Run

Chapter Eleven: Loops and Dead things.

 It was around 2pm when we got to the park and it was too sunny and bright for me. We quickly got out of the car and got ready. I left my journal at the hotel, but both me and Tim took pictures of the map to use as references. Tim grabbed a pocket knife and insisted that I should bring a weapon with me. After a bit of arguing, I gave in and he handed me a larger pocket knife to take. Shutting and locking the car up, we head towards the forest. Where we're going in at, there are two trails, a right one that heads to the south end of the park and a left one that heads to the north end of the park.

"Are you sure you want to split up?" Tim asks as we get closer.

Speeding up my walk a bit so we can get there before he changes his mind, I confirm, "Yes, I'm sure."

"Fine. But if you see anything weird or creepy, don't run towards it or follow it. Okay?"
Finally getting to the edge of the forest, I start done the right trail saying, "No promises."

I hear Him sigh and head down the left trail. I slowed my walk and took note of the forest around me. The last few times I've been through here, it was the middle of the night, and I was running. As I walked I noted that the forest was quite quiet. It was kinda terrifying how quiet it was. For being around the middle of the day, I should be hearing a lot of bird and other animal noises. But... It's just silent. A little creeped out, I picked up my pace. Ahead in the trail, I see a split. Remembering the plan me and Tim made, I need to head towards the left one so I could loop back to the parking lot. I stop when I get to the split in the path and pull out my phone. I begin to double check my map when I hear a small squeak from in front of me. I look up to see a chocolate brown rabbit sitting a little farther down the right path. It looked exactly like the one I saw earlier. Same white tipped ears and paws as before.

"Oh my god. You are so cute!" I say, walking towards it slowly.

I stopped as it skittered farther down the trail. It stopped and looked back at me as if expecting me to follow. I was about to follow it when I remembered what Tim said about following creepy or weird things. A rabbit, that looks exactly like the rabbit I saw at a rest stop about an hour away is now in front of me and probably wants me to follow it..... Yeah, no. I turned around and headed down the left trail. I glanced back to see if the rabbit had followed me. Luckily it didn't. As I walked farther down the trail, I could hear more and more animals. Sound had suddenly returned to the forest. Quite strange. I continued walking down the path, checking my map every once and awhile to make sure I took the right trail. After a bit more walking, I came across a split in the path. What? This trail was suppose to be a straight trail. I've checked the map at least twenty times. Confused, I decide to backtrack and head backwards on the trail. The forest was deafeningly silent and it bothered me. I stopped again. In front of me was another goddamn split. It's like I went in a loop. No matter how many times I've gone left or back, I end up here. I dart back through the woods back down the left trail, but again end up at the split.

Confused, annoyed, and paranoid, I scream, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!"

I dart down the let path once again, only to end up back at the split.

"What the hell," I mutter, breathing quite heavily.

I sat down on the ground in front of the two paths, still panting but a lot calmer. God it's bright. How is it still so bright out? Now confused, I pull my phone out and check the time. 2:40! WE GOT HERE AT 2:38! I know for a fact I've been running around for at least a fucking hour! There's no service in this forest so I can't call Tim... Well fuck me. I look up at the paths. What if I went down the right path? I stood up and slowly headed down the right left. The forest was still quiet. It's kinda like the entire world is frozen. I wonder where that rabbit went too? After what felt like hours of walking I hear some sort of scream in the distance. It sounded like a dying animal.

"I've already come this far, why not head towards the scream?" I sarcastically ask myself.

I sigh at myself and head further down the trail, towards the screams. As I walk, I can see small dots of what seems to be blood on the path. Welp.... I'm probably gonna die soon.... Oh well. I continued down the path. The scream has stopped but the blood drops on the trail has gotten larger. Looking further ahead, I can see something in the middle of the straight as fuck path. It was some sort of brown lump. I walked closer, grabbing the knife in my pocket. Getting even closer I notice there was some white in the the brown. It's that rabbit I saw earlier. Well, it 'was' that rabbit. I 'poke' it with my foot and it doesn't respond. The poor thing is dead. 

"Do you like it?"