The Baffling Case of the Dying Souls

Chapter 2

The clock ticked and it was already one minute after six. I had my backpack ready for anything that was opposed to happen. Inside my bag I had my first aid kit, a rope and my army knife, in case I ever came to the point of using it.

I unlocked the door and took a deep breath. 'Well here goes nothing' I thought. My parents were out at some party(don't ask) and they didn't know I was going anywhere. I asked them if I could go to Rachel's house. With a lot of explaining that they had nothing to worry about since she only lived two blocks away, they had said yes. I told them this in case I didn't come back on time, so they would think I'm still at Rachel's.

I raced past my lawn, as I was desperate to get to the woods before the sky turned pitch black.

Whispering Willows was right across from my school, and my school was just five minutes from my house. So in ten minutes I arrived in front of the woods.

Hardly anyone was seen even around the woods. I guess many people never bothered to go near or inside it was because:

1) there was a fence surrounding the woods.

2) several police patrolled around here.

Fifty meters across from me was one police officer but he was directed towards the opposite direction. So I inserted both my fingers and toes into the holes of the fence and then pulled myself onto the next higher hole. As I leaned back a bit, the chains racketed, causing fear in me that if I went on, the police would hear me. After regaining more strength I put my fingers and toes in another hole, and like that I reached the top. Once I was at the top of the fence I looked down to see I was a good six feet above the ground. I lifted my leg on top and suddenly felt anticipated to fall on the ground. But without further ado I jumped off. Unfortunately for me, while I was plummeting off the top of the fence, my foot hit the fence causing it to make a banging sound. And I didn't have to look back to know someone was running towards my direction.

"Aye stop right there!" The officer yelled from the other side of the fence, "that's out of bounds area!"

But I didn't even turn back, instead I dashed past the overgrown trees, and pointy thorn bushes. Stepping over roots of trees that were stuck on the ground, and branches that had fallen down, I ran until exhaustion. Only then had I realized that one, I was a terrible runner with my lack of stamina, and two, I had no clue where I was heading. I couldn't see the police officer so I started sauntering.

I guess these "oh so scary" Whispering Willows was actually not that bad. It was like any other forest with large trees and poison ivy at every corner you turn. I actually didn't know what I was looking for anymore, or why officers were so reluctant for anyone coming into these woods. But then I remembered that I was supposed to solve this baffling mystery of why people died every Halloween night. And I realized I should start searching by the old tree that kids seemed to always end up dying at. Only problem was, I had no clue where I would find that tree. It's not like I had detailed instructions, or even a map that would have the x mark written all over the tree to make it obvious that this was the death bed for many kids.

I was pretty lost at that moment, and I knew if I kept standing here the police would find me. So I started walking forwards looking for the oldest tree (which I had no luck on cause they were all a billion years old.)

Moments after passing what seemed like 251718 trees I heard rustling noises from behind. I was pretty sure it had been the police officer who was prepared to yell his head off at me. But while my head was turning I could sense something horrendous shadowing behind me. I took a deep breath and turned to face an appalling creature. It wasn't exactly what I expected to see, in fact it wasn't anything even close to what I expected!

The creature was about 6 feet in height, a pretty buff boy or man (whatever he was)? He had dull grey eyes, a little bit of, damp wet hair, and his skin was so pale it looked as if it were peeling off. One eye was closed(most probably not even there) and his lips were blood red, which looked like he'd just had a flesh feast. His face was expressionless(kind of like how my literacy teacher looked) and he walked like he had just gotten off of bed after having only two hours of sleep. But what really scared me was the fact that the place where his heart was meant to be placed, there was a hole where you could only see a dry rib cage.

It took me a while to process it all in my head, and for what seemed like ages, I stood there staring into the mans eyes.

Slowly he started trying to barge into me. His arms were wide open and he ran in my direction filled with rage. I stood there motionless with my heart beating so loud I felt like it would pop out of my chest at any moment. But while he started closing into me, my adrenaline kicked in and I sprinted as far away I could get from that monster. I wouldn't stop, I just kept running as far as my two puny feet could get me. Luckily the man was slow, otherwise I wouldn't even wanna think about what would happen.

At the perfect time my asthma interjected my running. I only once had gotten an asthma attack when I was 5. I remember it clearly because it was when I was in the deep water and I had trouble swimming so I panicked and got an attack, I almost drowned after that, but luckily the life guards came before I could actually die.

Hence it was worse now, I didn't even know why I was having it after so many years without any problems. I stopped and felt myself choking. I tried breathing in but it was like someone put there hand over my mouth and nose. The problem was that I didn't even have an inhaler, so I felt myself falling to the ground because I couldn't hold myself up any longer. I started to panic again, which didn't seem to work because it just made it harder to breath. I kept coughing and wheezing, and sweat poured out like crazy. Slowly I gave out, and everything after that became unclear.