Pilgrimage

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘That was probably for the best. It’s not the kind of thing you really want to see up close and personal.’

  ‘Well, maybe you can pop by my tent later and you can comfort me a little, how about that?’ she smiled at him.

  Chris smiled back. ‘That sounds wonderful,’ he said.

  ***

  Chris unzipped the front of Katelyn's tent before pulling on his warm sweater again and smiled back at her. She was laying in her sleeping bag now, but it didn’t cover her entirely, giving him some sneaky glimpses of her naked body. She grinned back.

  ‘Shame you have to leave me so soon,’ she whispered.

  ‘Shame we have to be out here doing this when I could happily spend several days in a hotel room with you somewhere,’ he said.

  ‘That sounds wonderful,’ she said. ‘Maybe once we’re back?’

  ‘That’s a promise,’ he said.

  She made a happy little squeak and her face lit up with a huge smile from ear to ear.

  ‘Sleep well,’ he said.

  ‘You, too.’

  He winked back at her, stepped out of the tent, and zipped it back up. The camp out here was empty, but the fire was still going, although, it was getting a little low now.

  Chris picked up some of the wood they had collected earlier and stoked the fire, waiting for the new dry wood he had just added to catch as grey ash floated past him from the fire pit.

  He stood up and looked about him at the four tents that surrounded the fire. He and Kate had purposefully positioned theirs slightly away from the other two, with hers being almost on the opposite side of the fire from Teodor’s in the hope that he wouldn’t hear them making out in her tent.

  It seemed to have worked, and he could already hear the occasional snore from the old man’s tent.

  Chris smiled and looked around him into the woods. They were miles away from any really large light sources, and you could really tell the difference out here. This was a kind of darkness you just didn’t really get in England any more.

  As he looked around, movement caught his eye, but it was difficult to make out with the light from the fire glaring near him. Chris moved around it and peered into the darkness, trying to make out any shapes he might recognise, when he suddenly saw a pair of eyes in the darkness staring back at him, almost glowing from the light of the fire.

  Chris stumbled back and fell to his bum as his feet caught on some roots, landing with a bump. With his eyes wide with fear and a sickness born of fear spreading through his gut, Chris found he could only stare as these eyes moved forward, coming closer, level with his own.

  The dark shape stepped into the very edge of the light. The flames of the newly stoked fire just catching the edges of the creature. Chris could just pick it out now and realised he was looking into the eyes of a wolf. Those yellow irises gleamed in the firelight as it stood there, staring at him, weighing him up, challenging him.

  An idea sprang into Chris’ mind suddenly, and, without really thinking about it, he reached around and grabbed the end of one of the new logs he had just put into the fire. It had already caught alight on the other end, as he had hoped, so he pulled it out of the fire pit and turned to face the wolf.

  4

  But it was gone. Where the wolf had once stood, there was now nothing; just empty air. Chris spun around and scanned the campsite, looking for the animal, wondering if it had really gone or if it might have just retreated, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

  It was about twenty minutes before Chris felt calm enough to return to his own tent. By then he had walked around the campsite twice, peering into the darkness, looking for the wolf, but he found nothing.

  He didn’t sleep well for the rest of the night, waking up several times to look outside into the campsite, but he never saw the wolf again.

  When morning came, he was reluctant to get up, but pulled himself out of bed anyway. They had a long trek ahead of them and they needed to keep going.

  Progress through the heavily wooded forest was slow going for the most part. There were a few less dense areas where they could pick up the pace, but, for a lot of it, they were wading through huge overgrown areas of foliage or hacking their way through bushes. The terrain was rarely flat, either.

