The terrifying thoughts playing through my mind from the events that happened earlier that cold and foggy October night were no match for what I was about the experience on my way home from The Haunted Forest.

On the night before Halloween, a group a friends and I went to Chile the go to the Haunted Forest. After walking through the woods filled with a bloody bride, clowns, a yeti, zombies, ghouls, and other strange creatures jumping out from behind trees and out of the ground it was time to leave. As I was walking back to my boyfriend’s truck, the tall man by the exit said, “Drive safe!” Sadly, that wasn’t going to happen.

It was about 12:30 when we got back to Loyal, which is where my Dad’s truck was that I drove. I got in his truck and started on my way home. While I was driving, I kept thinking about the things in the woods and imagining my lights shining on a yeti or a clown jumping out of the ditch staring at me or chasing me as I drove by. I was getting really tired and freaked out so to get home faster, I started to speed.

I was about seven miles away from my house driving down a gravel road surrounded by woods when I saw a buck in the ditch on the left side of the road. I was focusing on the buck making sure it didn’t run in front of me that by the time I looked to my right, I was smashing into a large doe at about 50 miles per hour, making the deer slide diagonally across the gravel road onto the left shoulder of the road killing it. I slammed on my breaks and after I stopped moving, I sat there and said out loud to myself, “Did that seriously just happen?!” I looked in my rear-view mirror to confirm that I wasn’t dreaming.

I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I asked myself, “Should I drive home or call Dad?” I thought it something else would go wrong and it would be stupid to drive home with no lights, so I pulled over to the side of the road and got out. The gravel crunched under my feet and the crisp air of the night made me cough as I inhaled. I looked at the front of the truck and none of the head-lights worked. I was standing in the foggy darkness of the night on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. It felt like I was in a scene from a horror movie. And of course, I had to think of the scariest thing ever; the creatures from the Haunted Forest again which made it seem even more real.
I ran back into the truck for safety and called my dad. I told him what happened and where I was. He yawned and said that he would be there in a few minutes. I thought he would be really mad at me, but he wasn’t. When he got there, I instantly felt safer so I got out of the truck again and we looked at the smashed truck. He looked at me and laughed, sarcastically said, “Good job, I knew you would do this sooner or later.” with a smile on his face, and told me it was okay. He said that he would drive in front of me so I could see where I was going and safely follow him home.
It isn’t a good idea to hit deer, but I know if I do I can count on my dad to help me out no matter how late it is because he loves me.