I Responded to an Accident in the Woods and Found the Devil's Mare

The Devil’s Mare

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Officer David Rattenborough

I was a patrol officer no more than 6 months out of the academy when I got the call. A driver had stopped at Shelly’s Diner to report a crashed vehicle off of Ray Chapel road. Seemed like an easy enough situation to handle. The drivers had probably hit a pothole and were walking towards the nearest house. I’d find their information, call in a tow truck and call it a night.

I’d lived in Beckley, West Virginia my whole life but only rarely drove around this part of the woods. It didn’t take long to find the vehicle that the caller described, a little old Ford sedan jutting out from a ditch. A thick blanket of clouds covered the moon and a layer of mist clung to the ground, but it was easy to see the swerving skid marks in the road leading to the accident. This looked like a classic case of avoiding a deer and losing control. I approached the car and checked the seats. The were empty, but I found both front door windows broken and a smear of red on the outside.

If these folks were this injured they couldn’t have gotten very far. I studied the ground and found a trail of blood leading into the woods. With it, were strange indentations in the ground. They looked like deer prints, but large enough to be those of a bear. I drew my gun and followed the tracks into the woods.

I moved deeper into the forest. The trees were becoming thicker and taller and I realized I had never called in my position or the case. There would be no backup. I debated returning to my vehicle when I heard a scream off in the distance. I ran towards the noise, my heart pounding in my ears as I did. In my 6 months on the force, I’d only drawn my gun a few times and had yet to fire it.

As I followed the trail of prints and blood, I noticed that the flecks of red gradually began covering a wider and wider area. First on the ground and then they began to dot the nearby trees. Almost as though whoever was being dragged or carried was being violently shaken.

The moon appeared from behind the canvas of clouds and I saw a clearing up ahead, into which the increasingly horrific trail led. I burst into the open circle, a cool breeze wafting over my face, as though I had emerged from a dank cellar into the open air. The spattering of red collected into pools all over the clearing. My heart punched the inside of my chest but I somehow managed to keep my hands perfectly still as I slowly moved my flashlight across the grass and saplings of the clearing.

My light washed over the trunk of a bizarre tree with a type of bark I’d never seen before. It was smooth and shiny. Knots dotted the trunk, along with some kind of vines that looked like twines of wormy veins. Another of these trees appeared next to it, and then another until half a dozen or so of them were in view. That was when I noticed the stream of dark red trickling past them. I raised my light and revealed, to my horror, a pale face twisted into an expression of utter terror with lines of red streaking down it like rivers on a map. The driver.

One of the trunks moved, then another. They rose and fell in the underbrush, crunching over dried leaves.

The next few seconds were a blur. The trunks started moving towards me and in a brief state of panic I dropped my flashlight. I remember hearing deep thuds on the ground and sensing the presence of something massive and evil moving closer to me. I fired my gun twice and a horrifying, otherworldly screech erupted into the night.  The plodding thuds receded back to the other side of the clearing. I felt around for my flashlight and pointed it into the darkness. Through the veil of mist and obstruction of trees, I could make out the unmistakable silhouette of a massive horse. Its head had to be the size of a small car and in it, two piercing eyes glistened in the light and stared into mine. Then it turned and disappeared into the forest.