  As they headed up into the lower part of the mountain range, they were usually heading uphill, choosing their footing carefully to avoid tumbling back down a slope and impaling themselves on a branch. Chris found himself on more than one occasion basically getting down on all fours when the climb got too steep, grasping at roots and creepers to haul himself up the slope, and then reaching back to help Teodor and Katelyn up as well. The forest seemed to go on forever, and there were a few moments where Chris thought they were nearing the edge of the forest, only for it to close up around them once more. They did their best to keep on their current heading, using their compass to navigate and keep on a southerly course. If it weren't for the compass, though, they truly would have been lost a long time ago.

  But as the hours drew on, a part of Chris started to doubt the compass as well. They seemed to be no nearer the edge of the wood, and, yet, he felt sure from when he had seen the forest from a distance and how it rose up the side of the mountain and eventually came to an end, he felt sure they would have come out the far end of it by now. He considered himself a good judge of distance, having fine-tuned it over years of hiking and mountaineering, and he’d guessed they would probably spend one night in the forest before they broke through to the far side today.

  When he next got the compass out, he gave it a tap and a shake, but it seemed to be working just fine, and they were still heading in the right direction.

  Maybe he’d misjudged it. Maybe the terrain was throwing him off, as it was not the easiest forest he’d ever walked through.

  The guide seemed content, though, and continued to lead them through the wood, helping them pass some of the more challenging areas and pointing out anything they needed to be aware of. The air was getting cooler up here, and, even with their continued movement and physical exertion, Chris could feel the cold seep through his hiking gear. Before too long, the air would also start to thin, making it harder for them to catch their breath. He hoped that Teodor would be okay when that started to kick in.

  They continued on, but Chris’ unease about the forest and the terrain seemed to affect the other team members, as if, subconsciously, they were picking up on his doubts and it wasn’t long before Teodor expressed his own concern that they weren’t out of the forest yet.

  The guide seemed the most confident out of them all, though, and muttered something about it being bigger than it looked. Chris didn’t comment. He didn’t want to worry anyone yet and hoped he was just misjudging things.

  A short while later, as Chris neared the top of the next slope, he looked up to where the guide had been, hoping for a hand up, and found him nowhere to be seen. He’d disappeared.

  ‘What the? Where’s he gotten to now?’ he mumbled to himself and proceeded to continue his climb, soon cresting the slope by himself and seeing Augustin a few meters away, looking at something at his feet.

  Chris stood and saw the body of a stag on the floor, along with a lot of blood.

  ‘Ugh,’ he muttered. It looked like it had been badly hurt by something.

  ‘Hey, a little help, please?’ Katelyn called up to him.

  Chris reached down and helped her up.

  ‘Everything okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Looks like the guide found something,’ he said.

  ‘Oh,’ Kate asked, looking over. ‘Oh, jeez, that’s gross,’ she said in disgust on seeing the dead animal.

  Chris helped Teodor up before he walked over to Augustin and looked down at the eviscerated animal. Its belly had been slit open, spilling its insides all over the leaves and mud, but there was another wound on its throat as well, which was a little cleaner and easier to see, and it was this wound that concerned him. The throat had been cut cleanly with something shar
p; a blade probably, which meant they really weren’t out here alone.

  ‘That’s disgusting,’ Katelyn said, still standing a few meters away and holding her nose.

  ‘Anything the matter?’ Teodor said, obviously realising that Chris had noticed something amiss with it.

  For a moment, Chris considered keeping his diagnosis of the deer’s cause of death to himself, but, on second thought, he reconsidered. He’d gain nothing by keeping it quiet, and they had just as much right to know something was wrong as he did.

  ‘This was killed with a blade, and recently, too,’ he said.

  ‘A blade? You mean, by a person?’ Teodor asked.

  ‘That would be my guess, yes,’ Chris answered him.

  ‘I agree, and not long ago, either,’ Augustin said.

  ‘We’re not alone up here,’ Chris added.

  ‘The effigy, and now this,’ Teodor said. ‘Someone’s trying to scare us.’

  ‘Well, it’s working,’ Katelyn called to them.

  ‘Do you want to keep going?’ Chris asked.

