Calming Effect

There was something in the woods, I knew it. I had seen it so many times from my bedroom window, but no one believed me. I had set up cameras, stayed up all night with a friend to try and catch a glimpse of whatever it was, but with no luck. Ryan was the only one who believed me, or at least the only person to believe me enough to agree to explore the woods with me. He had arrived early, just as he said he would, and we left the house before my parents were awake, not difficult for the two of us. As we reached the edge of the forest, Ryan stopped, his hand tapping his thigh quickly.

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“Are you sure that there’s something here?” he called from the edge of the woods, his eyes darting back to the house, then back at me. “Because if there is…” he trailed off, smirking his lopsided grin. I sighed and turned back to him.

“Look,” I said sternly. “If I'm wrong, then it’s just a stroll through the woods with a mate. If I'm right..” I stopped, not exactly sure what we would do if we were to encounter some form of beast while exploring the wilderness. It had been a while since we had seen each other in person, especially with everything going on, and this was an odd thing to do for the first meetup of the year. I shrugged the thoughts aside and set my eyes back on him, his blue eyes distant and worried. I tried my best to smile at him.

“We’ll be fine,” I reassured before slapping his arm and walking further into the woods, hearing him quickly jog up and catch up to me. With nothing to say, and Ryan’s heavy breathing, we continued in silence. I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest, it was a rare thing, I found, in this world. The world felt calm, felt tranquil, felt cosy, when the forest was this still. I could hear the creaks in the trees as the wind brushed past them and the soft crunch of the fallen leaves beneath my feet. Peace. The sun was still rising, its warm glow shining through the morning mist, its rays of light beaming through the trees across the forest like hands reaching out.

The forest floor was covered in leaves from the autumn, now being turned into sludge by the mud and rain, slowly spreading thin across the ground, allowing ice to form on the thin layer of water that couldn’t penetrate through to the soil below. As we got further into the woods, the mud seemed to get worse and thicker, clawing at my boots, desperate to pull me into its inky-black abyss. The colour had gone from it. I looked down at the brown-black floor and frowned, turning around to see Ryan on my heels. He didn’t startle me.

“What are you doing there?” I asked calmly, the surprise I should have felt slipping into slow speech and questions that I soon ignored.

“Behind you?” he pushed back, his delivery similar to mine. He shrugged as if sleepy, like his bones were dragging him down but his muscles refused. “You asked me to come,” he stated, jolting me from my gaze at the floor, its blackness now more inviting than ever. I pulled myself upright. Ma would kill me if I got my coat muddy, and she wouldn’t be best pleased to see Ryan’s dirty either. I slapped my friend’s arm and continued walking down the path, this time hearing Ryan walk closer to my side. As we continued, the forest grew darker, more ominous. Fog had started to fall around us and snaps of twigs echoed amongst it. We couldn’t tell what steps were ours. But we weren’t scared, each chalking it up to some other wanderer walking with us, happening upon our same trail but politely staying out of our way before we parted like ships sailing through the night. The snaps stopped soon enough, only adding to our convictions of it being someone else who moved to another path, not that we could see one.

Now, the trees began to creak like never before, their groans and moans surrounding us like screams of the insane, calling out but never heard. But, once again, we paid no attention, our eyes more attached to the floor before us, careful not to tread on anything too loose or too firm and lose our footing. The fog grew thicker and thicker until I could taste the cool in my mouth. Gradually, I came to a halt, Ryan continuing another metre or two before realising I had stopped. He narrowed his eyes at me, the same way he always did, but his eyes were different. They weren’t filled with the deep sense of curiosity that they usually were. Now, they were bland, dull and colourless. His ocean-blues were now a deep black that absorbed all light around them. His eyes looked sunken, his cheekbones sharp, and his mouth pulled into an eerie, small smile.

“What is it?” he asked. “Why have you stopped?” His voice was also dull, bereft of life or emotion. The tone was stiff and sounded as if it could cut through the air, cut through the fog like a dagger through skin. Slow. Painful.

“I can taste the air,” I said to him, my voice the same dullness. “I think we should go back.”

“Go back?” Ryan said. The words sounded as if they were meant to be scoffed, but they were still emotionless, blunt and raw. It was like he didn’t know he was saying it. “But we’re fine. There’s nothing around us. We’re alone. We’re fine.” His face was the same, the same as if the words were spoken with joy or confusion, but the tone changed them. The tone twisted them. He was calm. He wasn’t worried. I didn’t know how long we had walked for. I didn’t know how far home was, the fog made sure of that. Despite my feelings, despite my fears and worries coming to fruition, despite the deepest part of me wanting to flee and call for my Ma and Dad, I didn’t. I felt calm. I felt safe. I had come to look for a monster, but I knew there wasn’t one. It was just one of my fantasies. I just wanted to see my friend, explore with him. There was no monster. There were no dead bodies found at the edge of the woods. Ryan is right. We are alone. We are safe.

I lifted my head back to look at Ryan, his eyes now glowing slightly with their blue hue. I smiled at him and nodded. He smiled back, a smile almost unnaturally wide, but I felt my mouth the same and pushed the look aside. I stepped forward. As I did, something appeared in the fog before us. A floating light. It’s yellow haze stuck out from the fog like a light in a ceiling, concealed yet noticeable. It hadn't faded up to us, it was like a bulb had been turned on my some invisible hand within the fog, guiding us closer. Our faces remained still and we stepped closer, each step synchronised, together. Ryan was a little bit in front of me, allowing him to glance the first look at the light. We were curious, but calm.

