The Woods

She walked to the curtain and peered at the blackness. She knew something was out there and keeping Tracy but they didn't believe her...

***

Jenny came into the kitchen for breakfast before heading to school. Her mom and dad were sitting at the table staring blankly at the wall. They looked like they hadn't slept all night. They always seemed to look like that ever since her sister disappeared in the woods behind their house a year ago.

She sat down and grabbed the cereal, wondering how long it would take them to notice she was sitting there. She poured herself a bowl and sat in silence for what seemed like an hour before her mom finally said good morning. She said "morning" back but her mom already had the blank stare back on her face so she just grabbed her books and headed for the door. On her way out, she heard her dad yell, "Keep an eye out for your sister. She'll be back any day now."

Jenny's sister Tracy was 3 years older than her and boy crazy. One day last summer, she was arguing with her parents over a boy. She got mad and stormed off into the woods behind their house and never came back. The police searched for weeks but never found any trace of her. Jenny's parents hadn't been the same since. She missed Tracy too but couldn't understand why her parents were so upset when she probably just ran away. Jenny and Tracy were never that close mostly because Tracy seemed to hate Jenny for no reason.

When Jenny got home from school her parents were still just sitting at the table, staring at the wall. She ordered pizza and ate alone in her room. When she went back downstairs her parents had moved from the table finally but now they just stared blankly at the TV. She sat down and said, "Hi Mom, how was your day?" But her mom didn't even blink. "That's it!!!" Jenny screamed as she jumped to her feet in front of the TV. Her parents looked up at her with wide eyes. She screamed, "Ya know you have another child!! I do exist!!" And she took off out the back door. Her parents yelled from behind her, "No!! Not in the woods," but she didn't care.

She ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore, ducking and dodging the tree branches as they flew past her. When she finally stopped, she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked for a place to sit. Her legs burned. She spotted a mossy log, walked to it, and sat down. She could hear birds singing in the distance; something scurried around under the dead leaves at her feet. She thought it was peaceful. Now she was convinced that Tracy had just run off and nothing happened to her in these woods. She thought "How could she? How could she ruin our lives like that?" She was mad. She hated Tracy. Even as she thought that, Jenny felt guilty. She just wished things would go back to normal.

Jenny suddenly realized it was quiet. She looked up and the woods were gone. She was still sitting on the log but she was in the middle of a field. She felt strange. On the other side of the field, there was a dark figure that looked like a person but seemed to float. It wore a black and red cloak so she couldn't see its face; it looked right at her. She suddenly felt scared. She felt like the thing across the field was sucking her soul right out of her. It began to move closer slowly at first, then faster and faster. The closer it got, the weaker she felt. She wanted to run but couldn't seem to move. She was stuck and that thing was just getting closer. Her heart pounded and her brain screamed, "Run!" But her legs wouldn't move. The thing could almost touch her now as it raised its arm toward her. Suddenly Tracy was shaking her, screaming, "Run, Jenny! You have to run!!" With just a flick of its wrist, the figure sent Tracy flying across the field. It didn't even touch her. Jenny screamed and jumped to her feet but when she did the field was gone and she was back in the woods behind her house. "What happened? Did Tracy just save me? What did she save me from? Is that thing why she never came home?" Jenny didn't have any answers but she had to get out of there. She ran back home as fast as she could. She didn't look back until she was in the house with the door locked.

Her mom and dad came running from the kitchen. They hugged her and told her how scared they were that they had lost her and all she could do was cry. When she finally calmed down enough to talk, she tried to tell her parents what she had seen, that Tracy was there and that she saved her from whatever that thing was and that thing wouldn't let her leave. Her parents thought she was sick and made her go to bed. They said the stress of the day had just been too much and she would feel better after she got some rest.

She walked to the curtain and peered at the blackness. She knew something was out there and keeping Tracy but they didn't believe her. She had to get Tracy back. She looked so tired, so sad. Jenny couldn't just leave her. Maybe they weren't close, but Tracy is her sister and if she's in trouble and nobody else is going to help her, then Jenny would have to.

The next morning, Jenny woke up to the smell of pancakes. She couldn't remember the last time her mom made breakfast. She got up and went downstairs. Mom was at the stove and Dad greeted her with a smile. Something was weird. Where were her zombie parents from last night? She sat down and grabbed a pancake, Dad still smiling, and Mom was humming now.

She cleared her throat and asked, "I... is everything ok?"

Her dad smiled some more and said, "Yes, honey, we just realized you deserve better from us and how lucky we are to still have you. But you have to promise to stay out of those woods. Your sister wasn't the first to vanish in there and we couldn't handel it if you were next."

"Next for what?" Jenny asked. Her dad didn't answer.

That night Jenny waited for her parents to go to sleep and slipped out the back door. She stood there staring into the blackness of the woods. She wasn't sure how she was gonna get there but she had to see that thing again. She had to figure out how to bring Tracy back with her this time. She started into the woods. She walked until she thought she had found the same log. She sat on it and waited. She could hear things moving all around her in the trees. She waited and waited but nothing happened. She couldn't figure it out. How had she gotten to that place before? What was so different this time? She sat there trying to relive her last encounter with the thing that had Tracy. Finally, it hit her! She was mad! And when Tracy stormed off that day, she was mad too!! It was almost dawn and her parents would be up soon. As much as she wanted to test her new theory, she had to get home before Mom and Dad got up and realized she was gone. She snuck back in the house and up to her room. When her parents got up she went down and asked them to spend the day at the library. They said "yes" so she quickly ate and got dressed. She rode her bike to the library a few blocks away. When she got there she went straight for the computer. She looked up her address and added the word disappeared after it. She got hundreds of results. Hundreds of people had gone missing in that small patch of wood behind her house! She started reading some of the stories and noticed they all had one thing in common. Everyone that went missing had been mad or upset when they went into the woods and then they just never came out. How had she gotten out? From what she could tell she was the only one that ever went in mad and came back out.

On her 10 minute ride home she couldn't help but feel frustrated. She now knew how to get back to that place but nothing else. How would she and Tracy get back? Why do the woods only take angry people? She hoped to find out tonight.