Don’t Go Into The Woods

The sun filtered through the canopy, lighting the pale green leaves on the tall trees surrounding the woods. Samantha, a short girl with long black hair, stood at the edge, watching them sway, wondering if she dared step inside. Everyone in the town knew you didn’t enter the woods—not if you wanted to come home again. A firm hand clamped down on her shoulder, making her jump. “It’s just me. Now remember, we don’t go into the woods if we want to come home,” her mum warned, steering her away and starting a boring conversation with ease.

The town Samantha lived in was called Monster Town, and because of that poorly chosen name, its residents tended to be poor, horror fans, or, worst of all, artists. Anyone with brains stayed far, far away. Samantha lived in a rickety house that overlooked the woods. It looked as if it would fall over at the slightest breeze. It felt like such a shame to Samantha to live so close to somewhere she was forbidden to go. Her parents talked endlessly about monsters lurking in the darkness. Why would anyone believe such nonsense? Samantha wondered as she stared out from her bedroom window. To her, the woods looked like a paradise. With a sigh, she flopped backwards onto her bed, the ocean-blue bedspread rippling beneath her. She picked up the book she was reading, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Samantha envied Morrigan—a life filled with adventure, joy, and mystery. She read as the afternoon slowly crept by, the words pulling her into another world she felt she deserved to be a part of.

Samantha sat through meaningless chatter between her mum and dad at the old kitchen table. She was more miserable than usual, but her parents seemed determined to ignore that. She half-heartedly played with the food on her plate. Her hair fell onto the plate collecting bits of food in it. Her mum didn’t even notice. “These carrots are fabulous, darling,” her dad said through a bite of overly cooked carrots. “Oh, thank you, dear,” Samantha’s mum said, slightly taken aback. “Do you like them, honey?” Her mum asked, turning to her with expectant eyes. “Oh yeah… they’re great,” Samantha murmured, forcing down a bite of carrot.

The second her plate was empty, Samantha slipped upstairs to her bedroom. She went back to the window and looked out at the midnight sky. In that light, the trees looked less inviting—but everything looked less inviting in the darkness, she told herself. Her eyes drifted upward toward a small bolt of light hurtling toward her. Was it a plane crashing or a shooting star? Hoping it was the latter, she closed her eyes and pictured the woods she wanted to visit so badly. “I wish I could go to the woods,” she whispered pressing her head against the glass of her window. “Owe!” She squealed jumping backwards as a jolt of fire seemed to pulse through her. She looked around in confusion before deciding it was just her being tired and therefore delirious. She slid gloomily into her bed. It was warm and cozy under her covers. She hated it so much. Possibly more than she hated being kept away from the woods. She wondered as she waited for sleep to come, if maybe her parents had made up all the stuff about the woods just to ruin her life. Parents were constantly doing stuff like that.

Suddenly, from the dead of night, something tugged at her chest, like an invisible hand. Before she could react, she was pulled forcefully toward the window. Samantha protested profusely while she was dragged across the fluffy carpet of her bedroom. She cried out as the unseen force slammed her against the glass again and again, her screams swallowed by the wind outside. The glass began to splinter and crack, small shards breaking free and getting lodged in her skin. Just as her parents appeared at her door, white faced and panting, she was yanked through a hole in the wall where her window used to be. A startling chill settled around her. Samantha’s heart banged ruthlessly against her chest. Her palms were sweaty, clenched together. The trees Samantha had been dreaming of looked menacing as they rushed closer. She braced herself and pushed back the tears welling in her eyes. Despite her efforts to land carefully, she hit the ground in front of the woods with a thud. She stood up, pulled a piece of glass out of her hand and gazed, conflicted into the woods. She should turn back. She would. Samantha had been wrong about them all along. But just as she was turning back to her house the same invisible force pulled her into the woods. She screamed and thrashed around trying to go back. “I was wrong! I take back my wish. I take it back!” She wailed but it was to no avail. She was forced to continue into the woods.

She was trembling as she tiptoed through the ominous, tall and forbidding trees. The invisible hand had let go of her when she started walking on her own. Every time she heard the even smallest she jumped near a foot in the air. The woods were a whole lot less pleasant then Samantha had expected. After some considerable time had passed she saw a menacing shaggy shadow hiding in between the trees. She stopped. She didn’t dare breathe. She made herself as small as humanly possible. The cold midnight air blew across her face adding to her fear. Samantha waited for the creature to leave. She waited and waited and waited some more until she was quite certain that the thing was gone. Her footsteps were more certain after her close encounter with death, finally allowing herself to breathe. She even started humming a happy little tune as she skipped along. This skipping caused her to not see a tall tree root peering out from the earth. She landed face first on the dirt. “Owe!” She cried in pain. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw hundreds of small, ragged children holding knives walking towards her. “What are you? Umm why are you coming so close? Can you drop the knives please?” She asked frantically. Her words unfourtunetly, seemed to be unheard to theses zombies. “Never enter the woods. Never enter the woods. Never enter the woods,” they chanted. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Just let me go,” Samantha begged trying to inch away. This time it seemed the children had noticed her paniced begging. The children stopped in their tracks and simaltainusly let out the same humerless laugh before continuing towards her. “We all said that once. But you shouldn’t have entered the woods. Never enter the woods. Why? Because you never leave!” The children screamed charging towards her before shoving all their knives into her at once. She screamed an inhuman scream which made sense because she was no longer human.