The figure
I stood at the end of the road waiting for my parents to come and pick me up. An icy chill blew against my bare ankles. A light appeared in the distance. It was my parent’s car. They pulled up beside me and I got in.
“Did you enjoy the party?” my mam asked. The car window was down so her long hair slowly fluttered in the breeze.
“Yeah, it was fun,” I replied. We drove a couple of miles down the road and came to a complete stop.
“Why have you stopped?” my mam asked my dad.
I think that the car has broken down,” he replied, “We’ll walk home and I’ll come and pick the car up tomorrow.” We walked towards the forest on the end of the road. Snowflakes began to sprinkle themselves across the lush forest. Light ignited the abandoned forest. A roar of sound echoed. Flames engulfed and rose higher than the trees. Animals howled and growled as they tried to escape the flames. Dark smoke grew through the forest and destroyed everything in its path. We started running as a fast as we could. Forcing air in to my lungs with everything step, I didn’t look where I was running and I tripped on a twig. I couldn’t see my parents anywhere; I must have got separated from them in all of the commotion. Fear was starting to overwhelm me. I was alone. The fire was getting bigger and spreading through the forest. I ran back towards the car. I opened the door and sat in there. They would find me here. I pulled out my phone to try and phone for some help……..
The cold winds blew down the hollow road. The sound of owls echoed through the empty streets. The silver moon shone. The wolves howled. The snow below me glittered like a light at the end of a tunnel. Footprints in the snow were as widespread as craters in the moon. Splinter stuck in my bare hands as I scrambled up the pine tree. One lone snow angle laid on a blanket of snow, surrounded by frozen footprints. A sliver of light reflected off the still waters, the rays beamed into the seemingly life less forest. A pair of ghostly glowing eyes appeared in the trees surrounding the dead lake. My increasing heart rate echoed in my head as I jerked backwards. My frozen hands could no longer hold on to the snow covered branch. I fell and landed with a thump, as the falling snow from the tree covered me like a white sheet over a dead body. I held my breath. I felt the ground beneath me shake as something passed by. I reminded silent for a few moments until everything seemed still. Everything was silent. I sat up and brushed the icy snow off my frozen skin. I looked up. Through the misty scenery I could see a cloaked figure gracefully floating into the haze, leaving nothing behind. Not even a footprint. Within a blink of an eye it was gone.
Light ignited the abandoned forest. A roar of sound echoed. Flames engulfed and rose higher than the trees. Animals howled and growled as they tried to escape the inferno. Dark smoke grew thickly through the forest and destroyed everything in its path. The once cold forest was now filled with a warm orange glow. Ash hovered around me. The heat coming from it restricted my breathing.
I turned around and I ran as fast as I could. I inhaled deeply to get as much oxygen into my lungs as I could. The volume and speed of the fire increased as it reached the heart of the forest. I didn’t look where I was going and slid. Laid face down on the frozen lake. My eyesight shifted to a body laid motionless under the thick ice. My screams over powered the sounds of cracking and popping flames.
I scrambled off the lake. Above me, the dark cloaked figure floated gracefully in my direction. I was frozen in fear. The figure’s long black cloak wipped harshly in the wind. The figure reached towards me with its long boney hand.
I aggressively pushed myself up and ran towards the one part of the forest that was no longer on fire. I walked through the scorched remains of the once lush forest. Tree bark burned to a crisp. Smoke flooding the sky. Trees snapped in half. No wolves left to howl. No birds left to sing. The forest was abandoned more than ever now.
Silence is an eerie sound when you’re on your own.
Grey clouds started to rain down onto the death soaked land. The ball of fire which engulfed the forest was slowly extinguished. There were no signs of any sort of life remaining, Just me.
The fire had made a pathway through the trees. After a couple of moments the scorched pathway was revived by snow; there was no sign that a fire ever occurred in this part of the forest.
