The Staring Contest

 Staring Contest



I awoke with a start. I heard something outside of my tent. “This solo camping trip was terrible idea. This can't happen. Please.” I thought. I opened the flap of my tent and peeked outside. As I looked left, I heard something to the right. I quickly retreated back into the tent. When I worked up the nerve to look outside again, I saw a raccoon. I felt a combination of relief and embarrassment. I pulled back into the tent and went to sleep.



I woke up the next morning and stretched. I exited my tent and my jaw dropped at the sight of my camp site. Everything was destroyed. My food was tron open, even though I had suspended it a few feet above the ground to keep it away from animals. The windshield of my truck was shattered and one of the tires was flat. The hood was compressed into a crater.



I looked around to see if the perpetrator was still around but saw nothing. I decided this trip was over and got in my truck to leave. I turned the key but the truck just wouldn't start. I went into the tent to find my cell phone, but it was dead.



“Great,” I thought. “Now what am I supposed to do?” I decided I would just walk along the path through the forest. I grabbed my wallet and my phone and left the site, remembering to come back for my truck.



As I walked through General Andrews State Forest, I was enjoying the scenery. I tripped on a tree root. I fell and rolled over a steep, rocky ledge. I landed on the ground hard enough to knock myself unconscious.



I woke up that night and looked around. I was laying in the nook of two large tree branches. “I didn't land in a tree... did I?” I wondered. I remembered tumbling down onto the ground and nothing after that. Something was definitely wrong.



I jumped out of the tree and landed on my feet. I looked around to assess my surroundings. I looked to my right and saw the rocky ledge I had fallen down. I turned to walk in that direction when I heard something behind me. I spun around to face it. It was another raccoon. That's when it hit me.



<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">Something long, thin and powerful landed on my back. It wrapped its hairy, filthy arms around my face. I grabbed it by the hands and managed to throw it over my head. It turned to face me and I got my first look at its face. I nearly vomited.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">It looked like a half shaven monkey. Except it was around five and a half feet tall. Its proportions looked to be that of a human. It had the sexual organs of a man. It had sharpened teeth and long, wiry fingers. It had one eye, the other socket empty and full of dirt. Its lone eye was almost human-like, but the iris was red and it was bloodshot.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">It shrieked, giving me a full view of it's many teeth. As it closed its mouth, some of the teeth punctured its tongue. This obviously angered it even further. It shrieked again, launching blood into my face. I turned and sprinted towards the ledge as fast as I could, but I discovered that it was not the same ledge. I heard a river nearby and turned in that direction.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">As I reached the river I dove in and the creature refused to follow me into the water. I started swimming south, but the thing followed me, swinging along on tree branches like an ape. I happened to come across this empty cabin.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">I went inside and locked the door. I dared a look out the window and saw it perched on a branch no more than 10 feet from me.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">It was then that I discovered it had bitten me in the shoulder and it was bleeding rather profusely. I went to clean up and found that one of my ribs was fractured. Whether this is from my tumble down the ledge or when the creature attacked me, I may never know.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">It just watched me, and I watched it. We watched each other for at least an hour. When it didn't attack, I decided if I went to sleep it would most likely be gone by morning. I closed the curtains and layed down on the couch. It took half an hour, but I finally fell into slumber.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">I awoke in the morning, remembering the night before. I walked to the window and threw open the curtain's. It was still there. In fact, it hadn't moved a muscle.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">As I write this in a notebook I found, to record the experience in case I don't survive. It watches me through the window, and I begin watching it. I have named it the Looker. We are locked in a deadly staring contest, a waiting game. I truly believe that I will not win, as I haven't eaten in two days. Its only a matter of time before it wins, before it gets its way.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">It can tell I'm close to breaking and that's when it... smiles. It has a sadistic grin on its face.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">I've been looking at that smile for hours. That face is driving me to insanity. I have no choice. I have to find a way to escape or... a way to kill it. That's when I turn to find a weapon.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">There are more, dozens of them. They appear nearly identical, except for the fact that all of these ones have two eyes, but each eye is a different color. I turn to look out the window again and jump back. It's face is mere inches from the window.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">I scream, the first vocal sound I have made in days. All at once the creatures inside jump at me. The Looker breaks through the window. I try to fight but it is no use. They restrain me on the ground and the Looker steps above me.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">He watches me for a moment. Then he slowly extends his long, thin hand towards my face. I struggle against them but to no avail.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">He slides his middle finger into the outside of my eye socket and begins to lever on it until it starts to bulge. I scream at the top of my lines for someone, anyone, to help me.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">He pops my eye ball out of my head. I am forced to watch as he pushes it into the filthy, empty hole in his head. He blinks over it a few times and the eye begins to move in sync with his red one. He has stolen my eye for his own use.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">He begins to walk away, but before he and the others leave, he turns to me. In his own eye he shows me an image of him in the same position as I currently am. He pities me and offers me a hand. I take it and he pulls me to my feet.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">I now live with this tribe of ape men. That's what they are, men. Women are not allowed to join this tribe. Once the ritual has been performed, they are killed. They showed me a small collection of deceased women in the bathroom. They were hidden behind the curtain of the shower. How had I not smelled them?

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">All around me have been through the same fate as me. They are teaching me to hunt and climb and they have sharpened my teeth. I disregarded my clothing a long time ago and my body hair has grown at a surprising rate to a substantial thickness. I am beginning to resemble those around me.

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">I leave this information to the next person who wanders to this cabin. As it will do you no good. If you are reading this, then I am watching you. Just look out the window and see. I'm right there on the branch. It is time for a little staring contest. Just don't make a sound. Because when you do....

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<p style="margin-right:-0.01in;margin-bottom:0in;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">''I am Sergeant Brad Thomkins of the Willow River Police Department. This journal was discovered inside of an abandoned cabin in General Andrews State Park. A woman had contacted emergency services when she saw something that resembled a half monkey, half man. The operator heard a scream and a few moments later the call was disconnected. When I arrived I found a cell phone smashed on the ground. In the bathroom, we discovered a small pile of deceased women in the bath tub. There was something strange about these women, each of them was missing an eye. We went to examine the scene when I noticed something out of the corner my eye. Outside of the window perched on a branch is an ape-like creature.''