Don't Go Into The Woods

Chapter 14

My eyes opened and I found myself standing in front of the bedroom door. I must have walked into it as my nose was stinging. That is what had woken me up from my dream. It was night. I was dressed in my pajamas. Carmen was still snoring in her bed so I had not woken her up with this. What was this? I could barely bring myself to admit it. I did not remember climbing out of bed, standing up and walking till here, bumping myself into the door. This only meant one thing. I was sleep walking. I don’t sleep walk. I never have. Now all of a sudden I was? I was positive that this sudden event had something to do with these dreams I have been having. They were becoming worse and now clearly starting to affect me physically. I crept back to my bed and sat down on the side, being careful not to wake up Carmen by making any loud noise. What was happening to me? I looked out the window and stared directly at the woods over looking the school. Was the woods calling me to it? I laid down in my bed and covered myself up with my blankets. I tried my best to fall asleep and not think about what had just happened and all the questions that had risen from the aftermath of this.

The following day I awoke to the sound of strong wind pounding against the windows. When I sat up in my bed and stared out of the window, I saw that there was snow blowing fiercely through the air by the wind. The weather did not look great at all. There goes the outfit I had specifically chosen to wear today for the date. The weather settled down somewhat as I begun dressing. I threw on my jeans, a pair of black boots and a warm, but thin black jersey. I added a black winter coat to the look as well as a pair of black gloves and a black beanie that would keep my head perfectly dry and warm in this weather. My hair hung on either end over my shoulders. For someone that did not have a very good night’s sleep, I did not look too bad. Carmen had helped me with a bit of make up to get rid of any bags under the eyes. I said goodbye to her before heading off downstairs where I met a very warmly dressed Roman waiting for me at the main doors. I was glad to see that I was not the only one who felt the need to dress like Santa Claus today. Our eyes met and both of our faces lit up with a smile. Roman also seemed relieved to see that I had not stood him up. He was so happy that he even hugged me. I actually did not mind this hug. That was a first for me. There were quite a few stares from the people that surrounded us. Those stares were accompanied by whispers. I chose to ignore them and focus on Roman. We were not the only ones heading up to town for the day so we ensured we were comfortably in a taxi before the others came and started to really fill them up. I could not believe how nervous I was today. I have sat next to Roman in the back of a taxi before, but this time it just felt completely different to me. I even sat with a full gap between us. Roman must have been just as nervous as he barely said anything. He just smiled at me when ever I caught him staring in my direction. This was completely awkward even for me. I took a deep breath and stared out at the taxi’s window. The scenery consisted of nothing except for trees and woods. I thought of what happened last night. What was going on here?

“What is up with these woods?” I asked out loud by accident. I looked over at Roman after realizing that I had just said that out loud and tried to pretend like I had purposely asked that question. “There is so much urban legend stuff that seems to surround these woods.” I added.

“Well if I were you, I would not dwell into all of that stuff and I would rather just stay away from the woods.” Roman said. That sounded awfully familiar. I got this strange feeling that just like Dimitri, Roman knew something about these woods. Either he knew something or he thoroughly believed in all of the urban legends that shrouded the woods.

“Those woods are just full of bad luck.” The taxi driver suddenly said. His words definitely peaked my interest so I turned my attention to the driver. Maybe he was willing to talk seeing as so many others were not so willing which was more than obvious.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“These woods just bring death. Bad luck. One is better off staying away from them.” The driver replied. “That is why you see no hunters out in this part. They know better after what happened.”