The Whispering Tunnel

THE WHISPERING TUNNEL

BEGINNING

Dark. Not dark of night but of terror. The trees in the woods are soaked with it, as far as the eye can see.
Leaves crunch in the dirt as a man runs for his life and the wind blows heavy but the trees stand still.
The man gets faster and faster, his breath heavier and heavier while looking back to see nothing but knowing that something is there. What’s there? At this point it's fear, his own. Fear he has created himself in his mind and that it is driving him to flee but, flee where. That is the question!
The man stops after what seemed to be an eternity of running, his legs are tired, he struggles to catch his breath, shoes are all dirty, his pants are stained in mud around the knees and his face is all scratched up from running through branches. He stares up at the sky to see the moon becoming brighter as night begins to fall.
Large crashing sounds can be heard throughout the woods not too far from where he stands as his breath begins to speed once again and his eyes fill with fear. Suddenly a large piercing growl like sound echoes through the condensed woods as the man slowly moves back, preparing to run he opens his mouth, letting out a gigantic scream when something hits him with great force in the back of the head and he falls to the ground unconscious.
A very short amount of time later the man seems to be just inside a Tunnel, very dull and wet and obviously also very cold. The sky is now dark besides from the moon which is giving a nice glow. The man’s feet are just dangling, his toes barely touching the ground as blood drips down the side of his top from his head where he was struck. Also, a rope around his neck is slowly choking him as it gradually tightens.
Rats scrounging around and water dripping everywhere, echoing through the Tunnel. All dazed he begins to come to, regaining consciousness but, once he realises what’s going on and the rope around his neck which is getting tighter as he fights the panic sets in. He doesn’t stop the struggle he continues to fight through but the rope is getting tighter and tighter. Suddenly, in an instance the rope which seemed was going to be the culprit to kill him just snaps. Coughing his guts up and coming too, he puts his hands on his neck, shocked he looks up. Slowing standing with his hands still firm on his neck still looking up at the rounded like ceiling of this tunnel, he sees no rope! “What the fuck!” he says in a low confused voice. With no time to wonder he decides that his right at the entrance of this old tunnel so now is his chance to get away. Feeling a touch of hope he takes no more than a few steps, gets to the arch of the tunnel seeing out to what seems to be a very calm and peaceful looking woods. He cracks a smile and attempts to go but is stopped by an unseen force. He can’t move! Frustrated and confused at the edge of the exit he makes another attempt but again he can’t move any part of his body. Ending in a yell of anger and desperation. Quickly, everything changes and his anger turns into fear once more. The woods becoming angry and condensed, blocking out the moon giving darkness while distorted whispers begin to travel echoing through the Tunnel, surrounding the man as he makes one last attempt at breaking through whatever it is that’s preventing him from leaving but, in an instant the man attempts a sideways look behind him to see if someone or something was touching him and just like that with a very powerful force he was gone!
Pulled into the black looking abyss of this mysterious Tunnel, lost to the darkness and screaming in the distance.
His screaming becoming softer and softer as he is taken deeper and deeper and deeper until finally, is gobbled up.

