The Short Stories of Harry Styles

Neverwood: Part 1

The woods are dark and almost nightmarish as you run through the bushes and thickets away from the shouts of the people who torture you day in and day out.

Today, you had finally had enough.

As you push through the low hanging limbs and wince as vines cut at your jeans like wires, you still feel the sting of the slap you'd landed on her face.

Relentless bullying had finally pushed you to your limit and now...now you were running for your life.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU JESSIE! IF I FIND YOU I WILL KILL YOU!" Your tormentor's voice rings shrill and cruel throughout the vast expanse of the forest just beside Fiddler's creek where you'd met them all to finally face down.

Your breaths are coming out panicked and fast, huffing and puffing as you try to run as far away from the crowd that had gathered to see your demise.

Oh how they'd been wrong about you.

The adrenaline from pouncing on her and hitting her clean across the cheek, actually drawing blood from her lip, it was still pumping furiously through your veins.

Gasps of breath are still wracking your chest as you venture further and further into the dark sea of emerald. You're pretty sure that if you just follow the stream of the Fiddler that it will lead you to the bridge just a half mile down and from there you can get back on the road and walk to your house but as their shouts grow quieter, the more on edge you become.

The victorious hum of triumph at standing up for yourself is beginning to dull as panic begins to settle in. You'd never been this far into Neverwood. It is said to be so deep and expansive that hikers have gotten lost and never returned before.

You halt your running, pushing a branch out of your way as you try to listen through the silence for the sounds of the stream. A light trickling echoes from your right and so you push on in the direction you hear it from.

The canopy has completely closed out but small shafts of light poke in and out letting you know that the afternoon sun is beginning to set. With a shaky breath rattling your rib cage you reach for your back pocket and pull out your phone to use the flashlight feature.

Battery level: 2%

"Fuck." You mutter under your breath. You have enough battery for maybe one gps locator but that's if you have service out here or just enough to use the flashlight app for about 5 minutes or so.

You decide to trust your instincts about the stream and utilize the flashlight which, in this lighting, isn't doing as much as you'd hoped.

"Where are you?" You ask out into the air as you search for the stream. You can hear it but for some reason you aren't seeing it. As you push past a thorn bush, its razor like thorns slashing at your ankles, you can see that there is a slight hill up ahead and with anticipation and anxiety you run up it with the sound of gently rushing water tickling your ears.

What you hadn't expected was the sudden drop off at the crest of the hill, nor the roots of the two trees on either side of it that were sticking up just enough to trip you.

With a shout, you collapsed to your knees and made to catch yourself on your hands but your phone slipped from your sweaty fingers and as you went to try and catch it, your body weight fell forward and down you went.

Tumbling and rolling you hit your hip on a jutting rock in the process causing you to gasp out in surprise, and finally your flailing body careens to a halt just beside the stream that your phone has disappeared into.

"No, no, no, no!" You shout, reaching your hand into the dark waters, fishing around for your silver iPhone but coming up empty on each frantic reach of your fingers.