Horror and Science Fiction (be sure to scroll down the page for more works)
There’s Something In The Woods- Part 1 by Aaron JaramilloCeramic Masks: Joseph Blackburn
A man is currently on a mission to find a lost child. It shouldn’t be anything too serious or so he tells himself. He only says this to keep himself calm. The moment he panics then the other kids he’s with will start to follow his actions. Afterall, he’s just an ordinary bus driver for a school tasked to take some kids on a field trip.
How did it get like this..? He thought to himself. He retraces his steps but also looks out the window from the bus, in hopes to catch a glimpse of a little girl. But, it’s hard to do so with heavy rain setting in. The class he was assigned to had to leave because of the abrupt weather and now he’s back tracking to the picnic area they were just a few minutes ago. When they arrived at the campsite some of the kids were whispering where one of their friends was. This quickly caused panic in the faculty but tried to assure the other children that everything was alright. So many questions ran through the adult’s minds. Where did she go? How could this happen? Is she alright? What if they don’t find her? But, the bus driver continues to think to himself about all of this. Okay.. There’s the place where we just were. It’s raining.. So she wouldn’t wander far off right? She’d want to stay dry and stay in those restrooms they have. Right? Right. He reaches the destination and parks the bus. He takes a moment to look out to the environment. The wind is starting to pick up. While he’s sitting in his seat he listens to the many taps from the raindrops hitting the windshield and the roof of the bus. What felt like forever in waiting with a pit in his stomach was actually mere seconds. The bus driver then looks to the kids he brought along. They supposedly say they’re close friends to the lost girl. He only brought them in hopes they would make it easier to point out what she looked like. However, with how the weather is right now, he doesn’t want to risk taking them out of the bus and have them getting sick, or worse. “Alright, you kids stay here for now. I’ll be quick.” He says to the kids while standing up from his seat. “I’m gonna leave the door open just in case she comes by and sees us. Okay?” The kids then simultaneously say “Okay.” The bus driver then gives the kids a thumbs up, a sign to make sure everything is alright. “I’ll be back. Promise.” He gives the kids reassurance but secretly it was for himself too. As he steps out, the cold instantly hits him. “I should’ve brought my jacket.” He said while gritting his teeth. The picnic area is only about 30 feet away, the bus driver hustles his walk through the rain. As he reaches the area he then starts calling out to the child in hopes of them popping out. But, something unexpected startles the man. “What was-” He stopped in his tracks and looked around. Then, he hears the noise again. It’s laughter. But, it isn’t any ordinary laughter, it’s children’s laughter. “Hello? ...Who’s there?” He calls out to what appears to be nothing near him. The laughter of excited children continued. The bus driver then tries to explore and find the source of the noise. He goes around the rest stop in the picnic area but as he reaches to the corner of the other side, it stopped. The laughter, gone. “Hey. Hey! Where did you go?” He called out again. He walks back to the spot where he began his investigation. But, on cue, the laughter begins again. The same sets of laughter from a minute ago. He tenses up from the noise. This isn’t just a single child giggling to themselves. No, what the bus driver could hear was a whole group of children laughing from a distance. He then turns around and quickly retraces his steps. He feels uneasy, mixed feelings about this whole ordeal but now he’s trying to get to the bottom of this. The bus driver then reaches back to the corner and just like before, the moment he turns, silence. “Okay..Okay what the hell is going on here?” He harshly whispered to himself. The man no longer feels concerned, he’s become agitated from the situation. He angrily walks back to the center of the picnic area. When he reaches the center, the laughter picks up again. This aggravates the man even more as he begins to think this is some sort of prank. “Alright I had enough! Come on out! This isn’t funny so you better just come out!” He shouts to the woods but the only response he gets is more laughter. The bus driver turns back and silence fills the air again. The man clenched his fists and turned around again. He looks ahead of him and sees large amounts of shrubbery in the distance. He had enough of the rain and laughter but then marches to the bushes. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like, he just wanted to know who’s playing this sick joke. As he marched to the bushes and trees he starts to shout. “Look here, I have had enough of this dumb prank! If you don’t come on out I swear I’m gonna-” The bus driver is then suddenly cut off with a roar of laughter. This jolts him to stop because of how different it was. The laughter increased in volume. Not only that but, it sounded closer, almost like it was near his ear. The laughter felt as if it was all around him. All of his anger was drained and replaced with fear. His face changed from annoyed to concerned. He looks out to the woods once again but something was different. The longer he stared out the more he was filled with dread. I..I don’t..I.. My feet why can’t I.. This f..feeling… He tries to form thoughts but is too frightened to concentrate. Nothing was there. So why was he scared? Why did it feel like something was going to come right at him? Why was he feeling like someone was going to snatch him away? The laughter and rain continued on. His hands begin to shake but he isn’t sure if it’s from the cold or the fear. For a brief moment he somewhat regains his composure and quickly runs back to his bus. While he closed the distance between himself and the bus, the laughter fell silent one last time. All he heard is his heavy breathing, shoes hitting wet ground, and the rain pouring. Finally, he was back inside his bus and plopped himself into his seat. The bus driver then quickly closed the door and tried to catch his breath. He looked down at his feet but doesn’t say a word. After some moments of rest he looks to the children he had taken with him. The man got confirmation he wasn’t expecting. The kids had faces of fear too. They heard it. They heard the laughter too. The man knew he wasn’t insane but he didn’t know what to say. But, he believed he doesn’t want to talk about any of it. He started the bus and drove back to the campsite in silence. He then thinks to himself. Wh- What even was that.. The kids heard it too.. But that feeling.. Something was there..Something.. Was in the woods… To Be Continued. |
There’s Something In The Woods- Part 2 by Aaron JaramilloPaper Coils Tree: Deb Doll
Rain pours on and the wind quietly howls. The ride back to the campsite was mute and the air was thick with tension. The bus driver stared directly in front of him with a depressed look. What he experienced was only half his troubles. The other half was thinking about how he never found the lost little girl.
