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Hope you enjoy it as much as I do~","description_bbcode_parsed":"This was an attempt for me to try out an idea I had-scary crushing statues! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do~","writing":"The official name was McGinty Forest, but nobody called it that. It was always The Woods, spoken so that you could practically hear the capital letter at the beginning of each word. The Woods were composed of thick, sturdy oak trees, the kind of oaks that felt older than God and gave you involuntary shivers whenever you stepped on a root. You could go into The Woods, but only during the daytime, and never too deep or too far off the trodden path.\n\nCole didn’t know about this. He didn’t grow up outside of The Woods, for one thing, and for another he wasn’t an outdoorsy kind of person. The fox was a scrawny beanpole with asthma, and he certainly didn’t become a computer science major for the fresh air and natural scenery. Still, he was curious by nature, which meant that his roommate’s suggestion for spending a Saturday had some appeal.\n\nRobbie explained, with characteristic enthusiasm. “You know my hometown?” he said, the tiger’s eyes glinting with excitement as he sat on his bed opposite Cole’s. “Well, there’s this big forest right outside of it, and in that forest, off the beaten path, supposedly there’s a few stone statues.”\nCole slurped the last of an iced coffee and tilted his head at his roommate. “Yeah?”\n“But it’s the weirdest thing!” Robbie continued. “No one really knows if they’re there or not, because no one goes too deep into The Woods. We’re not really supposed to. But I figured that I would go and see for myself, and if they’re there I could take pictures and report back to my archaeology class!”\n\nIt didn’t take long for the obvious questions to be raised. Cole started with “Why doesn’t anyone go too deep into The Woods? You mean no one’s gone off the path in all the years people have been there?”\nRobbie was undeterred. “I mean, people go off the path! They just don’t find the statues. But they’re there! It’s…” He faltered for a second there, trying to find the right way to put it before continuing. “It’s kinda commonly accepted that the statues are there, but no one’s seen them.”\n“Like folklore or something?”\n“Yeah! But it’s different.”\nCole raised his brows. “How?”\n“Well, folklore’s made up. This is true!”\n“But how do you know that if no one’s seen them?”\n“Because they’re there!” Robbie said, trying to forge on as quickly as he could. “We know they’re real, so we don’t look for them, and we don’t look for them because they’re real!”\nCole was silent for a moment. “This is starting to sound a little too Blair Witch for me.”\n“Oh, it’s-“ Robbie’s face scrunched with frustration for a second before returning to its normally chipper state. “It’ll be fine. It’ll be a nice hike, we’ll go off the beaten path for a little bit, and if we don’t find anything we’ll head right on back. How’s that sound?”\nThe fox tossed his empty iced coffee into the wastebasket and smiled. “Sorry, Rob, but I’ve got-“\nHis phone buzzed. His mother had texted him. “Hi, honey-lunch at Aunt Maggie’s house today. Unless you have plans?”\nCole made a face and responded. “Sorry-going with Rob for the day. Love you.”\n\nOf course Robbie had brought fucking Jason. He was enamored with Jason, giggling at the rabbit’s texts late at night and cooing into Jason’s long grey ears during midnight makeout sessions. Jason, to his credit, was as sickeningly sweet to Robbie as Robbie was to him, although that didn’t make him any more pleasant to people other than the tiger. He was a moody, irritable little thing, hectoring and petty to everyone from Cole to the waiter at Chili’s who he bitched out for spilling a martini on his shirt.\nHe seemed pretty subdued today, though, sitting in the passenger seat as Robbie drove. Cole sat in the back, head leaning against the window as the tiger drove to The Woods. It wouldn’t be too far a drive-about half an hour-so hopefully Jason wouldn’t start anything.\n“Aren’t you excited?” Robbie said, beaming at his boyfriend. “I’ve always wanted to do this, and now no one can tell me no!”\n“Sure,” Jason said, glancing behind him and giving Cole a pointed look. “So what’s he doing here?”\n“Avoiding my creepy old aunt,” Cole said, a little more forcefully than he wanted. “What about you?”\nJason’s eyes went wide. “Well, what do you mean?” he said. “I just want to keep this happy little sweetheart company!” He leaned over and gave Robbie a peck on the cheek. Cole’s eyes rolled.\nHe decided to change the subject. “So Robbie,” he said, “what are these statues supposed to look like? Do we know?”