Down the street and past the school lies an old forest that few dare to walk through. Its trees slouch forward with branches lacking leaves. In between these miserable looking trees is an old dirt path that’s been around for a very long time. Nobody ever goes down there and for good reason.
Some who have gone down the path claim to see the shadows of a man and his dog taking a stroll. Those who try to approach them will see the two instantly vanish. Others have felt an uneasy feeling of dread.
Of course these are all just rumors that people most likely made up. It’s easy to think such things, especially when the place has all these stories and rumors surrounding it. I would always hear these stories and laugh to myself at the people who believed them. These people took the stories way too serious and babbled nonstop about spirits and ghosts. They were so gullible you couldn’t help but feel bad for them.
It was during one particular moment when I decided to take a stroll down the forest for myself. This kid a couple houses down from mine was talking to me about the shrieks that some guy heard. Apparently a woman had been killed while walking down the forest. Nobody ever found her body and stories of her ghost still persist. At least that’s what this boy claimed ot have happened. When I asked him if he’d ever seen this ghost himself he just shook his head. I rolled my eyes and told him that he should stop taking stories like that so seriously. He of course told me that I was just being stubborn.
Even though I found the story and the rumors ridiculous, I couldn’t help but find myself constantly thinking about them. I hadn’t really gone into the forest myself and wondered what sort of things led people to spread these rumors. That’s when I decided to take a walk for myself and see if it was all just a rumor spread by kids with big imaginations. I brought nothing more than a light jacket and my hiking boots, as the trail was known to be a bit rocky in certain spots.
It was only about five minutes before I got there. The school you had to go past was less than a mile from my house. The forest itself lay beyond a thick layer of trees that surrounded one side of the school. These were trees that had been planted by the school and really looked out of place. I really had no idea what they were thinking when they decided to plant them.
Once you got past the trees the only thing left would be a choice between two paths. One led to a neighborhood and another went into a trail that would lead you to the forest. It definitely didn’t look all that menacing. There was a fancy looking sign that told of the town’s history and luscious trees that stood tall and proud. I scoffed at the people who had been scared of the place and marched on through.
I should have probably brought a watch or something with me because the amount of time I spent walking felt longer than it should have. For the longest time I had been walking through the trail and seeing nothing but the same things over and over. The trees repeated in the same patters and the dirt path looked like it went on and on, never really ending.
This routine of walking and seeing the same thing continued until the scenery took an unexpected change. As I walked some more I found the trees slowly beginning to slouch and lose their leaves. The dirt path that had once been finely paved was beginning to develop a more rugged surface with grass growing over it. It looked like I was getting closer to the forest people spoke about.
More time passed and I found the path still continuing on. The trees had now slouched almost completely forward. I couldn’t help but notice that they looked like dying men reaching out at me so I could be dragged in. The end of the path was now in sight but I didn’t like what I saw. From where I stood it appeared that there was nothing but a dull light at the end. A dull light that probably led to someplace gloomier than where I already was.
I could feel my emotions draining as I continued walking. My own posture matched that of the trees and I could feel the darkest thoughts in my head. All at once I felt angry, sad, depressed, anxious; it was building up the more I walked.
Every footstep in the dirt sounded like someone behind me. I found myself looking over my shoulder whenever I took a step because of this. The corners of my eyes would also play tricks on me, and gave the illusion of a shadow watching me.
The walk down the path didn’t look like it would ever end and I found myself wishing to go back, and yet for some reason I didn’t. I continued walking in search of something. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. Chances were that it was nothing and that I had wasted my time, but I didn’t care. I needed to know.
I fought the negative thoughts as best I could, even though I felt my mind breaking apart more and more. It was becoming too much for me.
That’s when the whistles started.
I’m still not sure where they started and what was making them, but I remember the sound. It wasn’t the sort of noise you’d hear a person make. It was more like an odd sort of instrument. They were melodic and inviting, yet dark and torturous. At first I welcomed them as a sort of change to the gloomy atmosphere, but like everything else they only added to it. I felt my mind break apart even more as I tried to make sense of everything. Nothing I could think of helped. I questioned why I was taking this walk, why I bothered proving something false that I already knew didn’t exist, and finally why I even existed. It wasn’t like my life had made an impact on someone’s life. I was nothing but a waste of it. I was someone that contributed nothing and most likely wouldn’t.
This pain had to stop. I couldn’t continue any more.
Instead of continuing down the path I walked into the trees instead. I felt my energy and thoughts being sapped away as I walked by them.
There was a sudden pain in my back as my spine bent like rubber. I let out the loudest scream I’d ever made as my back bent almost completely in half. It was a wonder I was even still alive.
Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t over yet.
Next came my legs that refused to move. I did my best to make them move the slightest centimeter, but nothing happened. I tried screaming again just out of agony but nothing came out. Finally, I looked at my skin and found it producing flakes of wood. These flakes were starting to cover every part of my body and there was nothing I could do about it.
Before my life ended I tried to fight once more. Nothing happened and my life ended before I knew it.
Although I’m no longer alive my thoughts are still here. I’m forced to forever watch as others try what I did. Those poor people will only become another tree in the appropriately nicknamed “Departed Forest.”
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