Don't Go Into the Woods at Night

"You first."

Chloe's dark eyes seemed to smile in the moonlight as she shoved her brother Damien into the woods. He stumbled a few feet into the thick detritus on the forest floor, and steadied himself. Laughing anxiously, he pulled his heavy brown jacket closer around his wide body. His eyes darted around in the pitch black woods, and he shivered. Small raindrops began to litter the air.

"There's no WAY I'm going in there first, man," he cleared his throat nervously. "Way too freaky, even for me." He started to back out, and Chloe sighed. She pulled a bulky flashlight from her right pocket and an old camcorder from her left and pushed past him.

"Coward." Teeth clenched, she clicked the light on, and the flashlight flickered a few times before letting out a stream of dim light. Chloe stomped down the slight slope, through the mud and rotting leaves, into the cover of the trees. A strong musty smell assaulted her nose, and made her eyes water.

"Fuck, Chlo. It's late. we should just head home," He clutched his heavy jacket, trying to find comfort in the empty warmth it provided.

"Are you crazy? You're the one who suggested we go out here in the first place!" Chloe leaned back towards Damien and bared her teeth in an animalistic manner. "I'm not backing down just because you're a pussy." Damien squinted, and looked at Chloe uncertainly.

"I-... fine," He stepped down into the muck, and slipped. He flailed his arms and righted himself, before taking hold of a tree and blushing with embarrassment. "But I don't like this."

"What, you afraid of ghosts? Gonna go cry to mom about it?" She made a fist and rubbed her cheek like she was crying. "Boo-hoo. Get yourself together and be a man." Damien looked down, shame in his eyes.

"I should go. I hate being around you when you're like this. Not cool, man." He grabbed a branch of a tree farther up to steady himself, and he began to climb the incline out of the forest.

"Hey- Hey wait, Day. I'm sorry. Can you just come with me? I... don't want to go in alone." For the first time tonight, Chloe's eyes flickered with uncertainty. Damien paused, and he looked back and glared.

"...let me hold the flashlight, then."

Chloe laughed and the light in her eyes returned. She pushed the large, heavy flashlight into Damien's hand.

"Come on then." She smiled mischievously, flipped open the camcorder, grabbed his hand, and trudged into the forest. "How bad could it possibly be?"

After about thirty minutes of walking, the forest became so dense and dark that the pair could hardly see five feet in front of them, even with the flashlight turned on the highest setting.

"Maybe we should turn back," Damien said. The night was wearing on him, what with him leaping into Chloe's arms at every slight rustle or crack. He almost leapt straight out of his skin when a startled raccoon was illuminated by the flashlight's dim ray. Chloe sighed.

"I'm not going back until something worthwhile happens. This stupid forest is supposed to have ghosts or something, right? I didn't walk all this way-" SKKRCHK. A horrid, loud crunching noise, followed by a horrific tearing, squelching, ripping, snapping-- The siblings froze.

"What.... Was that?" Damien whispered, hardly audible. A kind of inhuman grunt- no, moan, almost like a deep instrument, escaped from the trees above. An ear-splittingly loud screech upset a murder of crows, and they flew into the black night.

All sound stopped suddenly, and a single drop of blood landed on Chloe's jacket. Her eyes were as big as saucers.

"Go- get out of here!" she scream-whispered.

Damien took off at a full sprint, fueled fully by fear, until he looked back and saw that Chloe wasn't following. He panicked, began to run sideways, and tripped - the flashlight bouncing far out of his reach.

"Chloe! What are you doing?!" Damien screamed behind him. He clutched his arm, now twisted unnaturally and blooming with a rich red. He groaned, tears washing dirt away from his face in streaks. He scrambled to get up, and leaned against a nearby tree. He looked at Chloe, and was shocked to the point he almost fell again. She was recording. She peered up into the tree at whatever was lurking up there.

"Chloe Klovinskie here. I'm a few miles in the woods outside of-" She stopped mid sentence. She craned her neck and squinted around the foliage. She suddenly froze, and a milky white color washed over her eyes.

"Chloe! CHLOE!" Damien yelled to his sister, dread knotting in his stomach. She didn't respond, she only giggled into the trees.

"It's... beautiful," she said calmly. Her voice was high and soft, a tone she never would've used. She slowly turned, camcorder sinking downwards until it was focused on Damien. Her eyes looked dead. As she giggled again, a creature swung down from the branches. Standing right behind her, a nightmare being that was meant for no eyes. Standing about nine feet tall, the creature had pale white skin that almost looked like tiny tendrils, crawling... no, like white worms, tangled in a squirming mass over it's misshapen skeleton. Round holes where eyes should be were impossibly neverending tunnels. A huge, circular mouth filled with small, flat, sawing fangs in spirals gaped in the middle of it's disgusting face. It had thin, long legs that were almost human - if something had gone horribly wrong. All of it's misshapen limbs had bloodstained talons on the end. The creature was covered in blood and other... parts of some poor person.

Chloe giggled again

and then

screamed

and then

nothing