The Deer

Written by Alanna Banhoff (Chiara Rhein or Hungary) 

Translated from Spanish

I was going through the woods, very tired and wounded, and I had no destination in mind.

I walked to get away, not towards, the sinister forest.

Suddenly, I saw something. Was it a house? I soon found out it was a cabin.

I went to the cabin for help. In the conditions in which I was, I needed help, so I went there. It was small and it was in some sort of big, natural hole. There was a fenced area with an animal inside, but I couldn't see what animal it was. At least, not at the moment.

I knocked, and a man opened the door, seeming very thin, whom appeared not to have eaten anything in his whole life. He tried to dissuade me, telling me that I should stay, but it was not necessary. I fainted right there and woke hours later as dawn approached. My wounds had healed, and I was much better. I did not want to trouble the man, so I decided to go quietly, leaving a paper saying "Thank you" on the door.

Upon leaving, I saw the fence and it caught my curiosity. There was a deer tied upon it. How strange... I moved a little closer to see it better. It, indeed, was a deer. It was eating something. I turned around to see the deer's face, and as I did, it was a gruesome sight.

A deer, mouth and teeth rotten horrible, giving him only arcades. I shuddered at this, but there was more. His mouth was full of blood. I moved my eyes down, afraid to see it's meal. A girl, completely mauled and bloodied. Clearly, the food was horrible for the deer's teeth.

"Oh, sorry," - I heard a voice behind me. "it's my pet. The girl was my daughter I had to be able to feed." "How?" - I said - "a girl to feed... that?"

"Yes. My deer likes people without injuries. That's the reason I treated you." - Something hit me in the back and I fell unconscious. Shortly thereafter, I awoke with a horrible pain in one eye. It was completely destroyed, and it hurt a lot, but I did not wanted to be eaten by that monstrous deer.

I ran to a village, where people looked at me strangely. I was taken to a hospital, and they cured my eye. There, I told the police everything I saw. The police at first did not believe me, but then I thought, thinking there might be something there if it was real. They asked me to lead them to the cabin.

There were only the remains of a man, a girl and an open fence. Besides the body of the man, I found a note, so I handed it to the police. It read:'' "I released my deer. He can hunt alone." ''