It's a terrifying thing, really. Fear is something every creature experiences in their life, but terror is something only the truly horrifying can instill. As the beast disabled each of your cameras with almost human-like intelligence, your fear and concern grew exponentially, especially seeing as you were alone up here, deep in the woods in your personal hunting cabin, dozens of miles from the nearest civilized settlement. Checking your laptop with the nervousness of a skittish cat, your heart drops as another flash of movement and pale fur ends the life of yet another camera. There's only two left, what are you going to do...?

You mull the possibilities over in your mind. The third camera, freshly torn to pieces, was about half a mile away from your cabin. The second was hidden in a pile of rocks about a quarter mile from that one, but the beast seemed to have an innate, unnatural guidance towards them, as if they were marked plain as day. You curse to yourself, both at your ignorance at leaving your gun in your truck, and at how expensive those trail cams would be to replace. The sensible thing to do now would be to get in your vehicle, load your shotgun, and drive like hell. Unfortunately for you, you're too petrified as the second camera suddenly crunches and the feed cuts out. How the hell did the creature move that fast?! It hadn't even been thirty seconds...

You make your predicament worse by trying to make it better, closing the blinds and turning off all the lights like a frightened child during a thunderstorm. But to be fair, who would be rational at this point, an unseen force deliberately destroying the cameras you had previously used to hunt wildlife in this area? One camera destroyed by an accident or an animal moving the wrong way suddenly wasn't unheard of, especially if the capture device was put in an unsafe location. But this... this was unnatural. All ten of your trailcams seemed marked for death, deliberately sabotaged, crushed, or submerged in water. An eerie sound floats from the woods to your northeast, precisely the direction your final camera is positioned, five hundred feet away and strapped to a tree. Your heart stops as the creature comes into view, finally revealing itself.

It appears to be... what looks like a deer, but on its hind legs. But it can't be, it moves too much like a human... You can't tear your eyes from your laptop screen as it saunters towards the camera, malice in its eyes and a twisted smile on its face, which is nothing but a skull, indescribable runes marking it like some ancient deity. Your eyes go wide as you realize this is probably exactly what it is, a guardian of the forest, or possibly a demon. It opens its mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth, walking closer as if it knows you're watching and wants to drag this out like an elaborate game. "Prrrreyyyyy..." it growls out, the word barely distinguishable from the snarl of its vocal cords. Your blood turns to ice from the sound, every nerve screaming to run for your life, yet you're paralyzed. What the hell? This couldn't be a person, this thing wasn't human enough, from the movement to the appearance, it just didn't make sense.

As if to further unsettle you, the creature darted forward, mouth wide, and snatched the camera from the tree. Watching in horror and sick fascination, the still-feeding camera was about to feed something else as the creature's tongue wrapped around it, pulling it into the dark purple mouth, the breath fogging the lens. To add to your unease, this was one of the only cameras that relayed sound as well, treating or maybe tormenting you with the wet slurps and noises as it was quickly pulled back and swallowed whole. This was unreal, and if you weren't scared for your life, you'd probably find the inner workings of this creature fascinating, especially as the night vision illuminated the rippling esophagus the entire way down, and as it was forced through a small ring of flesh, it dropped into a very obviously caustic fluid that immediately began to ruin the transmission, static steadily growing until it blacked out, leaving a large CAMERA OFFLINE across your screen.

You stare at the black screen for a few moments until you snap back to focus, your terror growing once more as you realize the creature could have easily crossed the last few hundred feet in mere seconds... It could be outside for all you know! Filled with pure panic and adrenaline, you dart around the cabin, checking to make sure the doors and windows are locked... Was the window open all night? Oh god... You step slowly back from it... And you back into something furred. Closing your eyes, you already feel the drool and heavy breath across your head, you know it's the end. Maybe if you're lucky, it won't tear you to bloody chunks before eating you like it did that camera. At the very least, someone will eventually find your cabin and truck, a police search will ensue, and nothing will come of it. You already know this creature won't be found.

Feel like prey yet?


Holy. Mother. Of. Fuck.
This story was a long time coming, as was the picture. I've been dying to get a comm from Cid for a long, long time, even before I had this account on FA. They did a fantastic job of giving it that creepy feel, and while I think a bit more color might've helped, the washed out look makes it even more spooky, so I'm not complaining.

Phenomenal artwork belongs to the legendary  Acidic
And Elvira the wendigo belongs to me.