The Unknown

The woods chirped and twittered and rustled with the life of its inhabitants. The ground was a sodden mess of grass and mud that sucked at the sides of each sneaker that trod upon it, creating a subtle, yet sickening, kissing sound. Freemont Woods was the area of many a camper’s site and many a ghostly tale told over the roaring flames of a tame conflagration. This camping group was no different.

Mia and three of her best friends were camping in these very woods, deep within its heart, far from the minute clots of the more skittish groups, the groups that preferred the security of a nearby lavatory and a street light overhead. Mia and her friends preferred to live on the “wild side”, preferred to stray from the overhead lights. They chose to see by the moon and their meager flashlights. And, pshaw, to the luxury of those lavatories, nature would be their restroom.

That night, they crowded around a campfire, enjoying the warmth that emanated from it. Anna, Mia’s best friend, sat cozily beside her boyfriend, Connor. Night had made its appearance soon after they’d set up the last details to their camp, and their only light was the flicker of their campfire. Mia, preferring her solitude, sat on the very edge of the group, near the barrier of darkness that no campfire could light. Nonchalantly, she filed her nails and listened to the conversation of her friends.

Chris, Connor’s brother, sat closest to the fire, adjacent to Anna and Connor. The flames created eerie shadows on his face as he began to spin a web of a story. Mia watched his eyes vividly reflect the light of the fire, his hands gesticulating with rapidity as his mouth formed lurid words to create a haunting tale. One that might, perhaps, follow them into the unconscious and spawn a nightmare.

Mia listened to Chris proclaiming the history of the woods they would sleep in that very night, listened to him describe the frequent disappearances of campers foolish enough to venture through the woods in the dead of night to find themselves lost and at the mercy of a cruel and unforgiving fate.

“…and sometimes,” Chris concluded, leaning closer to Anna and Connor, his voice lowering dramatically to achieve that spine tingling sensation, “late at night, you can hear their spirits roaming the earth, seeking their revenge out of whoever they come across.” He paused for a second, silence pervaded their temporary home, and then suddenly he shouted,

“BOO!” Connor jumped a little, and then rolled his eyes, disbelieving that his brother could be so immature. Anna, infamous for having the absolute BEST reactions to surprises, nearly flew from the ground, screamed at the top of her lungs, and lunged at Chris squealing,

“YOU JERK!”

Mia grinned a little and returned her attention to a troublesome hangnail in which had caused her minor pain. She hadn’t been frightened by Chris’s overdramatic story, in fact, it bored her. His story, as every ubiquitous campfire tale, contained the same plot, the same theme, and the same ending, always about campers disappearing to find their death and then returning as vengeful spirits with a lust for blood. She yawned. Yes, it bored her.

“Is it true?” Connor questioned rather blandly after Anna had ceased her assault and returned to his side. Chris shrugged and answered,

“I don’t know. I heard somebody saying something like that in the parking lot. I thought it’d make a great story.” Mia smirked at his response and acclaimed sarcastically,

“And a novel one it was. Bravo.” She smiled tightly and faux applauded. Chris chuckled a little and then teased, his eyes glinting mischievously,

“Oh, but you were scared.”

“No, I was not.” Mia insisted, forgetting the troublesome hangnail.

“Yeah, you were. I saw you jump. You looked like you peed yourself.” He peered at her jeans, his eyes widening comically, and he announced,

“Jeez, you really did!” He erupted into laughter and soon after, Connor and Anna joined him. Mia pursed her lips and said nothing more. She hadn’t “wet her pants”, as Chris had painted out, She simply hadn’t lain out a blanket to sit on, having forgotten that the ground was densely saturated and now her jeans sported the result. She stood up, holding her head up with as much dignity she could muster, and went off to find the tent. It hadn’t been far. The moonlight shone on it, illuminating it almost brilliantly. She knelt down and crawled inside, trying to find her backpack for a fresh change of clothes. She could hear the laughter of her friends dissipating until one voice could be heard overall. Chris, more than likely, telling another story about a haunted forest. With a feeling of triumph, she found her backpack, yanked out her bedclothes, and shuffled into them, knowing she wouldn’t return to the campfire. They’d surely take note of her change of clothes and laugh again. She, instead of going out, decided to get a head start on sleep. Tomorrow, they would go hiking and she’d have more energy than they would. She smirked a little as she found her sleeping bag and wormed into it. Truth be told, they were, indeed, her best friends, but even best friends got to be annoying from time to time. Tomorrow will be a brand new day, she thought to herself as she snuggled further in to sleep and closed her eyes.

