A Night in the Woods: Chapter Three

“Did you hear that?”, Donna shouted through to Joe and Miles.
Miles poked his head back through the kitchen door, “Hear what?”, He asks, puzzled.
“I thought I heard a scream, from outside.”
“Probably just you’re imagination,” Miles smiles reassuredly, “We’re almost done checking around the house, everything seems fine.”
Donna relaxes a little but she’s sure she heard that scream, maybe it was just my imagination, she thinks.
“All right, all clear,” Joe shouts, “come to the living room, Donna.”
Donna walks into the living room timidly and sits down on one of the two old, cracked, brown leather sofas there. Miles is murmuring to himself, cursing under his breath as he tries to light the fireplace. It seems Joe’s investigation of the cabin had procured him their emergency case of beer. Donna remembers they had put it in the cupboard of the main bedroom in case they ran out. He sits on the floor near the front door, legs folded around it, already halfway through his first beer.
“Here”, he mumbles, reaching into the case and throwing a bottle up onto the couch for Donna.
“Thanks”, she says, cracking it open and taking a sip. The alcohol warms her a little bit, a few more swigs and she’s starting to calm down, feeling much better, she even pops a smile in Miles direction.
“Having a bit of trouble there, scout?” She laughs.
“Har de har”, Miles says sarcastically but he does chuck a little, “There we go!” He exclaims as the fire springs up in front of him.
He gets up, points to Joe and then the beers as he walks over and sits down next to Donna. Joe throws another beer over to him.
They sit in silece for a while, sipping their beers, letting the warmth of the fireplace wash away the last vestiges of their fear.
Finally, Joe speaks up, “So what the hell did we actually see out there?”
“Maybe nothing”, Miles responds, ” We were all drunk, it was dark. Maybe we just panicked at a wild animal?”
“I don’t know,” Donna says then pauses, “We all saw those eyes… What animal has eyes like that?”
They all fall silent, remembering those eyes, their fear starts to creep back up.
“Either way,” Joe sighs as he stands up, carrying his case of beer over to the empty leather sofa and sitting down, ” It doesn’t seem like anything followed us, we just need to chill until morning, then we can get the car and head back to town.”
Miles nods, it was the best plan. The road to the cabin stopped about a mile away, it would be hard to find the car in the dark and wandering around the forest again seemed like a terrible idea.
“Toss me another beer then, Joe,” Miles says, “Might as well make the most of it.”
Joe reaches in to the case, puls out two more beers and tosses one each to Donna and Miles.
“To the weirdest night ever,” Donna jokes, raising her newly opened beer. They all laugh a little and raise their bottles in unison.
THUD! Just as they bring their bottles back down something hits off the living room window, shaking the whole cabin.
“THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Miles shouts, jumping up and walking over to the window.
Peering out then turning back to the group, “I can’t see anything, maybe it was just a bird?”
“It was probably nothing,” Joe states confidently, standing up, “Donna pass me that lantern, I’ll go check.”
THUD! A second, louder thud as something smacks off the front door.
“All right, that’s enough,” Joe snaps angrily,” Pass me that fire poker, I’m going to check outside.”
He grabs the poker, and walks over to the front door, while Miles crouches to the side of it.
Joe nods to Miles and he swings the door open to see… Nothing.
There’s noone there. Joe sighs relaxing. Behind him Donna suddenly screams, terrified. They turn to look at her and see her standing a few feet back from the door, mouth agape in a now silent scream, pointing down at the porch just outside the front door in horror.
They both turn to look where she’s pointing and stare in shock.
Sitting on the front porch, is a head. Lifeless eyes staring up at them in glossy terror, red hair glowing in the moonlight.

