The Darkness within

18

Kinan stepped into the forest, it was quiet for a forest. It was like nothing but the trees were alive. The trees swayed in the wind and seemed to whisper, Tell me your secrets. As he gazed up at the trees, he half expected to see eyes on them. It felt as though they were watching him carefully, with each step. His shoe became cold. He looked down to the ground. He had stepped into a puddle.
"Great, now my socks are wet." he muttered. An image in the water caught his attention. He stared at the being in the rippling water, the being had similar features of his own face but the difference was this creature had blue eyes and obviously wasn't human in the slightest. Kinan leaned closer to the puddle, as did the monster that was staring back at him, and came to a realization. The beast he was looking at was him. Dear god... what?....I'm...NO! He jumped away from the puddle of water. Kinan falls down and continues to scoot back until he hits a tree behind him. He felt as though his breath was stolen out of his lungs; he couldn't breathe. He sat there until he could breathe again and crawled over to the puddle to take another glance. He stared at his reflection, THIS CAN'T BE FREAKING REAL! He yelled in his head. Kinan reached down to swipe away the image, but a muddy hand reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him in. Dragging him into the darkness that was so familiar to him now.

The darkness surrounded him like a blanket. Here again...why is this happening to me? My back hit the bottom of the dark abyss that surrounded me. The whispers were back and they whispered my name. "Kinan", they said and the girl appeared in front of me smiling as she had done before. "Hello Kinan, back so soon?" she teased quietly.
I scoffed, "Not by choice, something dragged me down here." I crossed my arms and and stepped towards her. Something about her made me want to be near and hold her. She seemed sad and alone.
"I don't understand, you can only be here by your own free will, it's part of the curse." She spoke softly to herself. Her eyes lit up "It must have something to do with...but it can't be, he's dead." she continued conversing with herself. My eyebrows furrowed as I stared at her.
"What the hell are you even saying" I said, snapping her out of her thought process.
"Your father, when he had the curse he could only come here if he was willing, but if you didn't come here that way, then I don't know how you're even here." She paused, assessing his face. "Unless your father's spirit is sending you here...but it doesn't make sense." She stated, turn her body away from me. "When did any of this make sense!?" I yelled. She looked at me and sighed but somehow she seemed off. Her eyes grew large and she gazed at me.

"You need to leave." She said speaking firmly,but her eyes betrayed her voice. She was afraid. Of what?

"What's wrong? You still haven't told me what the heck is even going on!" I yelled. She walked toward ignoring everything I was saying.

"Leave." She said shoving me back into the dark abyss.

Kinan woke up on his back, at the edge of the forest. He was cover in mud, and he was soaked to the bone. He gave a groan, his body ached all over. He rolled over onto his side forcing his body to move. Kian began to wipe at his skin, something was wrong the mud wasn't coming off as it should. The smell of rain filled his nose. He looked up at the sky and felt rain hit his face. Kinan slowly pulled himself to his feet and began to make his way out of the forest,hoping the rain would rinse him clean.

As Kinan made his way out of the forest he saw a enormous house. Scratch that it wasn't even his definition of a house, it was a castle. It was made out of sturdy bricks that were the color of sand. The house had three stories and even a tower on the side of it. This was truly a house out of a haunted film. The rain started to come down hard as he stepped towards the house. Police cars were lined up in front of the house and Kinan could see his mother and his uncle holding onto her shoulders. They both seemed to sense him coming, for they looked up and made eye contact with Kinan's disgruntled self. Kinan looked down at himself and realized what he thought to be dark mud was gone. He felt a small body throw itself into his arms. It was his mother, she began to weep.

"Kinan! For God sakes where have you been!" She cried into his chest.

"What do you mean I was only in there for a couple of minutes," he muttered in confusion.

"Kinan you have been gone for 17hours!" She yelled seeming to become more worried than before. "17 hours... my time there is getting longer" Kinan thought to himself. Kinan's uncle walked up to him and joined in on the hug that his mother was still giving him.

"Kinan we have searched nonstop for you in the forest. Do remember anything that happened or how you got here?!" He said eagerly. He wasn't concerned in the slightest he knew that the forest would have spat Kinan back out eventually, but he didn't even imagine it taking him in the first place.

"Uhhh not really. I must have blacked out." Kinan lied, they wouldn't believe him even if he told the truth. Kiche narrowed his eyes at Kinan, knowing full well that was a lie. Kinan stared at his uncle and mother as they took a step away from him. He noticed his mother's slight tilt toward his uncle. "When did this start"he wondered to himself. Kinan gave a smile and began to step toward the house some more. He needed to stop them from prying any further.

"Guys there is nothing to worry about! Look at me I'm absolutely fine no marks. Whatever happened is over with and I'm back now!....So no big deal!" Kinan walked on without look back, because if he looked back he knew they would see that he truly wasn't okay. He didn't know what was going on but he needed to figure it out soon and as fast as he could.

Kinan heads straight towards the officers gathered around his uncle's house, he need to clear this up before it people started asking questions.

"Hello officers!" Kinan waved up a conversation,trying not to seem to awkward. He felt uncomfortable striking up a conversation,especially with a police officer.
The officer turned to face Kinan with a raised eyebrow.
"Can I help you?" The officer asked in a formal manner. Kinan forced a smile but it fell from his face as he saw his worst nightmare hanging around the young male police officers head. It was Kanontsistonties,the monster was just a head and dark black wings that were 15 feet long, the head was halfway decomposed with it's skull protruding out of it's rotting skin,and one of it's eyeballs hung loosely out of its socket. Kinan had heard about these creatures from his father. He thought they were only stories to scare him into being good. The wind had suddenly picked up and Kinan's long wet hair crossed over his eyes. Suddenly everything was still.Kinan began wiping his hair out of his face and the beast had disappeared. Kinan felt as if he was going insane. There was no way that a flying man eating head,was just by that officer.

"Son,you okay?" The officer questioned. Kinan shook his head.

"Uh yes, sorry, sir I came to tell you that my mom was the one who called and this was all a mistake!! You see I was hiking and I got lost! I finally found my way back and here I am! My apologies for the ruckus! My mom worries quite a bit ,you see."Kinan rambled,he needed to keep his mind off of what just happened. He felt as though he was truly going insane. Those things didn't exist in real life. Undead monsters that fly around eating humans, trying to satisfy their eternal hunger. 'Those were just stories his father told him,nothing more.' Kinan told himself. His thoughts spun in a million directions and back to all the stories his father used to tell him. He was fearful of the monsters his father described being real.

"Well you should be more considerate and more grateful for a mother who cares about. Don't go out into the forest anymore, alright kid? The forest tends to swallow people up alive." The officer chided. This made Kinan freeze, thoughts of what happened in the forest filled his mind.

Kinan spoke in a low voice and said "You have no idea how right you are." His word left a chill in the air that made the young officers blood run cold. The officers left, not really understanding what happened and why they were needed.