Peeler

DAY 3

Ari’s eyes flickered open to the morning light warming the canvas. She felt for Paul beside her, but his sleeping bag was empty. She was instantly awake, terrified. She sat up and called his name while pulling on her boots and unzipped the flap, jumping outside only in her sleepwear.

The rain had ceased at some point, but the entire campsite was still wet, muddy, and cold. Paul stood a few steps away, facing a tree, not moving. He was still in his sleepwear as well, bare feet planted in the mud.

‘What are you doing?’ Ari asked without approaching him.

He spun around instantly, faster than she’d have thought possible in his overnight condition. In the daylight he looked even worse than the night before; forehead and hair damp with sweat, skin pale and wrinkled. His closed eyes were surrounded by dark rings, jaw hanging loosely open as his shallow breathing filled the morning air with uncomfortable rasping, not as horrific as his retching the previous night but just as concerning.

‘What do you mean?’ his voice scratched in his throat. Nothing else.

Ari slowly walked over to him. She wanted to ask how he was feeling, if he had any idea what was happening, if there was anything she could do to help, but when their eyes met, her stomach dropped and she stayed silent. He tracked her until she stopped a few steps away from him, his eyes even more hollow up close. Something was so wrong she barely recognised the man before her as her partner, now little more than a sick, decaying shell of what he’d been only a day or two ago.

‘You need… help, Paul,’ she managed, her voice breaking with concern, or fear. She stopped speaking when he tried to smile. His dry lips cracked as they spread, just a little too wide for the grin to appear natural. His teeth were yellowed and spit clung to his separated lips, struggling to hold on through his breaths.

Ari didn’t move, as if moving would push him further into whatever insanity or illness was consuming him. Though she was terrified for him and her main focus was to get him help, the attempted grin pushed her just far enough to now fear for her own safety.

‘I…’ she began, ‘Something’s wrong with you.’

He remained still, uncomfortably staring at her with the unsettling smile. When he spoke, he forced the words out his throat, against his tongue and teeth, behind a heavy breath as if the difficult exertion hurt. ‘I’m fine.’ Still, the grin remained.

‘Stop; you are not fine. At all. I think you should stay here, and I’ll run ahead to find someone. I’ll leave the tent and the packs and everything so I can move fast. You just wait here… try and get some rest, or something.’

Paul’s unblinking eyes grew wet with strained emotion, a tear eventually falling down his cheek, past his still smiling lips, heavy, quickening breaths growing uncomfortable. ‘Don’t… leave me.’

Ari brought a hand to her face, covering her mouth, first shocked, then disgusted with herself and her suggestion. But she knew it was right; she closed her eyes and looked away. ‘I can’t do anything for you, here,’ she said to the trees. ‘I don’t even know what’s happening.’

‘Stay… with me.’

His tone, imperceptibly more defiant, sent a shiver up her spine. She turned back to him, wanting to argue further, but almost fell back. He stood right in front of her. She hadn’t heard him take the few steps, and his voice hadn’t sounded any closer.

‘Paul…’ she began, but stopped when he slowly reached up his hand towards her. It gripped her arm, his hand cold and wet, weaker than a child’s.

‘I can walk.’ He leaned closer to her, and she held her breath in the stench of his. Without another word, he released her and shambled through the dirt, barely lifting his bare feet, until crouching to – with great difficulty – start packing up the tent.

Before she joined him, Ari looked down at the mud, almost too scared to do so. In the confusion last night, she’d almost forgotten the possum skin, but she was sure this was where she’d seen it. Now, there was nothing there. Her first instinct was to ask Paul about it, but a multitude of reasons reminded her there was no point.

They folded and packed up the camp in silence, Paul refusing to elaborate on his illness and Ari far too confused, concerned, but mostly scared to start the conversation. She insisted that she take the bulk of the equipment – both parts of the tent and the cookware – to save him exerting unnecessary energy. He agreed with only a silent nod, taking the food and clothes, and they commenced on the day’s hike.

Ari tried to walk with him for as long as she could, a few steps between them. Every time she opened her mouth to speak, she stopped herself; not only had his responses been unhelpful and vague, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his chilling voice again, nor what he would say.