A Night In The Woods: Chapter Two

Becky gasps for breath as she sprints through the dense, dark forest undergrowth, branches hitting off every part of her body as she struggle to keep pushing forward. Pine needles showering down and sticking in her glossy red hair as it almost glows eerily in the glimpses of moonlight fighting their way down through the trees. Her lungs feel ready to burst, feel like she’s been running for hours but she doesn’t dare stop. Even though she can’t hear the footsteps that were right behind her moments before, she can’t bring herself to check and see if she is still being pursued.
A clearing ahead. Becky spots it and, with the last of her strength, propels herself towards it at full tilt. She reaches the very edge of the clearing when, between the last two trees, she spots a large looped root curving out of the ground. She tries to stop but she’s going to fast, her foot slips under the root as she goes over it, pulling her whole body to a dead stop.
CRACK!
She didn’t feel any pain, but that cracking sound wasn’t the root breaking. Plucking up the courage to look, Becky glances back at her ankle. Bone is jutting out through her sock, her foot is at an absurd angle. Even in this darkness she can see what must be blood pooling around and filling the hole in the ground her foot made under the root. She lets out a soft whimper before she could stop herself. Horrified, she clasps her hand over her mouth and listens intently to the forest around her…
Snap… A twig breaks in the forest about 5 feet from where she is sprawled out on the ground. Just too far for her to see. Something brushes against the leaves to her right, just on the very outskirts of the clearing. She stares intently, hand still covering her own mouth to hold back sobbing. She was beginning to feel a sharp, throbbing pain emanating up her leg from her ankle now.
A shadow darts between two trees just to the left of her, she turns quickly, jostling her ankle. Pain shooting up her entire body, she can’t hold back the scream of pain that bursts through her fingers.
Then she sees them. Eyes… Horrible, Evil-filled eyes just staring at her from about 3 feet in front of where she lay. She’s frozen, the scream peters off and Becky just stares into those eyes. Transfixed. Petrified.
The eyes have a vaguely humanoid shape, but nothing else about them seems human at all, the color seems to slowly fluctuate between dark purple and a deep blood red. Never blinking, never looking away. With incredible difficulty Becky finally manages to pull her gaze from locking with them to look at it’s body. At first she sees nothing, just shadow on shadow, but as her eyes adjust she begins to make out a rough shape. Definitely human, but short, and hunched over so low it seems physically impossible. Her eyes adjust more as the creature slowly drags itself towards her, it seems to move with incredible difficulty, although it had no problem chasing her down in the forest. Long dark hair falls from it’s head to the floor. The hair falls over it’s face but somehow the eyes shine right through it.
It reaches out with a hand for her ankle, slowly grasping her foot. It’s skin feels cold, damp, mottled. A shard of moonlight falls through the trees directly onto it’s hand. Becky gasps with horror as she sees 3 inch long fingernails protruding from what very much seems to be a dead hand, skin flaking off it and chunks of it missing altogether. Becky jerks at the sight, breaking free from the paralyzing fear that had gripped her seconds before, she kicks out with her other foot and pulls herself further into the clearing with her hands, scrabbling through the dirt. Grasping for any purchase. Surprisingly, the creature releases her foot, seeming to be almost sucked backwards into the forest, leaving nothng but shadows and silence behind. Becky frantically looks around to see where it went, but after minutes of nothing she puts her face in her hands and bursts into tears.
After several minutes the tears begin to subside, she’s starting to feel a bit better, maybe it’s gone, she thinks to herself, even the pain in her ankle seems to be subsiding, though it’s clearly seriously injured. She starts to lift her head out of her hand when she suddenly feels a presence to her right. Turning sharply she sees it. The creature, less than an inch from her staring straight into her eyes.
“You shouldn’t have come here”, It mutters almost imperceptibly, sounding almost like a young girl, but there’s no denying the malice in that voice. It’s arms shoot up and grab Becky’s head at both sides, and slowly, with incredible force, starts turning her head. Becky emits a blood curdling scream that echoes across the forest. Crack… Silence.

A Night In The Woods: Chapter One

The door slams shut behind Miles as he sprints into the house, a wild-eyed terror splayed across his face.
“What was that out there?!” He yelps at his companions.
“I’m not sure”, Donna mumbles quietly, biting her lower lip while peering out the window nevously, her long, blonde hair swishing to and fro as her head swings quickly from side to side, her piercing hazel eyes darting around, trying to see through the moonlit back garden to no avail.
They all relax a little, feeling safer with a door now between them and whatever had just chased them through the dense forest that borders the small hunting cabin on all sides.
Joe, with his short, dark hair, medium height and muscular build stopped holding the back door shut and instead slides down it to come to a rest, sitting on the floor.
The taller, skinnier Miles looks out into the backyard over Donna’s shoulder, the moonlight reflecting off his dark green eyes, now looking significantly less terrified.
They stay like this, motionless for nearly five minutes, barely even breathing.
Miles jerks, almost like breaking out of a trance, “We need some light in here”, he mumbles mostly to himself as he wanders across the shadowy kitchen to the old, creaky wooden dining table in the center of the room.
“Hey Joe, can you toss me the lighter?” He says to the still motionless man sitting against the door.
“Hmm? Oh sure, sorry”, Joe responds dazedly and pulls a lighter out of his jean pocket and tosses it onto the table, where Miles picks it up and lights the old, rusty oil lamp that sat there.
The room dances with fiery shadows as he adjusts the wick, eventually settling down to a warm, orange pulsing. Nothing seems amiss in the room, empty beer bottles crowd a few of the countertops around them, proof that up until about an hour ago, they had been enjoying a perfectly average summer night at Joe’s Dad’s cabin.
Joe stands up, taking a deep breath, steeling himself. “We should have a look around before we relax too much”, he states to Miles, who nods in agreement going to one of the cupboards and pulling out another lantern, lighting it and handing it to Donna.
“Stay here and keep an eye out”, Miles says to Donna who doesn’t respond, she still looks completely out of it. Can’t really blame her, Miles thinks to himself, after what we just saw, I’m surprised we’re not all gibbering wrecks.
She jumps nearly a foot in the air when he put his hand lightly on her should and repeats himself.
As her surprise changes quickly to recognition she simply nods, takes the lantern and resumes her silent vigil over the silent backyard.
“All right, let’s go”, Joe speaks firmly, as if trying to reassure himself as he and Miles wander out of the room, clutchng their solitary lantern in front of them.
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