It Came from the Woods

A family of three get stranded on a stormy night in Maine. A strange boy stumbles into them claiming he is being chased and that whoever, or whatever, is chasing him will soon find them all.

The rain was pouring so hard that night it could drive a person mad. Hearing the constant beating of the storm on the metal roof above was inescapable. Even if you could somehow block out the noise you still feel the patter of the rain. Endless torrents of vibrations that kept you just out of the peaceful reaches of sleep.

 

Kevin had a pillow wrapped around his head covering his ears. He knew this camping trip was going to be worse than his birthday two years ago. Back then his father, Victor, got his entire class out to their farm for a bonfire. That ended the same way, except at least they were all safe. The heat of the flames caught the barn on fire from thirty yards away. The whole thing would burn down over the next couple of days. It was all the kids talked about at school for weeks and Kevin knew then to never let his father construct any more fun filled ideas. However, in only two years his father planned a weeklong camping trip out to the mountains of Maine. Another idea destined for failure.

 

A couple of hours ago Kevin’s father had both fists wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel you would have thought he was trying to rip it free from the dash. His knuckles were white and his face red as he tried to maneuver the 1998 motorhome down the steep and wet roads of the Maine wilderness. Victor had also sworn that the weatherman had said, “It’ll be a clear and cloudless night. I’ll bet you folks will be able to see every planet in the solar system with the right kinda telescope!”

 

Before they had even left the farm a couple of days ago, Kevin’s mother, Abby, had been complaining of stomach pains. Now she didn’t know whether to puke in a bucket while she s**t in the toilet or vice-versa. Things get messy when you’re sick, even your judgment.

 

Kevin lay on the couch next to the kitchen and could hear his mother shivering. Surely she wasn’t asleep, no one could be asleep while also shaking so violently it made a sound. He worried for her health, of course, but he was so sick himself of this camping trip it was hard to suppress his anger let alone substitute it for sympathy. Kevin had wished his father had gotten sick instead. Yea, that would have taught him to go on a five-day camping trip during such a hellish storm.

 

Kevin could recall the look on his father’s face when the mud under the camper began to give way. His face had a look of pure panic as though at any minute he would be responsible for the death of his wife and only son. So, he decided to stop until the morning when he could see and “the rain will have stopped so we can continue driving. Everything will be alright in the morning, I promise you that.”

 

The rain only got heavier as the minutes dragged on. Kevin was getting tired of forcing his eyes shut knowing sleep was something far out of his grasp. He sat up on the couch and pulled out his sketchbook and pencil and began to draw. He hadn’t but drawn the legs of his horse Pogo when he heard a splashing sound outside of the window behind him. A splashing sound that was much louder than the rain. Could there be someone out there?, Kevin thought.

Kevin was just about to turn and look outside when from the camper door came three very slow and hard knocks.

 

Knock. Knock. Knock.

 

His heart jumped at the sound. Then, his father came down the stairs and turned on the lights.

 

“Did you hear a knock, Kevin?” his father asked.

 

Kevin nodded yes as his eyes followed Victor to the camper door. His father asked who was out there. To their surprise a young and scared voice answered back.

 

“Help me! I’m hurt! I’m hurt bad!”

 

“Open the door, Dad! It’s just a kid!” yelled Kevin.

 

Victor opened the door and in from the storm stumbled a boy about the same age as his son. He was completely covered in mud and from the looks of things he was indeed hurt badly. The parts of his body not covered in mud were either covered in scratches or bruises. Victor also noticed a long jagged cut on the boy’s leg that had clotted but appeared to have bled volumes beforehand.

 

“Dear god” Victor said, slamming the camper door shut. He ran and grabbed a towel from a cabinet and told his wife, Abby, to get a cloth soaked in water. The boy stood there quietly as Victor wiped him down, clearing the mud from his skin but being gentle not to press too hard on the boy’s wounds.

 

Kevin sat on the couch watching until he realized he had dropped his sketchbook onto the floor. He bent down and quickly put it under his pillow. When he looked up, the boy was staring at him. Nervously, he got up and poured a glass of water for the boy who took it gently and drank from it. When he finished, Abby had returned with the wet cloth.

 

Upon looking at the state his mother was in, Kevin realized just how incredibly sick she must be. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face pale and she looked as though getting that cloth might be the last thing she would ever do. Victor grabbed the cloth and began cleaning the wounds on the strange boy until he was practically clean, except his clothes.

 

“What happened to you? Are your parents near by?” Victor asked, taking the empty glass from the boy.

 

The boy responded, “I was camping with my brother up the hill, not too far away from here. There must have been a mudslide, but I can’t remember what happened to him.” The boy spoke clear and as though he was not in the shape he was in. Victor looked skeptical because of his calm attitude, but knew the boy was injured and so they needed to get him to a hospital as soon as the storm ended.

 

Victor told the boy to rest on the couch and so the boy took a seat but insisted on not laying down. It was shocking to the whole family to see a young boy in such bad condition. Oddly, the boy indicated no signs of pain or emotion.

