Wandering the woods.

The Forest

August 15th. 2015.
Joey tried to call me several times. I didn't answer the phone. I need to move on. Not fall for his words. I changed my locks the day after I found him cheating on me. I keep seeing the signs I drew. What do they mean? Where is the shadowy man? Is it weird that I start to miss him? Am I cured? Are the pills finally helping me one hundred percent? I don't know. I only keep seeing these signs. Something inside me needs to know that they mean. 青木ヶ原. I think I am going to look online. "Chinese signs" after 2 hours of searching I decide that this is not Chinese. Yep, nice. "Japanese signs". I can find the signs in Japanese, but not the meaning behind it. So Japanese it is. I'll copy the signs and put them after each other. 青木ヶ原. "Search". The result scares me. I heard about this before. Aokigahara forest. People also call it the suicide forest.

This makes me scared. I look outside my window. There he is again. The shadowy man. He is pointing his finger at me. Wait. Not at me, behind me. As I look behind me, there he is again. Pointing at my screen. To the picture of the forest. 'What do you mean?' I say. He vanishes. 'No come back! I am not afraid anymore. Help me figure this out. I can't take this anymore.' I start crying. I run upstairs and grab my pills. I have only one left. I can't go alone to the pharmacy. They wouldn't give me the pills. My parent are both dead, I have no brothers or sisters, no friends, I moved hear for him. Joey. Fuck Joey. He needs to help me. I get up and go to my car. I thinks about the signs as I drive. 青木ヶ原. I look in my mirror. There he sits, in the back of my car. The shadowy man. I want to speak to him. He holds his hands for his eyes. I close my eyes and when I open them, I am flying. The woods under me. The Aokigahara. I land in the middle of the woods and hear somebody scream. I want to scream back, but no sound is produced. Again somebody rips my arm of and as the string snaps I wake up. This dream again. Since that one night I keep having that dream. Over and over.

August 16th.
I open my eyes. I'm in my car on my driveway. I hear knocks on the outside of my car and when I look at my side, I see Joey. Knocking and screaming on my window. I try to open my car, it doesn't work. It is locked. I unlock it, Joey opens the door and puts his ass on the passenger seat next to me. I look in the mirror and what I see blows my mind. There he is again. The shadowy man. Joey sees what I'm looking at and sees it also. The shadowy man! He starts to panic. His breath raises. 'Calm down. I see him too. He doesn't do anything.' 'That motherfucker scared the shit out of me.' 'Don't call him that way.' The shadowy man lays his hand on my shoulder. His touch makes me feel warm and loved. I close my eyes and let myself enjoy this moment for a second. I start the car and we drive to the nearest bar. We walk in Jennys' bar. I see there's a table for two free on the right corner of the bar. I sit down and when our drinks arrive I immediatly start talking 'Okay, I'm going to tell a few things that probably seem weird to you. These events started happening a few months ago. At first it was only at my home, now it happens everywhere. I have bad dreams, in a woods, the shadowy man killing me in the most disgusting ways. The strangest thi...' Joey interrups me: 'Wait... The shadowy man?' 'Yeah, that is the name I gave that guy.' I point at a corner of the bar. There he stands. Joey looks. 'Oh yeah, I see him now.' 'Where is your wound?' I ask. 'Oh, I woke up the next morning and it was gone.' 'Oh' 'Yeah' 'Let me finish my story. The day we broke up, I started seeing these signs.' I grab a piece of paper from my pocket and open it. There are the signs again.  青木ヶ原. 'These signs I have been seeing too. Since you left. Also that guy. I tried to contact you, buy you didn't pick up the phone.' 'I looked the signs up, Joey.' 'And?' 'It's the Japanese name for the Aokigahara Forest. Also called by the name Suicide Forest.' His face turns white. 'Look, Joey!' The shadowy man walks towards us and grabs a pen. He starts writing. Or at least, he tries. After a minute there stand a few letters. "Help me"

He walks away. Me and Joey know this is a sign. We walk after him. 'Girl, you have to pay for that!' Jenny screams. I run back and throw ten dollars on the desk. I step into my car and start driving. The shadowy man is running for my car as I drive. I follow it. Hours go on and eventually he leads us to an old creepy house. It looks abandoned. I look at Joey. He knows what I want to ask and nods his head. I step outside the car and see the shadowy man pointing towards the house.

'Fuck it, let's do this.' Joey says as he starts walking towards the house. The door is very fucked up. I can't open it. Joey is making fun at me. 'Move' he says. He walks a little back, then starts running at the door. The right side of his body smacks to the door. The door breaks into tiny pieces. A swarm escapes from the house, but I can't see wether it is birds or bats, mainly because it's too dark outside. Joey grabs his phone and lights up the house. The shadowy man is the first thing we see. He walks upstairs and we follow him. The floor is rotten, so we have to be very careful. The shadowy man leads us to a room. He points at the bed. 'What is there?' I ask. He keeps pointing at it. Joey moves his light. We see that something or someone is laying in the bed. 'I can't do this' I whisper as I start to panic. A piano randomly starts playing somewhere in the house. It gives me goosebumps. I feel threatened, realizing that I shouldn't have come here in the first place. I take a deep breath and walk to the bed. I grab the blanket and pull it up. We see a skeleton of a man with a note in his hands. Joey starts yelling. 'What is this bullshit? This is so fucking gross.' 'I know, but we have to figure this out. I think we are cursed.' He looks at me as if I'm a crazy psycho. I know I am, but still. I grab the note from the dead corpse and open it. The letter says:
'To my dearest friend,
Thank you for finding me. I'm sorry you have to see me like this. It's probably not a pleasant sight. I need to tell you a secret. Two years ago my father died. He died in the Aokigahara forest, you know it as the Suicide Forest. He committed suicide. They said. I don't believe such a thing. He was the happiest man alive, until he heard of the Aokigahara Forest. He started getting depressed.
I believe it is some kind of curse. I want you two to solve this mystery and go to the woods. You can find my fathers clues. He was close to solving the mystery, but he didn't. Promise me you'll go. I have some money here, buy your tickets and fly as soon as possible. Otherwise you won't survive. Like me.
Have a nice day,
Yoki Sakigora.'