The thing in the woods

I was walking down the street with Mike and Claire. We were going back home from the party. It was around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. The dim lighting from the street lamps kept us from the dark, although, at that time, we were hardly seeing anything at all. Looking back now, I can’t tell for sure — after all, we were just a bunch of drunk kids on a dark night — but since we left the party something felt off for me. So when that thing happened I shouldn’t be that shocked.

We were laughing away when Mike and Claire started mourning over the fact that we were supposed to go to school the next day. I was a bit off.

“Hey, Tom, we’re about to get on that street, aren’t we?”, Mike said, trying to mock me.

As no replies came from me, Claire felt comfortable taking the lead and asking:

“Hum, which street?”, said in true doubt.

“It’s where the woods are. You know, once in the fourth grade, Tom and I were walking home together. It was a dark and cloudy afternoon. We get to this very street and then just when we are walking past the woods I look at Tom and he’s not moving anymore. He is just gazing into the woods. When I try to get him off of his trance he points his trembling finger in the direction of the grove and asks ‘Aren’t you seeing that?’ and then…”

“Okay, can you please just stop now?”, I pleaded, “It’s over now and I don’t want to ever remember that.”

“Are you ashamed, Tommy?”, he asked barely holding back his laughter.

“No”, I replied dead serious.

“Oh, I see. So this is THAT street, huh, Tommy?”, said Claire

The truth is I didn’t recall back at the time what was that that I saw in the woods. On the other hand, what I did, clearly, recall was the terrible horror that took over me that afternoon. Whenever I think of it I can almost feel it again. There is a dark and lingering shadow that follows me everywhere I go and I can never get rid of it.

Mike and Claire kept laughing but they were right. This is that street and we barely turned around the corner and I was already feeling a horrible uneasiness. Still, we walked. The path behind us grew larger. I set my mind to talking, trying to forget that bad feeling.

“I can’t believe I have to go to school tomorrow”, said Mike

“Oh, Mike, that again? I see how badly sad you feel about it, now get over man. In a blink of an eye it will be over.”, I tried to make him not go onto that again.

“Wait…”, he said

“No, no. Not wait, I’m serious we’ll not get into that again I’ve had enough of…”, I started again

“No, Tom, it’s not that”, he said, with a stone-cold tone, “Man, where’s Claire?”

I looked around. Claire was nowhere to be seen. How did that happen?

“What, she was just here. How did we lose her?”

“I don’t know man. We all drank too much. Maybe she stumbled and got lost and we just went forward. Let’s go back to check.”

“Mike”, my tone was so serious that I felt I wasn’t drunk anymore, “Something’s wrong. You know that by this point we are already past that place.”

“Oh, Tom, come on, man. Don’t give me that.”

“Mike, I don’t wanna pass by the woods again.”

“Man, this is our friend. She is drunk and it’s late at night. She could get in real danger. We have to find her. Maybe she is not even close to the woods. We don’t know, but we got to go.”

He was right. I feel embarrassed about having hesitated. She could be in real trouble.

And so there was no other way. The events that unfolded that night with me and my friends were supposed to happen.

We turned back and started retracing our steps. Only by walking back, I realized how much we had already traveled. It took a while. We walked a lot. Really a lot. But by that point, I was so anxious and afraid that it seemed like we walked just a few steps. Until we got to the woods.

I could already see the corner of the woods. That rusty iron fence covering the surroundings of the grove, the tall trees extending as if to touch the bright full moon that owned the sky that night, the fog blurring, even more, our sight. Everything. I could see everything that made that place the perfect place for our nightmares to come true. And there we were.

I was very scared. It was like there was a terrible shadow following me. My fear. Creeping on. Just waiting for me to make a wrong move so it could take over me. We kept on walking.

“Dammit, man. We’re almost at the entrance and she’s nowhere to be seen”, worried Mike

“Yeah, hopefully, we’ll get past these woods and find her elsewhere”, I said barely believing in my own words.

“This fog is messing my vision so bad.”

It was messing with my vision too.

“Look around, Mike. She can be anywhere. Keep on alert.”

“Tom. Look. Over there”, he pointed, “can you see the silhouette?”

I could clearly see the silhouette. A womanly silhouette blurred by the fog right in front of where I thought the entrance carved in the fence of the woods was. I froze. My heart pumping as if it wanted to jump out and run. The shadow on my back grew taller, whispering in the back of my head. The moment was close. That fateful step it was waiting for me to take was close to happening. I knew. Somehow I knew that going to that silhouette would be our demise.

“I can.”, were the only words that I could let out.

“It must be her, finally. Let’s go.”, he went.

I stayed. Halfway on the path to the silhouette, he realized.

“Tom, come here. Don’t let me alone on this”, he shouted to me.

I don’t know how but I found in myself something that detached my feet from the ground and made me walk.

He waited until I got to him. We followed the rest of the path together. As we got closer the amount of fog between us and the silhouette got smaller. So smaller that the silhouette was finally replaced by the image of our dear friend Claire. It was her. Mike was so happy to find her he ran over to her. I didn’t. I couldn’t. Mike forgot to look around. If he did he would see the big entrance in the fence. If he did he would see the path inside leading into that place. If he did he would see that Claire was staring right at it blankly.

“Claire, me and Tom drank a lot but I come to think you beat us”, he said in a funny tone as he walked closer to her, “What you’re doing here?”

