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MATURE: Weakened Boundaries (Horror; Halloween 2022 one-shot contest)

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Rated M for disturbing themes, implications of severe violence and death, maiming, minor cursing.

*

Weakened Boundaries

I don’t sleep well anymore, of course, and it’s difficult to get out much, even though Wilbert takes excellent care of me (people unfamiliar with Pokémon may find it surprising how gentle and affectionate a Luxray can be), and my friends and neighbors are very helpful.

I don’t like talking about it, you can understand, but I’ll tell you what happened in my own words, so you can record it for that book you're writing and perhaps some other brave fools will heed the warning.

My unexpectedly fateful decision was made over a rather innocent thing: the annual Halloween Contest. That year I decided to try something different from usual and go into the great forest at night and find something appropriate to photograph. Even if I didn’t win I thought it would stand out from the crowd of decorations and paintings that are usually entered.

I knew my way around the woods fairly well, having been in there many times over the years, especially when I was younger, though I admit it was not entirely safe, especially in the dark. However, Wilbert would be with me, and I was going to bring enough supplies for overnight camping as a precaution, so I believed there was nothing to worry about. Perhaps if I had not gone in that particular time of year, when the boundary between worlds weakens, I would have been correct.

*

On the 29th of October around six that evening, before the sun had completely fallen, I left my home with Wilbert and set off to the great woodlands to the south. Every once in a while a shadow or sudden movement would startle me a little, but it was more exciting than frightening. Wilbert was enjoying himself too, though I was annoyed at one point when I heard him muffling a snicker after a sleeping Oddish’s snoring made me flinch for a second

If I were not being exceptionally picky for my photograph I would not have needed to stay there for long, and before long I had taken several good pictures—a fallen tree with some holes in the stump seeming to form a face, a Noctowl standing atop a branch made large and menacing by the angle from below, and even a few quick snaps of a Mightyena watching us warily from some bushes, its blood-red eyes following our every move, and a number of others I no longer recall.

Still, I felt sure we could find something even better if we went deeper in the forest and off the well-worn trails, and so as the moon rose higher into the sky we left the path to cut our way deep into the forest.

It seemed a good idea at first as we entered the thicker parts of the forest, farther from humans and their need for fuel and building materials. We passed by and over logs, made our way through brambles, all the while getting more and more pictures—until we reached a stream that I knew completely encircled the boundary between the regular part of the woods and a small but thick area, called “the Dark Woods” in town. It was a strange area that in living memory had never been used for cutting timber or hunting, and many unsettling legends about it had passed down through the centuries.

Large wooden signs were planted all along the water, each sign adorned with papers intended to contain or ward evil spirts, and each one reading:

“THE WOODS ACROSS THIS STREAM ARE FORBIDDEN! STAY OUT! DANGER! –Pokémon Rangers”.

We should have turned back, but I was not superstitious and imagined there was nothing worse there than some wild Pokémon—perhaps some Ghost-types, but Wilbert was skilled in the Crunch move, and I had brought Repel with me. Wilbert seemed anxious about the area, but a few words soothed him and we crossed over.

*

The trees were so claustrophobically close in the Dark Woods that it was utterly without natural light; if it weren’t for Wilbert’s Flash I would have been unable to even see the ground at my feet.

It was here I forgot about the Halloween contest, because there were trees here that were very old and very, very strange. Some had carvings shaped like the faces of both humans and Pokémon in various expressions, some calm or serene, others fearful or screaming, others staring with hatred. Some others had symbols I could not recognize. Strangest of all by contrast were intricate and lovely life-sized carvings in stone of people and Pokémon. These were less macabre than the rest, and I suspected had a different origin.

I was taking as many pictures as I could, no longer for the contest but for curiosity. I wondered if the library or university would know the meaning of these markings, when I suddenly noticed that the only thing I could hear were our footsteps and the click of my camera.

I had been so caught up in taking pictures it had not occurred to me until then that I had not actually heard any other living thing other than Wilbert since entering the Dark Woods.

I decided it was time to leave.

But when we turned around we saw a solid wall of trees, each one with one of the face carvings rather than the symbols—and when we tried to look for a way around we saw we were now surrounded almost entirely by the tree wall, only a single way of passage available.

I felt my heart begin to pound. Wilbert looked at me and released a tiny burst of fire from his mouth, but I shook my head, feeling it would be too dangerous to try burning our way through with Fire Fang, but more than once since then I have suspected that was a serious error.

We continued the only way we could, the tree path twisting and turning more than once before we finally saw light up ahead. We sped up, hoping it might be near the Dark Woods exit, but soon we saw that the light was coming from a small cottage nested in a clearing, itself enclosed by the tree walls.

