The Inexplicable Woods

A short case of the supernatural

Since before a time that anyone could recall, the woods of Seneca Falls, Connecticut have been ominous and eerie. The people who grew up hearing stories stayed far from the shadows of the forest, none dared exploring it's mysteries. No one goes into those woods, no one goes near those woods on their own, and there are even parts of the wood that animals don't tread. On a gloomy day in mid-December, Thomas Foster sat in the front seat of his 1971 Chevy pickup, spaced out in the heart of these woods. He had a piece of paper in his grasp that was evidently affecting him. His hands were trembling, eyes puffy like they had been crying. The area was foggy and cold. Daylight was dimmed immensely by the thickening of clouds. The skies were painted in various shades of grey and the humidity made the air heavy. A seasonal shift had skinned the surrounding trees bare. The lonely truck was parked inside an open area of grassland. Thomas must have followed an off course road ten minutes deep to get to this spot. There was no one around for miles and miles. The nearest town was over half of an hour away and was scarce of residency. He was in a place where no one could hear his screams. The paper in Thomas's hand was a letter. On it was written:

Tommy,

Why did you leave me?

I thought I was the one.

But now I've been left alone in these woods.

Always searching for you...

Always waiting...

Yours forever,

-Malinda

To offer our condelences for Mr. Foster's turmoil we would first have to understand the components of what this letter represented to him. See, Tommy hadn't been to this area for over fifteen years. The last time he was here was the most afflicting memory in his life. Those woods held his darkest secret. When Tommy was seventeen years old he went on a long drive with his sweetheart, Malinda Mallory. He was drinking, so decided to be adventurous and drive into the woods from off the highway. He was too busy trying to show his girlfriend how daring he was to notice her uneasiness. Malinda was a pretty straight girl, she wasn't used to rebellion, and got anxiety when she was uncomfortable. Tommy drove further, further, and further into the woods. After reaching the same plane his pick up was now dormant in, Malinda decided that she had enough. "STOP! TOMMY!" the young girl shouted. Tommy slammed on the brakes. He put his arm around the lovely Malinda's shoulders and ran his fingers through her jet black hair. "What's the matter b-beautiful?" Tommy asked in slur, "Aren't you having fun?"

Malinda paused for a moment, "Well, I WAS having fun before, but now we're too far from town. I won't be home 'till at least midnight now. I'm in trouble. PLUS, I'm scared being in these woods. When I was little my daddy told me they were haunted." The seventeen year-old girl was shaking.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're scared of a little ghost story, darling? Isn't it exciting being so far from everyone? It's just me and you out here... I thought we could... spend some time alone together."

Malinda wasn't stupid. She knew what a young boy that was drunk wanted when he said "time alone together".

"I think you ought to just take me home Tommy. Maybe we can spend some time alone together another day when you're not drunk... and when we're not in these woods. Okay?"

Tommy was annoyed. He had gone through a lot on this night to please Malinda. He saved up for two weeks to take her out to a nice dinner and movie. He even had a senior baseball player at their school do him a favor by getting the alcohol that his unappreciative girlfriend didn't even enjoy with him. He opened his car door and got out. "Fine, let me just take a leak.." Tommy walked about twenty feet from the car and unzipped his jeans. The alcohol was flowing right through him. He was thinking about all the dirty things he could try to talk his girlfriend into doing on the drive home. A big smile stretched across his face. When suddenly, "TOMMY!" was shrieked. The young man sprung around in dismay. The sight that struck him was grave. Malinda had vanished. She was no where in sight, but her car door was shut. Tommy had never even heard it slam. "MALINDAAAA!!!!!" he screamed. There was no response, no sound, not even the chirp of a cricket. He darted toward his car trying to find an answer. "MALIIIINDAAA!!! BABY!!! WHERE ARE YOU!??" There was still nothing but silence. The only sound was the wind horridly howling in the woods.