Unable to continue listening to his wheezing breaths and dragging steps, Ari gradually fell behind. Not a simple task, considering his slow pace, even with her added weight, his lightened load. After a few minutes, he froze ahead of her, Ari stopping too, along with her heartbeat. His chin turned, faster than she’d thought him capable, searching for something… for her.

‘I’m back here.’ She made no move to approach him.

Paul slowly turned as if with wooden legs. ‘Why… back there?’

Her heart quickened at his voice; could it have deteriorated even more? ‘You’re not okay. I want to watch you, make sure nothing happens.’

His eerie grin returned, slowly spreading as a long, desperate wheeze drained his lungs. Ari wondered if it was supposed to be a laugh. ‘No… I’ll make sure... you’re okay.’ His arm lifted slower than his words, pointing ahead of them. ‘You in front.’

Ari shook her head. The ten steps of space between them felt like an incredible distance, but every time he spoke, all she wanted was that distance to be greater. ‘You’re… I can’t…’ She couldn’t form a rational sentence. ‘What happened to me not leaving you?’

‘Don’t leave me,’ he said again, far less assuring than he’d likely hoped. ‘But you still walk in front.’

After running a hand through her hair, she sighed. ‘Fine.’ She stomped past him, looking forward, avoiding his eyes, not wanting him to see her tears. Not wanting him to see her at all. ‘If it means we’ll keep moving.’

A small gurgling sound was Paul’s only response, Ari unsure if she’d been meant to hear it.

As they walked, Ari hated the feeling of his eyes on her. It sickened her that they were her partner’s, yet she still felt the unnerving instinct to run.

Initially, she’d tried to walk slowly to stay close to him, but, fears growing with every step, every dragging boot following her, every mumble, gargle, or gasp from behind, she gradually returned to her normal pace. Soon, Paul’s shambling steps crunching through the brush and dirt quietened and disappeared.

It was unsafe, unwise, even selfish not to wait for him, but Ari knew their best course of action was to find some kind of help. She’d walk on ahead, regretfully leaving him behind, until she found a road, someone on the trail, even a park ranger.

She moved faster than the first hiking day, hoping to find someone as soon as possible. She walked and walked, but found no sign of any other people on the trail at all. How far would she have to go? The trail wasn’t particularly popular, but they hadn’t covered much ground in the last couple of days; if she kept walking, she’d eventually find someone.

The sun climbed through the sky, beaming through gaps in the grey clouds, Ari sweating with exercise. After maybe an hour of fast walking, she stopped, annoyed and exhausted. Her heart raced, either from pushing her legs or from fear for her situation. Ignoring Paul’s condition – as frightening as it was on its own – how could there be no one else on the trail? Her phone had been dead for days; how was she supposed to help him if she couldn’t find anyone?

She looked back down the trail, no sign of Paul or anyone else in either direction, and removed her pack. She threw it into the brush off the path and followed after it, deciding to rest and wait for Paul to catch up. If she couldn’t find help, she could still stay with him. But – though the guilt made her ache – she didn’t want to go back to him. She’d wait, let him pass without seeing her, and tail him from behind to make sure he was safe without having to hear his arguments… or making him aware of her.

Ari sat against a tree, letting the sounds of the forest encapsulate and soothe her into a half-awake rest. It helped that she’d barely slept the previous night.

Her eyes snapped open, annoyed that she’d drifted off, something having changed. Footsteps approached on the trail, but that was all. No birds’ beating wings and tweeting songs, no insects chirping and buzzing, not even wind moving through the leaves and grass.

She stood, unnerved, and headed back to the trail, the footsteps crunching closer to her the only sound. Dragging, slow, but sometimes in small fast bursts, erratic.

Ari stayed behind a tree wide enough to hide her as she watched Paul. It was Paul, but there was no sign of her partner in the thing shambling down the path. It limped, swayed, stumbled, and jerked as each foot moved in front of the other, as if every limb worked independently. The shoulders and arms twitched and writhed, then froze while the rest of the body kept moving. Its back folded and straightened at random intervals, contorting in the most unnatural way.

Ari shivered and covered her mouth, her eyes growing wet with fear; nothing about what she was seeing was natural.

