The Forest Path

‘Hey Bell, wanna do something tonight?’ Thomas asked her with a mischievous grin.

‘Depends what, but sure’ Bella said, a little hesitant.

‘Just trust me, it’s a surprise, meet me at the front doors at the end of school today’ he said.

‘Sure see you then’ Bella said as she started towards her second last class of the day. The school day came to an end in a flash, Bella walked to the front doors expecting Thomas to jump out and scare her like he always does. But this time he was sitting in his car waiting for her. Bella jumped into his car and buckled herself.

‘Yo, you ready for the surprise?’ Thomas asked when he noticed his best friend sitting in the passenger seat.

‘Yeah, what is it?’ Bella asked.

‘We're going to the forest!' Thomas said loudly excitedly.

‘Oh my god hell yeah, I so need this’ Bella said, while jumping in her chair a little.

‘I knew you’d love this idea Bell, let’s head out then’ Thomas said, starting the car. As they drove toward the woods, they recalled stories about when they would go when they were little kids. Bella looked out the window as they pulled towards the forest, Suddenly Bella jumped in her seat, almost making Thomas drive into a tree.

‘What the fuck, Bell’ Thomas shouted out of surprise, stopping the car to park.

‘I’m sorry, I thought I saw something in the field over there’, she said, pointing towards where she saw the figure.

‘You probably just saw an animal, come on Bella, we’ve been in these woods a million times, we both know there's nothing in them that could hurt us’ Thomas said, as he unbuckled his seat belt.

‘Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry’ Bella said, she unbuckled her seat belt. They walked into the forest, straying from the path only a little, looking back every few minutes to make sure they could still see it. After getting through enough trees, the path is still in sight. They were climbing trees, and as Thomas got half way up one tree he looked around and saw a path that was definitely new to the forest.

‘Hey, can you see that path from where you are?’ Thomas yelled down to Bella, pointing to the path.

‘No, what are you talking about?’ Bella yelled back, as Thomas climbed down.

‘Follow me’ Thomas said, as he started walking towards where he had seen the path. As the two got closer and closer, the path became larger than Thomas had thought. The trees overhead started to block out the sun more and more until it was almost pitch black, even though it was long before the sun was supposed to go down. The grass looked so overgrown and the trees were hanging so low the branches almost got caught on the friends clothing. It seemed to be a newer pathway, however these woods are very well explored, so this path would have already been worn down and wouldn’t look like it just appeared out of nowhere. Bella looked behind them as she was feeling uneasy. Suddenly Thomas felt her grab his arm, he swung around and noticed the opening at the start of the path where they entered was closed off by thick trees, unable for someone to get through. It was like the forest was swallowing them whole, the two looked at each other and without saying a word, they decided to keep going deeper down the path to find a way out. As they wandered deeper and deeper down the path, Thomas started feeling a little weird, and it grew into something less than manageable.

‘Hey can we sit down for a hot minute, I’m not feeling great’ he said, trying not to fall from ducking under branches.

‘Sure, but I think I can see a cabin up ahead.’ Bella said, pointing up ahead a little further. ‘Do you think you could make it that long?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I think I can, it would be a lot better to sit on a bed or chair than on the ground.’ Thomas said, relief in his voice that he can maybe even lay down. They walked up to the cabin and the place looked like it had been sitting there untouched for nearly a hundred years. The walls looked as if they were about to fall with the slightest gust of wind, half the door had rotted away and fallen off. They walked up the stairs, every step felt like they were about to fall through the wood. They knocked the rest of the rotten wood off the door frame and stepped inside, the place smelled of rotten eggs and a public bathroom. There was an old fireplace on the wall to the right of the door, with an old wooden bench sitting in front of it, with some pillows and a blanket on it.

‘Finally I can rest,’ Thomas said, flopping down onto the bench. Bella laughed a little while walking over to a door on the wall across from the outside door. She slowly opened it, a little worried about what she’ll find inside, maybe what was making the place smell so bad. She peeked inside to see a dusty bedroom, a wooden bed sat under a window on the wall adjacent to the door. It had a suspicious looking pillow with a big lump in it, the blanket on it was puffed up like there was something underneath. Bella started toward the bed, before she could reach it Thomas called out, with a sound that sounded like pain.

‘Thomas, what’s wrong??!!’ Bella called out, as she ran out of the room. Thomas was sitting up on the couch.

‘I’m ok, just a bad cramp’, Bella heard Thomas say although his voice sounded off, but Bella brushed it off as him not feeling well. She walked back into the bedroom, only to see the lumps under the blanket and in the pillow were gone.