One tiny patch of forest remained untouched by the aggressive flames. Placed in the middle of the untouched circle of land was a lone log cabin. The roof tiles hung on by a thread. Cracked windows with curtains hung out and carelessly blowing in the breeze. The door hung off its hinges. I walked forward and stood at the door step. Wooden floor panels were missing. Furniture was covered over by yellow sheets which would have once been white. Spiders hung on webs. Floral wall paper ripped and hung off the walls. Old portraits soaked in dust. Cockroaches crawled over the leftover food on the coffee table. Mice cleaned themselves in the corner of the dark room. A light flickered weakly.
I didn’t know if anyone or anything was in there. I took a deep breath and walked through the door. The floor boards creaked as my black boot collided with the floor. The sound of the floor boards echoed through the whole house. The spiral staircase that led to the tiny second floor, which was lined with dust.
This house must have been abandoned for years.
There was only one thing in the whole house that wasn’t covered in dust. It was an old photo. I picked it up off the table. There were a man, women and a teenage girl in the picture. The teenage girl’s soft features and long brown hair made her look a lot like me. Just looking at the photo sent shivers down my spine. I shifted my attention to the man in the photo; he looked like the man that was buried under the ice in the lake. I took a closer look at the photo. It was a photo of my family from a few years ago.
I turned around. Screamed. The cloaked figure was standing behind me. His long boney hand stretched out in front of me. As his hand got closer, my breath became more rapid. He swiped the picture out of my hand so fast I didn’t notice until it had already gone. His cold empty eyes stared in to the face of the young girl in the photo. After a few moments he placed it back on to the table. His eyes shifted to me. My heart was pounding. He stared at me for a moment. His cold eyes became warm and he continued to stare. At this point I started to panic. The figure floated backwards and turned around.
I panicked and ran out of the house. I didn’t understand why he had a photo of my family in his house? I looked around when I got back outside of the log cabin. There was no trace of any fire at all. I had no idea what was going on. The forest looked how it did before the fire. I started to get really confused. The door behind me opened and the figure was floating towards me again. I turned around.
“Why won’t you leave me alone?” I aggressively shouted at the figure.
“Alesha,” the figure calmly said.
“H… How do you know my name?” I asked.
He started floating closer and closer. I didn’t know what he was going to do. I panicked and ran off. I ran past a few trees and arrived at deserted road. I looked back towards the forests and saw an old burnt out car. The back door was open, but nothing or no one was there.
Snow started sprinkling from the grey sky. I turned around there were no footprints on the ground; the snow must have covered them. Orange light filled the sky as the sun rose. Snow flakes painted the green leaves white. The figure had gone. I started to calm down. I hadn’t slept all night and I was surprised I didn’t feel tired; it must have been the shock of everything. I decided that I really should get out of here. To be honest I couldn’t remember how I even got there. I spent a couple of hours walking around the winter wonderland with no idea where I was at all. I kept on walking and found myself outside of the log cabin again. Something made me want to go back in to the log cabin but I didn’t know what.
I stepped inside the cabin. Searched the dusty table for any clue of where I was or what was going on. There was nothing. I picked the picture up again and turned it around. There was a piece of old newspaper stuck onto the back of the photo frame. I pulled it off and opened it. The title said, ’Young mother found dead in forest, husband and daughter still missing.’ I read on. ‘A young woman dies in a forest fire, while her husband and daughter are still missing.’ I skimmed through a couple of paragraphs. ‘Police believe that the fire wasn’t an accident and are looking for suspects.’ I looked at the caption under the photo. ’Lindsay Barker mother of Alesha Barker and wife of Mike Barker.’
When I saw my mam’s, dads and my name under the caption I looked at the photo. I was struck with sadness. My eyes starred to fill up with tears. I couldn’t stand up. I walked over to a chair and ripped the sheet off that was protecting it from dust and sat down. After I spent a couple of moments crying, my sadness changed to anger. I placed the letter in my pocket and started to think that the only reason that he would have that newspaper was if he killed her. I stood up and marched out of the log cabin but I had no idea where he would be so I headed to where I first saw him.