Paul’s – the thing that had been him – head stayed fixated on one point for a number of grotesque steps, until some unknown distraction would take attention and his neck would spin, snapping his focus to another random point. With each step or twitching arm or neck snap, he wheezed or gurgled or coughed, forcing the sounds similar to the retching from last night, but thankfully not as violent.

Her plan to let him pass without seeing her was cemented; she had no desire for him to know she was there. She held a hand over her mouth in case Paul… it, would hear her ragged breathing, and her tears gathered in the crease of her fingers pressed against her cheeks, unable to blink, unable to fully hide behind the tree or look away in fear that it would hear her movements, or that she would lose sight of it.

As it moved along the trail, she carefully tried to round the tree to keep out of sight, while still being able to watch it herself. In the utter silence that had followed this thing, its uneven steps and breathing filled the air; she made sure her movements were precise, silent.

It didn’t matter.

When it was directly across from her, its disturbing gait froze, all movements ceasing completely, and so did she. Its head snapped again as it had been doing, this time its eyes landing directly on her.

She could only blink away her terrified tears. She couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing it clearly while it watched her. Though it faced her, its eyes seemed to stare right through her.

Suddenly one of its legs pushed in her direction, the rest of the body slowly following suit as its back straightened abnormally.

‘Paul,’ Ari whispered, unable to form a coherent thought at the thing coming towards her.

If she’d been unsure what to do, Ari had no further deliberations when the thing’s mouth opened, its jaw hanging as if broken, and the grating, inhuman, chilling sound that emanated from deep within it groaned, ‘Coooooome heeeeeere sweeeeetheart.’

She ran.

All that mattered in that moment was getting away from it, from Paul. She ran into the forest, weaving through the trees, directly away from that thing.

No part of her wanted to, but after a minute of running, she had to turn back to see if she was being followed. She slowed to turn, holding her breath, walking backwards. There was no sign of it. How far had she gone? She hadn’t even taken her pack. She cursed herself for acting so brashly, but the thought of being so close to that thing convinced her she’d made the right choice.

She was still walking backwards when she stepped on something. It didn’t feel like grass or dirt, maybe mud, but…

She looked down, a bird’s corpse under her boot.

Ari yelped and jumped back, studying the dead animal. Though she’d put all her weight on it, it looked relatively intact, no blood or visible wounds from the pressure. There were no ants crawling over it either, and the eyes…

Empty.

The entire animal was empty; just its skin left behind, perfectly preserved, as if eaten from the inside out.

Ari slowly looked up, hands shaking. Bird skins littered the forest floor, some gathered in small piles, most scattered and strewn about the dirt and grass. They were all the same – a small grey bird – hundreds of them. Some were full-body skins, like the one she’d stepped on, while others were only parts – legs, tails, wings, heads, bodies, or some horrific combination. There was no blood, no innards or gore at all; just the skins.

‘Oh my god,’ Ari whispered through involuntary tears. She stepped backwards again, back towards where she’d come from, towards Paul.

She blinked – at least, she thought she’d blinked – and in an instant, she gasped and froze. Every single bird that had some sort of head attached to its partial or complete corpse, every single emptied eye socket, looked directly at her.

She stayed still for a number of heartbeats, as if waiting for them to move again, to further prove it had happened, before sprinting back towards the trail.

She was quickly reminded of the ache in her legs and chest from running away from Paul, and she stopped, too terrified to even look in Paul’s direction, or the empty bird skins’.

Leaning against a tree, she caught her breath, wiped her eyes and tried to convince herself she would be okay. She waited for any sign of Paul, any sound of footsteps, but heard nothing. The wildlife and wind hadn’t returned either. The forest was completely silent… dead. Her breathing was the only sound, her heartbeat growing louder and louder in her ears.

Eventually, she decided to at least retrieve her pack before making a run for the nearest sign of safety. She’d have to go back where she’d come from, to Paul. If he’d been following her, she told herself, he would’ve caught up by now; maybe it was safe.

She walked carefully through the brush, stopping every so often to listen. Nothing. Nothing but her own steps. She looked up into the trees, and nothing moved, not even the leaves on the thinnest branches, nor a blade of grass by her feet.

When she guessed she was near the path again, she stopped, hearing something in the distance. She couldn’t make it out; perhaps an animal screeching in pain. Or Paul.

