Mushroom Man

Jake Smith, a 16 year old Canadian boy was looking forward to his weekend in the woods to go binge drinking with his buddies. He was packing his last bit of supplies and he grew quite nervous. This was his first time he was to sneak out of his house. He grabbed his bag and a bottle of vodka then proceeded to run out of his house to his friend’s. They were glad to see him, because they did not think he would show up. He hopped into the back of the pickup and they sped off towards the woods.

It was a dark night, with very little moonlight. They pulled off onto a dirt road and soon came to a stop. They jumped out of the car.

“I bet I can drink two six packs,” a friend challenged.

“Yeah right,” said another.

“Who wants a slug of vodka?” asked Jake. They each took a big gulp from the bottle and when the first was fully drained, they took out another. All of them were feeling pretty good, and were clearly very, very drunk. They went back into the van and proceeded to travel down the gloomy country road. It was a miracle they hadn’t crashed yet. Jake’s friend Charlie then reached under his seat to pull out a small bag of shriveled mushrooms. At this point he and his friends were fairly deep into the Canadian wilderness.

“Hey guys I got this from Davis my classmate who had been on meth for a few years. He would do sell anything to feed his harmful addiction. He disappeared a few days after I got these mushrooms from him.”

Since they were all drunk, they thought nothing of the mushrooms and their mysterious appearance or Davis’s sudden disappearance. They each grabbed a mushroom and washed it down with a gulp of Jamaican rum. The mushroom didn’t taste too bad, so they thought it wouldn’t hurt to eat another, and another, and another. Then the car came to a screeching halt.

“Dammit! I forgot to get gas before we left! No cell signal either!” yelled Chris as he pounded on the dashboard with frustration.

“What are we going do now?” Jake questioned. They did not expect this type of thing to happen, and were ill prepared. The mushrooms seemed to start taking their effect. They did not notice much at first, just the loud music booming from their car and a few quiet conversations going on amongst themselves. Suddenly their electronics went black.

“Fuck!” Jake screamed as he kicked the van in anger. “We’re in the middle of nowhere with a shit ass car and only a gas lantern for light. It’s eleven at night and on top of it we are tripping on these mushrooms gotten from who the hell knows where.”

“Calm the hell down Jake we’ll be fine. Heck, it’s only thirty miles back to Dease Lake. We’ll head back in the morning. If we hurry well be able to get a decent mechanic,” said a Chris.

They got settled down, some slept in the car, and some out in the open. Jake was having a lot of trouble sleeping. The mushrooms were taking their toll. He started hearing voices, and saw disfigured shapes out of the windows. I shouldn’t have eaten those mushrooms, he thought to himself. He saw a bony, white hand banging on the window. What the hell was that? He questioned. He slowly moved towards the back of the van where he had put a flare gun. He slowly opens the back door, flare gun in hand, to see all of his friends were gone. Not a single trace was left. On the window of the van, a message was inscribed. He tore the paper off of the window and read it to himself. The note read: “Stay inside, to stay alive.” He dismissed the note as a prank by his friends.

“Okay guys, come out now. I know it’s a prank.” He yelled.

The pale hand grabbed his shoulder whispered into his ear, “Oh, it’s no prank.”

Jake turned around only to see that the van had disappeared. On the ground was the bag of shriveled mushrooms with a note saying: “It’s your only hope Jake.” In desperation he ate the whole bag of mushrooms. The effect was overpowering. Almost at once lights flashed in his eyes. The voices were becoming increasingly louder. It’s just the mushrooms. They’re known to cause strange hallucinations.

“Just keep calm. Keep calm.” He said to himself. He knew it would all be over soon… or would it? He saw a great deal of movement in the tree line. Just a hallucination he thought. It almost looked as if it were coming towards him. Its speed was increasing, he could almost make out what it was. It looked somewhat humanoid, yet it was running on all fours. The thing was very pale and long dagger-like claws sprouted out of his fingers. It was thin with a very long face but something was wrong. The eyes were gouged out of his skull and long blood stains flowed out into his mouth. He was in absence of facial features except for three marks on top of his forehead: three mushrooms. You could see nothing in his eyes or mouth, just blackness. Just close your eyes Jake, it’ll all be over soon he thought to himself. Within the next few seconds he felt a warm breath caress his neck. In curiosity, he opened his eyes. Two black holes were parallel with his eyes.

Jake screeched in terror lashing out with his hands to push the creature away, but it grasped firmly onto him. He felt the sharp claws digging deep into his flesh. Jake could smell the strong aroma of mushrooms from the creature. Jake pulled out his bright orange flare gun and shot the creature in its eye socket. Then took off on the old country road.

He ran faster than he ever had before the fear of dying gave him endless amounts of energy. Finally he looked back to see nothing. He had ran about four miles and was exhausted from the long run. He hears the loud rumble of a truck heading his way. He peered through the windshield to a sickening sight. The driver had his eyes gouged out and had the trademark mushroom carved onto his forehead. In a split second the car crashed into a nearby tree.

Jake goes over to the truck to find nobody at the scene. The only thing that was there was a few bloodstains and another bag of shriveled mushrooms. Jake had no prior experience with driving, but he thought he knew enough about it to be able to get around. He zoomed down the dirt road and came to a fork in the road. He saw a sign that said town was just 7 miles down the right fork. He heard and turned his head whilst driving, to see the creature. Jake swerved and crashed into a building. He opened the door and crawled out of the car and ran into the building.

“Come with me Jake…” he heard as a hand grabbed him and dragged him to the basement. “You’ll never get out of this situation. Why would you take those shrooms?”

“I don’t know.” He replied. “You’ll have to know the story if you want to survive. It all started when a man traveled deep into the Canadian wilderness and picked a patch of mushrooms next to an ancient Native American shrine. He distributed them throughout Canada, but was never heard from again. Whoever eats the mushroom is cursed to live a life of fear. Knowing that the Mushroom Man will get them too. My name is Davis, and I should have never eaten those mushrooms.”

Davis started to strangle Jake screaming, “It’s the only way out, Jake. THE ONLY WAY OUT!!!”

“Get the hell off of me!” cried Jake. He pushed Davis off and ran.

“You’ll regret your choice Jake! I was your only hope. Prepare to live your life of fear knowing that the looming man of mushrooms will strike at any time!” Davis yelled. Jake continued to run with the Mushroom Man behind him. Finally he saw the town, Dease Lake. He ran into a lit up mini mart to find a man. As the man turned around Jake saw he had no eyes and the marks of three mushrooms upon his forehead. Jake knew he’d made the wrong decision. Each person he found had the same trademarked look of the gouged out eyes and three mushrooms on their foreheads. He ran into the vast woodland again to live his life of living hell. Before his change he wrote a small note to notify somebody of his terrible fate. Before he could finish writing the note the mushroom man emerged out of the foliage.

“Please, you don’t have to do this.” Jake pleaded.

“You thought you were clever but there is no escape from the mushroom man.” It rasped while twitching towards him. The mushroom man peered deep into his eyes, and gouged them out. Then it took its razor sharp claws and carved three mushrooms into his forehead. When it heals it will leave the scar of the mushroom man.

”If anyone is reading this…. I need help. I don’t know how much longer I have. This thing, it’s been following me. My name is Jake Smith, I regret ever coming out here. We didn’t know what we were getting into, just my buddies and me. Oh god I can hear it Please he“

This note was found by police three weeks after Jake Smith and his friends went missing in the vast woodlands of British Columbia. Not much is known of their disappearance. No other remains were found other than this note except a small bag of shriveled mushrooms.