Oh No Theyre In The Woods

A Park Ranger

Almost no one went to Loredge Forest. It was a huge forest, and the closest town was named Southcliff. Southcliff residents were known for thinking nothing to be too odd. They hadn't had new residents for years. Loredge scared people away, but Southcliff residents insisted the expanse of forest was very peaceful, and others had nothing to fear.

Jace had heard that all their life, they'd lived in Southcliff their whole life, and honestly never believed the forest was completely peaceful. They thought it was scary, if they were honest. They had never trusted the forest, their friends thought it was funny.

Now, Jace put their head in their hands. Why did they choose to join the Loredge Forest Service? They were sitting in their office, it was almost 10 pm, they'd only been there for 2 hours but it seemed like it had been forever. They just had to answer calls about people causing problems and get over there to fix it. Really, some fun stuff, just not really waiting.

They fiddled with their flashlight, flipping it on and off in the small room of the ranger center. There was something calming about having something to do, they guessed. They messed with the flashlight for a good while, until they heard the phone ring.

They put the flashlight down, leaving it on. They picked up the phone.

"Loredge Forest Service, this is Ranger Jace, what's up?" Silence from the other end. "Hello? Is this a prank ca-"

A very soft but fast voice spoke from the other end, "There's..Something outside our tent. We're out hunting and. It ain't any creature we've ever seen and it seems...Big and mad. We're near the river camp site. The animal's freakin' us out. Please help us " They hung up without letting Jace respond.

Well, they had something to do now at least. In the forest. Oh boy. They put the phone down and grabbed the flashlight again. They flicked it off, and realized it had already been on, and flicked it back on. They looked through the room and decided they had everything. Then they changed their mind and grabbed a bottle of bear spray.

They grabbed a beanie while leaving the room, and made sure to close and lock the station. The quickly went down the stairs with the light of the flashlight and got into the ranger car. Jace buckled up, flicked the flashlight off and turned on some music before starting to drive

The river camp site wasn't too far away, and Jace did know all the shortcuts through the dark forest. They'd have to get out of the car a decent way from the camp but they didn't mind too much. They hopped out of the car and started walking, turning the flashlight back on for the walk.

The people were probably inexperienced hunters, might be thinking they're seeing things. Jace was sure. Nothing too big lived in the forest, their biggest animals were black bears or cougars.

They got to the camp site to see nothing. There wasn't even a tent out there. Just open spots and some animal tracks around.

Animal tracks.

They shone their flashlight down at the tracks and followed them, down next to the river, following the bank for a while until they went back to the woods. They followed into the woods, and on a winding trail to a clearing. They had never been to this clearing, which was odd because they did regular patrols all around the forest and had never been over here.

They caught up to it. It...wasn't. A creature. It couldn't be. They couldn't even tell what it was. It looked like it was constantly shifting, it wasn't pleasant to look at, it was goopy-looking. It couldn't be an animal, it couldn't be.

The creature noticed Jace and they responded by stepping backwards, eyes filled with horror as they tried to comprehend what was right in front of them.

It stepped toward them and they didn't know how to respond. It just was walking toward them and they were frozen until they heard a voice that seemed to come from everywhere but they couldn't figure out where it came from. They ran as fast as they could away from the formless being.

The voice simply said, "Go." for a moment, Jace didn't even realize something was said, but they heard it again, louder. Again, louder and louder until it was shouting as Jace raced between trees, not daring to look back to see if the creature was pursuing them.

They jumped over fallen trees, rocks, creeks, racing into parts of the forest they had never seen. All they could think was to run, and that's all they did. Their left leg got caught in a tangle of plants, and in a panic, they just ripped it out and continued to run, not even thinking.

When they stopped, they had no idea how long they were running but they were sure the beast was gone. Their left leg hurt so bad, they didn't think it was a good idea to keep going without injuring themself more.

Jace slumped at the base of a tree, deciding it would have to be the best place to sit for a while. They took a quick glance at the forest floor before looking back in front of them. They did a double-take at the ground. That wasn't right. Tonight wasn't right. Nothing was right!

They mumbled to themself, "Why are forests so awful?"

The grass was a purple-ish color with little white flowers that Jace didn't recognize growing in it. Now that they looked, the trees weren't familiar, either. Nothing about the land around them looked like how it should.

They put their head in their hands, muttering to themself about how messed up tonight was. Little firefly-like bugs flittered in the air around Jace. They thought they looked kinda cute; at least something nice was happening that night. One went to land on their hand, but they shifted and it flew off.

They wanted to follow it, for some reason. Why did they want to follow it? Maybe it was just neat. They had the thought they should probably stay though, they still hurt. Moving wouldn't be a good idea, they were terrified of being out there anyway and-

Before they even knew, they were carefully following the insect through the forest, carefully climbing over rocks and tree roots. Deeper and deeper into the forest they ventured, not even thinking about being worried about what could be out there. They just followed, keeping a close eye on the glowing bug in front of them, wandering into the depths of the forest.