Fog swamped

Three kids in their early teenage years named Jake, James, and Nathan would get together and hang out near their neighborhood swamp to hang as a group. They became friends at a 4th of July party, when their parents introduced each other. Soon after that they would find out out they lived near by each other, and also went to the same school. Every weekend after school. They would gather up and on their walk home take a dirt back road in the housing track to take a short cut. There was never a problem, all year it would be ther alternative route to talk loud and chuck rocks at the pond and safely return home.

One day after school, Nathan and Jake decided to take the regular route but James decided he would take the back route past the swamp. Nathan and Jake took off the other way while James went on to the dirt road. It was mid fall in late October, so while down the back road James would pass a lot of trees and walk over bulk amounts of orange and yellow leaves. Some were fresh and some were dry and would make a crunching noise beneath his feet. Suddenly, James heard a loud branch break over to the far left of the pond in front of him. James went off the route and started heading towards the noise. To pass the swamp he would have to go around and jump to a couple dry spots and avoid falling in the swamp. After making it across he looked down where a partially dry large branch completely fell in to the swamp so he squats in to get a closer look. A large, loud, cold wind blows him forward, almost in the pond, when suddenly a hand reaches out of the swamps marsh and grabs James by the arm and tries to pull him in. His adrenaline and shock helped him quickly slide out of his jacket and jump clearly passed the two dry spots that took him there and back on the route with fear striking him he runs as fast as he can to get back home.

Making it home after the experience, James rushes to his front door and barges in and quickly slams it shut and locks the door in a panic. His parents notice the behavior and quickly start asking him if he is ok and what’s wrong. James breaks his silence and starts crying when he tells them the story, he says how he was taking the shortcut home and he a heard a large branch fall down in the swamp and when he approached it something had grabbed him and took his jacket trying to bring him in the swamp. After he’s done his parents look at each other and laugh then tell him that he’s got a very good imagination. James swore that he was not imagining anything. His parents tell him to not go that way again and send him to get cleaned and ready for dinner and bed time. Running to his room, he closes and locks the door in disappointment of his parents belief. James finishes cleaning up, getting ready and eating, then goes to bed under his blankets scared and confused. He couldn’t wait to tell his friends Jake and Nathan.

The next day James woke up still foggy about yesterday and realized he needs to hurry and tell the others. Getting ready for school isn’t easy when you want to leave in rush so he skips breakfast and heads out to meet the boys at the usual meet spot to wait. James was early so he took a seat on the side walk, wondering off still tired and kind of scared of what happened to him. As time passes by he can hear foot steps and talking so he takes his head out of his knees to look up when he see’s Nathan and Jake coming. He jumps up off the curb and runs toward them screaming “Guys ! Guys Guys!” The boys, in a shock of James panicking, asked him what’s wrong. He explains to them about taking the short cut and what had happened. Nathan and Jake, just don’t believe at first but he starts to swear so the two of them know he’s not lying. But Jake comes up with a theory, and say’s “It’s Halloween someone must of set you up!” James tells them again it can’t be fake and he will prove it after school. So they start walking to school.

After school everybody meets up and starts to head to the back cut. Half way there they start talking about meeting up for trick or treating. Jake explains that his parents were saying they might not let him go because of him not doing his chores every day after school, but he is sure they will let him go and tells them to not go without him. As soon as the three approach the entrance to their short cut a big storm comes in and the sky turn into a big gray cloud and starts to rumble and rain. They all look at each other and realized they are going to need to hurry so it doesn’t flood. So they run down the path with James in front of them. James lead them straight in the direction of where it all happened screamed “Jake and Nathan hurry this way!” Not slowing down, James gets them to the spot where the branch had broke and fell. Sliding behind him in the mud comes Nathan and Jake panting heavily. As soon as they look up Nathan and Jake both say “Whoa! How did that break!” The two of them are shocked by the size of the branch. They ask James, “Isn't there supposed to be a monster?” Jake notices it’s getting really wet and muddy and tells them they need to go before it gets worse. James says “Come on!” and jumps across the pond towards the branch and the boys follow him. Nathan slips into the pond and screams for help. They both start helping by pulling him out, then Nathan starts to scream really loud, and James and Jake can no longer pull him. Nathan is being pulled down and both boys holding on start to get pulled down towards the pond with him. Nathan starts to scream very loudly “Somethings got me, help me!” Then all of a sudden the storm stops and the boys pull him right out of the swamp. Laying down wet and confused,the boys ask Nathan what happened and he tells them it felt like hands in the pond were holding on to him and pulling him in. All of them confused, help each other out standing up. All of a sudden the humidity turned into a cold wind and heavy thick fog started to pour in. Then started getting bigger until the boys can no longer see each other. Close enough to feel and hear each other, James freaked out and says “Alright let’s get out of here!” Suddenly, they start hearing loud moaning and screaming coming from the pond. They all start crying in fear asking “What way!” and “ Do you guys hear that too?” They all panic and scream. “Okay let’s go hold my hands!” says Jake, “I think we went this way” and all of a sudden something came out of the water. He screams “The branch is this way! The way out is the other way! Hurry somethings coming!” They all jump and safely make it past the pond barely slipping. The noise gets louder and closer they start to run in the fog, back towards the way out of the cut. They finally make it out of the fog, and the storm rolls away. All of the boys were so scared and terrified of what happened. Then they notice muddy hand prints all over each other’s faces and body then run away from each other back home.

The same night no one saw or heard from James, Jake, or Nathan. Nobody saw them trick or treating and nobody ever heard from them at school again. There are rumors that the boys were cursed and that they could never talk again and other rumors that their parents had taken them out of school because they believed they were victim of bullying and that they would never be able to speak. But truth is they were so petrified that they lost their voices forever and it was told they would never be able to speak or cope again from this insane tragedy.

The end.