A snap in the woods. Morning creeping in through thin branches warms the woods in blue orange glow and illuminates the walls of my tent. Another snap in the woods. Sitting up, my breath calm, white transparent warm I unzip the door. Rain droplets slide down the outside. Dew and last night’s storm saturates the forest. Wet sticky moisture in the air looms hazily along the ground. Small white bugs flutter on long strands of grass. Raindrops caught on the blades edge. Held like infants.
A deer, small with white spots hopped off. I struggled to my feet fumbling to get out of the tent while managing to put on clothes. Another snap erupted behind me. Turning, the mighty buck snorted a plume of gray smoke and dug its hooves into the wet dirt. Massive arching and curling antlers mounted its head. Four sets, two spreading upward and out, two sets swooping down and under its chin. Thick dark matted fur coated its tall and proud body. An orange yellow eye watched me. Stillness and then the voice inside my head.
“Follow me.”
I looked to see the creature turn. The one side of its body hidden in shadow now shown in the light. The eye merged with four more eyes, a mass of yellow pus and multiple pupils watching me. Flesh torn away below the eye dripped blackish fluid over red flesh and exposed bone. A wide grin of blackened teeth seemed to be smiling.
“Follow me.”
The animal began to move away towards the thick trees. It snorted again while scuffing the ground. I put on some shoes and followed down arching branches funneling us deeper into the woods. An old grove of cedars twisted around each other with smooth tangled roots. I tripped crawling over them. My hand plunging into the mud. Worms wiggling twisting and squirming over my fingers. Getting to my feet I rushed to keep up with the rotting deer. Its musty dead odor bringing tears to my eyes. I shook off the worms slithering on my hands leaving behind a clear sticky residue that I tried wiping on my pants.
Not a bird chirped. Perfect quiet, perfect stillness. Branches overhead knotted and weaved together narrowing the dark path forward. Beyond a blue white light glowed like a key hole. Soon I heard waves crashing as the creature disappeared into the opening beyond. I crept down the path stepping over the roots now twisting around stone and bone like still fluid streams frozen and hardened in place.
I stepped out of the forest tunnel and into the blinding white light. A void of silence except for the soft moving waves washing up the shoreline polishing blue and red round pebbles. The deer walked into the ocean accepting its fortune. Small waves washed over its dark hair. A small trail of dark blood followed in its wake.
Something fell from the sky exploding out at sea. That’s when I saw him walking towards me. A dark figure amongst thin dead trees stuck in the shallow shoreline. Waves washed up over his black boots. The tall man dressed in a black suit walked up to me. His face still hidden in shadow under the wide brim hat. He took it off revealing a smooth bald head and an aged weathered face hidden under years of gray beard. Putting a hand on my shoulder I felt the waves saturate my shoes and he said my name.
“Doc?” I asked and then I collapsed under the gentle weight of his hand. A powerful sadness washed over me. How long has it been? His thin lips smiled a grin stretching across the carved wrinkles of his face.
“You have forgotten the face of your true self.” He said. “Your need of the world of the flesh has grown and your spirit is saturated in rot. You have lost your way.”
Kneeling in the shoreline waves washed over me. There was no salt as I let them carry me away. A deep loss and sadness, like a forgotten old friend, a lost lover, and eternal empathy and void-full emptiness. My true falling. I let the waves take me away.
All works by Charles Denton
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