A weight in her bladder woke Mia three hours later. She sat up abruptly and looked around. The moon shone high in the sky, giving Mia an ethereal light to see by. It shone through the thin material that made up the tent to illuminate three dozing lumps surrounding her. She sighed and wiggled out of her sleeping bag, trying to be as quiet as possible. Quickly, after she’d escaped her warm cocoon, she got up and tip-toed past her tent mates to reach the place beyond.

The cold outdoors, devoid of the warmth of shared body head, chilled her immediately and she shivered as expected. A symphony of cricket chirping met her ears, singing to announce the dead of night. She checked the watch on her wrist and saw that it was only one in the morning. The campfire that Chris had so vividly told his haunting stories by had long since pilfered out. She passed it quietly, breathing in the faint, acrid odor of burnt wood. Supposedly, there was a hole somewhere nearby for her to use, but she had yet to view it. She searched for it, utilizing the moon’s radiance as a giant, but weak, flashlight. She surveyed the grounds, looking for an indication, an indentation in the dirt, yet saw none. Step by step she ventured deeper into the woods, falling out of sight with the campsite and her sleeping companions, unbeknownst to her.

Ten minutes into her search, she gave up, her bladder protesting against each step, declaring that, with another, it would release its contents whether she wished it or not. She quickly selected a tree and commenced what she’d journeyed this far for.

After the deed had been accomplished, she pulled up her night pants and prepared to make her way back to camp. She took a few steps forward, then turned around, and replaced those two steps. Just how far had she ventured out? She couldn’t recognize any of the surroundings and there was no path for her to follow, only foliage. After that realization, she realized another thing. The crickets had ceased to sing and silence weighed down on her heavily. She looked around, confused, but not frightened…yet. Chris’ story ran through her mind, a thought not quite helpful to one in a situation such as hers, but as mentioned earlier, Mia feared nothing. Well, that is, but one thing.

Mia liked to feel secure in life, loved the feel of being in control, on top of everything, she lived for it. Yet, it was in these kinds of situations, alone in the woods, lost perhaps, where the crickets have ceased to sing, that was when her mind began to wander, began to stretch out of its limits, surpass her subconscious guards, and frighten her. She shivered a little, wishing she’d paid a little more attention as she’d ventured out. She chastised herself for not bringing a flashlight or some sort of compass. She shivered again, more violently this time, and decided the initial location of the campsite by random, hoping she was right. Shuffling along, she listened to the twigs crackling beneath her feet, marveling over how loud their snaps were. Then, she furrowed her brow, almost too loud. She stopped abruptly, but the sound of snapping twigs continued.

“Hello?” she called, hoping it was one of her roommates, trying to scare her. The twig snapping stopped abruptly and suddenly she had the spine tingling feeling of being watched. She looked around frantically, searching for the being creating the disruption, but saw nothing but the flora and this should have sparked a sigh of relief. But, the fact that there were so many floras around and so densely gave her the feeling of being watched. She surveyed her surrounding frantically, searching for the being creating the creepy disruption. She saw no one, but the feeling of being watched intensified and then the twig snapping recommenced without so much as a step from her. Adrenaline accelerated through her body as her heart beat faster. For the first time in a long time, Mia felt scared, truly scared. Those heavy footfalls, almost completely masked by the twigs, sounded far too large to be human.

