Wisconsin 3

Ghost Stories

The dead leaves crumpled into dust beneath my footfalls. The familiar sight of dark forests surrounded me again. Dark twisted tree limbs reached up to the sky as if trying to scratch at the flesh of god. A chill crawled up my spine. No eyes stalked me this time, but I could feel them. Hidden eyes stalked me like defenseless prey. The bark of the trees creaked and groaned. Black viscus fluid started to leak out from the cracks in the bark. It looked like dirty, blackened oil. The tree bark shifted and contorted, snapping and cracking. It opened to a bloodshot eye. I froze in fear. My blood turned to ice. The eyes stared stalked me. My lips trembled as I tried to speak. No words came out. Fear overwhelmed me.

Hundreds of eyes watched from the trees. Screams rang in the distance. I flinched, looking in the direction of the scream. When I returned my gaze to the trees, the eyes had vanished, replaced by the original bark. However, the black fluid still leaked, as if the trees were crying. Another scream rang out then the ear-piercing bang of a distant gunshot. I glanced at the trees one last time. Just bark. The black fluid disappeared too, just as the eyes did. My muscles relaxed a little. Then another scream rang out.

I followed it through the thick of the forest. Screams rang out from every direction. They no longer even sounded like human screams. Instead, it was like a sickening screech. The forest looked the same in every direction around me. The noise dug into my head, piercing my brain. I raised my hands covering my ears as it got louder. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" I called into the thick, dark fog. The sound passed through my hand as if it wasn't even there. My ears throbbed with pain. I tried to step away from the sound.

A loud CRACK echoed out from under my foot. It fell into something. Something warm, wet, and thick. The screams of the damned vanished as I stared down in horror at what I stepped in. I stumbled back, landing on my rear. Blood coated my shoe.

A dead body in a blue police uniform lay sprawled out before me. It didn't have a face.  The person- no... thing had no face. It had a head, but no face. What kind of thing doesn't have a face? When I stepped back, my foot fell through its soft head, leaving a black bloody hole. My muscles tensed, legs kicking as I tried to crawl away. I wanted to scream or at least say something, but nothing came out as my lips trembled again.

While I backed away, I felt something else behind me. Another identical body lay beneath me. Identical. A faceless police officer. No eyes, nose, or mouth, but you could see on the face where they were supposed to be. They looked like blood-filled mannequins. I screamed and stood up, backing up against one of the trees. All around me laid hundreds of faceless bodies. They all wore police uniforms labeled, "Wisconsin 3 IDM Law Enforcement Unit". Their guns lay scattered around. They must've been the source of the gunshots I heard.

Leaves crunched from somewhere close in front of me. I flinched and looked up. I saw him again. The murderous shadow creature. Its red eyes glowed in the dark. An unnatural white smile curled across its face. "What do you want from me?" I asked it, my heartbeat racing. Silence. It didn't answer. It just stared at me, a faded black appendage swayed behind it. Those red eyes stared me down with slit pupils. "Did you do this?" I asked. It cackled into a laugh.

"You're getting close," He said in a deep, somewhat soothing voice. Something about it sounded familiar. Not just because I'd heard it before in other dreams. No, I heard it somewhere, but I couldn't place it. That voice echoed throughout the forest. "I can taste you," it said and grinned wider.

"What are you?" I asked.

"Your judge and executioner," it tilted its head to the side. The thing started to step up to me. I tried to back away further, but my back was already up against the tree. "And Wisconsin 3 is my courtroom," He shoved me up against a tree with a strong hand. His black fingers ended at sharp claws. I winced as they started to dig into me. Blood poured out from my chest. I tried to push the thing away from me, but it just grabbed my hand and pinned it against the bark of the tree behind me. His action took me by surprise. I gasped. Those eyes burned into me, burning with a hatred I'd never seen before with a hint of disgust.