She warily moved towards the path, the sound getting louder and louder, eventually sending chills down her neck when she realised the words: ‘Heeeeeelp meeeeeee,’ being repeated over and over in that nauseating, scratching voice. Ari wanted nothing more than to avoid it completely, but her pack was in the same direction as the pleading.

When she spotted her pack in the grass, the screeching calls entirely filled her head, and she gritted her teeth to ignore it. Then, between her pack and the path, she saw it, lying on its stomach in the dirt and grass, moving only every few seconds in unnatural twitches. She put her hand over her mouth again, but after a single step, its head snapped around to stare right at her – through her.

‘Sweeeeeeeeetheart,’ it groaned, not moving from its position lying in the grass.

‘P… Paul?’ Ari said, trembling, trying to sound normal. She had only a sliver of hope that her partner was still in there. ‘What…’ Her voice shook and cracked with terror and despair.

‘Coooooome over heeeeeeere,’ it said, its lips barely forming the words as the guttural noises emanated from its throat and chest. It didn’t seem able to hold its head up to look at her for more than a few moments, dropping it back into the dirt.

‘I… I don’t think I can do that.’ She stepped closer to her bag, almost close enough to pick it up.

‘Doooooont leeeeeeave meeeeeee.’ It had seen her intention.

‘I have to… I need to get help for you. I’ll come back.’

She’d barely finished the final word when it jerked again. In an instant its hands stretched towards her, pulling itself, head glued to her. She flinched to pick up her pack and threw it on her back, ready to run, but she watched it for a further moment. It was unable to drag itself to her, as if stuck.

‘I’ll come back,’ she repeated, hoping it would remain stationary for a while. ‘I’ll get help. I… I promise.’

Instead of responding, the thing pulled towards her once more using more force, and whatever had been holding it gave way. Only, after watching a moment more, Ari saw that it wasn’t the tree stump it had fallen onto that had budged. It was the thing itself.

Paul… it… was impaled on a log it must have tripped onto, one small broken off branch stump stuck in his abdomen. When he pulled, the branch still held onto him, but in one quick, horrifying movement, the skin from his entire body began to split and stretch from several points; his shoulders, his chest, his arms… even his face. His eyes stayed on hers as it pulled and his scalp ripped down his face, across his nose and chin and down his neck to his chest beneath his clothes, the skin peeling back from the muscle as blood sprayed and leaked onto the grass. The thing was closer to Ari, and as it pulled the skin stayed behind, stretching and ripping and bleeding in a grotesque display that filled the forest with the wet sounds of tearing flesh and the thing’s horrible groans.

Ari almost vomited, would have if she didn’t turn and run. She ran as fast as she could along the path, ignoring everything her body was telling her, to breathe or rest or cry or vomit, ignoring everything her mind screamed, trying to make sense of anything that was happening. She ignored it all and ran and would run until she couldn’t anymore. Anytime she briefly considered stopping, the image forever burned into her brain of Paul’s entire body being skinned by his own forced movements kept her feet moving, her lungs pushing.

Wet drops hitting her face finally woke her from her terrified sprint. She collapsed in the dirt as the rain picked up, heaving breaths as if she’d been drowning. Her legs cramped and twitched with the strenuous work she’d put them through, but hadn’t realised until now. She had no idea how long she’d been running, though when she looked up at the rain, the sky was darkening.

‘What the fuck,’ she cried between gasps. She still hadn’t passed anyone, any other hikers, rangers, any sign of other people. Even in her state, she’d stuck to the path – that much she knew – yet it was as if she was the only one out here. Her and the thing following her.

She looked back; there was no sign of anything behind her.

She blinked away her tears as she tried to think rationally. She could keep moving through the night to find help, or stop and set up camp in the forest and hope the thing didn’t find her. It was stupid to think she’d get any sleep, but she could at least rest and hide in her tent in the darkness. The idea of being stuck out here with… anything she’d seen today terrified her, but so did the thought of walking in almost pitch darkness and running into something else as horrific as Paul, or the birds. From her burning legs and chest, she wasn’t sure how much more work she could put them through, and after running for so long, she must have put considerable distance between herself and Paul. Judging by how slowly she’d seen it moving, it was a decent advantage, and it had struggled immediately once it had walked off the path, falling and impaling itself, to the point that its skin…

She couldn’t think about that. All she could think about was rest, and pray that her logic was sound.

