Lost In The Woods

My brother and I were walking through the woods one Halloween day when we saw what appeared to be a short-cut. "Let's go that way," my brother said.

“Are you sure, Anders?” I asked, “There’s not a pathway, we might get lost.”

“Fine. Go the safe way. I’m going through the woods.” He said.

I sighed as I followed behind him. I can’t let my 9 year-old brother wander through the woods all alone this close to sundown. The frosty wind bit at our already rosy noses while leaves crunched beneath our feet. I had a bad feeling about this. It was 6:32 and the sun would be setting in less than 20 minutes.

“We need to go back. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Kylie, where is your sense of adventure?” He replied.

“I’m only being cautious,” I argued. “Mom will be worried sick if we’re not home soon.”

“Duh. We will be. It’s called a short cut for a reason, you know.”

“Ugh. Okay” I sighed.

I decided to drop it. Anders would never admit that I’m right. And who knows, maybe it will be a short-cut.

As my feet kicked through the deep piles of orange, yellow, and red leaves, I realized we were getting nowhere. I followed behind anyway, not wanting to interrupt the weird screamo band Anders was listening to through his earphones. I couldn’t chuckling over his music taste. When I was 9, I listened to the Hannah Montana soundtracks.

I suddenly stopped laughing as soon as I heard a rustle in the bushes. I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew this was a bad idea.

“Anders,” I whispered. He kept walking. “Anders!”

He spun around. “What?” he cried. “If you want to turn around, just go! Stop complaining!”

I glanced at the bushes and his eyes followed mine. His striking green eyes were wide when they met my own. Without saying anything, we bolted as far as we could. The adrenaline rushed through us as our legs pulled us through the depth of trees.

When we were what seemed far enough away, he spoke up “You were right. Oh my gosh Ky, you were right.” I gave him the a look as if to say “I told you so.”

The sun had set. It wasn’t pitch black, but it would be soon. We had spent the past five minutes trying to make a plan. We had never been this far into the woods. Anders suggested that we call someone but, we discovered how bad our luck was when we found mine dead and Anders’ with no service. So, without any other ideas our boots trudged through the gravel. That’s when we saw it. Have you ever watched a horror movie and there is a huge haunted mansion. Well, that’s what was lying right before our eyes. When we looked at each other, there was fear in our eyes.

“Should we knock? Maybe this is someone’s house. They might have a phone.” I said. It was worth a try.

“Most people who would let a couple of kids borrow their phone in the middle of the night don’t live in creepy houses in the middle of the woods.” He replied.

“Good point,” I said.  

Rain began to pour down our already freezing bodies. Lightning flashed in the sky and the rumble of thunder followed it.

“It’s worth a try though.” Anders said.

“Ok, let’s go.” I nervously replied.

We walked up to the gate and our hands opened it slowly. Sighing, I walked onto the property, keeping a lookout for anything odd. Anders followed behind me and before we knew it, we were on the steps. I brought my hand up to the door with my fist closed.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Silence. I looked at Anders. After a few seconds, I knocked three mores times, this time louder and faster than before.

What happened next was the most spine-chilling experience I’ve ever had. A loud cackle came from behind the door. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human.

Our feet stumbled down the steps and back through the gates. We were back in the seemingly endless woods. We weren’t going to stop running for a long time.

“A shortcut? A shortcut! Anders! We’re lost! Do you know how worried Mom probably is? We are never going to make it hom-” I stopped.

“Our street! Our street!” We exclaimed. We could see the opening to our street and we sprinted towards it, down our street, and all the way home.

WE opened the front door.

“Kylie, Anders? Is that you?” I heard my mom’s voice.

She looked at us and said, “Where have you been?!”

So, we told her everything. And she didn’t believe a word.