  ‘Of course. I have not come all this way to turn back now because of someone’s sick joke. No, we continue,’ Teodor said.

  ‘Okay, if you’re sure. What about you, Katelyn? Are you still okay with all this?’

  ‘As long as I don’t have to look at these things, yeah, I’m good,’ she said.

  ‘All right,’ Chris muttered, and gathered his things again as they set off once more.

  ***

  ‘Chris,’ Teodor said, coming to sit next to him later that night after they had made camp in the forest for the second night running. ‘Have you noticed that, well, this forest, it seems…’

  ‘That we should have been through to the other side by now? Yes, I’ve noticed,’ Chris answered. Chris glanced up. The guide was too far away to hear them, and Katelyn was in her tent already after their meal as the fire started to gutter and die.

  ‘What do you make of it?’ Teodor asked. ‘Have we misjudged it?’

  ‘Honestly, I’m not sure. The terrain is very rough and it’s taking us longer to move even a short distance than I would have hoped, but I would have thought we’d have been out the other side by now. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. The guide doesn’t seem too worried at this point,’ Chris answered.

  ‘True. Let’s see what tomorrow brings, shall we?’ Teodor said before he stood. ‘Good night, Chris,’ the old man said, gripping Chris’ shoulder briefly as he passed by and walked towards his tent.

  ‘Night,’ Chris answered and watched him go. If they weren’t out of the forest by mid-morning tomorrow, then Chris felt justified in thinking that there really was something quite wrong about this. It should not take this long to traverse this forest.

  Chris finished his mug of tea and retired to his tent at roughly the same time as the guide, and went to lay on his bed roll, hoping he could sneak around to Katelyn’s tent in a few minutes.

  The time passed slowly, and in the quiet as everyone settled down, the sounds of the forest seemed to grow louder. Every rustle of leaves and gust of wind sounded like another wolf, or something worse, creeping into the campsite, ready to rip through the tent and gut him where he slept.

  He wondered who it was who was creating these effigies, killing these stags, and leaving them for them to find? It felt like someone’s sick joke rather than the work of a vengeful witch. As if someone was cashing in on the legends and doing their best to scare people away.

  Well, they might not be running back down the hill just yet, but it was certainly serving to creep him out. He’d slept in tents hundreds of times in some of the most remote and desolate areas of the globe, and here he was in a European wood, feeling more scared than he’d ever felt before when camping. He was practically jumping off of his bedroll at each snap of a branch or crunch of leaves.

  Wait, that last sound… The crushing of some leaves… It sounded closer.

  There it was again. Crunch. A very distinctive noise that did not sound like a natural sound of the forest in any way.

  Chris sat up, listening intently, waiting, and, suddenly, he heard it again, and again. They were footsteps. Someone was walking in the camp. Why was that freaking him out so much? I could be Katelyn coming over to see him, only… he said he would come to her. Why would she be out now, walking in that strange halting gait that the noises suggested?

  As he listened, the footsteps continued and receded; moving further away, much further than it would take to cross the campsite, and in the direction they were going, there were no more tents that way. His was the last one.

  The noise was disappearing into the woods.

  Chris couldn’t resist it any longer. He had to see. He had to know. Unzipping the front of his tent, he parted the canvas but saw only darkness and the dying fire a short distance away.

  Slowly, he pushed his head through the opening and looked around him, mainly in the direction of the footsteps. As he peered into the night, his eyes adjusted and he could see someone, a woman, a naked woman, walking away into the woods.

  ‘Katelyn?’ he whispered. Chris looked over to the tent next to his and noticed the flap on the front was open. His eyes wide, Chris scrambled out of the tent and looked into Katelyn’s.

  It was unoccupied, Katelyn was gone.

  ‘Shit,’ he muttered and looked off in the direction she had gone, but couldn’t see her. Chris picked up his LED torch from just inside his tent and ran into the night, sweeping the beam of light left and right. ‘Katelyn? Katelyn!’ he called as he went, but saw nothing. He kept going, looking back over his shoulder from time to time to make sure he kept the campsite in view; something that was made a little easier due to a lamp that Teodor set up each night.

