What Lurks Behind The Trees

Hiding behind trees

The sound of kicking and crunching of wet leaves echoed in the desolate woods. Two pairs of footsteps ran, and with every gasp of breath they took, their hearts were at their throats. The heavy rain was making their vision blurry and their ears deaf to the footsteps of the creature behind them. The woods were dark; the canopies of the tall old trees covered the moonlight and the lanterns' fire was out so they could remain unseen.

Gregor was running behind his sister Celia, watching as her long golden braids jumped on her back and made sure she was in sight. They both ran as fast as their tired legs could, avoiding the fallen branches and protruding roots, but not for long, as one of Celia's feet got stuck under a tree root. She fell forward, reflex allowing her to bring her palms to the ground before her face did. However she did not get up. Gregor ran to her, looking around quickly before kneeling to the ground to help her up. He grabbed her face in his hands to make sure she wasn't hurt.

Her eyes did not blink, "Celia! Look at me. You have to get up now." Gregor said with a severe tremble in his voice, he was on the verge of breaking down and with each word he said he looked behind them to check if anything was there. Celia's eyes were unfocused, her breath ragged and it wasn't long before her body went limp, passing out on her brother's lap.

"No, no, no, no! Please!" he was crying now holding on to her shoulders, trying to shake her awake. He looked around frantically making sure nothing had reached them. Seconds after, With the help of the rain splashing on her face, Celia woke up with a shudder.

"Greg! We have to get out of here." The words barely formed on her frightened lips. They both stood up and ran in a different direction.

"We can't stray too far from the path, father and uncle will come looking for us and they won't go too deep into the forest." She said.

"But we have to stay away from that creature, or else...or else I don't even know what would happen to us" Gregor replied, and with that they ran towards a large oak tree and hid behind its thick trunk. They huddled close to each other and tried to calm their distressed lungs, and as their breathing slowed down, so did the rain, until it stopped completely.

"I don't think it's behind us anymore." Celia whispered.

"We can't be sure, there's no where safe in these woods."

"Can we start a fire, i'm cold" Celia said rubbing her small red palms together in attempt to warm them.

"I'm sorry Celia, we can't, fire will lead anything to us."

"We didn't even see what was chasing us." She huffed. "I hope sister is doing well."

"yeah, we couldn't-" The words were stuck in his throat when he heard a sound from behind one of the trees. He turned to his sister and put a finger to his lips to alert her. His heartbeat started quickening again. He shifted closer to his sister and leaned his back on the tree trunk, hiding behind it. Another sound was heard, like footsteps, but heavier and louder. and it came closer and closer. Gregor and Celia held their breaths but it was too late because when they looked up, it was there, three meters tall, staring down at them with red beady eyes, peaking at them from behind the tree.

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