 

“Watch after the boy for a minute son, your mom needs me.” Victor said while grabbing Kevin’s shoulder. A grave look was in Victor’s eyes; they both could hear Abby crying from the bedroom and knew she was not getting any better. Kevin also began to see signs of illness in his father’s face and worried he had caught what had ailed his mother.

 

Victor left to tend to Abby and Kevin took a seat in a chair across from the couch. The boy sat so quietly on the sofa you would have thought he was a corpse, had his eyes not been open.

 

“What is your name?” Kevin asked, trying to smile but the sounds and movements from the bedroom kept his face very much unhappy.

 

“My name is Toby. Your mom is very sick, will she die soon?” He said, not even making eye contact.

 

The question left Kevin a bit sick to his stomach because he had not even felt that death was a possible outcome of his mother’s sickness. Hearing it come from a stranger’s mouth so casually and without sympathy left him speechless.

 

And Angry.

 

“What did you say? She’s only sick she won’t die!” Kevin’s vision blurred with his sudden unexpected anger. Toby was still looking away, ignoring him.

 

“Why would you say that? Why would you say that about my mom?” Kevin stood and yelled, wanting an explanation, but Toby would continue to stare at the wall in front of him, quietly.

 

“What’s going on, Kevin?” Victor came in abruptly and for a moment seemed upset that Kevin had yelled at the injured visitor.

 

“He said mom may die soon!” Kevin said pointing at Toby.

 

“I simply asked if she might, she seems very sick. It won’t matter Kevin, don’t get upset at me.” Toby said monotonously.

 

“She’s sick, but she won’t die, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s not that serious yet, and it won’t be. Calm down, Kevin.” Victor said shaking his finger at his son. Kevin sat down sort of relieved to have heard the words from his father. They were assuring words.

 

“Yet. And besides it won’t matter, like I said. She’s sick and you’re sick, but it won’t matter.” Toby turned to Kevin and with an expression so empty of human emotion said, “It won’t even matter, Kevin.”

 

Victor, who was about to return to the bedroom before Toby spoke, turned back around and said, “You hush up. Why do you keep saying it won’t matter? Where might your brother be? Aren’t you worried?”

 

“I don’t know where my brother is. We were up on the hill when something came. Something came for us and I managed to run away.” Toby finally began to show some sort of emotion, perhaps because he had angered Victor.

 

“You said a mudslide?” Victor asked.

 

“No, it wasn’t a mudslide, it was a something. We were attacked and it was chasing me. It was chasing me after it got my brother and it’s going to find me. There’s no doubt it’s going to find me. It will find me and it will find all of us and it’s going to do to us what it did to my brother.” He turned and said to Kevin, “You’ll see.”

 

“Shut the hell up. You’re trying to scare my son and I won’t have it. Now, you’re hurt and I was nice enough to let you in, but don’t think I won’t put you back out there.” Victor became red in the face and fuming, not wanting to put up with a snobby child while dealing with his wife’s sickness.

 

Kevin had never seen his father curse at someone his age so he knew his father must be mad. To his amazement, however, Toby spoke back, calm as could be.

 

“You won’t put me back out there, my leg, look at it.” Toby lifted his leg from under the covers and the scabbed wound that ran down his calf was surely going to be infected soon.

 

“We need to get you help, soon.” Victor quietly said, realizing he couldn’t continue yelling at the boy, not in a situation this dire. He left the room to go back and tend to his wife.

 

Kevin looked at the boy for a moment before gathering the nerve to ask him what had attacked him in the woods. Kevin asked but was not sure how much he really wanted to know.

 

“I don’t know. Nobody really knows what it is. My brother and I grew up in the small town by the river your family must have passed to get here. You probably even drove past my house. My dad lives there with us. He told us as kids to never stay out in the forest after sundown, but we got caught in the rain. Kinda like you guys did, but once we couldn’t make it back we wanted to stay out there to see what my dad was talking about.” Toby could sense he was scaring Kevin and he enjoyed that, so he continued with his story.

 

“My dad said it moves around very fast, like a tiger, but it ain’t no tiger. He says it becomes whatever it wants. He says it becomes whatever animal of the woods it wants because once it eats something it can become it. Like a shape shifter.”

 

“A shape shifter?” Kevin was both mesmerized and terrified by the story.

 

“It can turn into whatever it wants. It must have eaten a snake before it found my brother, Danny, because it came out of the woods so fast and wrapped him up before I had time to draw my pocketknife. I took off running, but I could hear it chasing me. I’m a fast runner so I got away.”

 

“Are you lying?” Kevin hoped for the negative response his nerves needed but Toby just shook his head no and said he would never lie.

 

Abby came down from the bedroom and ran quickly into the bathroom where she slammed the door and began vomiting. Toby laughed under his breath and Kevin listened in horror as his mother voided all the contents of her stomach, the chunks of prior meals splashing loudly into the bowl of the toilet. Toby kept laughing quietly so Victor wouldn’t hear.

