The Scary Truth

Red Shadow

My friend told me this story about her and her family.
'We were on holiday on a small, remote island somewhere. It happened so long ago I can't remember when. We were walking through the woods, my sister, brother and I, having a whale of a time. We were laughing and joking around, having a complete and utter blast, when suddenly, my sister said that she could sense that something was following us. We just ignored her, and walked on. My brother and I were getting tired of seeing the same old trees and bushes, so we decided to call it a day, and told our sister that we were going back home. Surprisingly, she asked if she could stay, as she wanted to explore the woods a little. We were a little shocked, but agreed nonetheless.

My sister walked around for a while, climbing trees, and looking at insects. She then decided that she didn't like being alone in the woods, so she started to head back. She was attempting to jump on her shadow to make the walk back less boring. She stopped to pick up a bright feather, when she saw that there wasn't just one hand, there were three. Her, her shadow, and... Someone else. It was just her alone in the woods, so she started to panic. My sister began to run, when she tripped and fell over a tree root sticking up out of the ground. She looked back behind he to seethe shadow of a very tall figure, resembling a man. She screamed and ran for her life, knocking straight into a tree. She gaped back in horror, and crawled away, still continuing to scream. The tree was covered in red marks, and the shadow started to chase after her. She made it home, flustered and crying. "What's the matter?!"! I screamed, cupping her face in my hands. She gasped and spluttered, but couldn't find a way to explain what had happened. "Never mind," my brother said. We'll deal with it tomorrow.

When we returned to the woods the next day, all three of us, there was nothing there. No red marks. No creepy shadow man. My sister was shocked, but also rather happy that she had just been imagining the whole thing. That was until we started walking back, and something tapped me on the back of my shoulder. I didn't want to look around, but curiosity got the better of me. I spun round and screamed. Hanging from a rope was a girl of about ten, in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She was a pale grey colour, and smelled awful. "RUN!!!" I cried. The shadow was after us, getting closer and closer and closer. The ground shook, and we barely made it home alive, the three of us.