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I walk with my head down and my arms crossed as I pass the woods. I don't want to look at them. Just hearing the trees move gives me the creeps. I speed up, just wanting to get home at this point. I do not want to be out here any longer.
A man runs out in front of me, emerging from the woods in a hurry. He stands before me, hunched over, trying to catch his breath. "Please, you have to help me. My friend- he- he was attacked in there. Please help me get him out of there and carry him to get help." He points towards the woods where he wants me to enter.
I shake my head and take a step back, very reluctant to help him. I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. "Um-" I hold my arm and back away from him. I am too nervous to go back into those woods. The last time I was in there, bad things happened to me. I almost died. I don't want to go through that again.
But his friend needs help. If his friend was attacked by the same thing that attacked me, he may be a survivor too. He is going to need support. He will also need help getting out of there before the creature comes back to finish his meal. If I go back in there, I can help save his life. I know that doing this will bring up some bad memories for me but helping this man is still the right thing to do. I will be a hero.
His hero.
"Okay. I'll help you. Which way was your friend?" I ask, walking towards the tree line with him. I can't believe I am going to do this right now. Am I crazy? Why am I going back in there?
"This way." He says, pointing me in the direction to find his friend. I hope we can get to his injured friend in time. I would hate to know that we were too late because I couldn't get past my fear of going back into the woods. That would make me a coward. I would also be the reason this man could die. I would never be able to forgive myself for that.
I stop walking and stare off to the right as three frantic people yell for me to stop. They are running towards me as fast as they can.
"Don't go in there!" James yells.
"Don't go!" Jackie shouts.
"It's a trap!" Julie adds.
I look down at my wrist as the mysterious man wraps his fingers around it. "What are you doing?" I ask, trying to pull my arm away from him. I am suddenly realizing that he doesn't actually have an injured friend in there. He was just trying to lure me in there for some reason. To hurt me? Kidnap me? Kill me?
The man growls and shows me his unbelievably large fangs. There is no way those teeth are from a human mouth. What is going on here?
He pulls me into the woods as I fight against his grip. He has a very tight grab on me. I can not break free. He is too strong. He has to be like a body builder or something. Although, he does not look the part. He looks like he weighs one hundred pounds. I would never have expected him to be this strong.
I grab onto his hand with my free hand and pull at his fingers, hoping to loosen them enough to break free. Failing, I decide to drop my weight to the ground. This should stop him from running and maybe even force him to let go of me.
"Stop struggling, you will only make things harder!" He growls at me through his sharp teeth. He continues running with me trailing behind him, fighting him with everything I have.
I may be imagining things, but it appears that he has grown a lot of facial hair since I first looked at his face. In fact, there is a lot of hair all over his body.
Behind us, I can hear James, Jackie, and Julie still pursuing us. I am lucky they saw what happened. This gives me a chance to get out of this alive. If they had not been there to see him pull me in to the woods when they did, I might have disappeared for good.
