99 Nights In The Forest | A Halloween Special 5

Four children had vanished without a trace.

Their disappearance had become the center of a growing nightmare, spreading fear throughout the nearby towns. The last reports placed them somewhere deep within the forest, where witnesses claimed to have seen something that no ordinary animal could possibly be.

A deer.

But not the kind that grazed peacefully in open fields or fled at the slightest sound of approaching footsteps. This creature stood upright on two unnaturally elongated legs, its towering silhouette resembling a twisted mockery of a human being. Its limbs were far too long, its movements disturbingly deliberate, and its pale, antlered head seemed to possess an intelligence no animal should have. Those who claimed to have seen it spoke of the same thing: the feeling of being watched long before the creature ever appeared, the police searched the woods. They found scattered belongings, strange tracks, and signs of something moving through the undergrowth. They found no children. Eventually, the authorities sealed off the forest, warning everyone to stay away.

But warnings rarely stopped people who believed they had something to prove. And so, six individuals ventured beyond the barricades, determined to uncover the truth, rescue the missing children, and escape before whatever haunted those woods could claim them, too.

Among them was {{user}}.

By sunset, the group had established a makeshift campsite in a small clearing surrounded by towering trees. Firewood had been gathered and stacked beside a dying campfire. Tents were pitched close together, crude barriers were assembled from fallen branches, and supplies were carefully organized for the expedition ahead for a little while, as the forest almost seemed ordinary. The wind whispered through the treetops, Insects hummed in the darkness, and somewhere far away, an owl called into the night.

Almost.

Beyond the circle of firelight, the trees stood unnaturally still. There were no distant animal calls, no rustling beneath the bushes, and no comforting sounds of wildlife going about its business. The deeper darkness between the trunks seemed to swallow every trace of light. The group agreed to begin searching for the missing children at first light. Nobody wanted to wander blindly through unfamiliar woods after dark, especially when rumors of an enormous, man-eating creature had already made everyone uneasy.

Eventually the campfire dwindled to glowing embers, one by one, the others retreated into their tents.

The forest grew silent.

And the first night began….

Three hours after midnight, {{user}} awoke. At first, there was no obvious reason. No nightmare lingered in their mind, and no sudden noise had startled them awake. They simply opened their eyes inside the cramped darkness of their tent, staring at the fabric overhead while the cold night air crept beneath the entrance.

Then they heard it.

Crunch.

A slow, heavy footstep against dead leaves.

Crunch.

Another followed, closer this time.

Something was walking around the campsite.

{{user}} lays perfectly still, listening. Their first thought was a bear, perhaps a wolf investigating the scent of their supplies. It wouldn't have been surprising for wildlife to approach a campsite in the middle of the night but the footsteps were wrong. They were too measured, too heavy in some moments and strangely light in others. Occasionally, something scraped against the ground, followed by a faint, wet sound that made the hairs on the back of their neck rise.

Whatever was outside wasn't moving like an ordinary animal.

The footsteps stopped.

For several seconds, there was nothing.

Then came a sound like something tearing through thick, damp material.

Rrrrip.

A muffled crunch followed.

Then another.

And another.

Curiosity wrestled with fear. Slowly, carefully, {{user}} shifted toward the tent entrance and pulled the zipper down just enough to create a narrow gap.

They peeked outside.

And the world seemed to stop, standing several yards beyond the nearest tent was a creature straight out of a nightmare. It was enormous, towering above the surrounding undergrowth on two long, crooked legs. Its skeletal frame was covered in patches of dark, matted fur, and its elongated arms ended in vicious claws that glistened beneath the faint moonlight. A pair of branching antlers rose from its deer-like skull, their silhouette twisting against the black canopy of trees.

Its body moved with a horrible, almost human fluidity.

The creature was crouched over the remains of an animal.

Whatever it had caught was barely recognizable anymore. Its claws tore into the carcass with horrifying strength, ripping away flesh while its jaws worked methodically. It ate without urgency, as though nothing in the entire forest could possibly threaten it.

A thin, dark trail stained the ground beneath its feet.

Then the creature paused, Its head tilted slightly to one side.

A low, wet clicking sound emerged from somewhere inside its throat. For one unbearable moment, {{user}} wondered whether it had heard them. The creature slowly raised its head, revealing a pair of sunken eyes that reflected the faintest glimmer of moonlight.

It looked toward the tents.

Not at the forest.

Not at the trees.

At the tents.

At the place where six people were sleeping, completely unaware that the thing they had come to investigate was standing only a short distance away.

The same creature suspected of taking four children.

The same creature the group had intended to hunt down in the morning.

It was here.

And it was real.

Panic seized {{user}}. They withdrew from the opening as quietly as possible and carefully pulled the zipper shut, wincing at every tiny metallic sound. They pressed themselves against the tent floor, barely daring to breathe.

Outside, the wet sounds of feeding resumed.

Somewhere nearby, a branch snapped.

Then came the slow scrape of claws against the earth. The creature was moving again but getting more closer. {{user}} remained frozen inside the tent, eyes fixed on the entrance. Sleep was no longer an option. Every passing second stretched into an eternity, and every sound from outside seemed capable of announcing the end of everything.

They couldn't fight that thing alone. They couldn't risk running blindly through the forest in the middle of the night, either. Even if they managed to wake everyone, there was no guarantee that six frightened people with makeshift weapons could survive an encounter with something that could tear an animal apart with its bare claws.

Worse still, the creature might already know they were here. Perhaps it had smelled them the moment it entered the clearing.

Perhaps it had been watching them sleep.

Perhaps it had been waiting for the fire to die.

The thought was almost enough to make {{user}} sick. All they could do was remain silent and hope that one of the others would wake up, notice the creature, and somehow manage to capture undeniable footage of its existence.

Proof that the monster was real.

Proof that the children hadn't simply wandered off.

Proof that something terrible was happening in these woods.

But proof wouldn't save anyone if they were dead before sunrise. Outside, the footsteps stopped once more.

Right beside {{user}}'s tent.

A long, terrible silence followed. Then something dragged its claws slowly across the fabric.

Scrrrrrrrape.

The material stretched inward slightly, as though something enormous were leaning against the other side. {{user}} could hear a faint, irregular breathing sound through the thin wall of the tent.

A second passed.

Then another.

And then, from somewhere just beyond the entrance, came a strange series of clicks.

Three in succession.

Click. Click. Click.

The breathing stopped.

For a moment, the entire forest seemed to hold its breath with it. Then a long, narrow shadow fell across the bottom of the tent, stretching beneath the entrance as something shifted directly in front of it.

The zipper began to move.

Not quickly.

Not violently.

Just a single, slow tug.

It stopped.

Silence returned. The creature waited.

Inside the tent, {{user}} had a choice to make, but there was no obvious right answer. They could remain silent and pray the thing would leave, risk waking one of their companions, or prepare for the possibility that the entrance might open at any moment. The expedition was supposed to begin at sunrise, the missing children were supposed to be the reason they had come here. But as the creature stood outside their tent in the dead of night, one horrifying possibility began to take shape.

Perhaps the children hadn't been the only ones it had been hunting.

Perhaps the forest had simply allowed six more people to walk straight into its territory.

And perhaps, before the sun rose, it would decide that it was hungry again.

Somewhere beyond the clearing, deep within the darkness, something answered the creature's clicking call.

It was not alone.

And the night was only beginning.

Make your own scenario.