\n“Well, there are rumors,” Robbie said, glancing into his rear view mirror and changing lanes. “One of my friends from high school-Jared. He had a grandmother who told him about the statues. She said that there’s three of ‘em-there’s a buck, there’s a snake, and there’s a tiger, like me. She said they’re about eight feet tall and chiseled like Greek gods, but they’re not made out of marble. They’re made out of…some kinda gray stone, I don’t know what.”\n“Limestone?” Cole suggested.\n“Maybe. Now, she said that they were carved way, way before anyone came to America, before even the Native Americans. She didn’t know who, or why, but that’s what she said.” Robbie grinned. “She also said that they came and ate bad boys who played video games after bedtime, but I think that was just ‘cuz Jared was really into Pokemon.”\n“Do you know where we’ll be looking for them?” Cole asked.\n“Off the path!” was the glib reply. Cole could have sworn he saw Jason roll his eyes. He questioned further. “Where off the path?”\n\nRobbie answered with a vague hand gesture and continued driving. It was a good thing Cole didn’t have anything better to do on a Saturday.\n\n“My feet hurt.”\n“Well, I told you, honey, you shouldn’t have worn Converse.”\n“I like Converse.”\n“Just don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”\n\nJason huffed and continued down the path, a few steps behind his boyfriend and a few steps ahead of Cole. The fox had worn comfortable sneakers today, though he would have happily gone barefoot if it meant he could bury them up the annoying bunny’s rear. So far, there was little adventure or danger to be found-there was just a dirt path, an overly enthusiastic tiger and a complaining rabbit.\n\nPerhaps more annoying than Jason’s attitude was Robbie’s cheerful acquiescence. “I’m thirsty,” Jason said, and he was given a big bottle of water with a gentle reminder not to drink too much at once. When Jason chugged three-quarters of the bottle, Robbie just put it back in his bag and continued on with a smile on his face. Thank God Cole brought his own.\n\nIt was a reasonably nice spring day, which meant that the hike proper was as tolerable as it could ever be for Cole. He had brought a small backpack, which carried a bottle of water, a bag of trail mix, bug spray, and his inhaler. Birds chattered overhead as a light breeze blew, letting the fox breathe in the natural scents of The Woods. Oak, wildflower, fresh air…and pollen.\n\nJason rolled his eyes as the other two members of the party stopped. Cole sneezed loudly, eyes watering as he fished around in his bag for his inhaler. “I hope we’re not going to have to stop for Wheezy every two minutes,” the rabbit said to his boyfriend. Cole shot him a glare as he inhaled.\n\nStupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did he agree to this stupid fucking thing? Cole made a face as he made his way through tall grass, hoping desperately that he wasn’t going to walk out of The Woods with forty ticks on each leg.\nIt became abundantly clear that when Robbie said that the statues were “off the path”, that was the extent of the tiger’s knowledge as to where the damn things would be. Robbie was as cheery as always, humming as he walked through thickets of shrubs and between wide trunks of trees. “They’re probably in a clearing somewhere,” he said. “We’ll look for a clearing.”\n\nIf Cole could find any redeeming quality about this, it was that Jason was just as miserable as he was. The rabbit’s face contorted with grimaces and winces as he walked, giving little “oooh”s and “ugh”s whenever he stepped in a bramble or into a mud patch. The petty glee he felt at Jason’s discomfort evaporated when the bunny started whining.\n“How long has we been looking?”\n“About an hour,” Robbie said, unfazed. “Don’t worry, it’s gotta be here somewhere!”\n“Where’s somewhere?” Jason said, steps turning into stomps as he took his anger out on the brush. “How big are these fucking woods, Robbie?”\n“I dunno...”\n“You don’t know?” Jason said, shrill with disbelief. “Don’t you think you should have figured that out?”\n“Look, we’ll keep going for a little bit longer, and-“\n“I don’t WANT to!” Jason said, fists balling up and whirling around on Robbie. “Look, I know searching for these stupid statues seems like a good idea in that special little brain of yours, but forgive me if spending the day in the Hundred Acre Wood with you and an asthmatic fox isn’t my idea of a-WHAH!”\nJason, stomping around in his fury, tripped on something solid and fell onto his face. Cole laughed aloud at that, snorting and covering his nose as Robbie came to help him up.\n“I’m sorry, baby, I…”\nHe trailed off. Jason had tripped over a stone tablet about the size of a microwave, embedded into the ground and covered with dirt.\n“Honey, move your foot. This could be important!”