Don't Go Into The Forest

 Its night time (10pm to be exact) and I’m fighting sleep. I know I need to sleep, but if I do I’m sure it won’t be a pleasant dream or a blessed night of simple nothing. I haven’t slept a full night’s sleep for the past month… always having the same dream… over and over… the same dream… a warning of sorts, but of what?

But I can feel sleep creeping in and know I can only fight it for so much longer. As I give in to the calm blackness of sleep my last thoughts are, ‘what if I don’t wake… I may die tonight…'

The blackness of sleep finally pulls me all the way under and I’m oblivious to the world around me. I slip into it quietly and drift in the cold blackness for a while… then the dream starts…

I’m in a building, a hospital is the first thing that comes to mind (I find this weird as I have only been to one once a long time ago) but the weirdness of being in a hospital fades and is replaced by fear when I see them…

At the end of the hall, five pairs of blood red eyes stare out of the darkness at me, sending shivers up my spine. Their silhouettes emerge as they step slightly forward and I see blood… covering their mouths and I know that the blood is mine, I don’t know how but I’m sure of it, they take another step closer and I run… straight down the hall behind me… away from them and out of the hospital… into the woods outside.

I see slivers of light from the moon, white against the black sky; escape down through the canopy of leaves. I can smell the musty trees and rich soil, feel the soft, springy moss under my toes.

I run and run, I don’t stop… can’t stop.

As I run I think of ways to escape… but each plan is crazier than the last. I have been running nonstop for so long, too long… I collapse under a tree. I wait, sure that they will come for me… but they don’t.

Thinking I’m safe I stand and walk forward… only to stop dead in my tracks.

The sharp crack of a branch is heard and echo’s through the forest…

I can’t move, can’t turn to see what is surely behind me. My limbs are frozen in place, like ice refusing to thaw.

But as I breathe in I catch a whiff of them, the smell of death suffocating me, it is evil and I know that soon my blood will add to the stench of death. But I hear nothing, not even the hoot of an owl or the rustling of leaves. Nothing to help me know what they are… nothing at all. The silence is deafening and heart stopping, crushing me.

I see a silhouette against the tree but it vanishes before I can be sure. What are they? The stealthy crunch of leaves reaches my ears, breaking the ever long silence. My breathing becomes harsh and heavy, my palms cold and clammy, I can feel them drawing nearer.

I see a silhouette against the tree but it vanishes before I can be sure. What are they? The stealthy crunch of leaves reaches my ears, breaking the long silence. My breathing becomes harsh and heavy, my palms cold and clammy, I can feel ‘them’ drawing nearer.

I feel a hot breath against the back of my neck, sending shivers up my spine. I see the gleam of dark red eyes and sharp white teeth. I feel them, like needles, against the back of my neck.

Suddenly the ice in my body thaws and adrenaline surges in its wake. I flee; desperate to escape before they can catch me... they give chase. I can’t see them, they stay out of my eye sight, but I can hear them, spreading out and surrounding me. They’re fast, faster than I can hope to out run, and will catch me soon.

The forest becomes thicker and darker the longer I run, making it hard to see. I trip on the roots of a tree and as I fall I sense it leap at me. But it doesn’t catch me, and I don’t hit the ground… I fall, and continue to fall, through the great blackness of nothing…

The blackness scares me as much as the things whose mouth dripped with my blood did, scared me to the point that I believe those in the waking world would have heard me scream…

Then I wake… bolt upright, drenched in a cold sweat.

The dream will come again as it always does and one day I won’t wake in time.

One day they will kill me in my sleep…

I’ll fight like I always do… but I can’t fight forever. They will wear me down… I won’t be able to fight. Each day I get weaker and weaker, one day I may have no fight left… I may simply give in to them… let them have me.

Each night they get closer to killing me and I find it harder to run… I realize that unless they leave soon I will die.

Maybe they symbolize something about to happen… but I hope not, because whatever they symbolize cannot be any good for anyone.

They can only symbolize death or a man hunt of some kind… and no one will want to play a part in any of what is to come if this nightmare really is a symbol something that has yet to come…

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this is a reupload of my story that was previously on another account.

Sorry for the long wait!