The Forest of Despair

Notes from me: thanks for reading and read my other stories The Forgotten and You did this. We won’t talk about the other one, that one was terrible. Have fun reading.

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Drip

Drip

It was raining again. The second time this week and it was miserable. Luckily I was able to stay warm and dry with my company, or what was left of us. We were soldiers on a relief mission after a devastating earthquake leveled this town. Frankly, I didn’t know what I was doing here. There was no threat, these people were unharmed and seemingly wanted to get as far away as possible from their destroyed town. I finally understood why yesterday night. The constant splashing of of mud and boots on the ground brought tears to my eyes and hysterical sobbing erupted from my innards.

So much death.

So much blood.

Faces flashed through me, ones I knew and ones that I didn’t. I screamed in agony as I lifted my amputated leg. Memories flooded through my mind. But one seared it’s image into me.

“Come on Matt grow a f*****g pair of balls and jump already.”

“Shhhhh…. don’t ruin the moment d**k head I’m trying to impress my girl back home.”

“Then jump. You can’t impress a glossed pile of s**t by just wiping your a*s.”

Matt jumped into the crystal clear Lake 30 feet below us. He hit with a splash all while filming it on a portable camera and screamed the whole way down. He hit with a splash and mud enveloped him.

A minute passed.

Then two.

“Should we go check on him?”

No response from John as he was already heading down towards the lake. I quickly followed him and made my way down the shoreline. I waded in with John as we both shifted our feet to feel for debris.

“AHHHH”

“The hell…?”

John was whisked underneath the surface of the water as a brown looking thing grabbed him.

“Haha very F*****G FUNNY MATT”

Matt rose from the surface laughing hysterically and John had a dangerous look on his face. Our other company members emerged from the surrounding forest to check out the commotion. We were called back to camp as the sun was setting and many of us were tired. We set up camp in the outskirts of the forest, but close enough to the relief effort.

That’s when it started.

At first it was just our guy on watch. We woke up and he was gone. No sign of leaving and everything he owned was still untouched. We searched for hours on end until someone found him strung up like an animal and long dead. We were on high alert after this and questioned the locals. They said nothing and knew nothing. But we could see it. When we told them a flash of fear and despair flashed through their bodies and eyes.

There were gunshots later that evening.

Out in the forest and we could hear the voices of our guards as they screamed for help. We all rushed towards the forest, blind as bats except for the voices.

Then they ceased.

Everything stopped. No sounds, no buzzing of night insects. Just. Silence. We sent a small search party armed with their standard issue M-16’s as they trekked through the forest to find our lost brothers in arms. An uneasy feeling of dread fell upon our camp as at least 10 of us have gone missing now.

Morning came and still no radio from the search party or hollers from the guards. We anxiously crowded around the radio as their designated deadline was coming to a close.

Click

The sound of a walkie talky came through the speakers.

ZRRRRRTTTRZRTRZT

Only static came through. Then a meek voice came through.

Only one word “help”.

Noone knew what to do. We eventually decided to attempt a rescue party except all of us were to come. Obviously we were nervous.

On our way through the forest, we found burnt out flares. We followed the trail, finding one every 500 feet or so. The trail stopped.

Blood.

Blood everywhere.

The cool water of a lake lapped against my boots. The water was nothing but red. Everyone gathered around in awe and some shifted their feet in and brought out crosses.

A strong wind blew against our backs and a torrential downpour of rain appeared out of nowhere. The water level rose unnaturally high and lapped against all our legs.

Just like that they were dragged under.

One by one they were gone. A quick yank of the leg and they slipped underneath the Crimson surface of the lake. It was my turn now, I felt a crushing pain on my right ankle and I was whisked away. John and Matt, who were standing next to me reached for my arms. They missed and Matt dove for me and was able to grab my wrist. He started pulling but to no avail, it was too strong. Bullets went flying into the water to try and hit whatever was doing this. My head went under and I thought for sure that it was my time. I felt a new pair of hands on me that pulled and were able to pull me away from the invisible force. There was a sickening ripping sound of cloth and a searing pain erupted from my thigh.

“Jesus. MEDIC”

I dipped in and out of consciousness. There were trees moving and the sound of guns was deafening. Snapping sounds and screams of pain came from my fellow company members. Ropes, vines, guns, all of those were used to kill us.

Then I saw it.

It was casually leaning against a tree watching me. It wore fatigues and had a sickening but familiar grin on its face. It resembled many features of a normal human being except the fact that it had red eyes and waving hair.

It morphed…. into me.

My eyes bulged and I succumbed to the pain in my leg.

I awoke in a makeshift field hospital tended by only 3 of us. We were the only ones. The others that made it lied outside with bullets through their heads and guns in their hands.

It’s still standing there. It lurks in the shadows and taunts me. I scream and thrive and occasionally try to put a bullet into its head. Nothing works. I’ve tried drugs, suicide, hell even a mental hospital. Each time I attempt to do these things it always finds a way to stop me. It lurks in my dreams.

Don’t come here.

Ever.

It’s raining again. Second time this week.

Drip

Drip

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • ShYgUy

    Interesting concept. You could make a series out of this. Good job. Keep writing.

    • Tap62

      Appreciate it!