Arms flailing and feet flying, she took off, thrashing through the woods, feeling sharp branches smacking her face and pulling at her clothes, but she didn’t care. In her small group of friends, she’d always been the fearless one. Basically because she didn’t fear the things her friends feared. Heights didn’t move her, falling was fine. She loved the dark (obviously, or else she wouldn’t have gone outside on her own). Her only fear, which before seemed a little stupid, was behind her, thrashing past the shrubbery and branches, crushing the meager twigs on the ground. She’d always subconsciously called it ‘the unknown’. But it had been more of ‘what’s out there, watching amidst the trees and a few owls’, she’d never considered it anything dangerous. But this unknown, she conjectured, could be and probably would be lethal to her if she didn’t hurry and get away.

Surely she couldn’t have ventured that far into the woods. Surely her campsite would appear suddenly and she would be safe, surrounded by her friends, basking in the warmth of shared heat to drift into dreams and forget whatever IT was. However, the camp had yet to appear and the thing behind her seemed to be gaining. How could she outrun it? She tried to breath in deeply, to calm herself and clear her mind. But this was an arduous feat for she was sprinting full speed ahead. She strove to consider the situation.

Perhaps, the thing behind her was simply an innocuous deer. Maybe she’d startled it and then confused it, so that instead of running away from her, it now chased her. She dared a glimpse behind her; yet saw nothing but plant life, slightly illuminated by the high and bright moon. She stared entranced, slowing down a little, watching the leaves begin to quiver, then shake, and then flay violently. She watched, all the while lowering her retreating speed, until they were thrown aside, fragile branches instantaneously snapped by a large, predatory, and menacing claw of some sort. It wasn’t like a lobster’s claw, but claw was the only thing that came to mind. It was like a bear’s claw, with extremely long razor sharp nails, like serrated knives jutting from the thick flesh of the thing’s “paw”. Her eyes followed the path that the large claw created and she saw the shadow of a large form beginning to emerge. Mia’s eyes widened and her mouth hung agape in fear. She sped up and sprinted further on thinking…

...It definitely wasn’t a deer...

Fear coursed hotly through her veins like molten lava flowing ardently. She didn’t know how she found the strength and the spontaneous adroit ability to dodge shrubs and low branches, but she was thankful for it.

She could hear its breathing, harsh and aggravated. Beneath it, she could barely make out an almost inaudible savage growl. She doubted she'd ever been so scared in her life, doubted she'd ever run as fast in her life. Yet it seemed that no matter how fast she ran, she could feel its breathing on her back, could feel her clothes being tugged by that slashing claw (though it could've been snagging branches). If only she could reach the clearing. There, for some unknown reason, she felt she'd be safe. In her mind she could visualize her emergence from the forest, could almost hear the disgruntled growl of the predator behind her as she escaped into the tent with her friends. She'd probably wake them up, and they'd probably be angry, but she wouldn't care. She'd only care that she'd escaped IT, the unknown thing behind her. And yet, regardless of her wishful thinking, the woods refused to break, refused to reveal the clearing that would lead her to safety. They only continued on and on and on...

And at this moment, her mind began to conjur another crazed conjecture: Perhaps this was simply a bad dream. A dream in which everything felt undeniably real, in which the fear felt too pungent to be a dream, but it was a dream. It was all a dream. The more she thought it over, the more she began to believe it. Leaves slapped at her face, stinging in some places, making it known how fast she fled.

'If this is a dream', she queried in her mind, 'then why am I still running. I can stop and everything will dissipate and I'll be back in the tent.' The thought was so reassuring, so logical (well, to her) that she almost DID stop, she'd even begun to slow down a little, beginning to grin foolishly. But it was a sudden, almost crippling pain in her back, and a sharp pull of her hair that urged her forward. Even if it was a dream, she desired no further pain from the thing behind her and a part of her brain had begun to wonder ift his was, in fact, a dream. If the frightened half of her brain that had suggested the theory, had started playing tricks on her.

