Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #12 March 2015 | Page 42

hewould have thought he had gone deaf. Just as he
was about to tell Brute to take it easy, the man heard
a low groan far within the woods, a sound like a deep
bass hum that began to build in pitch until his eardrums were struck by the most God-awful shriek he’d
ever heard.
Though the sound came from deep in the forest it
seemed like someone was right next to him, screaming
in his ear. The shriek sounded like a woman’s scream
mixed with the screech of a fox mixed with that of an
owl. The screaming alone was making his skin crawl
but what he heard next made all of the muscles in his
body tense while the colour drained from his face;
the sound of a muffled laughter. Leaning out from
behind a tree he saw a form of a woman with piercing grey eyes looking right at him. This woman was
roughly one hundred feet away but her ghoulish smile
stretched from ear to ear and shone in the gloom; her
black hair looked as if it was ink flowing in water. She
reached from behind the tree revealing long slender
fingers with nails, or talons, like ivory.
Before the man knew it, the hag shot up in a form
of fog or smoke into the canopy, the mastiff yelped
in fright and darted away leaving his master behind.
The man realised he was now alone and turned to run,
but stepped on one of the many rocks along the path
which shifted under his weight causing his ankle to
twist. After falling to the ground he let out an expletive, clambered to his feet and sprinted, whilst also
trying to not put full weight on his now bad ankle.
He had done this many times during marathons except this race was possibly for his life. Panting and
hop-running the man could hear something whooshing
above him, in the trees, snapping twigs on the ground
and knocking rocks to careen off one another; this
woman was everywhere.
As he escaped on the trail the hag’s laughs, hisses,
screams, howls and barks surrounded him. He fled
towards the exit that would lead him back to where he
parked, where he hoped Brute would be waiting for
him. All around him the woods remained silent, even
his feet hitting the ground made no noise, the only
thing he could hear was his panicked panting and the
sounds of the ancient crone taunting him.

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At a turn of the trail she was suddenly standing in
front of him with her head bowed and her freakish
hands clasped together as if in prayer. The man skidded to a halt at the sight. The hag was wearing a faded
dress discoloured by time that was laced around the
midsection with the top part loose but covered by a
shawl. Her hair was red, unlike the previous jet black,
it extended past her shoulders to cascade down her
back.
As he gazed in horror the hag’s head titled up with a
sound of creaking from her neck. Her face was now
that of a fair maiden. Her eyes were emerald green
and slightly slanted giving her the look of one of those
fairies from old drawings. Across her pink lips a warm
smile grew, starting small and slowly growing larger
and larger. The slits of her lips reached ear to ear as
her eyes widened till suddenly as if possessed they
turned pale grey. Her red hair blasted backwards, the
colour draining to black and her lower jaw dropped
down as her mouth became a black shapeless mass of
smoke as she shrieked for an agonizing few seconds
that felt like minutes. As she began her scream the
man staggered backwards before catching himself and
turning to run, this time giving off a horrific scream of
his own.
Without realising it the man ran off the trail, his
mind in complete panic. He bolted through the creek,
blasted through saplings, scraping moss off rocks and
kicking up mud as he franticly ran and never glanced
back. Whilst crying out to the saviour he crawled up
an escarpment viciously clawing at tree roots and dirt
to pull himself up.
After scrabbling to the top he broke out in a dead
run before slamming his back against a tree, panting
as hard as his mastiff probably was back at the car.
Sitting on the cool damp ground he closed his eyes
and swallowed hard as he gasped for breath. He hit the
back of his head against the tree behind him hoping
that he would wake up in his bed back at his apartment.
As he realised how real everything was he heard a
woman’s giggle above him. His eyes shot open in
horror as all the muscles in his body, even his twisted