Try Not To Be Afraid Of The Dark (Very Short Stories) ~EDITING~

The Unknown

I could feel it. Something, or someone, was behind me. Whatever had killed my friends had come back for me. It was just a matter of time before I too would come face-to-face with death.

Hiding behind this old oak tree, crouching in the mud and rotten leaves, my mind flashed back to the horrors I had seen (and had stuck in my memory) not so long ago...

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"Hurry up Dakota, were all ready to play hide and seek!!" Jake shouted to me, as I ran trying to catch up with the others. Lets just say, running was never my strong point.

In fact, every Sports Day, I was put in for the really long races (like the 1500m) just so that everyone could laugh at how I could never finish. I was always the one people laughed at, not laughed with.

"Okay, I'll count to 50, and you go hide," I told them, "Then I'm coming to find you all!" I laughed, wiggling my eyebrows in a suggesting way. They all laugh, pretending to look horrified.

At this point, I never knew one harmless game of hide and seek could go so horribly wrong.

Then, like deer being chased by a ravonous lion, they all rapidly ran away in all different directions, and I count with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, my back turned away from them with my face up against the twisted trunk of the 100 year old tree.

When I had finally counted to the number 50, I turned around and set of on my quest to find them. I ran through all of the woods, checking behind trees and under the evergreen bushes; I looked everywhere. But not Jake, Sarah or Elliot could be found there. At this point, I was starting to get anxious and a bit fearful.

Just where exactly where they?

After double checking in all the possible hiding places in the forest, I realise that the only other place that my friends could be hiding in was the enormous field behind the ghostly woods. I sprinted around the whole area of grass like it was a matter between life or death. But still, they were nowhere to be seen.

I was scared now, and didn't want to play this game anymore. So many people had told us not to go to these mysterious woods, and told us stories about how little innocent children never came out alive, and if they did they were so scared to death and never recovered. We had just laughed it off, refusing to let the creepy stories get to us. Now I was getting doubtful, where those stories true?

Then, it all changed. I heard a frightful scream followed by a loud bang and a crashing noise. I froze, paralysed by fear. A curtain of darkness was now beginning to cover the sky, but I knew I couldn't leave without the others.

Slowly, I forced my legs to move in the direction of that haunting scream, that cry for help. I wasn't prepared, I found out later on, for the horrors that lay ahead of me.

As I approached the beginning of the wood, I stopped abruptly. There, lying on the stone cold floor, was Sarah. Blood was running from her once beautiful face, causing a crimson red pool around her body. I was in so much shock, I just stood and stared, not knowing what to do.

It was clear that she was dead: she wasn't moving and from just touching her wrist to check her pulse, you could tell she wasn't breathing. Tears rolled down my cheeks and fell onto her chest. I buried my face into her body. She still smelt like Sarah, that familiar perfume could still be detected.

Even though I should be grieving of my beloved friend, I couldn't help stop the questions forming in my mind. Who had killed her? And where were they now?

By the time I had stood up and started to think about what to do next and what to do with the body, I noticed how darker it was getting by the minutes, and I could feel a slight chill in the air. I grabbed my while iPhone from my back pocket of my jeans and checked the network coverage. No signal. "God, this is horrific," I whispered to myself, "This really is my worst nightmare."

I really needed to contact the police and to phone my family, and Sarah's to tell them the bad news. So I was going to have to walk around these ghastly woods to find a network connection.

By now, the burning ball of fire had completely dissappeared, and was replaced by the silvery moon. I still couldn't get any signal no matter how much I walked around. then, as my eyes met the floor, I saw another horrific scene in front of me, for the second time that DAY.

Lying underneath the tree, sitting up against it, was... It was Elliot!

It was another of my faithful friends! He was definitely dead; there was no point in even checking his pulse. Something terrible had happened to him and Sarah, and I wasn't going to stick around to find out. I could see a shadow against the trees a little away now, and that shadow looked sinister. It was slowly creeping towards me, its feet silently walking along the crunchy ground of the woods.

I ran in the direction of the field, running through the darkness, until I found somewhere to hide, where I wouldn't be killed too. I spotted some huge oak tree, and crawled behind it, like my life depended on it. Wait, my life did depend on it. I looked down at my blood-stained hands, at the blood intwined into my hair. Sarah's and Elliot's blood was everywhere. It felt like it was even soaking into my skin, wanting to stay there forever.

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And here I still was, crouching here in the pitch blank, trying to make them terrible memories fade away. I needed to find help, but I knew something or someone was coming back for me. Then I heard footsteps, getting closer and closer with every step. I had to be brave. Somehow.

I turned around to face this creature; a murderer. My murderer. I looked at his perfect skin and his dark floppy hair, and looked deeply into his sparkling blue eyes.

"Jake!!" I squealed, as he grabbed my hands and tied them behind my back. I saw something silver behind him, something shiny. It was the weapon he was going to use to kill me. I just knew it.

Then, everything went black. My time had come.