The Ghosts of the Woods

Chapter 4

We look at the room closely. It all looks pretty old and broken inside. There is a sofa that has holes in the fabric, probably caused by mice, in one corner of the room. Next to it is a table with a vase on it with flowers that have already gone mouldy and horrible. There is absolutely no trace of colour left in them.

Also, the walls are a horrible grey colour like somebody had mixed the colours in a wrong way but could not be bothered to renew it again.

Here and there, stains are plainly visible, maybe coffee stains or some other drink that somebody had accidentally spilled all over the wall. And instead of painting the wall new again, they had just left the stains to dry out.

Other stains look more like mould, horrible and dark stains.

But one thing is really strange, all of us realise it. Everything in this house is old and broken and mainly covered in a lot of dust, except for one picture hanging on the wall over a dusty fireplace. The picture looks more like it is brand new and glowing in a way.

We walk closer towards it, like we are drawn towards it, captured by its beauty.

But once we are standing in front of it, we realise that it is not the picture that is glowing, but something in it.

And that something is moving and coming closer and closer. No, they are more than just one thing and the glow is getting brighter and brighter as the things come closer.

We step away from the picture, horrified.

"I am not imaging this, am I?" Johnny asks, but before any of us have the chance to answer, those somethings we saw in the picture come flying out, surrounding us, hovering slightly over the ground.

They are six figures, all dressed in a black robe that goes all the way down to the ground, swaying back and forth slightly, although there is no wind anywhere. The robes also have a hood, that these things have pulled over their heads. That way their faces are pretty much covered and are quite dark, but if you look closely, you can see... you can see a skeleton face.

That cannot be! I blink, once, twice, thinking that it is just my imagination playing tricks on me, but the skeleton faces don't disappear.

They just look at us, like they are burning holes into our brain, their faces expressionless.

"The ghosts of the woods, so they do exist and are not just a myth, a stupid story to scare kids", Johnny exclaims a little more excited now.

"Well, right now I would rather have them being just some kind of story, because they are freaking me out alright", I tell him, not wanting to take my eyes of the ghosts.

Suddenly the lights start to flicker rapidly, like somebody is flicking the light switch on and off, like children usually do for fun, before they get into trouble from their parents.

The ghosts are still just hovering around us, not doing anything else but staring at us.

We didn't even realise this figure turn up behind us, until he starts speaking.
His voice is low and creepy, like these voices you can hear in a horror film that don't seem to belong to anyone visible.

"Welcome to the Christmas of your worst nightmare!"

We all turn around startled.