The crunch of the dry red leaves beneath my shoes echoed through the trees like the sickening sound of bones cracking under foot.
Shallow puddles of thick, brown water had pooled on the narrow dirt trail, and the viscous brown mud constantly created a thick adhesive between my shoes and the ground, making every step forward a task.
The world around me seemed to have been completely drained of it's color, leaving both the sky and everything under it in a depressing monochrome.
The trees towered towards the grey cloudless sky, their awkward branches stretching towards each other, shielding the ground below from any ray of sunlight.
Drops of rain occasionally rolled down from the leaves and splattered on my cheeks, creating the impression that I was crying.
With every step I took, part of me grew more and more eager to turn back. But with every passing heartbeat, every spastic rush of adrenaline, another part of me pushed forward.
Somehow I had managed to push the thought of death to the back of my mind. I had wrestled that nagging voice in my head (It's name was common sense) to a deep, dark crevice of my mind where all the things I didn't even want to acknowledge at the moment were being held.
I pulled my sweater, as well as my wits, tightly about me and quickened the pace.
Soon, I went from taking a leisurely, unsure stroll to sloshing rapidly down the wet dirt path, hair flying about and heart pounding out of my chest. My eyes lit up with determination as I propelled forward through the uncertainty of what would happen next.
I was asking for death, maybe.
But I had experienced something unearthly.
Something peculiar...
The feeling of not knowing, or not seeing what it was, would've certainly killed me.
So, any way this turned out would be fine by me.
I was thirty minutes down the trail when I came to a sign. It was the only barrier between myself and the crime scene.
Possibly the only barrier between myself and the thing I sought to find...
It was an old, damaged picket sign, chipping away at the edges and weather beaten by the elements. It read:
Park trail ends here. Do not enter.
I regarded the sign with apprehension and brief indecision. I could turn back now, and rejoin the others, or I could continue until I found what I was looking for.
This was it...
The last warning.
"Turn back now Elizabeth. It's still not too late to come to your senses and turn back before it's too late..." It seemed to be saying.
I hesitated for only a moment.
In a sudden burst of energy, I kicked over the sign and ran away laughing, leaving my last hope at salvation floating in a puddle of muddy water, it's warning unheeded.
Time started to slow down.
Each second began to feel like a minute, and each minute began to feel like an hour as I ran farther and farther down the narrow path of destruction.
Strange songs began to fill my hearing, and I realized that they were actually coming from inside of my head.
Familiar voices danced around my brain, bringing to life memories long buried and forgotten.
The memories came and went by so fast that it was impossible to grasp them...
And that feeling alone was enough to slow my run to a walk, and stop me in my tracks.
I placed my hands on my knees, panting heavily from the intense running. My knees protested my placing all my body weight on them, and with every passing second, they threatened to give out.
I began to sway back and forth like an object on a narrow base that was about to topple over.
Standing upright, I took in my surroundings with a heavy feeling on my chest. The main trail had ended at the picket sign, and I was now somewhere surrounded by trees, standing in a dirt track that had been carved by nature.
The more I looked around, the more it began to feel like the trees were closing in on me.
I backed away slowly, finally beginning to realize the depths of my incredible stupidity.
"I had definitely seen something or someone earlier," I mused out loud. " And there was nowhere else that they could've gone except somewhere in these woods..."
Yet it puzzled me to think that I had been running for almost an hour and still hadn't caught sight of anyone.
Perhaps, they had been hiding.
And I, like a fool, had wasted all that time and energy running towards possible doom all for nothing. I cursed under my breath and turned back, starting down the track in the direction from which I had come.
There was no doubt that everyone was probably worried about me.
No doubt that they were probably getting help to come look for me.
No doubt that they would think me to be a fool for taking off into the very same woods where twelve people had been viciously ripped apart and murdered.
"This is it," I laughed bitterly. "If I make it out of these woods alive, I promise to never be such an idiot again."