PART 1

Driving through the winding country roads in a car overfilled with luggage we meet Jenny, a young seventeen-year-old staring out the right side back window, her father driving as her mother sits quietly in the front passenger seat. She’s not a happy looking girl Jenny! Obviously was not her choice for what looks like a move to the country for no known reason. Probably just a fresh start with a quiet and peaceful scenery, isn’t that why most people make the country move! Mostly.
Jenny, she’s a petite looking girl who’s about five foot nothing with long, strawberry blonde hair which is also a little wavy, her eyes are green and have a sparkle like effect when the sun catches them. She also has freckles but not too many, just a handful spread from her face to her neck and shoulders.
She’s holding a book. What is she reading! Not a phone, not listening to music with her earphones, an actual book ‘The River Runs Red’ which seems to be a book associated with murder crimes. She’s also an academic! Not a silly girl just wanting one thing, like…her phone. She has interests in the world around her and of course the works of literature, but she’s not happy with this move.
She looks to her parents in confusion as she asks “What’s up with you two, you we’re both as happy as a couple of pigs in the mud before we left?”
Both her parents have a weird awkward looking smile on their faces having not said a word since hitting the winding country roads. “We’re fine honey and you will be once you settle in and make some new friends,” her mother weirdly states. Jenny just raises her eyebrows in a typical teenage gesture kind of way and rides off their weirdness due to the country air.
Once they finally reach the town border after a long three and a half to four hours driving from the city limits, they see a sign. A big sign!
It’s not a sign from above but a sign welcoming all new strangers to the town, saying proudly ‘WELCOME TO WILLOWFARE’ underneath in smaller writing ‘a place to live long and prosper’.
Willowfare, a town small but large at the same time with the population sitting around two thousand people and, from one end to the other is no more than five kilometres. Willowfare has a long history which dates back about four hundred years, possibly longer. But not much is known about Willowfare though! Its history has a lot of holes in it with large gaps of information missing from the town’s records.
Jenny and her parents reach the gates to their new home as Jenny’s father gets out, leaving the car engine running to swing open the gates.
The gates are so old and rusty that when he swings them open, they make a struggling scraping sound as rust falls to the ground, it has clearly been a long time since these gates were opened last! They approach the front of the house to see a very large oak tree looking absolutely stunning, covering most of the view of the front of the house until you get around it, It's literally in the middle of the driveway standing out like nothing else with leaves on it, its branches all twisted and de-formed looking but like I said…stunning. It’s as if it has its own unique personality.
Jenny stares at the tree as they drive past it up towards the house.
The house itself looks pretty good.
The grass surrounding the property been green and luscious. And the house is a white weatherboard home looking like it has just had a fresh coat of paint single storey with four little steps leading up to a porch to the front door. Only two windows at the front of the house.
Jenny gets out of the car as do her parents.
Her parents though stand at their open car doors just looking at the house kind ‘in a daze. Jenny gives them a weird head shake off and heads to the side of the house to look around. There are no windows on either side of the house but, there is one small circular window at the back of the house. Jenny looks in but it seems to be a one-sided window so she turns to see in the direction the window is facing at to see what it seems to look at. The sky above is overcast and dark woods as far as the eye can see at the back of the house so it doesn’t seem to be looking at anything.
Jenny then approaches the front of the house once again when she stops frozen to see her parents and is shocked to see standing in the exact same spot in the exact same position as if they’re frozen.
“Uhm, hello” Jenny sarcastically yells out to her parents! They don’t budge an inch, Jenny begins to become frustrated and yells “HEY” and in an instant, perfectly in sync they both turn their heads to look directly at her. She is startled back and pauses for a moment as her mother smiles and her father walk’s off towards the four little stairs to the porch to the front door and in. Jenny shakes off the weirdly scary incident and follows in to the house.
Again, keeping in mind that this house is in pristine condition, even on the inside. Jenny goes to what seems to be her room where sees notices no windows and then remembers that small circular window at the back of the house. She goes down what seems to be a never-ending corridor and to her shocking surprise…no window!
She is beside herself with her time in this town so far but again she shakes it off as tiredness and readjustment.
There’s not a lot going on inside this house, I mean it’s not very big apart from that ridiculously long corridor. As her parents begin unpacking the car, she decides to give herself a quick tour. The very long back corridor we’ve already seen, there’s Jenny’s room to the right when looking in and her parents’ room on the left when looking in.
The kitchen and a small lounge, a bathroom with the toilet in it! You know those bathrooms that also have the shower in the bath. The laundry though is not in the house, it’s on the left side of the house looking out which is extremely close to the border of the woods. Jenny finds this a bit odd but again she thinks to herself, ''It's the country.” As she heads back inside her room, she sees a pamphlet on the bed, the pamphlet is for ‘Willowfare High School’. She does a little shiver “It’s so cold in here” she says out loud when then she quickly realises that she needs to start helping with the unpacking so that she can organise herself for that daunting first day of school tomorrow. So, with a sigh, she then goes to help, still she is so frustrated about the fact that she is to start a new school already into the year and not to mention it’s her final year!
But she is a strong willed and strong-minded girl who will battle through.
The house sleeps as we wander through its dreary hall filled with dead silence.
The mysterious small circular window shows itself to us, it seems to be frosted from the inside when suddenly, a small handprint reveals itself!
Not baby small, not even toddler small, it’s more like the hand of a child! The size of the hand would suggest a child around the age of ten.
The handprint quickly disappears as a very loud alarm echoes through the long hall to the entire house.
Its Jenny’s!
