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A serene mental health retreat transforms into a waking nightmare in "The Deer That Followed," our most psychologically unsettling tale yet. When Alex's therapist suggests disconnecting to reset after multiple panic attacks and concerning diagnoses, they take the advice to the extreme—booking a remote cabin deep in the woods with no phone signal, no people, and nothing but their thoughts and medication.

The cabin itself feels wrong from the start. Hunting trophies with glass eyes that seem to track movement. Strange rules posted on the kitchen table, including the cryptic warning: "If a deer follows you, go back inside." Wildlife camera monitors that reveal something impossible—a deer eating a rabbit, then transforming into something that stands upright with fingers unfurling from what had been delicate forelegs, its deer head maintaining those bottomless black eyes.

What follows is a night of pure terror as the creature circles the cabin, mimicking voices Alex recognizes—their therapist, their mother, even their own voice—begging to be let in. The psychological horror intensifies when Alex can't determine if what they're experiencing is real or a delusion brought on by missed medication doses and isolation. When the sheriff arrives in the morning, his ambiguous response only deepens the mystery.

The story's true horror emerges when Alex returns to their city apartment, believing they've escaped, only to find evidence that the creature has followed them—muddy hoof prints on their 17th-floor balcony and that same tapping at their window at night, accompanied by their own voice asking to be let in.

We've crafted a tale that deliberately blurs the line between mental health struggles and supernatural terror, leaving you to question which is more frightening: the monster in the woods or the possibility that it exists only in Alex's mind. Listen with the lights on, and remember—that shadow in the corner of your room might just be looking back.

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