Cryptids in Tanglewood Forest
by Parker Mageropoulos, Class of 2026

Tanglewood is a small town in Maine. Not many people live there and even fewer visit. But when they do, it’s to try and shoot down a photograph of a cryptid or two. Many people fail. Thankfully, the Cryptid Club fixes that. 

The Cryptid Club was founded in 1981 by two freshmen: Adrian O’Connor and his best friend since 4th grade Charlie Fischer. Adrian always had an interest in cryptids and legends but didn’t know how to start the club. So he put around flyers at his school, trying to find and recruit anyone who might be interested. A sophomore named Tony Reed saw the ad and called Adrian, saying that he could get the history teacher, Mr. Jenkins, to host the club. Mr. Jenkins agreed and let them meet in his classroom whenever they wanted to after school. 

They offer a private tour to show real cryptids like the town-renowned Tanglewood Cryptids including the Tanglewood Deer, the Smiling Demon, and the Frowning Demon. They’ve been known to kidnap the happiest and saddest souls in town and are said to have taken over the town hundreds of years ago. Other kinds of souls occasionally disappear, but never at the hands of the Tanglewood Cryptids. 

They are stolen by the Stranger, a tall and lanky monster who looks like an uncanny attempt to look human. It wears a mask with a long, smiling face, and jewels dangled all over its body. There’s also Crowman, similar to Mothman, who is a humanoid crow. It wears a cloak and has a face that resembles a plague mask. These two cryptids like to sabotage lost hikers found in the Tanglewood forest and steal their possessions, usually anything shiny. 

During the club meetings, the students would research cryptids in their local magazine and any books at the library they could find. Later they would try and hunt down the cryptids, or at least get a picture of them. They usually came out blurry. 

Tony had some other friends: Michael Wood and Gerard Marks. They were also sophomores and did not like Adrian and Charlie’s nerdy cryptid club. Sometimes they would even follow the club members into the woods and dress up in badly made cryptid costumes and some old deer skulls as masks. Michael would chase them deep into the Tanglewood forest and get them lost. Gerard also likes to jumpscare them. 

Eventually they found out that Tony was also in their loser club and tried to get him to leave. Tony overheard them planning about sabotaging the club  in the bathroom, and warned Adrian and Charlie. 

This is what happened:

Adrian and Tony met up by the abandoned shed just outside the forest. Charlie got there on his bike a few minutes after. Michael and Gerard planned on getting there at 4:00 pm and it was 3:55 pm. Tony was shoved into the shed to hide, and Adrian and Charlie sat waiting on a rock, pretending to gather their supplies like a regular club meet. 

Gerard sped his way to the woods on his motorcycle with Michael holding on tight on the back. Adrian saw them and signaled at Charlie to start running. The two jumped off of the motorcycle and sprinted towards the forest. Gerard told Michael to run after Adrian, he would deal with Charlie. 

Michael is a fast runner, and he’s the fastest on the school’s track team and won multiple state competitions. He chased Adrian, twisting around the woods. 

Then Adrian stopped, he could see the Tanglewood Deer. Of course, he never saw the Deer when he was actually looking for it, and he is only now finding it when he doesn’t have a camera. He smacked his hands to his face and ran towards the Deer, not focusing on Michael who was still chasing after Adrian. The Tanglewood Deer suddenly stopped, and Adrian almost slammed into it. He couldn’t believe his eyes, the cryptid he was looking for all his life, before he started the Cryptid Club, before he met Charlie. It was standing right in front of him. And then Adrian and Michael saw a flash of red, each seeing a teethy face, the Smiling Demon and the Frowning Demon, respectively. 

The Smiling Demon and Frowning Demon were finally in possession of their own humans again, after nearly 100 years. After they possessed humans in the mid 1800s and caused chaos all over town, a warning was put up for the town to not venture too deep into the Tanglewood Forest as to not get possessed, injured, or  worse. 

These demons usually reside as spirits in the antlers of the Tanglewood Deer, and try to get out any chance they can to possess another human. They can only possess a human if they’re both in possession of a human at the same time, which usually prevents them from ever possessing someone. They also want to make sure the human is fitting for them to possess.

They’re pretty picky cryptids. 

It was all a blur. There were so many glowing red eyes, but his vision wasn’t quite working, so he couldn’t tell what the lights were. Michael was still chasing Adrian, but he felt down, and he felt more tired than usual, he wanted to just collapse and never get up again. Did he really have to keep chasing Adrian? But Adrian was feeling the best he’s ever felt. He could run for forever; he felt excited, energetic. He felt the best about everything. Even his sore throat was gone.  

Then they collapsed again. Michael got up faster than Adrian, and pulled him towards a nearby log. They were there until the morning, Michael sat there thinking about what was going on. He had never researched anything about cryptids, he doesn't know anything. He never had an interest in Tanglewood’s weird fascination in their monsters. Did he really just get possessed by a cryptid? And one of the Tanglewood's cryptids at that?

While the sun was rising, Michael could hear the shouts of Gerard, followed by Tony and, he assumed, Charlie. He shouted for them until they all found each other. Charlie and Tony carried Adrian as he slept, coma-like, and Michael walked, limped really, leaning into Gerard.