught my eye under the thin layer of leaves beginning to pile up in the crisp fall air.
“Hold on a second…” I mumbled. The strands of hair split off from the rifle on the ground in a way I hadn’t noticed. I brushed some leaves away with the steel toes of my boot. Beneath the brush I could just about make out a path that the ‘hair’ followed deeper into the forest. “Do you see that? Looks like a trail of the stuff.”
“Yeah, that’s something.” An officer agreed.
“Maybe you should check that out. We’re going to - going to go.” The other officer announced.
“You’re going to go? But I just got here. And if we’re dealing with a contagion or a bacteria or - well, I’m not so sure I know what else it could be, bu it could be anything and -”
“All this - what? - biology stuff. Not our thing. Call us if you find a dead body.”
“Or a dead cow. Or a living cow, really. If you find anything other than whatever that stuff is, just give us a call.” The officers wandered off to their patrol cars and took off down the dark forest road. I stared on, not really sure if I could believe they just went and left me like that. Ah, who am I kidding. Didn’t surprise me a lick.
“Guess I’m on my own.”
The cruisers retreated down the road, leaving me in silence. The forest's cold fall air pressed into my lungs and began to wrap around my insides, tightening me in a death grip. I think I could’ve walked away. Left right then and there and went back to my office by the lake. I’m not sure why I didn’t. Maybe it was that I was oblivious to the dangers of being alone in that forest. Maybe it was out of pure duty. Maybe it was because that tightening in my stomach that sent tingles cascading through my entire body didn’t feel like danger yet.
I followed that trail deeper into the forest. Soon there was no clear blue sky. Only the dying leaves that slowly drizzled down around me. This was the kind of stuff I couldn’t live without. It’s why I chose to work somewhere like this. Ohio was no Pennsylvania, sure, but I’ll tell you one thing: Once upon a time it was a pretty place, and in the fall, you could still see that beauty shining on through.
The wind kicked up, leaving a chill climbing through me. Like a wave, the trees shifted and swayed. Funny how the warning came too late. Like a sickness spreading inside me, I grew nauseous and uncertain as the wind passed through me. I looked down at the strange fibrous ‘hair’ and I began to wonder what I was thinking. If this was some sort of new super virus or whatever else, I couldn't figure this out alone. I'd have to call in some sort of hazard team. Wait, who should I call? The answer was probably somewhere in my training manual back in the jeep.
That was as good of a reason as any to turn around. Without a second thought or glance at the trail of darkness, I swung around back towards the road.
The trail was clear by the blackness climbing across the earth, but what confused me immediately was - well, I couldn't see the road anymore. How far had I traveled in such a short time? Had my mind wandered? Had I lost the time? I tried to peer through the trees at the sun, but it was like trying to tell the time by looking in a paper bag. I pulled my phone from the protective pocket on my pant leg.
The screen was flickering. Couldn’t explain it, but I guess it was out of commission. The compass built into my phone’s case wasn't pointing right either. Not that it was spinning out of control or something. It was flicking slowly by degrees. 45 degrees back and forth, as if it knew where north was, but something was drawing it away. Westward I think. Deeper into the forest. Right along the fibrous trail. This must've been another sign. Must've. Without a second though, I began backtracking along the sickly trail. I was getting out of there before things went sideways.
I hadn't gotten far when a rustle caught my attention in the underbrush. This time of year, the ground was so littered with leaves, there wasn't much to hide behind. But I suppose if you didn't mind the bugs and perpetually wet mud, you could hide under the leaves. I stopped and let my eyes rest upon the rustling. I couldn't make out an exact shape, but I know what I saw. Peering at me through the leaves was a pair of bloodshot blue eyes.
As we met, they blinked.
I refused to close my own eyes. Refused to look away.
They blinked again.
I stared on, forcing my eyes not to peel away. This wasn't a trick of the light or whatever. This was a person. Were they trying to pull a joke? Was this funny to them? The idea that it was a joke - the police messing around with me or something sent rage coursing through me.
“Is this funny to you?” I shouted at the eyes.
They blinked. They looked from side to side then met my gaze again.
“Yes! You! Get on out of there! The hell kind of joke is this?”
The eyes blinked again. The leaves all around it began to shiver and shake. It reminded me of the way the leaves parted ways for snakes.
But I've never seen a snake that big around here.
Trees shivered against the stress of the ground shuddering and my own confidence collapsed.
I did the only thing that made sense: ran for my damn life.
The forest around me melted into a blur as I put my head down and pumped my legs like I was back in highschool track again. The air was cold in my lungs and my legs burned, but my eyes followed the dark trail back to the side of the road. I ran for what felt like forever. I struggled against the slick leaves, and my mind began to wander, wondering how I hadn’t made it back to the clearing yet. I looked up.
“What in the…”
Still, the treeline was nowhere to be seen. The forest was endless around me. There were no familiar landmarks - no fallen trees, no mossy rocks, no decaying corpses. I looked over my shoulder and it was much the same. The ground no longer shook and the leaves no longer rustled. Birds began to sing overhead. The wind curled gently through the air. For the first time since I made my way into the forest, the sun shone through the brilliant multicolored leaves. Beautiful rays of light fell around me.
