Stay Out of the Woods

Stay Out of the Woods

Have you ever been told to stay out of the woods after dark? There’s a reason for that. As night falls the mysterious creatures start to emerge. The kind of creatures that make your parents lock the door before they go to bed and draw the curtains slowly across the closed window, as they take a final gaze in to the pool of black that has swept over the horizon, causing the last bit of sunlight to drain away.

Tilly Johnson had always been adventurous for her age, some may say rebellious. If only she’d listened to her parents, telling her over and over again, the story of the dark lady who lived in there. Only coming out at night and if you listened closely, you could hear her screeching cries. They say she died of a broken heart. Widowed at 50, her husband was brutally murdered and the suspect is still loose. But now, she was back for revenge and the cries fell silent across the woods…

“Woah” her friends all gawped at her after she’d finished sharing the tale, in the middle of maths class.
“It’s not real obviously, there’s no such thing as ghosts or spirits” Tilly scoffed, unimpressed by their reactions.
“Well if you’re so brave, why don’t you go in there?” Jimmy Jupiter said smugly.
“Is that a dare?” Tilly raised her eyebrows. Everybody knew she would never back out of a dare, no matter how dark or creepy it was, “you’re on”

And those two simple words are how this nightmare began to unravel…

Tilly had arranged to meet her friends after school before they entered the deepest, darkest part of the woods so she could win her dare.
“Why have you got a rope?” Bethany Simmons asked as they got to the edge of the woods.
“So we can find our way out again” Tilly shrugged, like I said, she knew a lot about exploring (if that’s what you would call this). So she placed some on the floor and gulped before taking the first step in. They walked and walked until the rope unravelled for the last time and lay limply on the floor.
“We can’t stop now” Jimmy protested, so reluctantly, they carried on walking in a straight line from the rope. They heard a shrill scream and froze, hardly daring to breath. They looked at each other, lost for words. The night had started to close in on them and paranormal activity was swamping the woods. Branches tried to claw at them, leaves crunched from unknown footsteps. They fled. Back to the rope to guide them out to the safety they all craved. But wait. They stopped dead in their tracks. The rope was not where they’d left it, but instead coiled around a tree branch. That was when they knew they weren’t alone and there was no way out.

Hearts pounded and knees trembled. A cloaked figure emerged, ragged hair covering half of its face. Tilly turned around, she was alone. She screamed. A strange sensation overcame her body. Her eyes rolled uncontrollably. As if her body was not her own anymore. As if there was a dark demon taking over. As if the cries heard in the woods, had become her own…