Styx Forest

It was a typical, sunny day in June in the small town of Crossville. Crossville was a lumber town surrounded for miles by dense forest. The closest town was twenty miles east of Crossville which meant it was pretty self-sufficient. Of course, it still had trucks bringing the town everything they couldn't supply on their own or meet demand. It was late Sunday afternoon, church had already been released and there was a young boy named Jackson out in his backyard playing fetch with his beautiful German Shepard. Her name was Fluffy but she was only named that as a joke. "Fluffy" was a huge dog that, when standing on her hind legs, was taller than thirteen-year-old Jackson. She had a smooth, typical brown/dark brown coat that German Shepard's had with a mean-looking face, which is where the joke comes from. If she felt threatened she would defend, of course, but other than that she was completely harmless and loving. While they were playing fetch, Jackson took care not to throw the pink plastic bone too far to make sure he didn't accidently throw it into the forest. His parents always told him not to go unsupervised. "Fluffy!" Jackson screamed when she tackled him gently because of him not giving her the ball she knew she deserved. I mean she had been chasing it down for him. They were in the middle of her torturing him by licking him in the face when she suddenly and for no apparent reason, just stopped and stared off into the forest. She still had her paws on his chest from holding him down when she took off into the forest, leaving slightly deep scratches on Jackson's chest. "Owww!" he yelled in pain and confusion. What has gotten into her? he thought. He got up and saw her disappear into the forest at full sprint. "Fluffy!" Jackson screamed in desperation. She had never done this before or acted like she wanted to run. His parents were both out getting groceries, so they couldn't help. The only other person near was his younger sister, who was inside, but she would just make it worse. So, with that all in mind, Jackson took off running into the woods after Fluffy. He ran for a short while before he realized he had no idea where he was. The trees looked less inviting, spooky even. The trees were so dense that the tops of the trees flourished, but it blocked the sunlight from the rest of the trees, so the branches near the ground were leafless, crooked, and twisted. Jackson thought about turning around and going home but he didn't want to lose Fluffy and it be his fault. So he kept pushing forward, walking now. The temperature began cooling down as the trees became more dense. Jackson pushed forward, still occasionally calling out to her, but to no avail. Suddenly, a noise that cut through the air like a knife stopped Jackson dead in his tracks. It sounded like a dog in extreme pain but it was cut off abruptly halfway through, like someone paused the TV. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on edge. Something is not right. I should leave. He thought, but his thirteen-year-old curiosity got the best of him. He began pushing to where the noise came from. Jackson felt watched so he kept turning and looking every which way but seeing nothing. He started hearing things rustling in the surrounding brush. "Fluffy?" he asked as he approached. "Ahhh!" Jackson screamed as a creature flung itself at his face and nicked his cheek. He didn't get a good look at it but he saw in which direction it went. The direction that Fluffy was laying, dead. Jackson was horrified at what he saw. The creature that had attacked him was chewing and eating the flesh of poor Fluffy. Fluffy already had a huge chunk missing of her skull, the small deformed creature hurriedly eating away at her brains. Jackson saw that the creature looked like a squirrel that was completely composed of sticks and earth elements. He saw curved sticks protecting its abdomen which resembled a rib cage. The inside of the ribcage had what looked like a huge clump of wet dirt that filled the chest cavity. The limbs were made of sticks and the joints were held by long grass or weeds tied together to the stick/limbs. It had no tail from what Jackson could tell. His teeth were completely obscured by the chunks of flesh and blood dripping down his face. Jackson, speechless, slowly backed away, never taking his eyes off of this creature. He then saw another one appear to feast on Fluffy. This one was slightly smaller and they each had their own unique pattern with the sticks that made up their bodies. Soon there were even more appearing. Jackson had finally walked far enough away when he ran in a sprint to put as much distance as he could, fighting the urge to cry and puke. He hadn't gotten far when something huge and hard struck him from the side. He hit the ground and looked up at what had just hit him. It was terrifying. It was a deer but it looked like one of the deformed squirrels. Its ribcage was like the squirrel's but the sticks were much bigger to accommodate the deer's size. The inside looked exactly the same, a slightly pulsating huge clump of wet dirt. He looked up and saw what made up this creature's eyes. Gumballs. The spiky gumballs that some trees produce as seeds. It made a sound like a deer, but it sounded distorted and hollow. Jackson ran without realizing he was heading back in the same direction Fluffy was previously being eaten. He tripped on a root and fell face first on the ground. "s**t!" he screamed in panic. He got up and saw he was surrounded. He was surrounded by deer, squirrels, foxes, and coyotes, all earthly deformed. They formed a circle around him, just waiting. Slightly growling. "What do you want!" he screamed, shaking and crying. I'm gonna die. Fluffy is dead. I'm never gonna see my fa- but his thought was cut short. A buck had charged him from behind and impaled Jackson with its antlers. Jackson screamed out in pain but it was only a matter of seconds before he was dead. It had impaled his heart and lungs. The buck reared back and threw Jackson off of his antlers, leaving them bright red. It made its hollow growl and walked away. The remaining animals began feasting, filling their stomachs with this boy not wasting a thing. When they were done and there was nothing left but his bloody skeleton and tattered bloody pieces of his clothes, they began to dig a hole. For hours. Eventually, not far away, Fluffy emerged from the ground, but she was no longer Fluffy. She was deformed as well. After the collective effort of these animals, they pushed Jackson's skeleton into the hole and buried him. The ground soaked up his blood hungrily and the animals disappeared into the darkness, leaving bits of torn clothing as the only evidence of this horrific act.