As she strove to regain speed and move forward, her head whipped back, still grasped in the claws of the unseen creature. Its hot breath surrounded her, reeking of wild and death. She beat blindly at her yet-to-be-seen captor until she felt its grasp weaken and then relinquish. She sprinted free, her heart pounding thunderously. Her scalp throbbed, her back stung, and she'd begun to feel a warm wetness trickling down from where her back stung. Whatever it was, it had slashed her, and by the feel of the wetness, badly.

But a wonderful thing was finally occuring, the trees and foliage around her was starting to thin out, revealing a bright moon above leading her on the path to freedom. She ran harder, despite her lungs, which were screeching, despite her legs, which were beginning to fatigue, despite the way her heart was beginning to feel a little strained. She wouldn't stop until she saw...

...and there it was, the clearing and not far off, her campsite loomed, awaiting her. She was on the last lap of the race, home free. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be able to get her after she'd reached the sanctity of her close friends. And when she reached it, then she'd wake up, at the end of the dream, the screaming pain in her back would diminish, as would the throbbing in her scalp and she would look around to see the sleeping lumps that were her friends and murmur,

"It was only a dream."

The last trees at the barrier of the woods passed her by and Mia was at last in the clearing, in direct view of her campsite, near the place she'd be safe, safe to wake up. She sprinted past the cold grave of the defunct fire, feeling liberation. Freedom. Almost there. Almost there. Almost...

A blow from behind her, threw her off balance. She lept for the tent, determined to make it, determined to live. She fell, crashing into the place that would shield her, her sanctity, the tent. She landed, half in, half out and tried to claw at the ground to get in entirely, but let out a yelp and then a groan as she felt one of those monstrous claws close around her torsoe. She dug desperately at the ground, eyes wide, feeling such a potent amount of fear, she felt faint. Yet, perhaps fainting would be a good thing. She whimpered as the realization hit her. It most definitely wasn't a dream, had never BEEN a dream, and she had been foolish to think that it was. And her foolishness had proved futile. The creature that held her roared to support the fact and all hope in Mia dissipated as the claw tightened around her torso, tarnishing all hope for escape.

Anna woke at the sound of the blood curdling roar, shivering. She looked around, bewildered, the entrails of sleep hung on her, giving everything a surreal phantasmagoric quality. The first thing she noted out of the ordinary, as her eyes began to clear, was the fact that the tent had somehow opened. At closer inspection she saw that it hadn't just opened, but had been torn open. She hadn't even noticed the empty space beside her where Mia should've been. Instead, her mind began to make conjectures over what might have caused the rip. Perhaps something big, like a limb off a tree, or a...

Her eyes trailed down the length of the rip and saw Mia, sprawled there. The moonlight lit the three long and deep gashes in her back. They glistened with fresh blood. She stared at them, a bit in disbelief, and then Mia began to move. Relief enveloped Anna, for a second she thought Mia might be...

Mia's hands clawed at the ground, but she appeared to be stuck. Anna sat up, to get a better view, not to help her friend, and saw the claw grasping Mia's torso and then, as her eyes searched through the tear, she saw its owner. Just as she had been watching Mia's struggle, the creature had been watching Anna with eyes containing an unspeakable evil. Perhaps it had been waiting to see if she would help Mia, perhaps it had been waiting with another claw held, suspended, to behead her. She tried to scream, but only managed a tortured squeak. At the sound of her squeak, Mia jerked involuntarily as it began to pull her away, towards the awaiting woods. Anna watched in horror, frozen with shock, as her best friend disappeared through the gash with the monster, or whatever it was, outside. Right before Mia completely disappeared from Anna's sight, she murmured something incoherent. The only word Anna was able to decipher was 'dream'. And this word brought on a different acceptance in her mind. Of course this was a dream and when she woke up the next morning, Mia would be there beside her and they would laugh about it. She shook her head, already beginning to smile with the thought of everything being okay, and squeezed her eyes shut to rid herself of the image of those claws...and those eyes...those iniquitous eyes...