She opens her eyes, very slowly, shivering “Why is it so damn cold in here?” she shaking terribly asks herself.
Very non enthusiastically she gets out of bed and prepares for the daunting day ahead.
The house is quiet, her father had already left for the day and her mother sits quietly just staring out the two front windows. Jenny looks to her mum in the lounge from the hall and asks “You ok mum? I’m going to school!” About thirty seconds pass and Jenny accepts that her mum is not going to answer her! Jenny begins to walk out of the house “Have a good day sweetie” very faintly her mother replies. Jenny is now officially freaked out by her parent’s behaviour.
Jenny walks down her long driveway, past the creepy oak tree looking back towards the side of the house just staring at the laundry.
This town is very small, remember…no more than five kilometres from end to end having a population of about two thousand people. Meaning, everyone walks to their destinations in Willowfare!
Jenny walks down the main road towards the centre of town and as she gets closer into town, she notices flyers taped to the power line posts all the way through, to the centre of town. There missing posters of a man who’s been missing for about a week or so now, mirroring the man we met in the beginning.
Jenny does not pay that much attention to the flyers and continues down the road towards and past the town centre where she can now start to see the school in sight and begins to feel sick in the stomach. Taking a deep breath as she approaches the school grounds.
The kids in this school all seem normal compared to the adults of Willowfare.
She heads towards the office and finds the receptionist, then asks her for assistance, she receives what she needs and heads on to her first classes of the day.
When she finds where she needs to be, she takes the deepest breath she’s taken so far to this point and then enters the room. She goes straight to the first seat she sees without looking at a single soul and she sits.
In her first class, everyone seems to be just staring at her, staring like she’s a piece of meat and all their wild animals. Eventually they all stop staring; nobody talks to her but she doesn’t care if they’ve stopped staring. As Jenny makes it through the morning and lunch, she doesn’t know it yet but her day is just about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Sitting down in the cafeteria at lunch minding her own business and reading her book…Billy…a confident eighteen-year-old just stares at her with a big smile on his face. Billy, standing six-foot-tall with a very impressive physique, dressed in his gym clothes we assume a jock type of guy, he doesn’t seem very bright though, a bit simple minded I’d say. All muscles but no brain. But like I said, overall very impressive looking with his wavy blonde hair and blue eyes on a baby face. Yes, all the girls want him and all the guys want to be him!
“Can I help you?” Jenny, unimpressed asks! “Hi” Billy replies. Jenny awkwardly “Hi” as they just stare at each other for a moment Billy smiling with excitement and Jenny just looking so very uncomfortable. “I’m Billy” he states. “Hey, I’m Jenny” non engagingly states back as she gets up from her seat with her book in hand and moves away. With Billy still staring at her Jenny finds herself a little spot where she thinks she can get some quiet reading done. A few minutes go by when a group of girls can be heard chatting just behind Jenny but she doesn’t budge as she is listening to their conversation which seems to be about a Tunnel just outside of town.
Jenny is intrigued! She can’t really make out what they’re saying but knows it got something to do with a Tunnel and the disappearance of that man from earlier on the flyers.
Been right up Jenny’s ally with interest, she turns to ask the girls what there’re speaking off. The girls, three girls all look pretty much the same apart from their obvious leader who stands up to say “I don’t think so, city girl” all sassy. Jenny replies “I…I just” the bully leader cuts her off short saying “Yeah no one cares and they walk away.
Jenny looks depleted but is strong and not fond of big crowds anyhow so she shrugs it off and goes back to her book.
“I’ll tell you what you wanna know” says Billy in the corner of the room looking like a creep! Jenny, intrigued by crime stories and history says to Billy “Oh yeah, well come on then.”
So, Billy who obviously liking Jenny and having a little first day crush, comes on over looking like a little boy in a toy shop he sits down next to Jenny and offers her his suggestion. “Right, after school I will pick you up from your house and take you there. What do you think?” Jenny feeling a little cautious lets her intrigue take over and agrees to the terms. “Not my house, I’ll meet you back here.” She says to Billy, not knowing him so well. “But tell me…what is it?” she asks with a desperation in her voice which Billy replies “I will tell you all about it, in the car on the way.” She accepts this and heads back to class all excited about the end of the school day so she can get home to only then go learn more about this mysterious Tunnel.
The school day ends, Billy shortly after arrives home and rushes in to get changed for what he sees as a date.
Billy’s parents’ house unlike Jenny’s is very large with a beautiful mahogany floor at the entrance which leads pretty much everywhere downstairs. There is a large lounge on the left as you walk in and then down a short hall a bathroom on the left, with also a large study on the right. Billy’s room as well as his parents’ room and the kitchen are upstairs because yes of course this is a double storey home. The bedrooms are both on the left with Billy’s room first. And, the kitchen is on the right with a door leading outside to a staircase going down into the yard.
Excited while he gets organised, he hears a glass break! Looks out to see his mum frantically trying to clean up the mess when his father appears. Billy’s mother looks up at him in fear as he swings his giant hand around and slaps her with some force across the left side of her face. Billy turns back into his room cowering in fear of his father as he also suffers abuse from his father on a regular basis.
Billy’s father leaves the house to go out to the yard.
Billy comes out of his room to help his mother clean up the mess of the broken glass and sees the giant red handprint on the left side of his mother’s face. Angry, he gets up…looks out to the yard, then turns and leaves the house to get in his car and drive away down the road to cool off on his way to meet Jenny.
Not treating this as a date but an educational outing, Jenny still has a that moment we all have at some stage of making ourselves look a little more appealing than any other usual day.
She attempts to start with some make-up. Something she’s never been to fond off but as she attempts, she decides against it and since the time is getting away from her, she put an end to the make-up scenario and then heads on out front to get to the meeting point she made back at school with Billy.