\n“Oh, great…”\n\nRobbie crouched on all fours in front of the tablet, trying to make out the words. Cole stood over him, looking down curiously.\n\n“’Within…these…three…statues…’ Guys, this is important! It’s about the statues!”\n“Go on, read more,” Cole said. “Within these three statues…?”\n“Within these three statues…we have…contained…”\nIn the back of his mind, Cole could pick up a faint rustling noise.\n“We have…contained…the…spirits…of…OK, that’s too hard to read, I’ll just skip that…”\nThe rustling noise grew a little louder, the sound of breeze picking up dead leaves, or…\n“Pray…that…these…statues…do not…”\n\nRobbie’s head snapped up at the sound of Jason’s horrified shriek. The rabbit had backed up against a tree trunk, pointing ahead of him and screaming like his arms had been ripped off.\n\nSlowly advancing towards the group was the towering grey form of a tiger, face carved into a motionless sneer. It looked like a titan, arms chiseled into bulging muscles and broad feet stomping the brush as it approached.\n\nRobbie and Cole stared mute in terror as the tiger walked closer to Jason, in no hurry as the rabbit seemed fixed to the spot. The rabbit cowered against the tree trunk, staring with wide, tearful eyes at Robbie. He couldn’t speak for screaming, but those eyes seemed to wordlessly beg Robbie to do something, anything to save him.\n\nRobbie could only stare as the monster wordlessly picked the rabbit off of the ground, dragging him to his feet and hoisting the kicking, wailing rabbit up to his stone chest. Jason seemed to realize what was to come, and his struggles renewed, his mouth practically vomiting screeches and pleas for help Robbie please help oh fuck oh no please please!\n\nThe tiger turned to face Robbie and Cole as he held Jason, monstrous stone arms crossed over the rabbit’s chest and slowly bearing down. Jason was hoarse now, ragged throat screaming from the pain before that horrible embrace cut it off. His mouth was wide, gasping, eyes almost bugging out. He choked, veiny eyes dripping tears as those arms crushed inwards. Dull crunches and wet pops emanated from Jason’s chest, and blood began to dribble from the corners of that blue-lipped mouth.\n\nAs though broken from a spell, Robbie ran forward, in some vain effort to save his boyfriend. Robbie’s expression shifted from fury to terror as he felt something trip him up, and he looked over his shoulder. A massive stone tail, winding up his legs.\n\n“Cole! COLE! HELP! HELP ME!” The tiger’s arms were pinned by his side, the stone tail winding up Robbie’s chest until it stopped just short of his neck. From behind a mighty oak, the snake statue stared down at his prey.\nCole, riveted in position, watched as Robbie’s pleading eyes shifted over to the snake. A low hissing sound came from the statue-rhythmic, like leaves scraping against the ground. Laughter.\n\nThe cruel grin carved into the snake’s face stared down Cole as its grip tightened on his friend. Robbie’s tongue lolled out, wheezing moans coming from the tiger’s lips as the tail took its toll. The vessels behind his eyes had burst, yellowing bruises blossoming outward like blood in a pond. The snake statue’s tail constricted further. The tiger’s legs were mulched at this point, and the blood seeping from Robbie’s lips showed that his ribs weren’t far behind. Once the poor thing’s eyes popped out, Cole snapped out of whatever was holding him there and he ran away in mute horror.\n\nHow far away from the path did Robbie take him? He didn’t know-all he could see was trees and bushes and thorns. He would have screamed if it wouldn’t have used precious air. In fact, he did scream.\n\nHe screamed as he felt cold stone arms circle around his torso, wordless sobbing screams as he was turned around and made to look up at the face of his killer. There was no grin here, no leer. There was only the dead-eyed stare of a stag, and the merciless pain of compression. \n\nThe stag’s arms squeezed and squeezed, bearing down until the screams turned to howls, which turned to whimpers, and then finally to wheezing hisses. Ribs bent in on themselves, and snapped. Cole’s vision faded, staring up at the unfeeling eyes of the stag statue as those stone arms collapsed his lungs.\n\nLike the statues, their bodies disappeared into the forest.\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"The official name was McGinty Forest, but nobody called it that. It was always The Woods, spoken so that you could practically hear the capital letter at the beginning of each word. The Woods were composed of thick, sturdy oak trees, the kind of oaks that felt older than God and gave you involuntary shivers whenever you stepped on a root. You could go into The Woods, but only during the daytime, and never too deep or too far off the trodden path.