Promises aren't meant to be taken so lightly.
At the memory of those words, I stopped in my tracks.
Those were the words that my mother used to tell me all the time as a child!
The voice that had spoken those words had belonged to my mom.
But I hadn't heard them with my ears...
I had heard them in my head.
A forgotten memory resonating in my skull.
As loud and clear as a spoken voice.
Now I was definitely starting to feel uneasy.
I began to walk faster and faster, waiting for the broken picket sign to come into view.
For ten minutes I did nothing but walk...
And saw nothing but trees.
All the feelings of fear I had managed to suppress sprung free from the crevices of my mind like wildfire, igniting my senses with crippling fear and heart wrenching panic.
I took off, running like the wind, ignoring the branches and twigs that were ripping at my face and clothing. I was running, but for the life of me, I couldn't see the damn picket sign!
Now I was thoroughly convinced that I had run a far greater distance than would've been necessary to get back to the sign.
Now I was definitely struggling with trying to keep a calm and cool head.
"How is this even possible?" I gasped, but my voice didn't even seem to be my own anymore...
"Ok. Calm down, Elizabeth. Take a deep breath." I told myself, ignoring the out-of-body feeling that the panic was causing me. "You'll get through this."
I hadn't known that I was capable of such a feeling prior to that moment.
A feeling of intense dread and impending doom mixed hopelessness and crippling depression.
A deep regret, joined together with a fervent longing for civilization.
All of those feelings combined with my inability to calm down no matter how much I tried were driving me over the edge.
Should I keep running?
What good will that do?
I sank to my knees feeling hopelessly defeated. I brought my head down to my knees, clutching it tightly with both hands.
"Come on. Calm down." There it was again.
The feeling that my voice didn't belong to me.
"Stop panicking! You can get out of this!" I told myself, but my voice seemed to be coming from everywhere except from my own throat.
That was when the tears began, and I let out an splitting scream.
This, too, seemed to come from all around.
I pressed my palms to my ears, but the shrill sound reverberated, causing my eardrums to ache terribly.
But I couldn't just stay there.
I was going to get up and keep running.
No matter what.
I steadied my heartbeat, managed to get a grip on my nerves and slowly began to rise to my feet, still covering my ears. My feet felt like they were going to give out underneath me, but I was determined to not to fall.
I staggered forward, knees wobbly and head aching.
I hadn't gotten very far when an invisible force seized my muscles and bones.
I tried to move, but it was useless. No matter how much I screamed at my body to move, it wouldn't. No matter how much I tried to push forward...
I just couldn't.
"Someone help me!" I began to sob, unable to hold the intense frustration I was feeling inside. The tears were hot and bitter, and I couldn't even move my hands to wipe them away.
My knees gave out, and I sank into the wet, sticky mud, crying. My vision was blurry, and for a moment I wondered if I was going to die.
"Please help me!"
Time seemed to slow down once again, and I watched in disbelief as the tear drops that rolled from my cheeks fell at an impossibly slow speed, defying all the laws of Physics.
"I'll help you, Lizzie!" A familiar voice suddenly called out, and at the sound of it...
Every last bit of strength and willpower I had shattered like glass.
The muscles in my neck loosened enough for me to move them.
Body shaking, I slowly looked up from the ground, moved them up past a pair of familiar black boots, raised them slowly up the pair of bleach-damaged trousers, and fixed my eyes on the face of-
It couldn't be.
"John? John!" I cried, gasping for dear life at the sight of my friend who was supposed to be dead. "John, is that you? It can't be. You're supposed to be dead! You-"
"I'm not dead, Lizzie." He smiled down at me. "I'm right here. Just let me help you..."
No.
This was impossible!
This man had died...
I had watched him die.
I was at his godforsaken funeral not even a few weeks ago!
I stared deeper into those familiar black eyes...
They really were his eyes.
It really was John...
He was standing right in front of me!