She didn’t wait to catch her breath, pushing through the aching in her limbs to move off the path into the forest, far enough that her tent couldn’t be spotted from it. The ground was covered with enough obstacles, she hoped, to deter the thing from getting too close.

By the time she’d set up the tent – thankful she’d taken all of it that morning – and climbed inside, the sun was setting, and the rain started to pour. She wouldn’t fall asleep; she didn’t want to. Every time she closed her eyes, the terrifying images she’d witnessed that day were still burned into her retinas. She couldn’t let anything sneak up on her tent while she was unconscious.

Her body had other plans. The extensive exercise of her desperate sprint left her physically exhausted, and the mental exhaustion of processing all she’d been through was enough for her to succumb. With the lulling rain padding on the canvas, she fell asleep without even realising how badly she’d needed it.

NIGHT 3

Her eyes snapped open when she heard it. In her dream, someone had been calling her name from a great distance, desperate. Subconsciously, she remembered everything and woke in a panic.

Her name.

The rain had died to small tapping on the canvas, and beneath it she could hear the sound…

Her name being called. Paul’s voice.

She closed her eyes so tight it hurt, cursing herself for stopping when she should’ve kept moving, praying to anything that would listen that the thing would continue on and leave her be.

Her name kept being called, getting louder as it moved closer, crunching footsteps now audible as well.

She listened again. ‘Ari!’ There was desperation in the voice, genuine fear and longing. It was Paul; his real, normal voice that she hadn’t heard for two days.

She couldn’t trust it. She stayed still, held her breath, kept her eyes closed.

‘Ari, is that you? Please, god…’

She opened her eyes when the footsteps broke into a run, much faster than she’d seen that thing move.

‘Ari! Are you in there?’

Still holding her breath, everything inside her told her not to do it, not to make a sound, but now that he was this close, his voice, his steps, his emotion, she exhaled and cried out in her own desperation, tears flowing, ‘Paul?’

‘Oh my god,’ he said, and in the next moment, the zip to the tent flap flew open, and Paul was inside the tent, her Paul, soaked from the rain, his cheeks soaked from tears, and after only a single glance at each other as she sat up, he leapt into the tent and threw his arms around her. She hugged him back as the two cried and gasped and held each other tighter than they ever had, so tight they’d never let go again, saying each others names, swearing, thanking.

‘What…’ Ari said as she began to form her thoughts, her face buried against him. ‘What happened, Paul? That… That thing I saw, the… the skin…’

‘Ari, please,’ Paul said, stroking her hair as he wept. ‘I can’t believe I found you. I don’t care what happened, just let me hold you.’

She sniffed, pushing away from him so their wet faces, their sad eyes, met. ‘Do not fuck with me,’ she said between sobs. ‘I need to know what the fuck is going on, right now.’

He looked at her, for a moment confused, then understanding as he put his hands on her cheeks, thumbs stroking her. ‘Okay. Okay. I… I don’t know, sweetheart. You’ve been acting so strange, for… a couple of days. Then today, you just ran off. I begged you to stop – I couldn’t keep up with you – but you just ran. I had no idea where you went. I’ve been looking for you for… for hours.’ He smiled, a sad, tearful smile full of love that melted her heart. A genuine smile. ‘I don’t know what happened. Maybe something you ate, or drank? I don’t know. I don’t fucking care. I just know I’m never letting you go again. We’re going home tomorrow, to a hospital, or something. Right now, I just want to hold you.’

At his final word, she threw herself on him, kissing him, her love and relief and desperation flowing through her tears. They did as he’d desired and held each other, tucking themselves into the tight sleeping bag together, crying equally from despair for what they’d been through and relief and love for each other.

She didn’t understand how all she’d seen and experienced couldn’t have been real; it had felt so real, she’d lived it… but it had all been so unexplainable. Paul’s explanation was enough to satisfy her in her desperation for the entire ordeal to be done with.

They both finally let themselves rest in each others arms, Ari content to sleep properly for the first time on the hiking trip with the knowledge that in the morning, everything would be alright.