 

“Your mother is very sick, son. Make her some warm milk, would you? I’m going outside to grab some containers of fresh water.” Victor said, swiftly leaving the mobile home. Kevin began to prepare the milk, but faltered when he heard his mother sobbing. He grew extremely depressed and poured the milk too fast, spilling some.

 

“You idiot.” Toby said, now livelier and more human despite how mean he was becoming. Kevin ignored the comment and put the glass in the microwave. His mother fell silent in the bathroom and Kevin sighed in relief.

 

Victor returned as the microwave beeped loudly. He placed the water jugs on the ground and went to the bathroom door to ask Abby if she was all right. There was no response and Victor grew worried. His voice more nervous as he called her name a second and third time, asking her to open the door and let him in. Toby was wide-eyed and staring at Victor, who became almost furious with worry.

 

“Did your mother leave the bathroom, Kevin?” Victor asked, rushing the words out.

 

“No she didn’t dad, she didn’t leave!” Kevin said, sounding terrified.

 

Victor turned around and kicked the bathroom door in, the wood splintering with a crunch.

 

The bathroom was empty.

 

All of them looked into the empty room as silence took their voices from them. Victor ran in and opened the shower curtain but to no avail. Abby was gone.

 

Kevin backed away from the bathroom in disbelief. He had just heard the sobs of his sick mother from within those walls and now she had vanished. Victor grabbed a flashlight and ran outside, slamming the door behind him. Toby and Kevin looked at each other as Victor’s voice, louder than the storm, began calling out for his wife, Abby.

 

“How did she do that?” Toby asked, sporting a small smirk, caring not how Kevin felt.

 

“Abby! Baby where are you? You’re too sick to be out here in the rain!” Victor was running around the mobile home, shining the flashlight into the surrounding woods. His heart was beating faster than he had ever felt it beat before and finally he heard a voice answer his frantic calls.

 

“Hello? Is there someone out there!?” It was the voice of a small boy, coming from the woods near where Victor was standing. After a minute, Victor could see the figure running towards him.

 

“Yes, who are you?” Victor said, hardly able to see through the heavy rain hitting his face. He knew it was probably Toby’s lost brother.

 

“My name is Danny and my brother is lost somewhere. I can’t find him! Help please!” Danny was running quickly towards the flashlight that was in Victor’s hand.

 

“Go inside the mobile home, your brother Toby is in there.” Victor was glad to have found the missing boy but his wife’s sudden disappearance left him exhausted. The boy came running up to Victor so fast he wasn’t sure if he was going to stop, and he didn’t. Danny ran right into Victor’s chest, causing the air to rush out of his lungs.

 

“Your mom must be like some sort of Houdini!” Toby said, laughing hard now while moving around so much that the wound on his leg had opened back up. A shiny sliver of blood began to drool down his leg until it reached his sock.

 

“Shut up! She must have found a way out, she’s really sick you know, you shouldn’t make fun of her!” Kevin shouted, standing over the injured boy now, angry.

 

“Don’t tell me to shut up Kevin, you’re the one with two dying parents. Your parents are probably both out in the rain bleeding from all sorts of gashes, moaning as death closes in on their helpless souls. Or maybe they’re already dead and being eaten. I bet your mom got eaten. I bet it bit her head off and then drank every gallon of blood from her corpse.” Toby said these words in such a serious and cold manner that it paralyzed Kevin in fear.

 

“Wh- What did you say?” Kevin could hardly speak.

 

“They’re dead, duh. Where is your dad? I bet right now as you are standing here he is having every bit of his insides torn out.” Toby laughed, but it was cut off. Kevin had pounced on him and was punching him in the face repeatedly. At first, Kevin thought he might really be hurting the boy, but when he stopped, Toby let go a nasty little smile.

 

Kevin backed up, nearly in tears. Toby stood and walked towards him, but Kevin kept backing up until he was against the mobile home door.

 

“Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. Where is your father? Can you hear him calling for your mother anymore? No. I took him and ate him. I am the forest, I am the rain, and I am everything around you. I consume and become what I consume, Kevin.”

 

Toby spoke the words, but they seemed to come from all around the camper, from a thousand mouths. Then, to Kevin’s disgust, something began to come out of Toby’s leg wound. It looked like a snake, slithering out and splitting the flesh and bone of his leg, but it was wooden and Kevin saw that it was the roots of a tree.

 

The roots came spilling out of Toby’s body, shredding him into pieces. Twisting his body and snapping his bones, spraying blood in all directions. A thick piece of root came from behind Toby and wrapped around his head tightly until his skull popped like a balloon with a sudden crunch. Pieces of bone and brain slopped to the ground.

 

Kevin was caught in a wave of hot fear, but turned and opened the mobile home door, running out into the wilderness. The rain had stopped and his shoes splashed into the thick mud. He began to run faster than he ever had before with terror keeping him from getting tired. He could hear behind him, or maybe all around him, the voices of his mother and father calling out to him.

 

“It’s okay Kevin, come back to the mobile home, it’s not safe out there. Kevin, come back, we are fine! Everything is fine!”