"I missed you, Lizzie." He smiled. He reached a hand towards me, and the sight of his familiar fingers filled me with a hope that I had never known existed.
I felt safe again.
The panic was gone.
My best friend was back!
I laughed through the tears as I reached my hand up towards his. The tears were falling fast now, and my fingers were about to brush the tip of his when he suddenly pulled away.
"J-John?"
His once tender look was replaced by a mean expression, and instead of looking at me, he continued to stare above me, over my head...
Eyes fixated on something that was behind me.
"John?" I called again, trying to get up on my own, but found that I was unable to move.
"John!" I screamed his name, but he continued to ignore me.
The pain was becoming too much to handle, and my breath began to leave my chest. My heart seized up and I could no longer even breathe.
I watched in horror as John began to twitch violently.
His entire body convulsed as if he was in great pain and he groaned in agony.
I watched as his skin began to melt from the bone, and thick red blood began to cover him from head to toe. His face burned and made a sickening sizzling sound like fire on a piece of fatty meat.
He screamed in gut wrenching agony as his eyeballs came loose from the sockets and rolled off his chest and onto the ground, where they were immediately crushed underneath his staggering feet.
He was being burned alive by an invisible fire, and I could do nothing but watch... mouth agape with words unable to leave their prison.
"Why didn't you help me?" He coughed, holding his throat.
"You could've saved me, Elizabeth. It's your fault that I died so horribly! I had a family Elizabeth. Why didn't you save me?" He gasped, staring down at me with empty eye sockets.
It wasn't my fault!
I couldn't have helped him.
It wasn't my fault...
But, if I hadn't left him alone that night
If I had just waited on him, then maybe he wouldn't have died. If only I had decided to stay a little later that night, then maybe I could've saved his life.
If only I had run into the burning building to rescue him when no one else did, then he wouldn't have died!
I buried my face in the mud and cried.
All the memories of our time together came flooding back, and I felt utterly hopeless.
"I'm sorry! I should've saved you!" I cried, reaching out towards him, but it was too late.
"Why didn't you?" His final question came out as a puff of air... before he was reduced to nothing but a pile of black, foul smelling ash.
I was broken now.
If the aim was to completely drain away my will to live, seeing my best friend is so much pain had certainly done the job.
"What kind of sick, twisted game is this?" I choked out, crawling forward on my hands and knees towards where the pile of ash sat.
Before I could even touch it, there was a blinding flash of red...
And the ash disappeared.
So... I just screamed.
I screamed until there was nothing left inside.
Until my throat was raw with pain.
Then I buried my face in the mud and cried.
***********
I don't know how many seconds or minutes had passed before I finally lifted my face out of the mud.
But when I did, the sun was setting.
I slowly pulled myself up from the ground and wiped away as much mud from my face as I could.
Was there even any hope now?
And if there was, how could I even want to return after seeing John again...
I didn't even feel the grief anymore.
All I felt was guilt.
The worst kind of guilt.
I looked out towards the direction in which I had been headed before. It seemed to stretch out forever, and the more I looked at it, the more I lost any desire to run away.
Closing my aching, bloodshot eyes, I began to walk forward, allowing the cool evening wind to refresh my skin.
I felt so guilty.
I could feel nothing but guilt as I pressed on.
So much guilt... that I considered myself lucky when a sick, nauseating feeling came over me, and replaced the guilt.
I leaned against a tree, clutching my stomach as it twisted and turned, threatening to spill it's contents.
A vile bitter taste filled my mouth as I vomited a thick, crimson liquid all over the ground.
Blood.
Terrified, I stumbled forward, only stopping whenever my body urged me to throw up.
But the more I did, the weaker I became.
Black spots began to fill my vision, and if I hadn't noticed the black, snake-like tentacles slithering on either side of my weakened body in time...
Then it would've been too late.
I stumbled forward quickly, just narrowly avoiding being swept off my feet by the slithery, disgusting things.