Cole didn’t know about this. He didn’t grow up outside of The Woods, for one thing, and for another he wasn’t an outdoorsy kind of person. The fox was a scrawny beanpole with asthma, and he certainly didn’t become a computer science major for the fresh air and natural scenery. Still, he was curious by nature, which meant that his roommate’s suggestion for spending a Saturday had some appeal.
Robbie explained, with characteristic enthusiasm. “You know my hometown?” he said, the tiger’s eyes glinting with excitement as he sat on his bed opposite Cole’s. “Well, there’s this big forest right outside of it, and in that forest, off the beaten path, supposedly there’s a few stone statues.”
Cole slurped the last of an iced coffee and tilted his head at his roommate. “Yeah?”
“But it’s the weirdest thing!” Robbie continued. “No one really knows if they’re there or not, because no one goes too deep into The Woods. We’re not really supposed to. But I figured that I would go and see for myself, and if they’re there I could take pictures and report back to my archaeology class!”
It didn’t take long for the obvious questions to be raised. Cole started with “Why doesn’t anyone go too deep into The Woods? You mean no one’s gone off the path in all the years people have been there?”
Robbie was undeterred. “I mean, people go off the path! They just don’t find the statues. But they’re there! It’s…” He faltered for a second there, trying to find the right way to put it before continuing. “It’s kinda commonly accepted that the statues are there, but no one’s seen them.”
“Like folklore or something?”
“Yeah! But it’s different.”
Cole raised his brows. “How?”
“Well, folklore’s made up. This is true!”
“But how do you know that if no one’s seen them?”
“Because they’re there!” Robbie said, trying to forge on as quickly as he could. “We know they’re real, so we don’t look for them, and we don’t look for them because they’re real!”
Cole was silent for a moment. “This is starting to sound a little too Blair Witch for me.”
“Oh, it’s-“ Robbie’s face scrunched with frustration for a second before returning to its normally chipper state. “It’ll be fine. It’ll be a nice hike, we’ll go off the beaten path for a little bit, and if we don’t find anything we’ll head right on back. How’s that sound?”
The fox tossed his empty iced coffee into the wastebasket and smiled. “Sorry, Rob, but I’ve got-“
His phone buzzed. His mother had texted him. “Hi, honey-lunch at Aunt Maggie’s house today. Unless you have plans?”
Cole made a face and responded. “Sorry-going with Rob for the day. Love you.”
Of course Robbie had brought fucking Jason. He was enamored with Jason, giggling at the rabbit’s texts late at night and cooing into Jason’s long grey ears during midnight makeout sessions. Jason, to his credit, was as sickeningly sweet to Robbie as Robbie was to him, although that didn’t make him any more pleasant to people other than the tiger. He was a moody, irritable little thing, hectoring and petty to everyone from Cole to the waiter at Chili’s who he bitched out for spilling a martini on his shirt.
He seemed pretty subdued today, though, sitting in the passenger seat as Robbie drove. Cole sat in the back, head leaning against the window as the tiger drove to The Woods. It wouldn’t be too far a drive-about half an hour-so hopefully Jason wouldn’t start anything.
“Aren’t you excited?” Robbie said, beaming at his boyfriend. “I’ve always wanted to do this, and now no one can tell me no!”
“Sure,” Jason said, glancing behind him and giving Cole a pointed look. “So what’s he doing here?”
“Avoiding my creepy old aunt,” Cole said, a little more forcefully than he wanted. “What about you?”
Jason’s eyes went wide. “Well, what do you mean?” he said. “I just want to keep this happy little sweetheart company!” He leaned over and gave Robbie a peck on the cheek. Cole’s eyes rolled.
