The Black Forest

All legends are born from some actual event.  It is a story passed down from each generation until it no longer resembles the original.

The legend of the Goat Man is similar to that of the one about the Jersey Devil.  He, too, was born in darkness.  The great stories of the Goat Man popped up mainly in the 1970’s.  That a scientist in Beltsville was doing radical experimental research.  One of his “experiments” escaped the Beltsville, Maryland laboratory and began his killing spree on unsuspecting victims including one dog.

Just another Urban legend, they say.  Only the story I’m about to tell you is not fiction.  This one is entirely true, and you will remember once you have heard it.

It began one Hallow’s Eve about thirty-five years ago when all the teenagers were out drinking, partying, and burning fires in the black forests near a town you’d swear was fictional if you heard its name.  You’d  never find it exactly searching for it on a map.  A town so small it had only 667 residents.  

You see, it’s pointless to say where because then you’d search for it- only to declare my story pure flash fiction.  I only want to tell you my story as a warning.

So, as it was, October 30th, 35 years ago now. My friends Donnie, Theresa, Mack,  Kevin, and I were having fun in the black forests.  When I say black forests, I do, in fact, mean black. I’m also not referring to the famous Black Forest of Germany.  The tree trunks on the old oaks and pines were quite dense, causing an almost blind spot whenever you tried to peer any further than five feet in front of you.  

Luckily, most of us had grown up near these forests and had a good idea of how to get in and, most importantly, how to get out of them.

So we were chatting when one of my friends, Donnie, decided to play NEVER HAVE I EVER.  He was the leader of our pack of misfits.  Donnie – a linebacker at our high school and one of the most well-to-do guys we knew.  His family had all of the pull in town, overflowing into Donnie.  We wholeheartedly worshiped him.

As stupid a game as there ever was, Donnie asked Theresa the first question.

“Theresa, never have I ever gone down on Mark,” his laugh was evil, as he already knew she had.  We all knew she had.

“I have never,” she said, glaring at Donnie.  

“I think you’re lying, but okay.”

Donnie looked at Theresa again, this time winking at her.

I rolled my eyes because it was now all about Donnie’s jealousy of Theresa’s relationship with Mark and how she had chosen Mark over Donnie.

“This is stupid; let’s play something else,” I said, soon wishing I hadn’t made the suggestion.  Donnie now looked at me wickedly. I’d seen that look when we played football together.  

“Okay, Bryan, truth or dare,”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Dare,” I said.  I wasn’t about to let Donnie put me on the spot by telling my secrets.  Not that I had any, but Donnie would find something about me to turn into a scandal.

“I dare you to walk ten feet into the woods and stay there no matter what.”

That would be easy.  

I stood up, chugged the rest of my beer, then walked ten feet into the forest. 

I stood there for a moment, and then I heard laughter.

Donnie had put out the fire, so now I could not see where everybody was.  I could only see pure darkness.

That fucker, I thought.  

“Okay, hilarious, Donnie.  You know I can’t see shit now.  Where are you?”

“I’m over here!” He called back.  It sounded like he was on the left of me.  So I began to walk in the direction I heard him.  But then I heard Theresa call out.  Then Mack and Kevin called out in two other directions.

“Come on, guys.”

“Over here!” Theresa called.  Her voice sounded a tad worried.  I went in her direction.  As I walked what was ten feet, I found myself turned around in the forest.  I called out again.  This time, I was waiting for someone to call back.  I was now furious with them all.

“Come on, guys, this isn’t funny!” 

Nothing.

The sound of the leaves in the distance was all I could hear.  

I tried to listen to see if I could hear their footsteps.  I heard nothing.

I was beginning to feel a chill now.  Something was off.  Suddenly, the dark forest took on a life of its own.  I could no longer recognize the trees.  They appeared to be moving apart.  

I watched as a fog appeared from out of nowhere.  Now, I felt the temperature drop again.  Only this time, I began to shiver and shake.  The air continuously dropped in temperature until the ice formed on my upper lip.  Paralyzed by cold, my fears seemed far off as I struggled to put my head around what was happening.

Then I saw him.

There was a dim light coming from my left, and as I managed to turn to see what was causing the light, I could make out the strange head of a goat.

