The
darkness engulfed him as he stepped under the boughs. The silence was
deafening. Even the animals and bugs ceased to utter a sound. It was as if they
knew what everyone else tried to ignore about the woods on the edge of the
small town in New Hampshire.
A
twig snapped under his foot and broke the silence like a gunshot, startling
awake every cell of his body that was attuned to the whispers. He could hear
them like the low hum of bees flitting in and out of his ears, ever present and
maddening amid the quiet. Their shushing voices, barely discernable as he
entered, now became louder around him as he ventured further into the dimness.
He
turned, thinking to go back and seek the refuge of the sun on his face, but his
body froze. Every muscle stood at attention, ready to break if he made the
wrong choice. He had to go further. There was no other option now.
Taking
a breath, he felt his muscles relax as he took a step forward. Then another.
Walking deeper into the trees everyone said carried death. What called him he
didn’t know; where he was going he wasn’t sure. The voices whispered again and
again, guiding him to a spot so black he felt that it blotted out all light in
existence.
He
looked down, barely able to make out his hand in the darkness as he heard the
rustle of leaves underneath his shoes. He was no longer in control of
his body, his limbs moving as if a robot… or a zombie. And still, the whispers
persisted.
As
he moved farther and farther in, their volume grew, making him rub the side of
his head in the hopes of dislodging them. Still, they continued. He barely felt
the blood as it dribbled down his neck and onto his shirt, his fingernails torn
and bleeding themselves.
What
were they? Why didn’t they stop?
His
brain tried to scream, but that scream only echoed in his brain, and his throat
and mouth didn’t move to make the sound he begged them to.
Still,
he kept moving, deeper and deeper until he was sure he would be forever lost.
He had heard the rumors around town about these woods since he was a child,
read the stories in the newspaper and online about the deaths. But he never
truly believed it until today. He never understood how a place could compel
someone to die.
As
he pondered this, still scratching at his ears, he saw a light ahead, a tiny
pinprick in the distance. Moving closer, he picked up the trickle of water amid
the whispering voices in his head. He knew this wasn’t good.
His
legs carried him onward, the voices growing louder and louder as he got closer
to the water, pushing him to move faster. His heart sped up at the thought of
what might be there. Fear stained his mind and he picked up the scent of it in
his sweat as his nostrils strained for breath.
Just
as he came through a small gap between two large rocks, the voices grew from
whispers to screams and he could finally understand what they had been saying.
GET OUT! RUN!
Now
completely terrified, he watched with eyes that were no longer his to control.
What he saw was unlike anything ever seen in a horror movie or haunted house.
He could only stare before he watched his hands come up and his broken
fingernails dig into his eyes.
His
screaming, whether inside his head or real, was the last thing he heard before
his heart stopped.
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