She didn’t reply. In fact, she didn’t even show any reaction. Not a muscle moved. Let alone her eyes. No. Not her eyes. They were deeply glazed. Staring into the woods. Gazing. Cold. Inert. Lifeless.

“Claire?”, he asked putting aside his jokingly tone, “Mike?”, said to me as if he wanted help.

“Oh no, I see. You’re messing with us. Trying to replay Tom’s story. Ha-Ha so funny and clever, Claire. Now let’s go, I’m tired”, he said

I knew she wasn’t trying to make fun of us. I knew that look in her eyes. As no replies came from Claire, Mike insisted for me to take part in helping him.

“Mike, I’m afraid she isn’t messing with us”, I said.

“Oh, good lord. Let’s not start that story again.”

“Mike, just look. Don’t you think she would be already laughing at us by this point? I know deep down in you you must think that some part of this story is real.”

He did feel it was real. I think that whole story really scared him and he tried to make it look like it didn’t. The whole time as we were passing by the woods he kept from looking towards it. Even when we got to Claire and the entrance. Not once he laid eyes on the fence, the open gate, nor what crawled inside. He was worse than me. I had looked into the woods. The whole time I was so afraid of it, but the whole time I felt compelled to look. As if something was pushing me to. I resisted. I resisted so much. But sometimes it was stronger than me.

“Ok, Tom, supposing it’s true, what do we do?”

“I really don’t know. What did you do to take me off that time?”

“I don’t know. I think I kept talking to you for a whole 2 or 3 minutes. You didn’t reply and so I grabbed you and dragged you. Don’t you remember?”

“No. I don’t remember much.”

“Anyways, let’s try and do that.”, he said, “Together.”, he pleaded.

We got closer to her to try to drag her away from that place. Me and Mike looking away from the woods. We reached her and looked at each other as if to prepare.

“Ok, let’s go.”

Each of us grabbed one of her arms. Oh, what a mistake of ours. At that exact same time, a ghastly shriek went down my spine as I heard a frightful roar-like noise coming from the woods behind us.

“Did you hear that?”, Mike looked at me and asked, shocked.

“I did.”, I replied.

We both had let go of her at the moment we heard it. There was something inside the woods and it was warning us not to touch its prey. And its warning was received by us just like it wanted to.

I turned back to Claire once again just to see the most hideous image of my life.

“Mike”, I could barely say, “look.”

Claire was looking the exact same. Her eyes obsessed. Her face expressionless. Except that this time she was crying. The tears coming down from her unmoved cheeks through her unmoved mouth until her unmoved chin. No words could never express the dread I was feeling.

“Tom, we got to do something.”, said Mike.

“I know. I know. This is killing me”, I worried, “What can we do? Let’s try and move her again.”

“I’m afraid that thing won’t let us.”, he replied

“Yeah, I fear that too.”

We didn’t get much time to reason about what to do. And, thinking back now, reason would be worthless. Our fate was already decided when we took the way home that passed by that street. We willingly decided to cross paths with that thing. And so it feasted on us.

It took hold of Claire first and me and Mike failed to realize that before it was too late. By the time we got to her, she was long gone. The tears were just a warning of what was to come. Maybe inside herself, she realized what would happen to her or maybe it was what she had seen that made her burst into tears. Truth is, shortly after the tears, she ended that already grim picture with an even more appalling image. She carved her nails into her own wrists and started scratching them. And she kept on going. Scratching and scratching. Until the blood started going down her hands.

“Mike?”, I screamed confused and terrified.

He didn’t reply. He couldn’t. In the meantime, while all of this was happening, somehow Mike must have stared into the woods as well.

When I realized he was already in trance too. Everything was going down. First Claire, now Mike. I tried to speak him out of it.

“Mike, not you too man. You don’t believe in it, right? You said it.”

I could feel the shadow in the back of my head laughing at me. I was exactly where it expected me to be. I fell right into its trap. It was time for it to take over.

My whole body was shaking so badly. The fear I was feeling was relentless.

“Mike, let’s go”, I said grabbing him to try to drag him away.

The thing roared once again. The blood of Claire was starting to wet the ground.

“Tom…”, Mike said with an amazed tone, “I can see it.”

“Yes, Mike. Talk to me. Let’s go. Snap out of it, man.”

“I see its head. I see its eyes. All of them.”, he kept, “I see its body. I see its arms. They are embracing everything. They touch everything we can see.”

“Come on, Mike, let’s go.”

As I dragged him he resisted.

“Now it’s my turn, Tom. They will surround me too.”

Mike was stronger than me. He wouldn’t move a foot when I tried to drag him.

“I see it, Tom. I want to always see it.”

He said it and suddenly an idea ran over through my head. Quickly I put my hand over his eyes, covering his sight. He didn’t show any response. But then, with my hands still on his eyes, I tried to drag him once again. This time he resisted less.

“Come on, Mike, we’ll get over it.”, I said hardly breathing while pulling.

His low resistance allied with the force I was putting on his body made him tumble over. The thing was making that horrific noise and when Mike tumbled over it grew louder. So much louder. I thought I was going deaf.

“Tom? What is happening? “, he recovered his senses, still confused, “Oh my god, what sound is that?”

“Mike, we gotta get out of here. Fast.”, I screamed

I helped him up. Claire was already laid on the ground. Her eyes were open, obsessed as they were. Her face, blank. There was nothing we could do. We ran the fastest we could. As we got further away the noise disappeared. But we didn’t stop. We never stopped. We’ll forever run from what happened that night. We’ll forever run from that thing.