Something in the Woods

I didn’t want to go in the woods. They were creepy, dark, and just plain weird. There were no legends of scary monsters or murders about them, but that didn’t stop them from being creepy. Of course, my college friends all wanted to explore them. We had just graduated so they wanted to do something “fun”. They all pulled me to the car, strapped me in the car seat, and we drove off to the edge of the woods. We arrived, after a half hour trip, to the forest. I grudgingly approached the tree line. I could here bugs and all sorts of parasitic insects. My friends were obstinate about exploring the wooded land, so they dragged me into the dark, gloomy trees. We went farther and farther into the unknown, sometimes stumbling on a rock or fallen branch. Everyone started complaining that this was boring and we should start heading back. Maybe they were bored like they said, or they were getting scared, I didn’t know. We still walked farther anyways. Then, one of the guys tripped on something and fell. We all rushed to the spot and saw a slate of what seemed like obsidian. On closer inspection, words were carved into the stone. Everything was rather cryptic, but I read it anyways. The engraving was rather cliche, like in any horror story, it said we couldn’t trust each other and had to get out as fast as we could. The unsettling part was that it said I couldn’t show it to anyone else. The others asked about the engraving. Their minds were rather tractable, so I was able to convince them is was nothing.

Darkness was settling, so we headed back. For some reason, the others started laughing. Their irrepressible laughter was extremely unsettling. I asked them what was going on, why they were laughing so much. Being the only one not laughing, it was rather ignominious for me. Where they laughing at me? I started walking faster, wanting to get out as fast as I could. Their laughter was resonating in the entire woods. I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling to myself. Why was I laughing now? What was going on? Where were the others? I looked around, still laughing to myself, when I noticed the obsidian slate on the ground. I walked to it, but the message was different. It said… I had to stay here forever? Then something changed in my mind. Was… was i going insane? I walked back the way I came and finally found the others, rolling on the ground laughing.

 Their bodies fell posthumously. Finally, the laughter had completely stopped. They had matriculated to 

be doctors, scientists, whatever. I didn’t care about them. Never did and finally, it was quiet. But now that they well, were not moving or laughing anymore, I had to find other things to disport myself. I had majored in psychology, so I knew how people thought. I carved in the trees little messages that would make them come inside the forest. There were no legends that could keep people from venturing inside, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something in the woods…