If I wasn’t lost in the middle of damn near nowhere, It would’ve been something special. I looked down at the ground and saw that stupid fibrous hair clinging to the ground beneath the leaves. I wasn’t sure if it were me or something, but it looked thicker than before. I’d say at the start of this the fibers were overlapping and traveling. It reminded me of hair up in a ponytail running down someone’s back. Now the fibers had thickened, like darkened seaweed getting towed up from the bottom of a lake by an old rod. Now that it looked bigger to my eye, it had a gooey sort of texture to it. It reminded me of some sort of detergent - thick and viscous - that oozed off the fibers and down onto the forest floor.
I leaned down and opened my bag. If I was stuck here, might as well try and get another sample I supposed. I uncapped another test tube and tried to pick up the fibers with my forceps. They had gotten denser. Heavier. The forceps couldn’t get a grip on those slippery things. I had to get my gloves out.
As I struggled through my bag, I realized the other tube had shattered somehow. I couldn’t think of a time when I could’ve broken it, but the fibers were loose somewhere in there. I pulled my hands out, feeling a bit worried. I stared for a while, trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t want to put my hands in there any longer and get it on me. The gloves were no good now. So now what? I closed the bag. I could get gloves at the office later and clean the bag out. Didn’t need any more samples anyway, I guess.
As I stared at the fibers, I heard the sound of rustling leaves behind me. Not like the wind. Like something moving. At first I was worried it might be whatever was under the leaves before. I whipped around and almost fell on my behind when I came face to face with a man. He looked like he’d seen better days. His beard was long and unruly. His face and hair were caked in grease and his plaid shirt was filled with holes revealing cuts and bruises on his pasty skin. His eyes were bloodshot. Blue. I steadied myself with one hand and heaved in a deep breath.
“You just ‘bout went ass over teacup, didn’t ya?” He shouted with a cackle. He threw his hands on his knees like he’d told the best joke he’d ever heard.
“I - what?”
“Nothing to worry ‘bout, brother! You gone n’ get lost out here too?”
“Looks that way, don’t it?” I said looking around. There was still nothing around me I recognized. “Are you… you the one who went missing?” I asked. Seemed obvious looking at him.
“Missing? Maybe.” He shrugged. “Tell you what though, brother, I’m out here trying to find me a buck. Know my brother - big hunter, big big guy - found himself some prize winners ‘round here. Told me come look myself.” I stood up. The man looked like he might’ve been burlier before he spent who knows how long out here. Now he looked small and sickly. His veins were bulging from dehydration, and the only sign he’d ever seen civilizations was a beer gut that wouldn’t be shaken by a couple of days lost in a forest.
“You look like you need some food. You hungry?” I asked.
“Nah. What I need is that damned buck. I ain’t letting it go. You gon’ help me?”
“No disrespect, but I’m not sure that’s so good an idea… whatever this stuff is,” I pointed to the muck on the ground, “I’m worried it might be infecting the local wildlife. How ‘bout we just get you back to town? Get some hot food and a warm place to sleep, I think -”
“Absolutely not, brother! I’ll tell you what: You help me get my buck and I’ll come with you. We got a deal?” I looked around. He survived this long. What’s a little longer, right? I shrugged,
“Well, alright. I’m right behind you. Let’s just get this done quick.” Two is better than one after all. He took off deeper into the forest. He ran like a wild man, his weak sickly body moving faster than I could’ve ever expected from somebody in such bad shape. I rushed to keep up with him. As he ran, I noticed that his bare feet were exposed and blackened. They were covered in leaves that stuck to the black goo that curled themselves around their feet. When I looked down at the ground, I realized he was following a trail of the black fibers. Not just following it, but running in it. I was immediately worried. If this forest was sick, this man was sick too. “Hey, buddy!” I shouted.
He didn’t stop. He kept running. Running and running. I slowed down as a knot tightened in my stomach. It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say something ain’t right.
“Hey! Mister!!” I shouted. He continued. Last I saw of him, I swear I’d seen black tendrils climbing up his back between the holes in his pants and shirt. Then he disappeared into a dark corner of the forest. A dark corner? Was the leaf cover that dense here? I looked up and was met with a sky beginning to sprout stars in the early evening darkness. The sun was hiding somewhere on the other side of the forest, dragging me into a night that I never saw coming. How had I been out here so long? Why was I out here so long anyway? This was my first job of the day and now I was out here all day? I wasn’t even hungry. I wasn’t tired. It’s like it was still early morning, but the day was running away from me.
I took a minute to breathe. I could turn around. Maybe if I was quick, I could find my jeep and get out of here before it got too dark. I knelt down and went through my bag until I found my flashlight. I adjusted the respirator on my face and got ready to turn back, but then a shout erupted from where the man had gone missing.
It started as a low moan that made me feel ready to throw up, then it crescendoed into a harrowing holler of pain. Then as quickly as it had echoed across the forest, it ended.
“Hello? Mister, are you okay?” I shouted across the darkness.
