The Crawlers in the Woods

I'm dentrophobic (fear of trees).

Most of them don’t really remember why or how someone fears something. But in my case, I very well remember why I the cause.

During childhood, we loved playing in the woods.

The woods were dense, Smell of damp leaves, splash of water from stream, cascades over tiny waterfalls, fungus on rotting tree stumps, rustle of roosting birds, wind stirs trees, twigs snapping, curious sounds, hush, whispering trees, ferns like green fountains, crunch of dried bracken underfoot, woodland clearing with purple spikes of Fireweed.

In short, it was beauuuuuuuuutifulllllllllll!

These woods had charms, if at any point of time you wanted to escape the reality for a while and wander about in your dreamland you know where to go next.

One evening, as usual we all decided to start with Hide and Seek.

There were 3 seekers and 15 of them hiding, seemed like a fair one.

I was among the seekers. We counted and set off.

This was the first time we were out playing in the late evening that too in the woods, but this didn’t bother us anyway.

We seekers agreed to split up so that we could cover maximum ground.

Without thinking much, I started walking right into the woods.

The dappled shade of the woodland trees had seemed so inviting.

I had been walking for almost 10 min for now, and no sign of anyone.

I called out for the other seekers but didn’t get any response.

The hills that lie friendly in the day - like the pillows of the land - are darkly ominous by night.

The paths that were illuminated just hours before become lost in a blackness that even moonlight cannot help.

The trees that are magnificent in sunshine tower over me as I step across the borderline between the seen and unseen.

Choosing not to go in is no choice at all, but aren't all quests like that?

I kept moving, my hair on end as if the forest was on the enemy side.

The air is several degrees cooler and soon I began to shiver.

On my frequent stops, I listen for signs of my friends around me, but there come none.

I was convinced, something was not right, I felt lost in a thick maze suffocated.

I knew something was stirring/staring but I didn’t want to know what, something was watching me but I didn’t want to watch back.

I kept praying whatever it was it shouldn’t come infront of me, yet I was wondering in the sense of fundamental curiosity what would I see, hoping I wouldn’t fell its presence there.

Something stood head bowed the piercing, menacing eyes, however I was disheartened by the fact that it was there, it was here.

As my eyelids shifted grudgingly a chilled dart crossed my body like a firework in mid-winter.

My heart skipped a few beats and I knew that it would be aware of it especially in the dark.

The ‘hide and seek’ game were on, I was still the seeker but the one who was hiding was unknown.

I stood still like my feet buried in concrete, eyes still transfixed on the that something which was staring back at me, but just then its expression changed, it was coming for me, it got closer and closer until I could feel her icy breath went across my cheek and its wild stench of death bleached my senses. I collapse under its grip which was too tight to was escape from, I felt my lungs compressed, my rib snapped like a twig.

But then out of nowhere light bathed the colors I was familiar with.

I twisted my head to the source of my previous pain and it vanished, it hated the light, in light nothing can hurt but in the dark, especially between the trees, it is completely a different place.

A place where even the strongest of the people are most vulnerable that is why it comes in the woods.

I know that in the dark it can sense my terror; it hunts it down like the cat toying with its prey.

Everyone found me lying still like a stone in the heart of the woods.

Our game didn’t end well.

That was the first and last time I had ever been in the woods.

It was a lifetime petrifying experience.