He decided to change the subject. “So Robbie,” he said, “what are these statues supposed to look like? Do we know?”
“Well, there are rumors,” Robbie said, glancing into his rear view mirror and changing lanes. “One of my friends from high school-Jared. He had a grandmother who told him about the statues. She said that there’s three of ‘em-there’s a buck, there’s a snake, and there’s a tiger, like me. She said they’re about eight feet tall and chiseled like Greek gods, but they’re not made out of marble. They’re made out of…some kinda gray stone, I don’t know what.”
“Limestone?” Cole suggested.
“Maybe. Now, she said that they were carved way, way before anyone came to America, before even the Native Americans. She didn’t know who, or why, but that’s what she said.” Robbie grinned. “She also said that they came and ate bad boys who played video games after bedtime, but I think that was just ‘cuz Jared was really into Pokemon.”
“Do you know where we’ll be looking for them?” Cole asked.
“Off the path!” was the glib reply. Cole could have sworn he saw Jason roll his eyes. He questioned further. “Where off the path?”
Robbie answered with a vague hand gesture and continued driving. It was a good thing Cole didn’t have anything better to do on a Saturday.
“My feet hurt.”
“Well, I told you, honey, you shouldn’t have worn Converse.”
“I like Converse.”
“Just don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”
Jason huffed and continued down the path, a few steps behind his boyfriend and a few steps ahead of Cole. The fox had worn comfortable sneakers today, though he would have happily gone barefoot if it meant he could bury them up the annoying bunny’s rear. So far, there was little adventure or danger to be found-there was just a dirt path, an overly enthusiastic tiger and a complaining rabbit.
Perhaps more annoying than Jason’s attitude was Robbie’s cheerful acquiescence. “I’m thirsty,” Jason said, and he was given a big bottle of water with a gentle reminder not to drink too much at once. When Jason chugged three-quarters of the bottle, Robbie just put it back in his bag and continued on with a smile on his face. Thank God Cole brought his own.
It was a reasonably nice spring day, which meant that the hike proper was as tolerable as it could ever be for Cole. He had brought a small backpack, which carried a bottle of water, a bag of trail mix, bug spray, and his inhaler. Birds chattered overhead as a light breeze blew, letting the fox breathe in the natural scents of The Woods. Oak, wildflower, fresh air…and pollen.
Jason rolled his eyes as the other two members of the party stopped. Cole sneezed loudly, eyes watering as he fished around in his bag for his inhaler. “I hope we’re not going to have to stop for Wheezy every two minutes,” the rabbit said to his boyfriend. Cole shot him a glare as he inhaled.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did he agree to this stupid fucking thing? Cole made a face as he made his way through tall grass, hoping desperately that he wasn’t going to walk out of The Woods with forty ticks on each leg.
It became abundantly clear that when Robbie said that the statues were “off the path”, that was the extent of the tiger’s knowledge as to where the damn things would be. Robbie was as cheery as always, humming as he walked through thickets of shrubs and between wide trunks of trees. “They’re probably in a clearing somewhere,” he said. “We’ll look for a clearing.”
If Cole could find any redeeming quality about this, it was that Jason was just as miserable as he was. The rabbit’s face contorted with grimaces and winces as he walked, giving little “oooh”s and “ugh”s whenever he stepped in a bramble or into a mud patch. The petty glee he felt at Jason’s discomfort evaporated when the bunny started whining.
“How long has we been looking?”
“About an hour,” Robbie said, unfazed. “Don’t worry, it’s gotta be here somewhere!”
“Where’s somewhere?” Jason said, steps turning into stomps as he took his anger out on the brush. “How big are these fucking woods, Robbie?”
“I dunno...”
“You don’t know?” Jason said, shrill with disbelief. “Don’t you think you should have figured that out?”
“Look, we’ll keep going for a little bit longer, and-“
“I don’t WANT to!” Jason said, fists balling up and whirling around on Robbie. “Look, I know searching for these stupid statues seems like a good idea in that special little brain of yours, but forgive me if spending the day in the Hundred Acre Wood with you and an asthmatic fox isn’t my idea of a-WHAH!”
