Mr. Nightmare

My friends and I had planned a camping trip in the woods. It was summer, so the heatwaves made it unbearably hot, but there was a lake nearby that we planned to swim in and cool down anyways.

While we were setting up the tents, there was an unsettling feeling in my stomach that just wouldn't go away.

I kept feeling like, someone was watching me. So i turned around, and met eyes with a deer. But it wasn't a normal deer, it's eyes looked strangely human. I've always had a fear of being watched. To be more specific, I have a fear of eyes itself.

The idea of looking into the abyss, and seeing a pair of eyes staring back just terrifies me.

I stood there frozen for a moment, until one of my friends called out to me. Just for a moment, I turned away, and when I looked back, the deer was gone.

I hadn't heard any footsteps indicating that it left, which I found really strange.

How could an animal as big as that leave without a trace? I tried my best to ignore the strange encounter and joined my friends at the lake to swim instead.

Personally, I was a pretty strong swimmer since childhood, so i felt safe going out further than everyone else.

At a certain point, I realised my friends' laughter had completely faded away. Now, I was left all alone in an unknown part of the dark forest.

I looked down at my reflection and stared into my own eyes, realizing how frightened I looked.

Then, something interrupted my train of thoughts.

In the distance, I heard a sort of "psst". Almost like someone was discreetly trying to talk to me. I turned around, looking to see if any of my friends had wandered off and followed me.Then, the voice began to call out my name.

After hearing it repeated multiple times… I quickly realised that the voice belonged to my friend, jason.

As he called me deeper into the woods, half of me felt reassured.

The other half of me felt like something was wrong. Like something with his voice just wasn't right.

I kept staring at the direction of the voice, not wanting to leave the water, in fear of what was really calling me.

Then I saw the same deer again, but this time it was standing on two legs and hiding behind a tree.

But one thing didn't change, the way it's eyes pierced into my soul.

That freaked me out enough to swim towards the direction I had come from, not bothering to look back.

I wasn't brave enough to go check it out, and the way it's eyes stared at me was burned into the back of my mind. When I got back, I tried to act casual.

I am known for being the calm and collected one within the group, so I didn't wanna freak everyone out just because I saw a deer in the forest.

Everyone was ready to go fishing, so I decided to take a nap in my tent instead. Surprisingly, it was easy enough for me to fall asleep, but when I woke up the top flap of my tent was open. The first thing I saw were two eyes staring back at me.

I tried to scream but nothing left my throat. Not once did the eyes blink, we were just trapped in a never ending staring contest. There was nothing I could do except close my eyes and pray that they would just leave.

That's when I heard Jason calling my name again. I jolted up and realised that weird encounter had been a dream.

Even though It felt so realistic. Jason told me it was time to eat dinner so I got out of my tent. I was still shaken up by my dream, but I told myself I was just being paranoid.

As we sat around the fire, I asked Jason if he had seen any deers around the area. He looked confused, and told me that this was an empty forest, no animals lived here other than the fish.

A wave of paranoia washed over me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but keep glancing over my shoulder. Was I starting to see things? But the deer felt so realistic... I quickly ate and then started to take a walk around the campsite.

I wanted to be sure that I wasn't seeing things, but I was also scared of what was actually out there.

While walking, I started to hear footsteps that weren't mine.

I stood still and continued to hear the footsteps. I turned around and saw the exact same deer following me.

It's unwavering human eyes continued to stare straight at me.

At this point, I was completely frozen. Slowly, the deer started to contort and transform. It's jaw unclenched and something dark started to crawl out of it's mouth.

It revealed itself to be a figure without a face, just purely covering it's skin.

The reality of the situation kicked in and I began to run deeper into the forest, scratching at my skin from the terrifying event I just witnessed. Even as I ran, I could hear my friend's name coming from that horrifying monster.

"Angel... ANGEL... Angel"

As I scratched at my skin, I could feel hot air bubbles forming underneath the surface,and my vision seemed to become more and more blurrier. After running as far as I could, I somehow came face to face with that thing again.

My hands reached out to plunge my nails into their eyes, but my hands were submerged into something wet. I gorged out their eyes until all I saw was darkness. Then, I felt hands pulling my body away from the river.