SERENITY (A Creepy Pasta Fanfiction)

explore.

  It was Friday night and I could've been doing anything that I wanted; I could've been out partying, drinking, working. But no, I was stuck in a house with two boys watching them play this old beat up Nintendo 64. My dad was a game collector and he especially liked older games.  He had kept all of his things from when he was a child and although that may seem like a cool idea now.... It's not.  You see the Nintendo my dad had, would shut off at random times meaning that whenever you wanted to play a game you had to save for pretty much every three minutes just to ensure that all of your progress would be there.  I made the mistake of  starting a fifty round game on Mario party 3, (solo so that way we could advance in the game and unlock the better game boards) and I never saved.  I got to about an hour in, 45 levels deep and then the whole system decided to power down on me.  I was also 15 at the time and after that I swore never to play the n-64 again. 

  So there I sat, on the loveseat curled up in a blanket watching Netflix. Head phones in and not really paying attention to the excited screams over the Mario cart match.

  About a full Disney movie later, I decided I've had enough with staring at the computer screen and I turned off the computer.  Dad and Laydynn were still playing together, but I could tell by the way they were slacking and drifting to last place that they were getting bored of the game and they were probably going to switch the game soon.

"Dad?" I asked with a slight sigh. I usually dreaded asking him any questions.

"Yes Serenity?" He never turned to look at me but I knew that he was paying attention.

"Do you mind if I went for a walk for a little bit. Just to see what's around here?" I looked out the window, there wasn't really much to see from the front yard besides for some more houses but I knew that in the back there was a nice long stretch of woods that was dense enough to explore and get lost in for a couple of hours.

"Not at all,  go knock yourself out kiddo." he said as he took the lead and raced his way into first place.  "just be careful though. You don't know what might be out there"

  "of course"

  "And try to be back before dinner,  I don't want you out there past dark"

  "okay dad." I said as I stood up and brought my laptop to my room.  My room was pretty boring right now,  the only thing that was in it was a bed a pillow and a thin blanket.  He said that it would be like that for about a month before he got enough money to actually more furniture.

  I didn't mind it though,  the less that's in here the less I'll get attached to it. 

  I put my laptop on my bed and I threw on some shoes. And then I grabbed my phone that was charging and I put it in my pocket.  I didn't even bother with the headphones, the sound of nature was the only thing that I would need for this trip.

The sky was still bright and lively despite it already being 6. In the woods I could hear the chirping and the scurrying of the local wildlife.  Everything here was peaceful. I could already tell that most of the weekend would be spent with me walking around and making a mental map of the place.  Nothing could ruin the amount of peace this place had.  There were no trails and it was easy to see that it hadn't really ever been disturbed due to the fact that it was so over grown. Trees that had been down and decaying, filled with new life. The light from the sun could just barely pass through which made everything glow with new meaning. I made sure to note each step I took, getting lost out here wouldn't really be in my best interest.

Then I heard it, the soft foot fall of another creature.  It could only be heard when there was a crunch if dead leaves, but it was there.  Curiousity struck through me and I decided to look for the source of the noise. I made sure to be quiet and take long steps in order not to scare the mystery creature. I even took my phone out of my pocket in hopes to capture whatever beauty Mother Nature had in store for me.

I found myself becoming anxious as I hid behind a bush, what if it was something that I shouldn't see. What if someone was there, hiding,  waiting for a defenseless teen to come through the woods so they can kidnap me and force me through sex trafficking.

I tried to think about different survival tactics in case something were to happen to me.  I lifted my head to look over, and to my surprise, there was a doe, with her baby fawn.  My eyes widened in delight as I put my camera on and turned off flash.

"gotcha.... " I whispered to myself as I got a beautiful picture of the two. And then three... And four. Then I decided that I shouldn't disturb the two from their dinner so I got up slowly and walked in the other direction. 

The rest of my walk was just me taking pictures of bugs and flowers and pretty much just anything that I thought looked nice. My walk lasted about an hour and a half before I noticed that everything was now silent, there was no noise, no animals and the whole area was shrouded in darkness.

Confused I looked at the time on my phone 7:30. That made sense.  I let out a sigh, realizing that it was already late and my dad would definitely flip knowing that I had been out when it was dark. I made my way back to where I had come from, again using my memory as a guide. But looking around at all of the trees and foliage I started to get confused, everything looked the same when it was dark.

My phone buzzed. I got a message. From my dad.

Where are you?  It's already dark.

There it was, the message I was dreading.  My dad never texts me, unless he was angry or it was urgent.  There was never a good text when it came from my dad.

I'm making my way out now. I shouldnt be too far now.

I sent the message and I looked at my battery percentage, 53, that's good enough to use the flash light and still make my way out.  I turned on my flash light and I let my phone guide me out. I felt like I was in a horror game, although I knew that there was nothing to fear I still felt like I should keep my guard up. Just in case.

There was a loud screech in the trees that made me jump, my heart started to pound loudly in my ears. It was only when I saw the night owl perched in her nest did I finally realize that it was her that made the noise and not something else. 

My walk was filled with caution the whole rest of the way back.  There was a sense of urgency to my step. And I felt something in me that I hadn't felt when I started the walk.  I felt as if there was somebody else there.  Somebody else watching. 

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I tried to shake the feeling away but I couldn't, every shadowed shape looked like it was now coming to get me.  The woods had transformed from a place of peace to a place of hell. 

I started to use my flashlight as a weapon,  pointing it at everything that looked suspicious to me.  I couldn't help it. 

One tree in particutlar had a tall, slender figure that in the darkness resembled that of a man.  I quickly shined the light on it and to my surprise, there was a paper tacked onto it.  I decided to walk over to it and read it without taking the note off of the tree.

  You've made a grave mistake.
This is no place for a young traveler.
Leave. Leave now. Before they find you.
Leave now, before the game starts.
Leave now before you have nothing to go back to.
The cats have been released.
And you are the mouse.
The cats are hungry.
They're out for blood.
And they will not hesitate when they see you.
So run little mouse. Run as fast as you can. Hiding will only hurt you. Hiding will get you no where. So run. Run. Run. Run. Run. RUN. RUN RUN.

So I ran.

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