Jason, stomping around in his fury, tripped on something solid and fell onto his face. Cole laughed aloud at that, snorting and covering his nose as Robbie came to help him up.
“I’m sorry, baby, I…”
He trailed off. Jason had tripped over a stone tablet about the size of a microwave, embedded into the ground and covered with dirt.
“Honey, move your foot. This could be important!”
“Oh, great…”
Robbie crouched on all fours in front of the tablet, trying to make out the words. Cole stood over him, looking down curiously.
“’Within…these…three…statues…’ Guys, this is important! It’s about the statues!”
“Go on, read more,” Cole said. “Within these three statues…?”
“Within these three statues…we have…contained…”
In the back of his mind, Cole could pick up a faint rustling noise.
“We have…contained…the…spirits…of…OK, that’s too hard to read, I’ll just skip that…”
The rustling noise grew a little louder, the sound of breeze picking up dead leaves, or…
“Pray…that…these…statues…do not…”
Robbie’s head snapped up at the sound of Jason’s horrified shriek. The rabbit had backed up against a tree trunk, pointing ahead of him and screaming like his arms had been ripped off.
Slowly advancing towards the group was the towering grey form of a tiger, face carved into a motionless sneer. It looked like a titan, arms chiseled into bulging muscles and broad feet stomping the brush as it approached.
Robbie and Cole stared mute in terror as the tiger walked closer to Jason, in no hurry as the rabbit seemed fixed to the spot. The rabbit cowered against the tree trunk, staring with wide, tearful eyes at Robbie. He couldn’t speak for screaming, but those eyes seemed to wordlessly beg Robbie to do something, anything to save him.
Robbie could only stare as the monster wordlessly picked the rabbit off of the ground, dragging him to his feet and hoisting the kicking, wailing rabbit up to his stone chest. Jason seemed to realize what was to come, and his struggles renewed, his mouth practically vomiting screeches and pleas for help Robbie please help oh fuck oh no please please!
The tiger turned to face Robbie and Cole as he held Jason, monstrous stone arms crossed over the rabbit’s chest and slowly bearing down. Jason was hoarse now, ragged throat screaming from the pain before that horrible embrace cut it off. His mouth was wide, gasping, eyes almost bugging out. He choked, veiny eyes dripping tears as those arms crushed inwards. Dull crunches and wet pops emanated from Jason’s chest, and blood began to dribble from the corners of that blue-lipped mouth.
As though broken from a spell, Robbie ran forward, in some vain effort to save his boyfriend. Robbie’s expression shifted from fury to terror as he felt something trip him up, and he looked over his shoulder. A massive stone tail, winding up his legs.
“Cole! COLE! HELP! HELP ME!” The tiger’s arms were pinned by his side, the stone tail winding up Robbie’s chest until it stopped just short of his neck. From behind a mighty oak, the snake statue stared down at his prey.
Cole, riveted in position, watched as Robbie’s pleading eyes shifted over to the snake. A low hissing sound came from the statue-rhythmic, like leaves scraping against the ground. Laughter.
The cruel grin carved into the snake’s face stared down Cole as its grip tightened on his friend. Robbie’s tongue lolled out, wheezing moans coming from the tiger’s lips as the tail took its toll. The vessels behind his eyes had burst, yellowing bruises blossoming outward like blood in a pond. The snake statue’s tail constricted further. The tiger’s legs were mulched at this point, and the blood seeping from Robbie’s lips showed that his ribs weren’t far behind. Once the poor thing’s eyes popped out, Cole snapped out of whatever was holding him there and he ran away in mute horror.
How far away from the path did Robbie take him? He didn’t know-all he could see was trees and bushes and thorns. He would have screamed if it wouldn’t have used precious air. In fact, he did scream.
He screamed as he felt cold stone arms circle around his torso, wordless sobbing screams as he was turned around and made to look up at the face of his killer. There was no grin here, no leer. There was only the dead-eyed stare of a stag, and the merciless pain of compression.
The stag’s arms squeezed and squeezed, bearing down until the screams turned to howls, which turned to whimpers, and then finally to wheezing hisses. Ribs bent in on themselves, and snapped. Cole’s vision faded, staring up at the unfeeling eyes of the stag statue as those stone arms collapsed his lungs.
Like the statues, their bodies disappeared into the forest.
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