I blinked the tiny icicles from my lashes and tried to focus.  I tried to understand what I was seeing.  About six feet in front of me was what appeared to be the large head of a goat.  Its horns were light gray, its eyes were yellow-gold, its fur black as night except for the grayish hair on its chin.  Its fur was black, shiny, and thick as a fur coat from Macy’s in winter.  It looked soft and almost pleasant.  It stood on three legs, almost floating in my direction.  Then I heard a crack!  It appeared to be morphing into a man.  Only his hooves now lifted from the ground as he stood on two of his three legs.

He towered nearly eight feet above me.  I stood looking at him and could barely feel the piss running down my legs.  It inched forward and belted out a scream.

I fell back now and realized I needed to run.

  As I ran, I heard other screams.  I prayed I’d reach the forest’s edge but have yet to find it.

I heard the heavy footsteps of the Goat Man all around me as I tore through the dense woods.  I ran until I found what looked like a clearing.  

I entered the clearing and realized it was our campsite, but nobody was around.  I noticed Donnie’s jacket hanging from one of the tree branches.  I picked it up and saw there was blood on it.  Panicked, I ran in the direction of where the car was.  I  opened the door to the driver’s side, but when I did, I found Theresa staring into space.  The other two that were with us were in the back seat.

“We have to go!” I yelled.

Theresa sat there, and Mack and Kevin sat in the back.  All three of them looked like death.

Finally, Theresa woke from her gaze.  She was disoriented, and tears fell from her face as she slowly realized it was me.

“Donnie, he’s gone.  They took him.”

“Who?” I asked, but I already had a feeling.

“The dark ones.” 

I looked at her and then pushed her aside.  I started the car, speeding out of the area and down a dark, desolate dirt road.

I saw shadows overcast onto the street as we approached the main road.  It was as if the shadows were following our every move.  

We reached the main road, but just as we were about to turn into it, a giant tree fell in front of our vehicle, blocking our passage.  I slammed on the brakes, trying to avoid a collision.

The car stopped, and Mack tapped me on the shoulder.

“Bryan, what the hell is that?”

I turned to see what it was, and all I could make out was a giant shadow with two globes for eyes.  It moved slowly over the vehicle and then stopped to lean into the front of the car.  Two burning eyeballs glared at the four of us.  I felt the car getting hot.

This thing was using the heat in its eyes to crack the windshield.  We all screamed as a crack went slowly down the window until it fell into our laps.  

I followed Theresa as she climbed into the back seat.  Mack and Kevin struggled to open one of the doors to escape the car.

Mack managed to open the door, but as he did, the creature suddenly grabbed him.  Its eyes were no longer burning with ten thousand fires.  Instead, I looked at the beast and recognized it as the giant Goat Man.  His form shifted into a much larger version of what I had encountered in the dark forest earlier.  

The creature held up Mack, threw him into the air, and then bit off his head, quieting his screams.  It was as if he were just biting into chicken wings.

The rest of us ran from the creature as fast as we could, using the headlights from the car as a guide.  

We all ended up back in the forest with its bleak coldness.

I tried to find a way to keep us all together, but soon Keven was screaming as the Goat Man thing pulled his loins apart.  It was the only thing the light from the headlights afforded me as they, too, were suddenly snuffed out.

Now, we were left in utter darkness.  The air shifted, and a strange smell permeated into our nostrils.

I felt Theresa run smack into me as she could no longer run.

“We have to get out of here, Bryan!”

“I know,” I said, pulling her from the cold mud-caked earth.  It was hard to run in it and felt like quicksand.  Its murky void pushed against our feet, nearly holding us in place for the monster at our backs.

We stood momentarily, getting our bearings, when I had an idea.

“Do you have a lighter?” I asked her.

“Um, yeah,” she said, reaching into her pocket. 

I took the lighter into my hands and then searched for something to light the fire.  

I flicked the lighter a couple of times to search for branches to turn into a torch.  

I found some green wood and bark.  It was dry enough. It would be easy to light.  I bent down, undoing my shoelace, wrapping the lace around a large stick, and attaching the other bark and green wood as a torch.  I needed something to help light our way, but the fire could also be a good defense source.

Having only seconds to do this, I flicked the match.  The tip of the wood lit up, but then a cold gust of wind blew it out.  

I could no longer hear the Goat Man, which was not good.  

