Spring Park

(5)

Wait, you turned on the voice recorder? Thanks. I think I left off with the drawing incident. Stige and Alex became great friends. He was friends with John and Lizzie as well, but not as strong of a friendship. The last thing that happened while I was under the care of Delma and Mallory happened two years after the last incident. It happened on the day that me, Aaron, Stige, Alex, Lizzie, and John were going on a camping trip at the Spring Town camping park, which was on the edge of Spring Park, but had fences set up. Before we went, Mallory told me to go get the gramophone from Stige's hut because Stige wanted it but was too afraid to get it. I walked out of the house, across the yard, and to the shed. I pulled the door open, the smell of mildew and rot filled my nostrils. I dig through the papers, pulling them off the walls, trying to find out where the gramophone was. They started popping up around the house, and Mallory started dumping them in here. I grabbed one, and then looked at it. It was a picture of what looked like a cigarette and had the word 'mom' beneath it. Beneath the drawing was the gramophone, which I picked up and took it out of the shed. I could think about whatever the drawings meant later. I brought him his gramophone and made sure that the record was on it. The hours went by, and then it was time to go to the camping park. There was a knock on the door, and I went to it. It was Lizzie, Alex, and John. Stige came to the door and him and Alex did their secret hand shake, and Delma helped gather our camping supplies. Alex, being the only one who had a driver's license, help Delma pack everything into his car. We drove down the road and to the other half of town where the small park was. We arrived when it was complete dark, and jumped the fence because you had to pay to go into the park. We hadn't told Delma or Mallory that because they'd get worried. The second I jumped the fence, the feeling of being watched washed over me. We arrived at the place we'd be camping at. It was on the far edge of the small park, right next to Spring Park. I looked off into the forest and I swear, for a second, I could see the legs of someone. They were white and almost seemed to have a glow to them. Whether it was there or not, it disappeared behind a tree as soon as I saw it. There were other camps in there, so we lit a campfire since they don't check them. The fire illuminated the trees, and immediately afterwards I heard the sound of rustling feathers. After a second, there was only the sound of the fire. No crickets or cicadas, but that was normal for Spring Park. As everyone joked around and ate s'mores and other food that John had bought, I looked around the surrounding area. There were plenty of trees, but from here I could see the other two camps that were in eyesight. I saw someone standing halfway between us and the closest camp. I couldn't make out details, but they looked like they had large eyes and grey skin, but they were dressed exactly like anyone else. As soon as I saw them, he start walking toward us, and then stopped a couple yards away and ducked behind a tree. The last thing he did before ducking behind the tree was glance up at the trees above us. I glanced back toward the rest of my friends, who had stopped talking and were trying to listen to something. I asked John what was happening and he said that they had heard the sounds of feathers rustling, but saw no birds, and they were trying to find the source of the noise. I told John about the thing that went behind the tree and the lower half of a person that I saw behind the trees in Spring Park. I looked up at the moon between the branches of the trees, but it was slightly blocked out by the bird they were trying to find. I leaned over to John and pointed out the bird, and we laughed and then pointed it out to the rest of them. We all had a laugh. Next time I looked up, the large bird had moved and I could no longer see it. The sense of being watched never left me. I glanced into the woods, and could have sworn I saw a man staring at us from Spring Park. "You guys wanna go check out one of the othercampsites?" One of us said. "Good idea, Alex." John said. Alex looked at John. "I didn't say that, I thought Aaron had said that." Alex said. "I heard Lizzie say it." Aaron said quietly. It was a good idea, and we all agreed with it. After a few minutes, we got up and started toward the furthest camp. "Wait, no, we should go toward the closer camp." One of us said. We stared at each other again, and pointed fingers at who had said it again, and then agreed again. We headed back toward the other camp, heading directly through the woods and not on the path. "This place is huge! Is this your first time ever being here?" Alex asked, and then punched Stige in the arm, as he usually did. Stige rubbed his shoulder, which he never did, and when Alex pointed it out, Stige made a run for it. Alex squinted, and then said "wait a minute, that's not Stige." "He may he went ahead to the camp." Aaron said. We continued toward the camp, and then we all gagged at what we saw, and Lizzie threw up. There were at least ten bodies. Five of them looked like campers, one