the smiley creatures

It was fall, October 29. We were walking in the woods, trying to find our way home, when my friend Onyx looked at me and quickly whispered, “Do you hear that?” I looked up at him, confused, thinking he was just pulling another prank like usual. I rolled my eyes slightly and responded, “No, I don’t hear anything, and you better not be pulling another prank.”

Then he spoke again, still whispering, “No, I’m serious. It’s almost like a heartbeat—thump, thump.” I looked at him, more annoyed. “It’s probably your own heartbeat. Stop acting crazy.”

We continued walking, and the sun seemed to be setting faster than when we first entered the woods. Everything felt darker; the trees creaked, and the moon appeared red. The only sound I could hear was the cawing of crows, which seemed to be warning us to go back. Their cries grew louder and more urgent. My heart was racing by now the feeling something wrong was hitting me strong the smell of death filling my senses .

The deeper we ventured into the darkness, the quieter the woods seemed to get to quiet  we may have only gone about 50 feet further when i Accidentally tripped over something hard, but slightly squishy. It rolled as my boots stepped onto it, and onyx turned on his flashlight, revealing what the mysterious object was. When I looked up, I let out a blood-curdling scream. The bloody arm of someone is the pentagram engraved on the side, cut maybe 2cm into the skin, and I instantly try to crawl back.

Then, onyx grabbed me roughly and pointed upwards to the trees. A twisted creature that was smiling down at us with a bloody smirk, its eyes dug out into a bloody X shape, and it seemed to creepily hum and mimic our heartbeats, then me and onyx ran as fast as we could, trying to escape,e but it climbed faster and faster till it grabbed onyx by his hoodie and try to drag him up luckily he thought fast and grabbed his knife out of his pocket stabbing at the creature till it dropped him onyx his the ground with a sicking crack his shoulder completely popped out of his skin like a snapped chicken bone. He lay there bloody and unconscious. I try to drag him away, but it jumped down and grabbed his legs and yanked him, causing his arm to rip off in a bloody mess, causing me to scream and run,

abandoning him. i grabbed our backpacks, searching for his phone to call anyone until liquid started

dripping onto my head at first i thought it was rain until i realized it was bloody silver and that 7 more bodies with the same  pentagram  carved into them slowly being burned and eaten by the demonic creature  i quickly covered my mouth trying not to scream but it was too late when i saw that same monster going to hang up onyx i screamed and quickly throw rocks sticks dirt things from my backpack till onyx fell into my arms and i dragged him quickly making it out of the monsters den and to the edge of the woods where they seem to stop and stare until the crows flown down attacking them by the time i got onyx out of their cops and search rescues then i passed out hard stole trying to stop his bleeding

when i woke up we both were in the hospital with cops asking us why we've been in the woods for 2 weeks i looked at them confused ‘ what no we were only in there for 3 hours where were walking home ‘ the cop looked at me concerned ‘ no ms jackson you were in there for 2 weeks its currently november 15. Can you tell us how your friend's arm was ripped off? I looked up, terrified, reliving the moment, and it was the monsters. I said barely above a whisper, and the cops looked at our parents, not believing me.

4 weeks later, December 13

I had gone completely home-schooled, and everyone was thinking I hurt Onyx and that I had gone completely insane. Meanwhile, onyx was still in the hospitality; they had managed to reattach his arm, but he was still completely out of it, usually mumbling in different languages. He could never know his parents had banned me from visiting, not even them believing I didn't do it.

After a few more days, he was discharged, and he finally told his parents what happened, but then they started thinking we were crazy. But finally they found our bags, but no traces of blood or anything, but some berries in our bag that cause hallucinations.

So, were we just hallucinating, or was there something in those woods? I think about going back daily, same with only. He wonders a lot if we're just crazy or was what we went through sometimes at night, we both hear the sound of the crows and the heartbeat, but who knows, maybe it was all just a hallucination.