  As he moved through the trees, he tried to keep up a good pace, trying to catch Katelyn up while also trying to be careful and not trip on one of the roots that stuck up from the earth.

  Suddenly, the ground fell away and sloped down into a depression, like a bowl that was somewhat clear of trees. Chris stopped at the edge, not wanting to go tumbling down there in the dark, but then suddenly spotted movement in the dim moonlight.

  Chris shone his torch, adjusting it for a more focused and narrow angled beam. Katelyn was down there. What was she doing? It took him a moment to register what was going on, then he realised she was laying on the ground, propped up on her elbows, her head towards him and her knees up and spread wide.

  Then he heard the noises, the moans of pleasure coming from her and something else, something that sounded deep and guttural, and not very human. Was there something there with her, between her thighs, moving? Something dark and… Katelyn threw her head back, looked right at him, but her eyes were completely white as she moaned. More movement around the hollow caught his attention, suddenly. Golden yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness, staring right at him.

  5

  A wave of fury rolled over him then, bubbling up from deep within him and urged him forward, gripping his mind and giving him no other option, He had to save her. Chris ran down the slope, shouting and screaming, waving his arms about. He saw a solid looking branch on the floor and picked it up, banging it against the trees as he went. Whatever had been with Katelyn, touching her, had gone, disappeared into the darkness along with the wolves that ran into the trees.

  Chris raged for a few seconds more before bringing his anger under control and falling silent. The wolves and whatever else had been in here were gone, and the usual sounds of the woodland returned as Chris looked back at Katelyn. She lay still, naked in the mud.

  Chris pulled off his coat and covered her with it, but she seemed delirious; in a trance, maybe, and not really aware of what was going on. Which, given the situation, was probably for the best.

  Her eyes were still white, though, which worried him, but as he picked her up to carry her back, her eyes closed and she went totally limp.

  Using his torch as best he could, he climbed slowly up the side of the hollow and start
ed to make his way back to the tents. He’d run off without waking Teodor and Augustin, he realised. They were completely unaware of what had just happened.

  He considered telling them, but he really wasn’t sure it was the best course of action. He looked down at Katelyn again, and decided he would wait and see how she was and whether she had any memory of this at all, and then base his choice around that.

  Should he tell her what had happened? She deserved to know, really. This was an incredibly personal and possibly life shattering event for her. He’d see how she was in the morning, or whenever she eventually woke up, but he felt sure she should know. Whether now, up here on the mountain, was the best time and place to tell her or not, he wasn’t really sure. He’d think on it and make that choice when the time came, he thought as he reached the camp and maneuvered her into her tent. He laid her on her bedroll and covered her, wrapping her up as best he could, and laid there next to her, not wanting to leave her alone.

  ***

  ‘Hey, gorgeous,’ Katelyn said.

  Chris opened his eyes, rising from the fitful night’s sleep he’d had on the floor of her tent. His body ached from the uneven ground and he didn’t feel very rested.

  ‘It’s very cute of you, you know,’ she said.

  ‘Sorry, what?’ he asked, wiping the gunk from his eyes.

  ‘You sleeping next to me all night. I’m sorry, I must have dozed off before you came over. These long days of hiking are taking their toll on me, I’m afraid,’ she said, smiling.

  Chris sat up. Had last night really happened? Had he really followed Katelyn off into the woods and found her being… well, molested, maybe, in the darkness surrounded by wolves?

  It all felt so insane, like a dream, or, more accurately, a nightmare. Maybe he’d fallen asleep in his tent and perhaps the stress of the day’s hiking and the strange events during the day were freaking him out and causing some bad dreams.

  ‘Do you remember anything about last night? I’m not sure what happened, really,’ he said.