What am I gonna do..? He questioned himself. What am I even going to say to everyone? That I got scared by some.. Some.. The man felt as though if he gave whatever was in the woods a name, then it’d be all too real. But, he wasn’t the only one who heard it. The kids he took with him are still anxious from what had gone down. Not a single word had been said during the drive. The bus driver takes little glances out his window but isn’t sure what he was looking for. He was still concerned for the lost girl but also for himself too. It wouldn’t follow us, right? He asked himself in what he hoped was rhetorical. They soon reached the campsite. The rain was starting to settle down. As they continued, the bus driver noticed something up ahead. Waiting out in front of the camp were two people. The camp counselor holding an umbrella and right beside him, the little girl that was supposedly lost. “Is that..” The man finally spoke up from the silent drive. After a few seconds of parking the bus, the kids then run out to greet their once missing friend. The bus driver then slowly stepped out, trying to get a handle on the situation. “You won’t believe where this one went.” The old camp counselor exclaimed to the bus driver. “Now go on lil missy, apologize.” The counselor nudged the little girl to step forward. “Mister I.. I’m sorry for causing trouble..” The little girl said with guilt in her voice. The bus driver doesn’t respond. His eyes blinked twice and tried not to be overwhelmed by his feelings. The counselor then spoke up again. “Says she snuck out just before we did our headcount.” The counselor said while chuckling. “Guess she was a little more adventurous than the rest and went behind the campsite.” “Y-you don’t say.” The bus driver finally brought himself back to reality. The kids cheer for reuniting with their friend and head into their sleeping cabin. The bus driver looks from afar and is silent once more. “We almost had a problem there, eh?” The counselor said while putting his hand on the driver’s shoulder. The driver jumped back a little. “Woah there! You alright?” “Y-yeah. Yeah. Just…” The bus driver fell silent again but then spoke his mind. “Look I saw- Heard something out there.” The counselor chuckled. “Hate to break it to you but uh.. It's the outdoors? There’s all sorts of noises out there.” “No.” The bus driver abrupted the counselor’s statement. He then looked into his eyes to signify how serious he was about what he went through. “Something was there..” He said with a serious but frightened tone. The counselor then knew how dire this situation was. He then asked the driver for a request. “Come with me, now. We need to talk about what you saw.” After some time they settled themselves into a cabin of their own. The counselor exchanged his thoughts first. “What did you see?” “That’s the thing I.. I didn’t see anything. I just heard.. Laughter.” “And there wasn’t a person?” “No..” The bus driver kept quiet for a second and then a thought occurred to him. “..So you believe me about all of this?” The counselor slightly turned away. “Oh my god.. You do.” “What’s out there?” The bus driver demanded. The counselor looked back to the concerned bus driver. “This place, it’s a hotspot.” The counselor said in a monotone voice. The bus driver’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?” “You’re not the first to experience something.. Out of the ordinary.. In fact, I’ve dealt with something myself. Nothing like yours but… I’ll never forget it.” It was an ordinary night or so I thought. Counselors usually stay here in advance just in case something needs to get fixed or whatever. I was sleeping in a cabin all by myself, I’ve done it plenty of times over the years. But this, this is something I can never forget. One night, I woke up to noises at the door. I thought it was some dumb animal trying to sneak its way in but those doors can be sealed pretty tight. My first mistake was not dealing with that noise right away. I can’t tell you why.. Hell I don’t know why myself but, I didn’t get up from my bed. It was like something was telling me to stay in bed. I stayed perfectly still while it was scraping away at the door. After a few seconds it went away and so I thought the animal got tired and moved on. Before I could go back to sleep I then heard something else. It wasn’t something I could figure out right away. It was some sort of rubbing noise at the door. My heart started to race. I tried listening closely to the noise and that’s when it hit me. That noise? It was like someone was pushing a towel underneath the door. Something.. Something was getting through the door. I was so petrified that I didn’t even jump out of bed. I slowly rose up but couldn’t see a damn thing since there was no light on. But, god help me.. I knew it was there.. I could feel it was there across from me. Just a silhouette in a pitch black room. Looming right next to me. I couldn’t say anything or breathe. But then, as quick as it could.. The thing grabbed my leg and bit me. That’s all it took to knock me out of my fear. I panicked and in anger swung at the thing. I swung as hard as I could and I was definitely hitting something, felt like fur. But I didn’t care because this could’ve been my last night on earth. When I pelt the damn thing with my fists, it let an ungodly scream that I don’t think it will ever leave my mind. “AAAuuGHHHAAAAAAAA” … “I guess it wasn’t all that tough because the next thing I could hear was it scrambling around my room. Knocking all my stuff over and it yelping. Then, I heard those rubbing noises again. It slid its way out just like how it slid right in.” “I..I don’t know what to say…” The bus driver said with terror in his eyes. “Don’t say anything. I guess we both have stories now, huh?” The counselor let out an exhausted sigh. “So.. What do we do?” Questioned the driver. The counselor looked down for a moment then back to the bus driver. “We do nothing.” “What?” “I said we do nothing. Whatever this place is? It’s clearly out of our control. The best thing we can do is just.. Ignore it.. For now.” The bus driver looked toward with a disappointed face, then asked a question. “You said this place is a hotspot? ...You mean.. There’s more than what we experienced?” The counselor turned to the bus driver with a tired expression. Silence filled the air and the realization settled into the driver. “Oh god…” -END- |