The twisted bluegrass folklore

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A wild man

Lost in the Kentucky wilderness, a hunter becomes the hunted.

Something massive stalks the trees — watching, waiting, closing in.

A story inspired by Kentucky Bigfoot legends.

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Clara, my wife. Rosie and Morgan, my two little ones. I had a life, a family.

Just saying their names makes my chest throb. But the forest has ears; it mocks the thoughts playing in your head.

The throbbing in my chest isn’t just love; it’s betrayal, the weight of a promise I can’t keep.

“I love you is forever,” the wedding vow, and “I promise I’ll be home” — all lies now.

Mosquitoes feast on my legs, the legs that follow trails leading nowhere. The rivers have dried up, and the breadcrumbs are long gone.

I was supposed to be home at 5:00 PM after a hunting trip, three days ago.

The cold… it chills me to the bone in this unholy forest.

I long for the feeling of being alone, but something is out here with me.

In the dead of night, I hear a horrifying sound, something not human.

I catch glimpses from the corner of my eye, things I can’t fully see, choosing to stay hidden.

I was the hunter, but I’m no longer the only predator; I’m prey.

I look for light, but the only light I’ve seen is the glowing in its eyes.

It watches me, mocking my tears, keeping me on my feet. I can feel its eyes throughout the day and night. I know you feel them too.

I sit next to a fallen tree, the giant roots offering little shelter.

My eyes barely hold up, heavy with exhaustion from wandering blindly through this merciless place.

It holds me by the throat, feeling like a cry. I went from having everything to nothing.

Blinking is a struggle; I’ve been driven mad. Resting my eyes leads to images of my daughters, the ones I promised to be home to.

Awake for days, running, running from something I can never fully escape.

The sun rises through the leaves that stand high in the giant oak trees.

I see another hunter in the distance, an eerie silence following him.

He wears a bright yellow vest, and the fog is almost swallowing him.

I scream, losing breath fast. He looks my way, worried, his eyes widening; I can see his heart fall to the ground, but something’s off.

His eyes are widened, but they’re looking to my right, not at me.

I glance to my right: a creature running fast at the hunter.

I reach my hand out as if I could reach him. I feel defenseless; there’s nothing I can do.

It was inexorable. I aim my shotgun at the creature but don’t pull the trigger.

The hair on my back stands high above the trees.

It’s hair all over its body, matted and tangled.

The macabre being almost shakes the ground as it leaps at the hunter like a cat with a mouse.

The screaming echoes and follows the fallen leaves on the ground.

The unnervingly still trees tower over us, making me feel trapped.

I sit. I stare. I watch.

His head was yanked far off his body, the grisly scene adding a pit to my gut.

I’d throw up if I had any food in my stomach.

The creature plays with the corpse as if just to tease me, to show me there’s no way out.

It throws the hunter’s mangled body into the limbs above me.

Suffocating in my own space, I forget to breathe, just another thing lost in my fractured mind. Every breath a struggle.

It faces me, slowly walking towards me, breathing heavily.

The mangled, gutted corpse hangs in the trees. The body’s arms almost fully off its shoulders, its vibrant vest bloody and ripped to shreds, like a threat, like it’s setting boundaries.

I drop to my knees, forgetting the world before I was trapped in this forsaken forest.

Holding the gun to my mouth, I close my eyes, squinting hard, anticipating the gun being the only thing I control here, the only way I have out.

Holding the gun to my mouth is a fight to reclaim my life by ending it on my own terms before it gets to me.

The sounds it made when ripping the hunter to shreds embroidered in my mind.

The look it gives me when approaching, facing my exact direction… I could tell you what it looked like, but I pulled the trigger before I could remember.