The outside of the building looked normal and even welcoming, with a porch and bench. There was a light inside the building, which was not reassuring for it was very bright, and oddly intense. I could not shake a strange feeling, and I could tell Wilbert was worried as well. He growled, and pawed at the ground, looked about nervously, then started to alternate between nudging me forcefully in the side and gesturing away from the clearing. I was very willing to follow his suggestion and leave, gambling on either Fire Fang or the return of daylight breaking whatever enchantment kept us here.

Willing…but unable.

I tried to move my legs, but they would not obey. In fact some invisible force seemed to be tugging me, and I began to approach the building, unable to stay still or turn away. Wilbert yelped, and I shouted at him that I could not control my body. He bit onto the back of my coat, carefully avoiding any skin, and began to pull me back; he had little trouble overpowering my muscles, and although being dragged away would be unpleasant I would choose it every time over whatever was bringing me towards that cabin.

Then the door swung open so forcefully it crashed with a bang against the wall. The warm light poured out in an amount I would have thought impossible; the whole clearing was lit up almost like daytime, but it was shockingly hot, like when your face is near an open oven. Wilbert yelped in pain and fell, from what I could not say, and while I desperately tried to regain control my legs continued their steady march until they brought me right up onto the porch and through the door, which slammed shut behind me.

Yet despite almost being blinded outside the inside was somehow dark, the only light a small heart fire in the middle of the room. On the other side there was a door leading farther back into the cabin, and again my body began to walk forward against my will.

Then I would have jumped if I still controlled myself as I heard something heavy—Wilbert, I guessed—crash against the front door. Although a wooden door would not usually hold against a furious Luxray’s assault for long, with all that had happened tonight I was not reassured by that knowledge, and it still held firm as I reached the back door.

The handle turned, it opened on its own, and then I stepped in, a nauseating smell overpowering me as I did.

Before me stood a human-like creature—if creature was even the correct term. It was a being of nightmares brought alive, made up of a mishmash of different limbs from different people, some man and some woman, some young and some old, some parts healthy, and some beginning to rot.

It was not complete; it was missing some parts of its body, there were some large and small holes here and there.

It was smiling like a hungry beast spotting prey, and it spoke to me, its voice strangely soft, even beautiful.

It was human while still alive, it explained, but had been cruelly burned to death after accusations of terrible crimes, and their remains had been scattered across the Dark Woods, a method of posthumous punishment in those days.

And they were going to come back: it was only fair since their life had been unjustly taken.

They just needed a new body first.

Do not try to flee or resist, it told me, it would be waste of effort. I should make it easier for both of us, because if I was good it would leave enough for me to live, it promised. Then we would both be free to leave.

Then the heat and the light returned, brighter and hotter than before, and as I screamed I heard Wilbert managing to break through the door just as everything turned black.

*

When I regained consciousness I was in the town hospital, Wilbert lying down at the bedside, looking up at me with sudden relief when he noticed I was awake.

The doctor told me that Wilbert—burnt and bleeding, but nothing a Super Potion had been unable to fix—had been found attempting to carry me into town by some Rangers doing rounds that morning in the forest, just across the stream that ringed the Dark Woods. Wilbert should have been in a Pokémon center but had refused to leave my bedside before he was sure I would survive. I was told that I had not awoken until the afternoon of November first.

The doctor wanted to know exactly what the hell happened last night.

He listened quietly as I told the story in full, his face impassive. After I finished he paused a moment before he informed me that he would never have believed my story was anything more than an anxious nightmare after exhaustion had caused me to collapse ….

…if it not for the fact he had no other way to explain how, with no bleeding or any sign of cutting whatsoever, I could have lost my left eye and several of my fingers and teeth.
 
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Hi there! Checking out the contest oneshots, and I really love the trip to the haunted woods--it feels like one of the oldest horror story tropes.

I really liked your choice of monster here. From the descriptions of the tree carvings I was expecting something along the lines of phantump/trevenant, and I was certainly expecting something like Sinnoh's Old Chateau once the trees lead them to a building, so actually seeing what the monster was was deeply unsettling, and really effective. "They just needed a new body first" is a great line to cement what we can already guess after seeing that it's human-like, made of a mismash of rotting parts, and I also liked how you described it as sounding "strangely soft, even beautiful." It reminds me a bit of sirens, or in general a lot of fey tales, and I thought it was neat how the sounds of the monster contrast so heavily with the viscerally offputting visuals of it--a sort of reverse of the beautiful-looking killers. The association with things that are normally good (light and heat) also added to this effect, and all-in-all I thought this was a distinctly unsettling, vivid monster design.