‘I guess it was just a couple animals’, Bella said to herself. ‘Hey Thomas you should come in here, there's a bed you can lay down!’ Bella yelled to who she thought was her best friend. She heard footsteps coming up behind her, she turned only to see Thomas walking up towards her, with his throat slit so deep his head was almost falling off. Bella screamed and ran past him, and out the door, she almost fell down the stairs and without paying attention, she slammed into something blocking her path. Bella looked up and saw a giant black wall of smoke that was somehow a physical being that she couldn’t get past. Suddenly she heard someone running coming up behind her, she turned to see her dead friend coming towards her with a bloody saw in his hand. Bella tried to get away by turning to run the other way but she couldn’t get past the smoke creature blocking her. Suddenly a hand grabbed her face and pulled her back, she felt the saw dragged through her neck, she screamed but no sound came to her. The last thing she saw was green glowing eyes coming from the wall of smoke.

The path was closed off by trees and no one ever saw it again. Almost two decades later the friends bodies were never found, they were presumed dead about 10 years ago. The families buried empty coffins, and were never given the rest of knowing if their children are alive or not. Until one day something came up in the little town that Thomas and Bella had lived in. A new detective, Tanner, who had worked on the case of the two missing teens when he was just starting as a uniformed officer. Also a journalist, Rebecca, who was Tanner’s fiance. They have a child, Oliver, who is now 16 years old. Bella and Thomas went missing in 1975, the date today is now October 1st 1992, the 17 year mark of the two friends going missing. The following week will be Oliver’s 17th birthday, October 9th. His parents never let him go into the forest, because that’s the only thing everyone in town knew about the disappearance is that was the last place the teens were. Oliver was determined to go into the forest and explore, maybe he could find Thomas and Bella.

‘Please mom, I’ll be fine’ he pleaded with his mom to let him go. ‘What could even happen in a forest? Do you really expect me to believe those ghost stories you and dad tell me?’ he questioned his mother.

‘You should, because they’re true’, Rebbeca told her son.

‘Fine I won’t go, jeez’ Oliver said on his way out the door to go to school, with annoyance in his voice. As Oliver was walking to school, his friends, Ivy, Rosemary, and Milly, and his girlfriend, Xavier, came up behind him.

‘Hey, how’s your morning going?’ Ivy said

‘Shity’ Oliver said as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend, and kissed his forehead.

‘That’s not good, are you coming with us to the forest tonight?’ Milly asked.

‘Yeah, I just have to sneak out when I join you guys, my mom was telling me those ghost stories again.’ Oliver said, now with a little anger in his voice.

‘Those stories are so dumb, does your mom and dad really expect you to believe them?’ Xavier asked.

‘Yeah, they do, they just don’t trust me and it’s so annoying’ Oliver exclaimed. The group continued to walk and chat about that night's plans. The school day went by fast and soon enough the group was walking home, they were all going to be sleeping over at Rosemary’s house, because her parents are out of town, they own a business together and always go on business trips together. Oliver asked his parents and they were ok with it, but only if Rosemary’s parents were gonna be home to make sure none of them went out, of course he lied to get them to let him go. As they all neared Rosemary’s house, the chatter died down and they all went inside. Putting their bags in the big guest room where they always sleep when they stay at Rosemary’s.

‘So what do you guys feel like doing while we wait for it to get dark out?’ Rosemary asked her friends.

‘How about we watch Hocus pocus, seeing that it is spooky season’, Xavier suggested.

‘Yeah let’s do that’ the others said. They all sat down and Rosemary brought over a bunch of snacks and drinks for them. As they watched the movie, the sky became different shades of oranges, pinks, and reds. The group got ready and headed out, they had to walk because none of them had a car, even though they all had their license. They walked for at least an hour as they came up to the edge of the woods. Suddenly a car pulls up behind them and police lights turn on.

‘Fuck!’ Oliver shouted, as his father got out of his car.

‘Please, you really think I wasn’t going to catch on to your guys little plan here,’Oliver’s father said to the group, ‘everyone in the car, you’re all going to be under very careful watch from now until you move out on your own’ Oliver’s father made clear that they were all in a lot of trouble. They didn’t put up a fight as they piled into the detective’s car. And like officer Tanner said, they were all under consistent watch. Finally they all moved out and got a house together, their parents thought they were done with the forest at the edge of their hometown, thinking their kids had moved on now that they all had jobs or were in school, and Oliver and Xavier were planning their wedding. However, on October 25th, 1999, the group returned to their hometown for a Halloween trip.