I arrived back to lake ice. Knelt down on the ice and looked closely at the body’s face under the icy. It was my dad. So not only had the figure killed my mam he had also killed my dad. Anger over whelmed me. I stood up. I looked around and the figure was no where to be seen. I started walking and didn’t stop.
I ended up sat under a bridge. The wind had picked up. It sent snow swirling across the ground. The wind howled and moaned. I laid down on the cold soft ground. Tears rolled down my face and pitter-pattered on the soft snow. I started having flash backs about all of the fun times I had, had with my parents. I also thought about how I didn’t remember their deaths. How could you forget something like that? I pulled the newspaper out of my pocket and checked the date on it. 2009. I reached into my pocket to check the date on my phone but it wasn’t there, I didn’t know where it was. I thought that I must have lost it in all of the commotion. I sat with my back against the bridge wondering what to do. I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. I was alone. I looked around and I saw a strange lump in the snow. I slowly stood up and wiped my eyes. I walked over to the bump in the snow. I knelt down and looked at it. What could be? I reached my hand out but as I went to brush the snow out of the way, a huge gust of wind blew me over. I was laid face down in the snow. I rolled over and brushed the snow of my face and looked back at the lump in the snow. The figure was floating above the lump in the snow. I stood up and stared at him.
“Move out of my way,” I yelled.
“No, you’re not going to want to see what’s under here,” he said calmly.
“You caused all of this, so move out of my way; everywhere I go you’re there.” I said, still yelling.
“Yes, maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did,” he said still in a calm tone.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have, are you being serious?” I shouted. At this point I was annoyed and got up and walked away.
“Walking away won’t solve anything” He yelled. I just carried on walking.
“Maybe it won’t but it will get me away from you.” I yelled as I continued to walk away.
The day passed and the moon was high in the sky again. Now I didn’t waste anytime. I went back to the lump and pushed the snow off as fast as I could. I could have never prepared myself for what I found. I pushed the snow away and looked down. When I first saw it I didn’t really know what was going on. But when I think about it now, it made a lot of sense. It made me realise why I didn’t remember getting where I was and why I didn’t remember my parents dying. When I finally calmed myself down I accepted that I was staring at my own body laid in the snow. It was motionless; it just looked as if I was a sleep. It was actually a relief when I got over the shock because I wasn’t stuck in the world on my own anymore. I turned around and the figure was stood behind me. He lifted his hands and removed his hood from over his face. I looked in astonishment as the hooded figure was revealed as my father. I ran over and hugged him. Tears of happiness started streaming down my face. After a couple of moments I pulled back. His big blue eyes stared in to my brown eyes.
“So it was you the whole time?” I asked.
“Yes, I had to look over you.” He replied.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You had to figure it out on your own,” he told me.
The next thing I knew my mam was stood next to him. I ran over and hugged her. We were all together again.
I pulled out my phone to try and phone for some help. It wouldn’t turn on. The battery must have died. The smell of petrol fused with the mint scent coming from the air freshener in the car. I stepped out of the car and looked around for my parents; they were still nowhere to be seen. I saw a long trail of petrol on the floor which stopped under the car. The trail must have come from our car, because the petrol trail lend down the road we had just driven down. Someone must have sabotaged the car. The flames started to increases in the forest. The trees burned and crumbled. One lone line of petrol lend into the woods. The fire was getting closer and closer to the car. The heat started to become intense. The flames got closer. There must have been a ring of petrol around the car because within minutes I was trapped in a ring of fire. The fire cracked with great aggression. The car was engulfed within a matter of seconds. The flames were that hot they were burning me before they even touched me. The car exploded and sent me flying to the other side of the road. Laid face down in the mud I took my last deep breath..........