THE WOODS By Sean Proudfoot
It was a cold Autumnal evening. School was over and as I walked casually over the piles of dead, rotten leaves covering the old, cracked footpath I heard them rustling under my feet. I dreaded the amount of homework I was given, not noticing the clouds behind me forming into one massive storm. The wind howled and its aggressive force hit my face. I grunted as I ran for cover under the nearest tree, and jumped as I saw a flicker of lightning and heard the boom of thunder drowning out every other sound in the sky.
I ran deep into a dark, secluded part of the forest not looking or knowing where I was going. The thunder and lightning ceased and I breathed a short sigh of relief. I looked around and realized I no longer knew where I was. Ghostly looking trees grew from every corner, and their branches twisted and turned in a grotesque way. It wasn’t night but it may as well have been, everywhere I looked I saw nothing but darkness.
I attempted to find a way out but everywhere I went everything appeared the same. My stomach felt sick as I turned and sat next to a fallen tree and put my bag down next to me. The rain restarted and pounded against the dense leaves of the horrific looking trees, refusing to let a single drop hit the ground.
A rustling behind me woke me up from my daze and I cautiously went to investigate where the sound was coming from. A bush hidden behind some trees was the source of the noise; it had no trace of an animal nearby so I ignored it and turned to search for a different route out of the forest. As I turned round I caught glimpse of a tall, dark figure looming in the shadows. I rubbed my eyes and looked back in the direction of the figure but nothing was there, I called out hoping someone would be there to help me but there was no answer.
I walked sluggishly; it felt like I had been lost in the dense forest for hours. My stomach growled hungrily and my throat was parched. I thought I was going to fall over and faint from exhaustion but I pursued on. Accidentally I stepped on a twig, it snapped and I jumped falling over and rolling down a steep, sloping hill until I hit the bottom.
I don’t know how long I lay there but when I woke up it was darker and my head was bleeding. My bag lay next to me and I scurried for something to stop the blood gushing out from my head. I was panicking but ripped a page from my copy, folded it and used some tape to use it as a bandage on the spot that was bleeding. I sat there for a while to rest but a noise behind me told me to get moving, I picked up my bag but underestimated its weight and struggled until it was balanced on my back and attempted to retrace my steps up the mountain. A shadow behind me caused me to turn nothing was there just the dark, evil feeling of the forest around me and a hat I hadn’t seen there before.
It looked to be a 6 year old girl’s hat and I hesitated before calling out, there was no answer.
It was another hour of walking through the endless forest before I pathetically collapsed onto the dark, damp grass. I felt like giving up and just lying there. A picture on a tree aroused my curiosity and I dropped my bag by my side so its weight wouldn’t carry me down. The picture looked like it was drawn by a 6 year old and I thought to myself if it was the same girl who lost her hat. The drawing was of a tall dark figure with a blank face, he was wearing a suit covered in blood and he had long dark arms growing out his back that stretched like tentacles. There was one word written in what looked like red pen it read “RUN” but I didn’t understand what it meant.
I put the page in my pocket and walked over to my bag. The wind picked up and the trees blew heavily I thought it was going to rain again but It didn’t.
A shadow appeared behind me again but this time when I turned to face it a tall, ghostly looking figure standing so still you would think it was dead stood behind me, he matched the picture on the page and one word appeared in my head ‘RUN!’
I began to sprint as fast as I could in the opposite direction of the figure dreading to look back to see if it was chasing me. I finally grew enough courage and stopped, he was nowhere in sight and a sigh of relief had grown on my face. I should never have turned around, he stood in front of me his face as white as a ghost, with no facial features, his suit covered in dark red blood and his long gruesome arms as grotesque as the trees. His arms slowly wrapped around me but I was too scared to run away.
My body was found a few days later by the police. There were no bones broken; no blood lost just the dead soulless look in my body’s eyes.