Secrets of The Forest

The day it all got weird.

My day officially got bad when I got thrown into a tree. Okay I know that's a weird way to start a story, but hear me out. A few hours earlier I was hiking with some of my friends up in the Appalachian Mountains, seems harmless enough, right? Well about that, we had found a nice place to camp out for the night, I started setting up the tents while Jamie was busy complaining about not having cell service. "Ugghhh" He groaned, putting his phone as high up in the air as possible without dropping it "Did we have to camp out here? I have no bars and I wanted to finish watching Stranger Things." I looked over at him and rolled my eyes "Dude, Stranger Things can wait, now stop complaining or else we'll feed you to the wolves." I joked, chuckling then went back to setting up one of the tents. A bit later, around midnight we were sitting down around the campfire, telling stupid jokes and messing around when there was a shuffling sound coming from the forest behind us "Guys, did you hear that? I hope it's not a bear." Jamie said sarcastically as he bit into a marshmallow "Want me to go check it out?" I asked, secretly hoping they'd say no. "Do it, I bet you won't." Zach teased, starting to coax me closer towards the forest. Once I got close enough I pulled away a few branches and leaves, expecting to see a squirrel or something along those lines. But there was nothing, it was quiet, eerily quiet. I shouted back to the group "Nothing here!" as I turned around and saw the figure of a 7 foot tall, white hairy thing with brightly illuminated eyes the color of bloodstones, standing over the (hopefully) unconscious bodies of my friends. Now, I would say what I was pretty sure the name of this thing was, but apparently it's really bad luck so I'll just call it a wendy. The wendy slowly made its way towards me, sticking out a clawed hand. I backed up, repulsed by not only the claws but its horrible smelling breath, I was tempted to grab a toothbrush and brush its teeth but I stayed on the task of staying alive. "W-what are you—" the beast opened its maw to speak but all that came out was a loud, guttural screech. In one quick swipe it grabbed me in its leathery mitts. I may or may not have screamed like a little girl but for the sake of my dignity, let's say I didn't. The wendy's claws sank into my back and I could feel my shirt start to redden with blood as I thrashed and clawed and punched at its horrid face, trying anything to escape its iron grasp that it had on me. My little girl screaming and thrashing eventually worked as it opened its mouth, most likely to eat me and I hit one of its teeth out, causing it to howl in pain and throw me against a tree. I laid sprawled on my stomach on the grass, blood still seeping into my shirt, I knew I probably didn't have long. I got up and ran over to the fire extinguisher that was meant to be used for the camp fire and ran as fast as my legs could take me towards the beast. I hit it with the fire extinguisher, occasionally spraying it in the face. After a while of that and bit more scratches on me, it retreated back into the dark depths of the forest. Then I promptly passed out.
The next day I woke up, apparently my friends hadn't been hurt too badly, they hardly even remembered the thing attacking them and they wouldn't believe me. "You're crazy, dude, maybe lay off the Fiji water for a little while, alright?" Sam joked, sipping a bottle of Diet Pepsi. I bandaged myself up and we rode home. "Hey, I got service!" Jamie announced loudly from the backseat. Out of the corner of my eye, I swear I could see glowing red eyes following us. I blinked and they were gone.