Kwento Ni Nanay

Stranger in the woods

It was Christmas Eve Day 2017. My parents had an emergency and had to leave to go to the hospital as my grandfather was having some medical complications. I'm not sure exactly what he was dealing with, but it must've been serious because my parents drove my two other siblings and I to my aunt and uncle's house which wasn't too far from where we lived at the time.

As my siblings and I said our “hellos” to the family my parents gave my aunt and uncle all of our presents so that during Christmas morning we could open them even without our parents there. Now I'm not usually a depressed person, but when I had to celebrate Christmas while my parents were somewhere in another state I definitely felt lonely and sad. My cousin and I are super close so while my brother and sister spent the night on their phones my cousin and I played twenty rounds of Injustice 2. Almost an hour went by when we decided to do something else. We went upstairs and started to read comics. My cousin’s family is rich, so everytime we meet he would always have a truck full of comics, video games, etc. It’s always annoying, and to be honest I was always jealous.

The first thing he did was show me his new monthly box of comics. He wouldn’t shut up about how amazing each comic was and I just wanted to scream. I told him I had to use the bathroom and walked to the bathroom. I stood in front of the sink and pulled out my phone. Scrolling through Instagram and YouTube proved fruitless as it seemed that all the people I was subscribed to weren’t uploading. I decided to turn to “true scary story” videos for the rest of the night to keep me occupied and my mind off of the whole situation.

Christmas morning was quite possible the worst day of my life. My cousin woke up at five in the morning. He woke everyone up and we all proceeded to the living room where almost half the floor was covered in presents for my ONE cousin. My aunt and uncle brought out my siblings and I’s presents. We finished opening them within five minutes. I got four things (not including candy, socks, and underwear): Two comic books, an airsoft mask, and a book. Meanwhile, my cousin wasn’t even half way finished with opening his presents. Nintendo Switch, IPhone 8, a new four hundred dollar video camera. You name it he freaking had it. Around noon my parents called and explained that they wouldn’t be coming home for another day. This day was just getting better and better.

I decided to take a walk and headed outside. My cousin’s house leads out to a small patch of woods. It was snowing pretty heavily when I started to walk into the woods. All I could think about was wanting to go home and be with my parents. My cousin didn’t follow me out to the woods, which was odd as it always seemed he followed me around everywhere. “Probably playing his new video games.” I told myself. I rolled my eyes and walked into the woods.

Walking through the woods with nothing but a windbreaker on usually would’ve cut my depressing walk short. But since I was filled with anger and frustration I decided that I would rather freeze to death then see my cousin playing with all his new things. Petty as it sounds, I was not happy and at the moment I didn’t want to even think about him or my aunt or uncle or the stupid fact that I was a day’s walk from my house.

The woods were small and went about half a mile deep before coming out the other side to a random highway street. About a hundred feet or so into my walk I came upon this little opening in the woods. Two logs sat parallel to each other with a small pit in the middle, separating the two logs. It was a little fire pit that my cousin said the other teenagers around his neighborhood used to smoke, drink, and do other things away from their parents. I sat down on the rotting log for a minute to catch my breath before looking over to spot a long stick. I picked up the stick and walked over to a nearby tree. Gripping the stick, I swung it at the tree. In my mind I was yelling, screaming, swearing about the whole situation. I hated it all. The stick broke on the first hit. I stood there at the tree for a second, listening. From the distance I could hear the broken stick hit the dead leafs. I threw down the remaining part of the stick and turned around to sit back down.

It wasn’t even five minutes when I heard a thump on the dead leafs. At first I ignored it. It was probably some animal. It wasn’t until the third or fourth thump that I started to take notice, each one getting closer and closer. When I heard the fifth thump I stood up and began to scan the surrounding woods. Nothing. I called out, “Is there someone there?” Silence. I’m not normally a paranoid person, but lately I had been somewhat on edge. I stood there silently waiting until another thump. This time the thump sounded closer than ever, almost as if the thump had come from right behind me. I took off running. I didn’t look back, I didn’t wait to see if another thump would follow, and I didn’t even stop to think until I was back at my cousin’s house. I burst through the door and was meet with not only my aunt and uncle but my parents. Who used the excuse of not coming home until the next day to surprise us.

We got home and I thought nothing of what had happened in the woods until I got a text that sent me into panic mode. It was around ten, I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard my phone buzzing on the sink. It was my cousin asking, “When you went on your walk did you happen to see anybody suspicious?” I texted back, “No.” It took him a little longer to reply but his next message said, “Whenever you guys left my parents noticed some guy staring at our house from the woods.” I could feel the panic rising. I texted back quickly, “What did he look like?” “Homeless,” he said, and that was it. Any attempt I made to try to get more answers was pointless as my cousin seemed to stop answering me. He still doesn’t answer my questions even to this day.

I would be lying if I said we ever heard anything about that random homeless guy. I don’t know what intentions this guy had and I don’t think I ever will. It just makes me wonder, “What was that guy doing in the woods, and what would’ve happened if I still ignored those thumps?” Either way, I’m glad I was as paranoid as I was that day because that paranoia might have just saved my life.