The wooden inn wasn't large and had an air of faded dilapidation. Large grease stains on the walls suggested the owner wasn't particularly fastidious about cleanliness.
A black chalkboard stood at the entrance, displaying a detailed map of the road ahead.
At the bottom of the board, written in striking red paint, was a warning: "WILD BEASTS IN THE FOREST AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!"
The entire establishment radiated a gloomy, unsettling vibe. If his truck hadn't broken down nearby and the heat wasn't so oppressive, Mike wouldn't have even considered entering such a bizarre place.
"Well, hello there! What can I get for you, young cowboy?"
From behind the dimly lit counter, a woman in her thirties greeted Mike enthusiastically as soon as she saw him.
She was dressed provocatively, showing a lot of skin, and her figure was admittedly good. However, her face was another story.
Loose, sagging skin and heavy makeup couldn't conceal her premature aging.
"A bottle of cold beer." Mike found a relatively clean spot at the blackish-red counter to sit down, placing his wide-brimmed cowboy hat aside.
Dressed in a crisp, off-white stiff-collared shirt, his clean and handsome appearance clashed violently with the grimy atmosphere of the shop.
"Do you need anything to eat? We just got a fresh shipment of beef..." The woman slid a bubbling beer toward Mike, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth as she smiled.
The shop was tiny; you could see everything in a single glance.
In the back kitchen, a tall man whose face was obscured was intently chopping meat.
Thud. Thud.
The heavy, rhythmic sound echoed through the room.
Above the man's head, a fan on the verge of failure was spreading the thick, metallic scent of blood throughout the space.
"No, thank you." Mike withdrew his gaze. He didn't even intend to touch the beer with its two lonely ice cubes floating on top.
The rag the woman had used to wipe the glass was unrecognizable in color and looked absolutely disgusting.
"Traveling alone in this heat, handsome?" The woman seemed oblivious to Mike's distaste. After wiping her hands on the rag, she leaned across the counter, flirting openly. "Actually, we offer special services here too. For a handsome guy like you, I could help you release some... tension... for free."
As she spoke, she leaned forward and squeezed her arms together, exposing a significant portion of her cleavage.
The seduction attempt was blatant.
However, her appearance combined with her affected mannerisms only induced nausea.
"Thanks, but I'm not interested," Mike, the upright gentleman, interrupted her performance.
Although she tried to hide it, the greed in her eyes was unmistakable.
"That's a pity..." Rejected, the woman continued to stare at Mike unblinkingly.
The greed in her eyes intensified, like a predator eyeing prey.
"Do you know the three men fixing my car outside?" Mike asked. Although faint, he could smell the same peculiar stench on her that he had smelled on the trio outside.
"They're my brothers. Two of them are mentally challenged. We moved out here to avoid discrimination..." Speaking of her family, a rare look of genuine warmth appeared on her face.
In her narrative, the family's plight sounded quite tragic.
"How much for the beer?" After listening to her story, Mike stood up to leave.
He didn't want to spend another second in this weird, smelly shop.
"You saw the sign outside, right? Why not stay the night? Wait for other travelers and go together... The road ahead isn't safe," the woman urged, seemingly surprised by his haste to leave.
"No need. Wild beasts can't hurt me." Mike put on his cowboy hat, his decision firm.
"Alright then. Safe travels. The beer is on the house..." The woman looked slightly regretful, as if watching a piece of exquisite art about to be destroyed.
But beneath the regret, there was a flash of distinct madness.
As expected, this entire family was abnormal.
Mike fished out a five-dollar bill, placed it under the beer glass, and walked out without looking back.
The scorching sun outside was preferable to staying inside that shop.
When Mike returned to his pickup, the three brothers had already patched the tire and were tightening the lug nuts.
A few minutes later, working under the blazing sun, they finished mounting the wheel.
"Here is your payment." Mike counted out a hundred dollars and handed it to the bowing and scraping Big Eyes before getting into his truck.
As the engine roared to life and he drove past the bend, Mike glanced back toward the inn.
Sure enough, in front of the wooden building, the woman and a man holding an axe were watching the Dodge pickup drive away.
Beneath the man's messy, graying hair was a grotesque, terrifying face.
Clearly, the man chopping meat in the kitchen was another deformed sibling.
---
Summer adventure trips were a favorite pastime for young people.
Jessie, having graduated high school and secured a spot at a good university, had been dragged along by her friends for a wilderness adventure.
Seeking thrills, the group of five, including Jessie, intentionally chose remote backroads without GPS navigation.
Inevitably, their SUV suffered a blowout on a secluded forest road miles from civilization.
Meanwhile, Chris, a junior employee in a rush to get from Texas to North Carolina for a job interview, chose a forest shortcut he had never taken before to save time at the T-junction.
However, haste makes waste.
Rushing along the forest path, Chris rounded a blind corner and slammed into Jessie's stranded vehicle.
The violent collision totaled both SUVs.
Miraculously, no one in either group was seriously injured.
But their luck ended there. In the deep, dark forest, a greater danger was waiting for them.
---
Night fell. Having encountered no other lodging, Mike decided to continue driving through the dark.
Under the moonlight, the environment was gloomy, with swaying tree shadows casting eerie shapes. The forest road seemed endless.
However, driving at night was pleasantly cool.
Rounding another bend, Mike caught a glimpse of flickering firelight in the woods out of the corner of his eye. Accompanying the light were sounds that resembled the roars of wild beasts.
Just as he was distracted by the anomaly, a dark figure rushed onto the road, blocking the pickup's path.
"Do you have a death wish?!"
Tires screeched as Mike slammed on the brakes, stopping just inches from the girl.
"Help! Help us! There are monsters in the woods! They eat people!"
God only knows what Jessie had been through today.
Screaming for help, she looked back at the forest in terror, as if something horrific was pursuing her.
Crack.
With the sound of snapping branches, a towering humanoid monster, carrying a bow and wielding a massive axe, emerged from the shadows onto the road behind Jessie.
"No..."
Seeing the cannibal, Jessie's face drained of all hope.
Standing over two meters tall with a mouth full of jagged teeth, the cannibal was indeed an imposing figure.
As the monster advanced on the girl, raising its giant axe for the kill, Mike stepped out of the truck and caught the axe handle from behind.
Interrupted, the cannibal roared and spun around, its hideously ugly face twisted in rage.
Strong grip...
The monster struggled with a force at least twice that of a normal human. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was no ordinary human.
Mike stepped back into a lunge, easily wrenched the giant axe from the cannibal's grip, and with a dominant display of strength, slashed the monster to the ground.
"What is your relationship with the deformed family at the roadside inn?"
Mike placed a foot on the cannibal's chest, pinning him down effortlessly, and asked calmly.
The stench on this cannibal was identical to the smell on the people at the inn.
Equally nauseating.