of them being completely mutilated and missing clothes, and the other five had more limbs than humans should have. "What are you kids doing out here? Today's Sunday! The parks closed!" The feeling of being watched increased and I looked at the surrounding area for its source, when I saw the bird. It wasn't a bird, it had large, red eyes and am at least 10 foot wingspan. It looked almost like a moth, but a bird. "What the hell did you kids do? I need backup! Back up!" He yelled. The creature in the trees made a sound, and then there was a click and a large branch fell from the tree and impaled the man through his neck. He gurgled blood as he stared up into the trees, pinned to the ground, and the creature in the trees swooped down and snatched the body up and back to where it came. We ran into the forest as fast as we could, jumping over the fence and into Spring Park. We ran until we began to recognize the area around us. We were back at the picnic area. I heard the rustling of feathers and then there was almost complete silence. All there was was the sound of footsteps. I caught a glimpse of one of the sources of footsteps. I saw one of the fog monsters. They had no eyes and their entire face was composed of mouths. It had ears and inside of some of its mouths we're human eyeballs which rolled around and surveyed the area. It also had ten claws on each hand which were long and sharp. They moved slower, trying to figure out where we had gone. They knew we were here, they knew we were all here, just not where. "Don't move." I whispered. We stayed still and completely silent. I could see the pair of red eyes out of the corner of my eye. The fog monster walked right up to me, I could feel its breath on my face, but I stayed still. I looked at it more closely. It had short, white, algae like fur all over its body. The fur acted as if it were under water, and the creature opened its mouth and made a screeching sound. Water streamed out of its mouth until it shut its main mouth again, It's grey, sharp teeth separated it into separate streams. I reached into my pocket and clicked the knife open. The creature immediately realized and grabbed me. I sunk the knife into the creatures mouth, stabbing it deeper and deeper. I yanked it out and water gushed from its mouths and wound. "Run!" I yelled. We ran deeper into the forest and the footsteps and rustling of feathers followed us. I could see the edge of the forest, and ran faster. "We're almost there! A little bit further!" I yelled. One of the creatures from the field grabbed me and chucked me aside. It t screeched at us and was joined by two others. One of them grabbed me by my throat and opened up its large mouth and began to move my head closer to its mouth. It's head exploded as the sound of a shotgun blast rang out through the woods. I looked toward the source and shoved the creature's corpse off of me. The gas man stood on top of a small hill, shotgun in hand. The creatures redirected their attention toward the gas man, and we ran further out of the woods. A creature similar to the ones in the pile dashed down from one of the trees. It looked like the creature from the bunker as well, and I assumed there were many of them. It growled at us and then grabbed Aaron by the stomach. He squirmed and punched at its arms. We all just stood there, and then I ran at the creature and stabbed it in its neck. It grabbed me with a second pair of arms and began to pull both of my limbs in different directions. I could feel myself being slowly torn in two. I heard the rustling of feathers and then the creature came down from the trees and snatched the creature up. Aaron was freed from its grasps and the gas man ordered my friends to leave the forest. They ran out and to safety and I watched as the gas man fled into the woods. I layed on the grassy floor, in a pool of my own blood. I don't entirely remember what happened next. I woke up in a tall tree in what I could only guess was the middle of the forest. I still had broken bones but my skin had been healed completely. I was in a nest of somesorts, and immediately began climbing down the tree and out of the forest. The feeling of being watched was replaced by the feeling of comfort. I reached the edge of the forest and exited without coming across anything. It had been five days since I disappeared and was assumed dead. I walked all the way back to Delma's house where I was then taken to the hospital. My hands were incredibly broken, and I should have died from an infection in my bones, but hadn't.. I had to wear a splint for my right hand for the next year, and it never really healed all the way. After that, people always said I seemed to have a black cloud over my head. Stige was found later than night in the campsite park, but no bodies were found. Apparently he had fallen asleep and didn't get up when we did, but as the park ranger had said, the park was closed, so we didn't have an explanation for whatever was pretending to be Stige. After that, we all stopped hanging out together for a while. I never saw the gas man again and I no longer saw Lilith, and the drawings stopped. We all thought that the it had all come to an end, but we were so wrong.