Wester's Soul

Chapter 1 : The Secret In The Dark

2/11/2002

In a mist of drunkard conversation Rob Foley and Jason Gould trundled deeper into the darkness of Sandown Forest. Hand in hand with the night they laughed and joked as best friends do. Not giving a passing thought to the growing distance from their campsite nor the thickening darkness around them. The moon was at its fullest and its fractures of light glistened through the dewy leafless branches of the surrounding trees, the only sounds to be heard were that of the forests natural elegance and the chatters of two seventeen year old males.

"I'm telling you Rob by the end of the year me and Miss Hodges would of done it, we will have one of those secret student teacher relationships that you hear about on the news "

Rob let go a muffled burst of laughter.

" I know the ones, they usually end up with the teacher losing her job and you receiving eternal damnation from your mum right. "

"Exactly right, and an epic high five from my dad. "

"Or she might get a restraining order on you before you even get that far."

"She wouldn't do that, me and her got a connection, it's only a matter of time. "

Both teens reeled with laughter and continued on with their spontaneous expedition.

They walked for another 10 minutes and their meager conversation began to waiver. With its departure a moment of realisation crept upon them and both Rob and Jason for the first time that night felt alone.

The forest before their eyes seemed to shift. From an inviting adventure it changed into a place where unnatural things lurked on the edge of darkness waiting to grab, inflict and devour. Their previous jovial manner turned curdled deep within their stomachs pits and both felt the urge to turnaround and run, only halted by the celestial hush that seemed to sweep around them.

The sudden bout of silence grasped their attention much in the way a stray gunshot would and they looked around as if scanning for the source of such tranquillity. The night calls of the grasshoppers and crickets, the wailing of the wind, and the rustling of the forest all seemed to cease from one particular moment. Jason broke the silence first in a whisper.

"I think we should head back now, we have come way too far."

Rob replied with a vague half nod, still somewhat bewildered by the tone of his surroundings.

Both of them thought of the campsite and how sneaking out in the dead of night whilst Robs parents slept probably wasn't the best of ideas. Now they only hoped that they could find their way back and without their endeavour discovered.

They turned and walked back the way they came. The forest still hung in an eerie silence and after a couple of minutes they came to a clearing within the woodland.

Jason sat down and leant against a large headstone shaped rock that along with another was fixed at the clearings edge. Thankful for the moons beam that shone like a spotlight down onto them he began to feel his trousers for his cigarettes. Before he found them Rob could make out something faint in the raging black ahead, not thirty feet away.

" I see something over there. Get up Jase can you see it?"

Jason struggled to his feet and rest his hand on Robs shoulder.

"Look, over there. It's a light".

Jason's heart began to race and his eyes followed to where Rob was pointing.

" It looks really low, like it's on the floor."

"Lets go back Rob, we've come to far anyway. Your mum will lose her shit if she knows we've left."

"Hold up, I hear something", Rob said as he raised his palm in suggestion of his good friend's silence.

Four muffled clacks evenly spaced out made a slight echo through the dense overgrowth and filled the clearings openness. As the sound no sooner met their ears they held their breath. A silent moment passed prematurely broken by a startling bang. Out of pure instinct both of the young onlookers sharply ducked and leapt behind the gravestone like rocks. They pressed close to the cold stone that concealed them and peered over allured by the fright of what they might see.

Through the skeletal branches the dim light had grown brighter. Within its glow the surrounding trees looked taller and the newborn shadows that rested upon them flickered, momentarily appearing to give them life. The light coned upwards from where Rob and Jason first saw it and just beyond it a wood paneled door had been swung upwards.

"Its a hatch", Jason said excitedly.

Both Rob and Jason stared on almost in awe, as if in eager anticipation of the final act to a Broadway show. A slight rustling was heard, then from the opening in the ground a stencil of a figure could be seen clambering out and agedly bringing itself to its feet. It let out a dry rusty cough and both boys looked at each other in the same scope of realisation that it was a man's cough. Although they were no more than twenty five feet away the man's dark outline was all that could be seen. They watched as he swung the wooden hatch back down and began walking away from the clearing until he could be seen no longer in amongst the confining thicket.

The light still crept through the crevice of the wooden hatch and after a couple of minutes Rob began to sneak towards it.

"What you doing? The lights still on, probably meaning that he will be back soon. "

"We gotta check it out Jase, he could be some crazy hillbilly with a tied up victim down there."

Jason grimaced at the thought but acknowledged his duty and began to follow Rob. Several scenarios played out in his head with many of them ending in the man coming back and finding them in his little underground hovel.

The fallen foliage cracked and crunched under their timid steps and as they both stood at the old wooden hatch they noticed a weird symbol painted onto its worn surface. They threw each other a daunting gaze, then looked back down to the hatch.

"You ready? " Rob croaked.

Even though he knew they both were not.

Thank you for reading and if you enjoyed it please give a vote. Any feedback especially atound grammar would be much appreciated.