The Dark Forest

Going camping is usually fun and relaxing, but what if you feel like you are being watched ?

One day I decided to go on a camping trip with my friends Jake and Lincoln.  We packed our sleeping bags, tents, flashlights, and of course plenty of food and headed to a more secluded camping site in a forest in south Florida that they had told me about.  When we arrived, we immediately set about getting out tents up.  Once we finally got them ready, we walked about 70 yards or so to the river to go fishing.  After only a few minutes, Lincoln reeled in a 5 lb. bass.  “Yeah!” he yelled, “we are keeping this one for sure!”  We fished for about an hour and a half or so and ended up catching a total of 5 bass and a few catfish, but we let the catfish go, since they are so much trouble to clean and skin.  Lincoln caught 3 of the bass and most of the catfish, and by the end he was calling himself “The Fish King”.  While he was dancing around celebrating his fish, Jake nudged him into the river, saying “Hey Fish King, it’s time to eat your loyal subjects.”  We all had a good laugh, then got down to the messy work of cleaning the fish we had caught.  Once that chore was finished, we dug a hole near the river and buried the guts.  Then we cleaned our knives in the river before heading back to our campsite to cook up our fish. 

            Back at the camp, Jake and I worked on gathering up some small sticks, twigs, and small logs for a campfire we planned on having when it got dark.  Lincoln stayed behind to get everything ready, including pouring charcoal into the grill and starting cooking the fish.  Jake and I were loading ourselves down with our firewood and having a good conversation when we heard a rustling noise behind us.  “Lincoln?” I called out.  “Come on man, I thought you were gonna be cooking the fish?”  We turned and scanned the woods behind us, but there was nothing there.  “It was probably a squirrel or a chipmunk.” said Jake.  “Yeah, I guess so.  You think we have enough wood?”  I asked.  “I think so, if we need more it’s not like we have to go far to get it, we are in the middle of a forest.”  He replied.  I laughed, “Yeah, good point.  Let’s get back to Link before this becomes a dark forest.” 

            When we got back to our campsite, Lincoln had just finished grilling the last of the fish.  Jake and I piled up our firewood and pulled out the rest of the food we had brought; chips, bean dip, and Oreos for dessert.  I grabbed some paper plates and we all stacked our plates with food.  After we prayed and thanked God for our food and the time we could hang out together, we dug in.  As we were eating, we made plans to get the fire started and cook some s’mores and try to scare each other with scary stories around the campfire.  By the time we finished eating, it had started to get dark.  We hurriedly stacked the fire wood and lit it.  We pulled up some folding chairs we had brought and settled in for some s’mores and scary stories.  Jake told the first story, about a baby sitter who was watching a young child.  A phone upstairs started ringing, so she went to answer it.  All she heard was heavy breathing.  “Hello? Who is this?”  Nothing. She hung up the phone and went back downstairs.  Suddenly the phone in the next room rang.  She jumped up and rushed to answer it.  “Hello?”  “I am coming.” Then the line was cut.  She ran downstairs and suddenly….

            Suddenly we heard rustling in the woods.  I grabbed my flashlight and scanned the woods around us, Jake and Lincoln followed suit.  We heard it again, this time louder, closer.  This time it sounded like it was behind us.  We all spun around, searching the woods for the source of the sound.  “Guys, what do you think that was?” asked Jake, looking around nervously.  “Probably just a deer.” Said Lincoln.  Something ran past our camp again.  We turned, catching a glimpse of something in the beams of light.  We stayed awake and alert for several hours, but we heard nothing else.  We decided to go to sleep, reassured that it was just a deer that we had seen.  We each said our goodnights, then went into our tents.  It wasn't long before I started to doze, and then fell asleep. 

It must have only been an hour or so when I heard Jake outside my tent, “Hey, there is something out here again.  I think maybe we should go.”  I crawled out, bringing my flashlight with me.  Lincoln was out as well, looking a bit anxious as he scanned the darkness around us.  There was something out there, we could hear it, almost as if it was everywhere at once.  Suddenly we heard a snarl from the depths of the darkness.  That was it, whatever it was out in the dark was definitely not friendly.  We grabbed our backpacks and ran headlong through the dark forest towards my car, shining our lights all around.  We swerved around trees, jumped over stumps, and tried not to trip over roots as we tried to get out of the forest.  As we ran, we could hear the creature chasing us, growling and snarling.  Lincoln slipped on the leaves and tripped on some roots.  He fell down, and the creature leapt towards him.  I flung my backpack as hard as I could, hitting the creature head on and knocking it into the shadows.  I helped Link up and we continued running, trying to get to my car to get away.  The whole way we were pursued by the creature.  We finally reached my car and threw ourselves in.  I cranked it up, and the headlights caught a strange, dark shape running towards us.  It was about 7 feet tall and very thin.  None of us could make out its face or any other features.  It looked like a living shadow.  Just as it reached the car and punched through the windshield, I threw the car into reverse.  Then everything went dark.

            I woke up in my tent to the sound of Lincoln and Jake talking.  I opened my eyes.  It was light out.  I rolled over and crawled outside and talked to them about my dream.  “No way, we both had that same dream!” exclaimed Jake.  “Wow,” I said, “I guess our imaginations ran away with us last night.”  “Yeah,” said Lincoln, “it must have been Jake’s story and all those s’mores.”   We all laughed, and packed up our tents and other camping gear, deciding to stop for doughnuts on the way home.  We loaded up my car and piled in.  As we were pulling out, I noticed something.  Common sense told me it was nothing, but my imagination urged me to turn my head for a second glance.  If it had been any other day I would have attributed it to sugary food.  But I had not eaten any breakfast.  I can’t explain it, but I saw a tall, thin, black figure standing by the tree.  Almost like a shadow.

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Kimberly Miller]

Very thrilling and excited! Loved this one!!

[Jeremy Hiles]

Thank you! The two characters are inspired by two of my cousins!