As we got closer to the light, a dark shape appeared behind it. It was tall and seemed to have multiple limbs stretching from its wide, snake-like body. Its silhouette like one of a millipede, but we still kept walking towards it. Curious, but calm. The fog stretched around it like a blanket, slowly rolling off of its scaly, shiny back. As we approached further, the light drifted upwards, higher into the fog, up into the tree line, that I assumed was still there. Eventually, it stopped, as did we. We were curious, but calm. It was then I noticed what the yellow light was attached to. A long, wire-like tendril was attached to the top, which went up and then curved, disappearing into the foggy walls that surrounded us like inmates of a prison. Now the light was no longer moving, neither were we. Curious, but calm.

From out of the fog, slowly, methodically, came a creature. I watched it with intrigue in mind as it crawled its way around us, its hundreds of legs thumping into the floor, creating ripples of vibrations through the ground. I smiled at it. It seemed friendly. The face attached to the front was smoother than the rest of its body, like skin almost. Its eyes were near-human, and its mouth was too, but the pupils were slits and the teeth were jagged, pointed fangs that were bared, as if to intimidate us, but we weren’t. There wasn’t anything to be frightened of. We were curious, but calm. Soon, the creature returned to its original place and the light attached to the tendril suddenly switched off, leaving us with the grey fog around us and the filtered sunlight fighting its way through. The sun was behind the creature, illuminating its mighty size and figure, giving me a look of where it started, and where it ended. Then, my smile dropped and I looked back up at the creature’s face, into its too human eyes. they weren’t locked on me. They were locked on Ryan. We were no longer curious, but calm.

Ryan was the first to scream, one the creature seemed to take delight in as its eyes widened and mouth twisted upwards into a cursed grin, its fangs still bared. Like a tap had been turned on, emotions flooded my mind, all of the emotions I should have felt as we walked, my worry, my concern, my disgust, my irritation, my curiosity, my fear. Everything. With my mind confused, my eyes hadn't locked onto the sight before me. Ryan had turned, his mind making more sense of his emotions than mine, and tried to run, but he was too slow. In one swift dive, the creature latched onto his neck, Ryan’s head inside of its mouth, his arms clawing at the face, its eyes still wide and gleeful. Then, it pulled down, the deafening crack and squelch of bones breaking and muscles oozing blasting out into the woods. The creature lifted its head and poured the remains of Ryan’s body into its mouth, it’s disgusting, scaled limbs helping shovel it down. One boot fell just before the lips, crashing to the floor. Intrigued by the noise, the creature stopped and looked down, Ryan’s remaining foot still poking out of its mouth. Then, its eyes landed on me.

In an instant, it’s pupils narrowed into thin slits and I screamed, spinning on my heel and sprinting away as fast as my legs could carry me. Behind me, I could hear the creature finish its last meal before charging after me, its legs thundering, like an army marching. My screams continued as I begged, pleaded to whatever deity there was for safety, for salvation. To live. The thundering footsteps never got closer, but never got further away. I wasn’t outrunning it, it was playing with me, seeing how long I could go before I collapsed out of exhaustion, or how far I could get home before it could snatch hope away from me. I pushed the thoughts aside and I kept running. Maybe if I kept going, maybe if I saw home. Maybe, I could survive.

I ran for what felt like hours. The fog made it difficult to see, trees appearing in front of me and paths disappearing and reappearing at my feet. Still, the creature remained at its distance. The sun had completely set, darkness consuming the forest, the fog even more treacherous than before. My mind was pulled from the dark by the snapping of twigs around me, just like when we were walking in. At first, I thought it was the creature catching up, trying to appear beside me, but I could still hear its footsteps behind me, and I dreaded to think there was more than one, so I pushed the snaps aside, and focused on running home. The more I ran, the thicker the fog seemed to get. I remember it slowly appearing, but we had walked quite a distance before it did, but the fog wasn’t letting up, and I had been running for some time. Much longer than the length of time it took to walk in. Panic started to filter through my mind, wondering if I would ever escape, if I would be trapped in a never-ending chase. Never gaining, never losing. Never faster, never slower. No end. Running, for the rest of my life.

Then, as if my prayers had been answered, the fog lifted instantly and my home appeared before my eyes. The kitchen light was still on, as it always was, and I could see the TV on in the living room. A smile appeared on my face and my pace quickened slightly. A screech sounded from behind me. Before I could blink, the creature’s mouth enveloped my head, covering me in Ryan’s blood. I screamed and lifted my hands to cover my eyes but my hands clawed at the smooth-skinned face of the creature. I could feel its lips pulled into an evil grin as it felt me wriggle and squirm. My nose was smeared against the top of its mouth and I could feel its tongue rubbing the back of my neck, as if assessing me. I felt the creature lift itself into the air, and my eyes were lifted to see the creature’s bent neck. Poking out was Ryan’s sock-covered foot, dangling from the pit around the corner. I screamed again and I felt the creature clench its jaw, its fangs slicing into my neck, silencing my final scream.