The Woods

Chapter One - It Awakens

Shane Roberts cursed and fought to keep from driving straight into a ditch. He'd been going over eighty when his inherited 1972 Camaro decided it didn't want to go any farther. It was all he could do to maintain control of the car. He let out string of curses and popped the hood once it finally coasted to a stop along the empty stretch of highway. He grabbed the flashlight he kept in the glovebox and got out to inspect the damage.

There wasn't anything visibly wrong, but the car refused to start which led him to believe it was the starter. He'd replaced it last month with a used part, but he was going to have to bite the bullet and get a new one. No help for it. He'd live off bologna sandwiches for the next month to pay for the new starter.

Town was about two miles down the road, but if he cut through the woods, Shane was less than ten minutes from his girlfriend's house. He could call Jimmy's wrecker service to pick the car up. Jimmy owed him a favor.

So which way? He swung his light down the highway and then back into the woods.

There was no moon out tonight, making it darker than usual. Storm clouds were rolling in and he could smell the rain in the air. The woods were the obvious choice. He knew his way through them, having played in them when he was a child and then hunting with his brothers and his dad when he got older. He knew them as well as he did any back road in and out of town.

So why was he hesitating?

He put the hood of the car down and then locked it. If he walked back to campus, he'd be walking a while. He took a step towards the woods and stopped, shining his flashlight into them. The darkness was so deep, it devoured any light that tried to breach it. He looked back down the highway.

Which way?

A drop of rain splattered across his face as a wave of thunder rolled through. Shane shivered. There was no way he was walking back to campus in a rainstorm when he could be at Lisa's in less than ten minutes. Mind made up, he started walking towards the woods.

Once he broke the trees, the rain all but stopped. The canopy of tree branches overhead were so thick, the rain had a hard time seeping through. It also made it darker.

He shivered and pulled his jacket tighter. The dark felt heavy, oppressive. It wrapped around him, a soft caress tinged with danger. Shane glanced around and tried to shake off the feeling of unease, but he couldn't. Nothing but the dark and the vague outline of trees were all around him. He hadn't felt this creeped out in a long time. The place just had a bad vibe tonight.

Then it struck him. It wasn't just the dark, it was the silence. There was a total absence of sound, not even a chirp of cricket could be heard. It was as if all the animals had gone, leaving him alone in the dark with...something.

Why had he let Lisa talk him into watching a horror movie tonight? He'd spent two hours watching a homicidal maniac chase people through the woods. It was no wonder his imagination was hopped up on steroids right now, feeding off the memory of the movie. There wasn't anything any reason to be afraid of the dark.

Or so he tried to tell himself, but there was a deep and innate fear of the dark that lived in every single human being. It's an instinct that was as old as time itself and one that never goes away, even if it's buried in the most primal part of the brains. It was that instinct reminding Shane of the last time he'd been scared in these woods.

At ten, he'd thought he was brave, but he'd been wrong. He and his friends had been laughing at something they'd learned in church. The Bible taught that they wouldn't go out into the dark if they actually knew what was in the dark. The three of them had laughed, thinking they were invincible. They'd snuck out of the house and went to spend the night in the woods.

Shane had never been able to shake that night. Something really had chased them through the woods. His dad told him they'd probably spooked a bear or some other wild animal, but Shane didn't think so. He thought he'd heard a laugh, and that laugh still haunted his dreams. That laugh was the reason he found himself picking up the pace.

The silence started to eat away at his nerves, the darkness only getting blacker the deeper he traveled into the heart of the woods. They'd all been warned to stay out of this area of the woods when they were kids. None of the parents had ever really said why, only that they couldn't play here. Even though it hadn't made sense, he didn't know anyone who ever disobeyed that one request. So why was he now?

Because he wasn't a little kid anymore, he told himself. He was a grown up and the dark didn't terrify him. His subconscious laughed as the suffocating darkness clung to him.

A twig snapped.

Shane swung his flashlight in the direction of the noise, but he didn't see anything. His measly beam of light didn't even cut through the thick blanket of inky darkness surrounding him.

"Hello?" he called out.

Silence.

He took a deep breath, telling himself it was just an animal. There wasn't anything to be afraid of. He started walking again, his pace faster, more determined to break free of the woods. He was about five minutes from Lisa's house. He just had to stay focused and not let his nerves get the best of him.

He felt the rush of wind brush against him and he stopped walking, frozen. The tree branches weren't moving. They were as still as death. Where had the wind come from? He turned in a circle, his flashlight skimming the very edges of the dark.

Nothing.

There wasn't anything lurking in the woods. Why had he watched that stupid horror movie tonight? It was getting the best of him. He forced one foot in front of the other and took off jogging. The faster he got to Lisa's the better.

Another twig snaps to his left.

"Who's there?" Shane shouts, his feet refusing to move.

Again only silence greets him.

His nostrils flared as panic began to set in. There was something out here with him. Every instinct he had affirmed this and told him to run. It sounded like a good idea to him and he took off running.

Lights shone like a beacon ahead of him. He could make out the outline of Lisa's house. Relief swept through him. He'd made it.

A laugh floats through the air, full of menace.

Shane stopped running, the sound of that laugh tore through him, paralyzing him. He knew that laugh. It still haunted his dreams.

He turns in a circle, casting the light as he went. He saw nothing, but the panic hit full force. Fear curled in the pit of his stomach as he tried to find the source of that laugh.

"Who is it?" he called out. "Who's there?"

More laugher echoed in his ears, and real fear struck him for the first time in twelve years. He didn't wait any longer but turned and ran straight for the house.

"Shane."

His eyes widened. It knew his name? Oh, God, don't think about it, he told himself. Just run.

Footsteps pounded the ground as it followed him and Shane hit a flat out run. Something brushed his arm and he turned to the left, away from the house. It's touch sent a cold dread through him and all he wanted was to get away from it.

Laughter followed him and he blinked, realizing what he'd done. Before he could turn back, fingertips stroked his cheek and he cried out, afraid. He twisted again and ran in the opposite direction.

He could hear it following him and he pushed himself faster, the primal flight or fight taking over. His brain screamed flight and he ran. A rush of wind sped past him and he shied away from it, turning to the right.

Shane tripped over an exposed tree root, falling hard. He ignored the pain, pushed himself up and took off. He glanced over his shoulder and nearly screamed when he saw the thing following him.

Sheer force of will pushed him on, demanding his legs work. He turns his attention back to the path in front of him and runs straight into the outstretched arms of the thing waiting for him.

A scream bursts out of his mouth as he looks up into the red eyes of the monster holding him like a cherished child. It is the last thing he sees as he dies, his screams echoing through the woods.