“I’m great!” His voice echoed through the forest. He sounded so far away, but so clear. “Got me that buck! Come take a look at this thing! Gotta be 20 points, easy!” I’ve never heard of a buck that big around here. It seemed as suspicious as everything else around here. Maybe he just didn’t understand the point system. Did I trust he was confused, or that he was lying to me? I wish I didn’t have to think about it. The air was getting colder as I stood and thought about it. I never thought I’d see the day where I couldn’t wait to get back to my cozy office, but I was tired of this damn forest. Maybe at this point I should just drive straight on home.
“You comin’ to see this or what?” He called to me again. I thought for a moment, then made up my mind.
“Ah, hell. Sure!” Damn it, damn it, damn it. “Give me a minute, will ya?” I carefully trudged over the river of sludge beneath my feet, avoiding it getting on my boots. I knew for a fact it wasn’t that thick before. God, I gotta get out of here. I trekked through the darkness by flashlight. I was trying real hard not to think about the river of darkness I was walking next to. It almost sounded like it was moving. Not quite like a river, but more like tendrils scraping across the earth, grinding against the dirt and crunching the leaves. “Hey, mister? We really need to get out of here!” I urged. The sound of the darkness made me sick. My hands were shaking, making the flashlight jitter around.
As I broke through where I had lost sight of the man, the darkness broke away and I was standing in a clearing in the forest. On the other side of the clearing there was a huge dark mass that I couldn’t make out. “Hello? Mister, are you here?”
Silence.
I started stalking around the edges of the clearing. My flashlight didn’t touch the other side of the darkness, but that didn’t mean for one moment that I was going to step into the center of it all. As I came closer to the other side of the clearing, the dark mass seemed to grow. Maybe it was a trick of the light. Maybe it was that I just couldn’t see right in the dark, but as I came closer, I started feeling claustrophobic. Closer I got, it was like I wasn’t moving. The mass was.
With unsure, uncertain hands, I directed my flashlight onto the mass.
Have you ever seen a shadow move on its own? You ever see when the darkness starts to bend in the night and come for you? You ever see when it turns into a body of its own will. The will of the night that reaches out to you and eats you from the inside. Something that tells you everything’s okay as your entire body wills you to run for your life? Have you ever looked at a mass of a million eyes? A mass of a million bodies and minds and hearts all coming together to stare at you with eyes of terror and wonder and uncertainty?
Then, as the darkness comes for you, the fear comes after you, the everything that ever was or ever will be, they’ll chase you down and eat you alive. And in that darkness, I see nothing but memories of forgotten farms, forgotten families, and forgotten lives. A squirrel on the ground, the bird on the branch, the cow grazing the fields, the man hunting for them all.
He finds none of them and yet he finds them. A writhing mass of all that we must survive upon, eyes painted in eternal fear lashed upon me, cracking down inside me, becoming me. The darkness coalesced around their beast’s burden, but they would forever survive in horrid pain. This was not of man, but beyond him. This was not of a god, even God must have mercy for such things. He must. What was beyond that? Beyond what I could comprehend? What was I but another soul lost in the forest? All knowledge became me, and I knew what they knew. All of them in an amalgam of decay and death that consumes and grows…
And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows And grows -
“Brother! Good thing we found you!” His voice shouted in a craze from behind me. I couldn’t look, but somehow I saw him. He was glazed in the darkness of the river, his body painted in flesh and rot. Adorning his head was the grand skull of a buck. It was covered in fibrous black spindles that wrapped around its muzzle and blew back onto the most grand misshapen antlers to ever grace this rotten land. The bloomed from fungus whose spores hummed as their seed spread forth into the all consuming night. I couldn’t see the stars anymore - even in the clearing.
But I could see him. The mass. The land.
I could hear the air and feel the memories of every animal in pain. He was one of them. He was one of us. One of me. In this darkness I was reborn into it and from inside it, I knew all, saw all, felt all.
And God, did it hurt. It hurt so much.
Thank you for reading and happy Halloween!
This story was inspired by a prompt delivered by the
crew, but the prompt itself was created by the ever talented writer, ! For the backstory to this post, check this note here:That’s enough backstory for now!
Anyway!
For those who don’t know, I’m not a big holiday person, but Halloween will always have a special place in my heart. That being said, if you’re still in the spirit as midnight passes us by, feel free to have a look at my horror playlist!
For those who haven’t heard, I’ll also start serializing a novel here soon. That novel will be taking place in the world of Astra! So if you want to check that out, maybe get caught up on all the chaos on the Astra playlist (not required reading for the novel, just more fun stories/worldbuilding in Astra).
With all that being said, I’ll catch you next week! I haven’t decided what will come out next week yet. It will depend on if this book I ordered will be coming in, if I decide to start the Astra novel, or if I decide to share the sci-fi today I’ve started working on. Until then, consider subscribing, or leaving a tip if you have the ability and/or the inclination! Catch you next week and Happy Halloween…
I love that you've turned Ohio into this terrifying eldritch location. Or maybe revealed what was there all along?
I love stories like this! Great job building tension!