Short Stories

The Forest

A smoky, crimson bang pierced the silence. Birds came bursting through the trees in pure horror. What's going on? I rush outside and down the long winding path until I reach the woods. Silence took over again. I was terrified.
Slowly, I crept my way through the trees, looking in all directions for the cause of the noise. There was nothing.
Emptiness.
Darkness had started to envelop the night sky. I pulled out my torch and turned it on. The dim glow of the yellow light was my only comfort. It was the only thing protecting me. My grip tightened around the small handle of the torch to stop my hands from trembling, but that didn't help much as it made the light flicker up and down on the trees in front of me.
Some time had passed and I still hadn't found the source of that awful noise. My hands had become numb due to the frost in the air. My breath was visible in the light and slowly faded into the darkness surrounding me. I had become slightly calm and thought the noise may have just been my imagination or a gun shot. I thought about that for a moment. It didn't sound like any gun shot I've heard before. In fact it didn't sound like a gun shot at all. It was more like a giant fist devouring the trees.
I had finally made it to the place where the horrified birds had escaped from, but it didn't seem like anything had happened over here. The trees were completely healthy. Maybe I was just imagining things earlier.
A sharp screech came from the left. I turned as fast as I could, shining the light towards the noise. Nothing. Or so I thought...
Something glistened in the glow of the torch. Curiosity dominated my body. I had to find out what it was, no matter how scared I was. Breathing heavier than usual, I staggered my way through the trees, towards the small glistening light.
My torch lay on the muddy path of the forest, flickering on and off, struggling to stay alive. As for me; I was nowhere to be found. The darkness had swallowed me whole and wasn't planning on letting me break free any time soon. My body relaxed as the glistening creature took me into the abyss.