The Forest Has Its Ways

Written by Shrautsticks
I heard the rain pounding on the glass pain windows and a chorus of thunder of in the distance. I tossed and turned in my bed, trying to get some sleep. But it wouldn’t happen. I was to paranoid.

For the past few days, I had been seeing the silhouette of something passing through the trees of the near the edge of the dense woods. I lived awfully closed to it, the forest. About fifty blocks away from my porch. I never bothered setting a single foot in those woods. As for the figure I saw, I assumed that it was just some animal wandering about.

But I heard stories of that very timberland. A story of a man who was playing with his dog at the edge of the thick groves. All the sudden, a growling noise sounded off in the forest. The dog growled in response and ran off into the woods. The man panicked, not wanting to lose his dog and so he pursued it. Many onlookers were there as well, standing there staring. They wanted to help, but they were to afraid. A few mineuts later, horrid screaming could be heard, then silence. Nobody ever went to investigate. Well, except for the man’s wife. She reluctantly made her way in the forest and she never returned. However, people have reported seeing her ghostly body dancing across the nearby fields, weeping hysterically.

That was enough to keep me from going there. I don’t know what the landlord was thinking by telling me those frightening stories, I mean—she did want to sell the house, why would she try and stop me? The thought made me chuckle, and I gave up trying to sleep the night away. I thought I might as well head over to my neighbor, Markus and pay him a visit. I opened a chest and pulled out a stone sword. I wouldn’t have wanted a zombie to jump on me being defenseless.

I opened the door and took a few steps outside before stopping dead in my tracks. A gust of wind wrapped me in a chilling sensation. I shivered. Markus and I’s shelters were separated by a river flowing north, but there was a stable wooden bridge that connected the two pieces of land. I only ever talked to Markus once, he was gone a lot, he said that he worked as a lumber jack, harvesting wood from a taiga biome a few miles off and selling his timber at a village. I said I would let him chop down the trees in the forest, for they were on my property and I wanted to be nice. But he just shook his head and said those urban legends would keep him from ever going in that forest. He also said there was a sign that said the forest was forbidden to set foot in, though I never noticed it. He told me that it must have been the wind that blew it over. It was pretty common to have bad weather in our area. It was just another one of those times.

I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, the cold wind continuing to ram into me as the rain poured on my back. I regretted not brining my leather chest plate, but I didn’t bother going back to get it. I was already standing in front of Markus’s small cabin. I knocked on the door, and with no response I began pounding on it. “Hey,” I shouted, “would you please let me in? Its freezing out here!”

Goosebumps began to from on my arms, my inpatients got the better of me, and I simply opened the door and casually walked in. I know we didn’t know each other that much, but truly he would understand I was just paying him a visit. I assumed he was off preforming tasks and such, or maybe sleeping upstairs. So, I made a fire in his fireplace and sat in front of it.

As the flames cracked and the worm radiance bathed me in a relaxing sensation, I began to reflect on many of the good times I had before moving in my new house. I helped my father around a blacksmiths shop, my mother was a librarian. Well, that’s what I was told. She died of some sort of illness shortly after I was born. My father couldn’t afford to have me schooled so he ended up teaching me during his job. I loved him. He was the only man I could trust…but he was killed. Trampled by a horse. I was eighteen years old when it happened, and I was old enough to live on my own. The towns people felt empathy on me and gave me money, so I could by my own home. That’s where I’ve been living for the past year.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the floor boards creaking. I spun around to see Markus standing completely still at the end of the stairway leading up to the seconed floor. He had a bald but black ruffled goatee. His eyes were a light green, his leather boots, red. “Oh, um. H-hello…Markus.” I stammered. He didn’t respond. Something wasn’t right, I knew it. Tears were streaming down his face and he was staring behind me. I awkwardly turned my head to see nothing. I looked back.

As I continued to walk, I could see the trees deeper into the dark forest were getting more contorted, the leaves blocking view of the moon and stars. I was very scared, but I continued to follow right behind Markus. Every time I tried getting his attention he would be not respond at all, he just kept moving forward. I could here the faint groans of zombies. I gripped onto my sword, ready to take action.

Markus then came to an abrupt halt. Everything around us went silent.

Markus began looking around. “W-what the f*ck…where am I? Where am I? Holy sh*t!” He yelled.

“Markus!” I said, he spun around to face me, his blank expression was now a fearful one.

“How the f*cking hell did I get here?”

“Woah, hey. It’s okay. I-I don’t know. Let’s…let’s get out of here.”

Suddenly, something materialized behind Markus. A dark black figure resembling a human. I was frozen with fear. Markus’s face began turning a crimson red. The black figure’s jaw dropped open and so did Markus’s. And together they said in a demonic tone, “The forest has its ways.” It was as if that thing was manipulating him somehow like a puppeteer.

The dark figure disappeared. Markus’s eyes rolled in the back of his head. His neck craned upward, and he let out a horrifying shriek. My vision began to go blurry, I stumbled backwards and fell, hitting my head on the stone-cold ground. Markus began to speak again with the same demonic voice, “This is what you get for trying to ruin my feast.” Then everything went black.

I felt like I was shocked awake, I breathed in as if I hadn’t breathed for a while, and then I exhaled deeply. Cold sweat covered the upper half of my body. Sunlight broke through my window. It was now morning. I sprang out of bed and tried to process what had happned. It was not more than a dream, I thought. But that thought was cut short when I noticed the muddy footprints on the floor. My blood ran cold. That thing…it wasn’t Markus. It couldn’t have been. I could barley process what had happned.

I rushed over to his house. The door was wide open, I ran inside. There were more muddy foot prints, they led upstairs and into his bedroom. I opened the door slowly and peeked inside. What I saw shocked me. The room was a mess, a few crafting tables were turned over, including a chest with items scattered across the ground. And on the wall, painted in blood were words that read: '''I’m hungry. I always am. And only you will satisfy me.'''

I believe Markus is dead, there is no point in trying to find him. I’m scared. I am moving somewhere else. I can’t bare the fact that I’m living near eldritch woodlands and…those stories. Could they really be true? Could there really be something living in those woods? Well, I mean…I saw something. I just still have trouble getting over the seriese of events. I don’t know what to do.

As I sit here, writing this to anybody who might read it, I can hear something clawing at my door.

I’m going to go investigate. It could just be a mob of some sort…or worse.