My watch beeped as its minute hand struck 12. Midnight. My parents were expecting me to be home by 12:30. That was generous of them, but only after I pleaded on my hands and knees.
“Fine,” my mom said as she rolled her eyes. “But only as long as you stay on the lighted sidewalks.”
I thought that was a given, but, like any teenager would say, whatever. It’s not like we weren’t going camping.
I had gone trick-or-treating with my neighbor and classmate, Acai. “Was that the signal?” He was referring to the beep from the watch.
“Signal for what?”
“For the gouls and zombies to start coming out of the woods and eating us.”
I gave a quick “haha”, but looked over my shoulder. Funny enough, right as he made the remark I felt as if someone was watching us. There were plenty of other people out though, so it could’ve easily been another group of teens behind us, just trick-or-treating.
I adjusted my grip on my heavy, and very full, candy bag. “I think I’m done for the night, you?”
“Yep. I got all the fuel I need for studying this week. Let’s go back now.”
I checked my watch again. 12:30. My parents wanted me to be home by 1:00, at the latest, and we had walked to the neighborhood on the other side of the forest. That was around a 45 minute walk to go back the way we came.
And I was not about to go through a dark and ominous forest just to get home 10 minutes faster.
“Do you want to take a shortcut?”
This tims, I knew exactly what he was talking about. “No, we’re not going in there.”
“Come on, it’ll be an adventure!”
“Nope. Nuh uh. No way.”
“Ugh you’re such a killjoy. But fine, we’ll take the long way.” He picked up the robes of his wizard costume and walked on.
The lace on the collar of my pirate costume was starting to itch, so I walked faster. Along the way, we ran into a group of students, who we recognized from school.
We walked over to their huddled group. Their laughter and smugness immediately suggested that they were daring eachother to go into the forest.
“What are you, chicken,” asked the one in a costume of futuristic fashion.
“No! I just don’t… see a need to when there’s mich better, lighted paths.” The reply came quickly from a bulky guy dressed in a basic ghost costume.
“Yep, he’s a chicken. Let’s go Ace, I don’t want to waste my time waiting on him.” The speaker was a shorter boy, in Jedi robes and a lightsaber. The Jedi dragged the futuristic one, Ace to the forest. The “chicken” looked on as they disappeared into the forest, before schooching to the curb to let us pass.
When I got home I was exhausted. My parents and sister were asleep by then, so I just went straight to my room and fell onto the bed still in my steampunk outfit. Not the most comfortable, but I still fell asleep the moment the blankets were over me.
The next day, I woke up with a shake from my sister. She immediately starts a spilling out the news that two boys are missing and were last seen going into the forest. I immediately knew who she was talking about and quickly got dressed to go out. Search parties were already assembling, and I found the one Acai was in to join him.
I didn’t really know what to expect: a lone lightsaber, perhaps? Or maybe the boys’ mutilated bodies left out in the open, spewing with fungus and coated in dry blood. Thoes thoughts were unsettling, though, but I pushed them aside as I called out their names: Ace and Andrew.
After an hour of searching the forest: nothing. Not a single foot print, blood drop, or dropped belonging.
People were starting to go back home, but everyone’s heads turned towards a sudden, ear piercing shriek. People rushed towards it. With much relief, and suprise, the boys were found. Huddled. In the middle of a clearing.
We approached them, slowly as they did not seem to register our presence. A man who seemed to be the dad of one of the boys ran over to them and gave them a large embrace. When the boy, specifically Ace, did not make any movement whatsoever in response, the man withdrew. Then I saw it. The boy’s eyes had no white. They were pitch black, and ozing goopy, black slime. And his face, besides the creepy eyes, was scarred with a circular symbol with a star inside it, not too different than that of the devil.
That day, the search was called off, and everone, who didn’t get a close up of the boys, went home with relief. Thoss that did however, never dared leave the sidewalks path ever again.
And that’s it. That was fun. Maybe I’ll do a second draft later…