Willing…but unable.
I also really liked this moment in the story, which to me felt like the climax. It's also interesting to reread and try to figure out at what point will became inability--was it here, or was this just the moment that the protagonist realized it?

Pacingwise, I thought this was pretty tightly-paced and well constructed. I liked the central conceit of wanting to take cooler photographs than the other people to lure the protagonist out into the woods. It reminds me less of modern horror, where sometimes awful monsters curse/haunt you through no real decisions of your own, and more of older horror, where kids who stray from the path and ignore warnings get eaten by the unspeakable things. I also thought the dips into present tense were clever--at first, I thought it was odd to spoil that the protagonist survives to tell the story, but as they progress deeper into the carved woods it becomes clear that death isn't the only horrifying fate.

This was a lot of fun to read! Er, fun's a weird word here, but I enjoyed the story a lot. Thanks for sharing!

I've flagged some typos in the spoiler below, if you're interested:
so you can record it for that book your writing
[that book you're writing]
My unexpectedly fateful decision was made over a rather innocent thing; the annual Halloween Contest.
[a rather innocent thing: the annual Halloween contest]
the crowd of decorations and painting that are usually entered
if you wanted to suggest that lots of the entered pieces are individual canvases with paint on them, you'll want [decorations and paintings]--but if something like the act of face-painting is being offered, the singular works (although you might want to clarify what kind of painting service is being performed).
so I believe there was nothing to worry about
I think you'll want [believed] here, as in the present tense the narrator probably understands that there was something to worry about
though I was annoyed at one point when I heard him muffling a snicker after a sleeping Oddish’s snoring made me flinch for a second
dropped a period at the end of this sentence
and even a few quick snap of Mightyena watching us warily from some bushes, its blood-red eyes following our every move
you'll want [a few quick snaps] or [a quick snap], and also [of a Mightyena, [...] its blood-red eyes] or [of Mightyena [...] their blood-red eyes]
intricate and lovely live-sized carvings in stone
[life-sized]
hoping it may be near the Dark Woods exit
[might be near]
it creature was even the correct term
[if "creature" was even the correct term]
 
Thank you for the review and the typo corrections! :)
I was a little uncertain since this is the first time I've written in monologue and the first time I've tried to do horror. The story underwent significant revision--pretty much the only elements from the first seed were the style and the very basic outline of "monster in the woods"--the early version probably would have been a comfortable "Everyone" rating. Once the contest is over I'll type up about the development.

It reminds me a bit of sirens, or in general a lot of fey tales, and I thought it was neat how the sounds of the monster contrast so heavily with the viscerally offputting visuals of it--a sort of reverse of the beautiful-looking killers.
A "fey" feel was just what I was going for; Halloween's relation to the old Celtic festival of Samhain was the major inspiration for the final version of the story. My paternal grandfather was from Ireland so I've long had something of an interest in Celtic mythology.

I liked the central conceit of wanting to take cooler photographs than the other people to lure the protagonist out into the woods. It reminds me less of modern horror, where sometimes awful monsters curse/haunt you through no real decisions of your own, and more of older horror, where kids who stray from the path and ignore warnings get eaten by the unspeakable things.
Yep, most of the horror I'm familiar was from when I was younger and watched/read stuff like Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark, which tended towards that style (and inspired the writing to some extent--not being openly gory but giving a brief description of horrific things and letting the readers mind do the work is how a lot of "child-friendly" horror used to work).

I also thought the dips into present tense were clever--at first, I thought it was odd to spoil that the protagonist survives to tell the story, but as they progress deeper into the carved woods it becomes clear that death isn't the only horrifying fate.
I decided pretty much from the start that the protagonist had to survive, and had to be saved by a Pokémon. Being horror, though, I ultimately decided they didn't survive unscathed, though that changed back and forth several times.
 
Congratulations on making an entry, and thank you for doing so!!

As for my thoughts, well, I think you did very nicely in creating a classic, spooky, Halloween-style story! I wonder what that creature was, exactly... and if the camera survived, too...

And well, what a scary situation too, and the state the MC was left in...

Uhmmmm, great job!!! I enjoyed reading this, and I didn't expect there to be some sort of inspiriting(?) at the end, too!
 
hm, initial thoughts are since my knowledge on pokemon ranger is very much limited, ive to understand a lot of how things go, i guess. the MC's negligence in doing what he did is to be expected honestly, but nonetheless still a really fun read.
 
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