Michael Hunter: Come Get Me

“What the hell is it?” Rob whispered shakily being the first one to finally find his voice.

“I don’t know,” Pete quietly whispered back hoping nobody would notice the wet spot on the front of his pants.

Whatever it was took another step heedless of their whispers. The fog swirled and revealed part of their adversary. Sharp, pointed hooks slithered from the mist. The boys quickly figured out they were antlers of some sort but they didn’t look the way they thought they would. Goat antlers were usually thick and ugly; these were thin and almost regal looking. Not at all what a horrible creature like the Goatman should have. As the thing took another step the fog swirled a little more, just enough for the group to see what they were facing.

“Damn it!” Rob yelled suddenly startling everyone, “That’s just a frickin deer!”

Sure enough just before the thing realized it was in the presence of humans, they all saw it for what it was and not for what their imaginations had made it out to be. What the boys now saw was a deer that in turn saw them and bolted across the road disappearing into woods, leaving the night only slightly quieter from its passage. The fog smoothly rolled back over the path engulfing them once more. The darkness unfortunately stayed too.

“This was all a total crock of shit from the beginning!” Rob complained, “Whose frickin’ idea was this crap anyways?”

“Yours, you dipshit!” they all yelled in unison. It was almost the first time they’d agreed on anything that night. They quickly looked around as if they expected someone to yell at them for being so loud before they remembered they were in the woods.

“Screw this,” Jim said after a few seconds, “let’s get out of here and go find something real to do. This Goatman crap is a bunch of shit.”

As they turned to walk back the way they’d came another strange noise sounded behind them. They all stopped and looked around. Knowing it was probably just another deer, they were a little less worried than the first time. Looking back in the same direction the deer had come from all they could see was the fog swaying back and forth. More sounds erupted from the night startling them. These weren’t like the first ones at all. Shrieks and grunting noises sounded from what seemed like all around them. This wasn’t any little deer. This was something else entirely. The grating sound they now heard were enough to send shots of pure terror to each of their quickly thumping hearts.

“It’s probably just another deer,” Rob stammered being the only one able to voice what they all hoped.

The boys listened and waited for the fog to blow away. Unfortunately it didn’t want to cooperate. Nothing as lucky as a deer came prancing from the fog this time. Instead what was birthed was something the fog itself didn’t even seem to want any part of. It was almost as if it was spitting the thing out and retreating back from its touch. The fog hovered around its form like a transparent cloak, never really touching but never going too far away either. This made the creature all that more eerie to behold.

Stepping from its shroud not twenty feet in front of them was something that must’ve been in someone’s nightmare only moments before. The fog continued to swirl but revealed vague shapes that resembled a man one moment and an animal the next. The thing was supported not by the normal legs belonging to a human that one would expect to see but instead by two hairy, tree trunk size legs that tapered down to two huge cloven hooves. They looked exactly like goat legs except for many times bigger and many times more powerful. As four sets of frightened eyes took in the terrible sight of its abnormal legs, the thing took a heavy step forward. Those same eyes quickly traveled up the rest of the creature as if commanded to. None of the boys actually wanted to look at the thing’s face but they couldn’t help themselves. When they finally came to rest on it they found the worst was far from over.

Standing well over seven feet tall was a thing made purely from the most twisted of minds. The boy’s small brains were struggling to grasp exactly what it was they were looking at. The beast was just so far beyond anything they could’ve imagined that their minds were at a momentary loss.

Any doubt of the Goatman’s existence was gone. The smell of ammonia filled the air. There were no longer any dry pants in the group. They’d never expected anything to appear when they’d spoken the now terrible words. They weren’t supposed to work. Now The Goatman had arrived and they were sure they would be dead before he left.

The next thing they noticed after getting over the hideous beast was the things chest. It heaved like some giant bellow as air was swept in and out. It was wider than any two of them could ever think about wrapping their arms around and eventually tapered up to its shoulders. The chest, while impressive, was nothing compared to its shoulders. They were bigger than any they’d ever seen. They spoke of many years of hard living and much work. They looked just right for pulling little boys arms from their bodies. They knew there was no hope of escape from a creature like this. They’d made the biggest mistake of their young lives when they decided to call the Goatman.

All eyes were riveted on the creature’s body until something else caught their eyes when it shook its head. A light breeze swept what little fog and darkness that still clung to it away allowing them to finally view the terrible, dark, tree bark like skin stretching across the things angular face. Tiny bits of moonlight cast enough light for them to see the many deep scars crisscrossing its wretched face making it look like a jigsaw puzzle put back together wrong. Those scar seemed to speak to the boys.

They listened with shaking knees as the scar whispered the stories about the many battles their owner had been through and how he had always triumphed when the odds were against him. The scars were all that were left of the Goatman’s adversaries. Little reminders of his conquests.

Seeming to know what images were passing through their heads the goat- like face smiled, if that’s what it could be called, revealing teeth that were almost too horrible to look at. The boys had seen pictures in health class at school but nothing like this. They were crooked, pointy things that looked much too accustomed to tearing flesh from bodies and meat from bones. It licked its lips as if thinking of the tasty meal it was about to partake of. With all the sights they’d beheld they were slow on noticing what they soon found to be the worst and most alien thing about the creature. As they watched it shake its head again they saw, growing directly out of the top of its forehead, were horns. These were the horns they had expected to see but much worse. Each one twisted up and up until it reached the ended in a sharpened point. Seeing it in the moonlight, it looked as if it were stained with something dark.

Probably the blood of his last victim, they thought as one.

The horns were surrounded by greasy unkempt hair that hung raggedly down over it’s’ face and then continued down to its’ shoulders before passing out of view. The boys knew how this hideous creature had gotten its name.

As they faced the creature, having already pissed out everything in their bladders, it suddenly shook its’ entire body, spraying droplets of sweat and God knew what else in all directions and startling Pete so bad he would’ve fallen down if Rob hadn’t been there to catch him. It stared out at them from beneath heavy brows with green, flashing eyes that seemed to be judging whether or not they were worthy of living.

After only a few seconds it must have found them to be wanting in some way because it blew a quick blast of air from its nose and took a menacing step forward. Snot and other disgusting fluids trailed from its flaring nostrils and dripped onto its chest as it took another step. The boys were so transfixed they didn’t realize each step was bringing it closer to them.