Theresa was freaking out, trying to block the wind as the fire finally lit up our man-made torch.  

We ran deeper into the woods, hoping we could find cover or a hiding spot from the Goat Man.

Theresa ran at my side as we stumbled over branches and avoided hitting ourselves.  The torch began to pick up momentum, and its heat caused me to drop it.  Just along a small clearing of trees, it burst into flames.  The fire grew, and I thought of creating a fire circle around us as protection.  I wasn’t sure it would last, but we had to try something or else perish in the process.

We struggled to get as much forest around us lit with fire but tried to keep it far enough that the fire would not burn us.

We watched as the looming shadow in the distance came closer, blocking out all the darkness around us until there was nothing but emptiness.

I grabbed Theresa’s hand and held it tightly as we waited for the Goat Man to approach.  Now we were face to face with it.  It appeared to grow like night above us, and the fire and I stood paralyzed, waiting to see what mayhem it would cause.

I took in a bated breath.  Theresa, watching the creature, suddenly dropped my hand.  She turned away from the direction we were looking in.  She was now looking behind me.  Her brown eyes reflected the flames of the fire shelter we’d built.   

Then she looked upward. All the while, I kept my eyes on the giant Goat Man.  

Suddenly, without warning, she flew above my head into the mouth of another large creature.  This one was pale white.  Its body had no hair, no eyes, and only a large mouth.

The Goat Man screamed a screeching sound, piercing my eardrums until I felt them bleed.  The pale creature then crept down from the tree it was in, walking on all fours like a giant spider.  The Goat Man tried to attack the pale humanoid but to no avail.  As he made a motion to grab it, the movement caused a gust of air to wipe out the fire.  

I froze now, closing my eyes as I waited for the Goat Man to swipe down upon me and pick me up – devouring me in one gulp as he had done my friends.

But in the distance,  the sun began to rise.  I could now see the main road in the distance, which was only about fifty yards from where I stood.

The Goat Man was still in hot pursuit of the pale crawler when it saw me make a run for it.  Using all the strength I had in me, something told me if I made it to the main road, I’d be safe.

I ran and got within three feet of the road when I felt the Goat Man swipe to pick me up.  Putting its gross mouth around my body, I slid between his teeth.  My screams filled the forest of nothingness with a pin drop of sound.

Its foot got close to the sun when it dropped me onto the concrete.  I screamed, feeling my left shoulder crack like a stick.  The sound was devastating, but when I looked at the Goat Man, he had been stung  by the light of the sun’s rays.

I cried now, thinking only two thoughts.  I knew I was safe, but I still had five miles to walk before I got into town.  

I managed to stand as the Goat Man screamed again, knocking me over again.  It was him versus me now, and no matter what he threw my way, I had to escape.

I stood as much of a crawl.  I screamed back, letting the beast know I would not be afraid.

He towered twenty feet above me like some supernatural ghost, but I still saw he could bleed.

The sun grew brighter as a cloud moved out of its way.  The sun rose brighter, causing him to retreat further into the forest.  

It was actually afraid of the sun.  Luck was on my side as I managed to stand, walking as fast as my feet could carry me until I burst into a sprint.  My shoulder stabbed against the pain with every step onto the pavement, causing me to wail.

It seemed hours I ran; it was hours that it took me to reach the edge of town.  Yet, as I got closer, I noticed eyes watching me from the blackness of the forest.  The Goat Man was not the only thing lurking inside of it.  I was afraid that something might leap from the forest and eat me, but while their strange glowing eyes followed me, none left the woods to attack me.  

When I reached the sign that gave the name of my town, and I was back to civilization again, I was grabbed by a man whose arms I collapsed in.

“Son, are you alright?”

My eyes closed as I heard him call for help.  As I was held in his arms, I looked back towards those woods and wished I hadn’t.  There were thousands of glowing eyes, all staring back at me.  

That was when I realized the forests were alive.  Not just your normal woodland creatures, but everything you’d ever suspected, and then some were in those woods.  

To this day, I don’t go into any forest, especially at night.

I can promise the legend of the infamous Goat Man is real, as are the pale crawlers, dog men, and the rest.  Do I believe they were manufactured by a mad scientist? I cannot say for sure; I only know they are real live creatures, and how they came about is anyone’s guess. 

You don’t have to believe my story; it’s just a story to you, right?