A Walk Through the Woods

The wind billowed through the trees, and the moon hung high in the sky illuminating the forest path with pale light. I looked around the shadowy forest floor, feeling a chill run down my spine. In the darkness, the trees twisted and distorted. Hollows carved into the bark looked like ghastly faces that glinted in and out of the dim light. The reaching branches grasped at the sky, swaying in the chill fall air while the rest of the forest remained completely silent save for the sound of the howling winds and the crunching of leaves as I walked. Clouds drifted overhead and covered the light of the moon, darkening the foliage, and brambles creating formless creatures from the shadows. The appearance of the trees began to grow ominous in the black gloom, and I could feel them staring at me with their soulless eyes, their gaze following me with each step while the winds whispered in the night.

I put up the hood of my jacket and continued on down the path. Leaves made hideous snapping noises beneath me as I walked, the clamor echoing through the quiet forest. The wind stopped and I could hear the sound of my breath as a fog rolled out of my mouth from the cold. The chill I felt in my spine grew to a superstitious caution now. The visage of the trees bent as the clouds cleared, and warped in the shadows of the dim moonlight, forming the spectral expressions of those that met an untimely death in these woods. I stopped for a moment to look at my surroundings, the forest still glaring at me with hateful expressions. I breathed a deep breath of the autumn breeze, taking in the surreal scenery. The bone chilling feeling I had now grown to shock and fright, my mind seized in a stunned silence. I could hear the sound of leaves crackling in the distance, breaking the still, silence. Something was out there.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins and I looked around frantically for some place to hide, but the sound of breaking foliage drew closer and I ran through the forest as fast as my legs could carry me without a second thought. My breath became heavy, and my body ached, but my instincts told me to keep running. The shadows on the trees gave me gleeful looks of abandon now as if they were enjoying my torture. The night air seeped through my jacket as the air rushed around me, and I could feel my body shudder slightly. After running for what felt like agonizing hours I ran out of breath and had to stop. Whatever it was had begun to run after me showing no signs of stopping. I knew I had to find some way to hide, some way out of this hell. I could hear faint, indistinguishable voices on the wind while the branches of the trees swayed nightmarishly in the dark.

I quickly darted behind a tree hoping whatever it was would not notice my erratic breathing in the darkness. The voices on the wind grew louder, and the forest seemed to spin now like some sort of delirious hallucination. The trees gawked at me with crooked smiles and I swore I heard them laughing at me in their cruel voices that rang like gunshots through the night air. The sound resonated through the forest and all I could hear was the terrible voices, muttering in some unknown language, and the crunching of leaves drawing nearer. I covered my ears to trying to ignore the torturous sounds, but it was no use. I dropped to my knees and shook violently, feeling overwhelmed, and no longer caring about the being following me. “Shut up!” I screamed loudly again and again, forgetting about my pursuer. My manic pleas seemed to make the voices louder and tears began to streak my face feeling warm against the cool fall air. I could hear the shattering of leaves almost upon me now and knew I had to ignore these insidious noises that drove me to the brink of madness I ran for my life.

I broke out into a sprint running through the trees and tearing through the grasping branches of the demonic forest. My chest heaved gasping for air as I struggled to breathe while pushing through the thickets. I looked behind me after running for some time to attempting to catch a glimpse of my pursuers. In the distance, I could see strange glowing lights and terrible sound of growling beasts thundering through the frigid night, the growls of dogs howling after me. I turned back around and let out a gasp. Greeting me was the mutilated face of a mangled corpse of a little girl. Her body was strung up in a tree and swung back and forth in the wind. My initial shock subsided, and the feelings of dread vanished now as I gazed upward looking at my handiwork. They will never catch me.