Tommy didn't know what to do. The only way he could react was to start running into the forest screaming the name he had quickly become so desperate to find. There was no trace of his Malinda. After running for about thirty seconds, he stopped to breathe. Tears were rivering from his eyes in helplessness. He paced back to his car screaming Malinda's name repetitively. She had completely vanished. What he saw when he returned was more than his debilitated mind could begin to process. Malinda's entire outfit was laid out over the hood of his car. There were no blood stains, no signs of struggle, not even as much as sweat or dirt on the clothes. Tommy hadn't even left the car to search for her for more than one minute, and somehow there was enough time for his girlfriend to have been brought back to the car, undressed, and taken again without any sign.

After an hour of screaming at the top of his lungs, there was no luck. Malinda was gone. Her body was never found. Tommy tried his best to explain to the police and his parents what had happened. He was an emotional wreck. Some people tried to blame his consumption of alcohol, some scourned him for even taking her to those woods, and some even said that they thought Tom had killed Malinda and disposed of her body. Malinda's parents never recovered from her disappearance, and as well was Tom enstilled in the everlasting anguish.

So you can see now why this letter was so significant to Tom. There was no way he could turn away from this. His wife and children would worry sick over his absence, but this was something he had to do. He sat in his truck in almost the same spot as fifteen years before, headlights beaming in the same direction as his nightmares recollected. He was smoking a cigarette, staring off into the trees, about as sober as the last time. The sun disappeared behind the horizon and all went black. Tom felt his hairs stand. He stepped away from his truck. "Malinda?"

In the distance there was something. Tom couldn't make it out, but it was there. "Hello??" he yelled, "is someone there?" As he focused more on what he was trying to see his stomache dropped and his heart stopped. It was a woman. She wasn't standing, she was hovering. "Malinda?!" Tom weakly yelped. The woman in the distance turned her head to Tom. Within one second she went from being sixty yards away, to right at Tom. It was Malinda, but more looked like what a hologram of Malinda might look like. He tried to scream but no sound emitted because his voice was crippled. He tried to move, but was plagued by an instantaneous paralysis. "Tommy, stay with me..." she whispered in a dreary echo.

The police discovered Thomas' car on the side of the highway, abandoned. He was nowhere to be found. All that was left at the scene was his clothes, laid out on the hood of the car. There was never a note found, never anything found. The police had no leads. Even after searching the perimeter with choppers and dogs there were no bodies found.

...But there was a part of those woods that even the dogs were too afraid to look...

Author's Note

I wrote this in one day, but the concept naturally unfolded with ease and I like how it turned out

Reviews

[Arsenic Nemesis]

Wow, this is amazingly chilling, mortal, love it! Really well written and constructed, I simply loved it! I wonder what was up with their woods and what exactly was spiriting people away... hmm, very mysterious and interesting. A wonderful piece of writing here, great job!~

[Ireca]

Great story. You had great description and word usage. You painted a clear picture as to why the woods were inexplicable.

[Jessica]

Very creative! I really enjoyed reading this.

[rachel]

awesome piece. :) love the description you used and felt like i was right there.

[Jae]

i love the mysterious line at the end. its a lovely read and i thank you for sharing a part of your metal matter!

~Rem

[Brian W. Hastings]

Nicely done. You knew to capture the readers interest as fast as possible and then used the back story approach to continue the tale, while yet another more present story brought about the climax. You did this seamlessly and even though you let on a bit of the chill you did not give it all away. This will make the reader's imagination go beyond your story. I read your profile and I must say you have learned well from Poe.

[Jūdan FyreHeart]

This was nicely done. The way you flipped back to the back-story worked well too. It was eerie and gave enough detail to form a small chill while leaving the majority to the reader's imagination. =)

[Stef Outsiders]

Now that was spooky, Love supernatural stories! I've got goosebumps... you've written this extremely well and I could see everything that was going on... Brilliant!

[thearsonist]

I have a thing for the supernatural since as long as I can remember & I really love this piece of writing of yours. The beauty of the supernatural, the mystery that shrouds it.