fox

june 23 2007

June 23 2007
I woke up alone in the darkness. As my eyes adjusted to the surroundings and I looked around, I panicked. I was in a forest, but it was a very different forest. It was far denser, the trees were taller, and it was much colder than when I went to bed. It was the forest from my dreams. I emerged from a thick haze blanketing the ground and got some footing. The crickets were deafening and I could see my breath. Looking up, I realized just how strikingly bright the stars were. I had never seen so many before in my life, other than in space posters. I took out my phone and called Noah. No signal, low battery. This was either the most vivid forest dream I’ve ever had, or I had somehow sleepwalked far away from the campsite. I started walking toward the brightest star I could make out, as advised by a hiking survival handbook I read once. If I follow the north star due north, I can use it to navigate in place of a compass. I used my phone’s flash as a light at first, but decided to turn it off to conserve battery. The full moon provided plenty of light to illuminate the path ahead. Then, I saw a dim light flickering off the trees. I ventured closer and saw that it came from a large crackling campfire with a sizable tent behind it. I was about to run over for help, but then I stopped in my tracks. I could make out a man sitting at a table by the fire. He was sharpening a big knife. Making as little noise as possible, I backed up and went in the opposite direction. As much as I wanted to be near that fire to warm up, I really didn’t want to be near that man or his big knife.

june 23 2007

I still had a spoon in my cargo pants pocket from dinner, so I began carving the eye symbol on a bunch of trees like I had done in my dream. I figured this was the shadow beings’ way of showing me how to protect myself from evil. Eventually, I came across a clear stream and couldn’t help myself but drink from it to moisten my parched throat. I heard a rustling in front of me and an animal came out of the darkness across the water. It was a fox. It limped towards me, wheezing pathetically. As it got closer I could see that it was badly injured. Its fur was covered in patches of blood and one of its hind legs was twisted broken, but it didn’t seem afraid of me at all. As it sat across from me and turned its head to drink, I held my breath in a gasp. One of its eyeballs was dangling from its socket by a glistening red thread. I was sufficiently disturbed, half at the fox’s gruesome state and half because it occurred to me that I had dreamt of this exact animal before in my youth. Suddenly, its head shot up and stared me with its one working eye. It felt like it was looking right through me, but I quickly realized it was really looking past me. What I was feeling was another’s gaze. I turned around and froze solid. From amongst the trees, Mr. Slim leered at us. That moment was the most terrified I had ever felt in my entire life... seeing the absurdly tall faceless humanoid figure in formal attire from my darkest nightmares,

june 23 2007

as still as the trees, right in front of me. The feeling of his lingering gaze was so much more potent than it had ever been before. My skin crawled, my hair became needles, and my blood ran ice cold. I was mentally and physically petrified. I couldn’t move a muscle, I couldn’t even blink. It felt like a waking sleep paralysis. I was absolutely helpless in that moment. After what seemed like an eternity, his head moved slightly and I broke from my trance. I shot up backwards and darted away as fast as I could, leaving the poor immobilized fox behind to stare in fear at the surreal horror. I sprinted aimlessly into the dense, stagnant fog for a good while before stopping to rest at the trunk of a large tree. I was playing out my dreams now. I carved the symbol into the bark and hid in a small alcove underneath a fat root. I heard noises approach and cupped my mouth silent. Some sort of odd clicking sound echoed off the trees and I took out my phone to record it. After I started recording, I slipped and cut my hand on a sharp root, letting out a tiny yelp. The clicking immediately stopped. I felt him uncomfortably close now. I sobbed, convinced that this was where I would die at the hands of boogeyman. Out of nowhere, a nearby shout cracked through the silence. “HEY OVER HERE” I got up to peek. Mr. Slim was directly over my hiding spot, but he was facing a man. It was a shadow man, half

june 23 2007

obscured in the milky mist. “RUN MILO RUN” I sprung to my feet and fled, not looking back. I was so perplexed at what had just transpired that I didn’t make out the back of the tent that I had come across previously and ran right into it. The cloth engulfed me and the men inside began shouting in confusion as the tent walls collapsed around them. I jumped out from the chaos and back into the woods. I took a quick glance back to catch the man at the table standing, peering in my direction. When I turned back around I slammed face first into a tree. I awoke terribly sore inside the first wooden tower we came across on the way to our camping site. It was still dark out so in my delirium I figured that I had sleepwalked here and had a terrible nightmare. I retraced my steps and reached our camp at the break of sunrise. Uncle Alex came out from his tent right as I was getting back in ours and asked what was up. I said I had come back from taking a leak. He asked if I had a good night’s sleep. I said I had a nightmare. Noah was still fast asleep so I got back into my sleeping bag to write down my dream. That’s when I noticed a fresh scar on my hand that had never been there before... right in the spot where the root had cut it in my nightmare. I checked my phone. One missed call to Noah, photos I don’t remember taking, and a new audio clip. It wasn’t a nightmare. That instant marked the second most terrifying moment of my entire life: realizing that the first moment was real.