FIC: In the Deep, Dark Woods
Title: In the Deep, Dark Woods
Name: dante_s_hell
Prompt #: 22 [Prompt]Businessmen/lawyers/doctors who have never spent a second in their entire lives communing with nature should never try, but in the spirit of team building, they make a good go at it. Arthur even hires a guide -- if only to keep the group from getting lost and making national headlines because they ended up cannibalizing each other when starvation and insanity set in.
It was a good idea until their guide wanders off in the middle of the night to take a leak, and they find him the next morning, his throat sliced open, an arm torn from his body, his guts on the ground. As far as they can tell, their guide is very, very dead. Also, as far as they can tell, it looks like an animal attack.
Their phones don't work out here. Even if they knew how to read a GPS, it was smashed anyway. They have a map and a compass and, despite their pooled collective intelligence, they manage enough common sense to realize when they're walking in circles. Fortunately, their guide came with a radio and a locator beacon.
On the other line is Merlin, the part-owner of the guide shop and the man Arthur really wished had been assigned to lead their little group out into the wilderness in the first place. Merlin also turns out to be in charge of the search-and-rescue team for the region, and because the area they're in is too thick for a helicopter pickup, Merlin takes a line down, collects the body of his fallen guide, and sends it back to base with the helicopter.
The answer to "So, keep going or hike out" was "Keep going", and Arthur was secretly pleased, already planning to sneak into Merlin's tent at some point during the trip. That devious plan gets tossed by the wayside when someone else is strung up between the trees and eviscerated, left for them to find in the morning.
It's definitely not an animal attack. Merlin radios it in, and hears back that their former guide wasn't killed by a hungry beast, either. An incoming storm makes the reception a bit choppy, but they make out enough to know that they might be out there with a serial killer. The storm kills the radio, and they're alone, without expectation of pickup or backup with someone killing them off one by one.
The truth is, they're out there, in the middle of nowhere, with something that's much, much worse than a serial killer.
It's a Wendigo.
Rating: R
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Lancelot
Wordcount: 22035
Warnings: Character death (not of any of the main pairings), gore
Summary: Arthur hires a company to provide team building exercises for the employees of Camelot Industries. The urban jungle is more their speed, but they make a go of it, traveling into the woods to bond while communing with Mother Nature. Unfortunately, the trip isn't what they expect and they bond the hard way...by trying to survive.
Notes: Prompter, I hope you like this. There's a little more than just "horror" and I hope that's okay. This is the story that wanted to be told and the muse sort of hijacked my original gore fest idea. Anyhow, I just loved this prompt!
{ In the Deep, Dark Woods }
Name: dante_s_hell
Prompt #: 22 [Prompt]Businessmen/lawyers/doctors who have never spent a second in their entire lives communing with nature should never try, but in the spirit of team building, they make a good go at it. Arthur even hires a guide -- if only to keep the group from getting lost and making national headlines because they ended up cannibalizing each other when starvation and insanity set in.
It was a good idea until their guide wanders off in the middle of the night to take a leak, and they find him the next morning, his throat sliced open, an arm torn from his body, his guts on the ground. As far as they can tell, their guide is very, very dead. Also, as far as they can tell, it looks like an animal attack.
Their phones don't work out here. Even if they knew how to read a GPS, it was smashed anyway. They have a map and a compass and, despite their pooled collective intelligence, they manage enough common sense to realize when they're walking in circles. Fortunately, their guide came with a radio and a locator beacon.
On the other line is Merlin, the part-owner of the guide shop and the man Arthur really wished had been assigned to lead their little group out into the wilderness in the first place. Merlin also turns out to be in charge of the search-and-rescue team for the region, and because the area they're in is too thick for a helicopter pickup, Merlin takes a line down, collects the body of his fallen guide, and sends it back to base with the helicopter.
The answer to "So, keep going or hike out" was "Keep going", and Arthur was secretly pleased, already planning to sneak into Merlin's tent at some point during the trip. That devious plan gets tossed by the wayside when someone else is strung up between the trees and eviscerated, left for them to find in the morning.
It's definitely not an animal attack. Merlin radios it in, and hears back that their former guide wasn't killed by a hungry beast, either. An incoming storm makes the reception a bit choppy, but they make out enough to know that they might be out there with a serial killer. The storm kills the radio, and they're alone, without expectation of pickup or backup with someone killing them off one by one.
The truth is, they're out there, in the middle of nowhere, with something that's much, much worse than a serial killer.
It's a Wendigo.
Rating: R
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Lancelot
Wordcount: 22035
Warnings: Character death (not of any of the main pairings), gore
Summary: Arthur hires a company to provide team building exercises for the employees of Camelot Industries. The urban jungle is more their speed, but they make a go of it, traveling into the woods to bond while communing with Mother Nature. Unfortunately, the trip isn't what they expect and they bond the hard way...by trying to survive.
Notes: Prompter, I hope you like this. There's a little more than just "horror" and I hope that's okay. This is the story that wanted to be told and the muse sort of hijacked my original gore fest idea. Anyhow, I just loved this prompt!
{ In the Deep, Dark Woods }