Not bothering to look behind me, I took off, running as fast as my weary legs would carry me. I ignored the sick feeling in my stomach and the taste of blood in my mouth as I hopped over hazardous tree roots and slippery mud puddles.
A small tinge of hope bubbled up within me when the picket sign came into view.
This was it...
I was so close.
A smile broke out on my face as I neared the picket sign, drawing closer and closer to hope of survival.
It was a noble effort, but my smile and my hope were wiped away in a flash when I was knocked off my feet by a tremendous force, and was swept headfirst into the hard, rough trunk of a tree.
The impact had definitely broken a few of my ribs, and my chest ached as I coughed up more blood.
My vision blurred as I gazed in horror at the long, powerful tentacle that had knocked the wind out of me, and had almost taken my life in just one blow.
Very slowly, I turned my head.
Mustering up the last of my courage, I raised my chin, opened my eyes and came face to face with the killer.
Well... more like face to no-face.
A stabbing fear instantly filled my chest and body.
Towering over me was a horrendous creature that stunk of decay and death. It's limbs were long and seemed to stretch forever. The shape of its skull was long and peculiar, and it lacked facial features, save for a large mouth that contained sharp rows of yellow, blood-stained teeth.
Sleek black tentacle-like appendages protruded all around the grey, rough skinned creature who was as unearthly as it was ghastly and scrawny. It's tall, thin frame heaved as it breathed heavily. Bits of shredded cloth hung from various parts of it, and it's scaly skin was covered in a dry, black substance almost giving it the appearance that it was wearing clothing.
Slowly, it opened it's terrible mouth to reveal a long, sharp snake-like tongue and several smaller black tentacles that were now inching their way out of it's mouth.
The sight combined with the smell left me unable to move, or even look away. The foul odor caused my eyes to water and my vision to blur.
A thick black liquid oozed from the creatures mouth, melting the ground whenever it made contact.
The tentacles from its mouth was slithering further out of it's throat now, wiggling menacingly towards me.
I scooted backwards on by hands and legs, whimpering in fright.
Soon, the loud voices from my memories returned and filled my head with noise. I shook my head furiously, trying to silence the voices, but they grew louder and louder.
"Stop it!" I screamed at them, grabbing my head. "Shut up!"
I watched helplessly as the creature lifted a deformed hand and reached it towards me. My skin sizzled and burned as soon as the creatures hand made contact with my arm, and I gritted my teeth in pain.
The creature wrapped it's fingers tightly around my arm and the burning intensified.
I was being lifted off the ground now, dangling like a useless rag doll.
Two tentacles shot out from behind the creature and wrapped themselves around both of my legs. Knowing what it was about to do, I shook my head furiously, begging and pleading.
But my tears and desperation had no effect whatsoever on this sadistic creature.
There was a terrible snap, and then pain up shot from my legs, through my spine and into my brain.
It hurt like bitch, and I knew that both my legs were now broken. Dark spots clouded my vision as I struggled to stay conscious through the unbearable pain.
I suddenly felt myself get flipped upside down, and I screamed as two tentacles held me up by my now broken legs, and another two grabbed hold of my arms.
"So, what now?" I rasped through the pain, knowing full well that it could hear me. "Are you going to snap my arms now?"
The response I got was more pain, and two more broken limbs.
With all four of my limbs now useless and broken, I truly had become a rag doll of sorts.
This was it.
I was going to die.
I couldn't find the energy to even scream as the creature released its hold on me and I began to freefall through the air, hurtling at light speed towards the ground.
Just when I thought that I would be put out of my misery, more tentacles shot forward and caught me by each of the four broken limbs.
I was now facing the creature, arms and legs stretched out like I was being crucified on a cross.
What was the last step before it finished its victims?
No doubt it was something painful.
But I soon found out that contrary to what everyone had thought...
It was more psychological than physical.