Short Stories

Into The Woods (Short Story 5)

“We had just moved into a new house. 82 Water-brook way.I went out exploring out in the garden. It was massive! Whenever I went out there I was surrounded by 10 meter thick hedge. My little sister always toddled out after me. Laughing and screaming:

“Brutha!! Where oo going?”

She's only 2 and bless her little heart. She always clung onto me. Her big brother. I’m 18 and about 6ft so whenever I went out into the garden and got lost in my thought while standing up, Little Kim use to pull my out of my dreams by hugging my leg. She can only reach up to my thigh but she knew that I am really ticklish under my knees. She always use to aim there when we were play-fighting. It sounds like I would squash her and fight back, but it’s really just me sitting there and pretending to act hurt while she pummelled her tiny fists at my chest. Sometimes when she was worn out form trying to hurt me and failing massively, she would play doctor and try to heal my fake wounds. Which I always found adorable. She wears her little nurse hat and dress. She uses mums old handbag as her doctor’s bag. She even scribbled a little red cross.

Anyway, that not why I’m here. Remind me why I’m at the therapists again?”

“You apparently have seen ghosts and that they haunt you”

“Oh yeah… Anyway, in the garden, behind the hedge, was the woods. I was walking in the garden looking for Kim to say it was dinner time. I couldn’t find her anywhere. I started to run around frantically calling her name. My dad came out and joined the hunt. My mother stayed inside and continued to cook. After hours of searching, Kim came running, screaming and crying out of the hedge. She was covered in cuts and bruises. She ran towards me and leaped into my arms. I hugged her so tight and told her it was going to be ok. She told me it wasn’t and buried her head into my neck and wept. I motioned at dad to call an ambulance. He ran into the house and dialled as quick as possible. Mum was in tears of worry. She just kept staring out of the kitchen window at me and Kim. She left the curry on the stove and it almost burnt and set the house on fire. Luckily dad was there to turn the oven off. The ambulance soon came and whisked Kim off. I volunteered to go with her. My parents had never been good with hospitals. At a point when they can’t even go with their 2 year old daughter.

The hospital looked like an asylum. It was dark and gloomy. When we got inside, Kim was carted past the receptionist and beyond my reach. I was stopped from going any further. All I could do now was wait.

About an hour later and nurse came towards me. She looked down at the floor and mumbled the words “I’m sorry…”” Ben looked up and tried to stop the tears from running down his face. Yet he continued:

“She ran off and I ran after her. She led me to Kim. She had a stress induced heart attack. She had died.”

Ben couldn’t hold it in anymore and put his head in between his knees and cried. He could feel the therapist pat his back. He wiped his eyes clear of the salty tears and continued telling his story.

“I got to her just before she died. She told me: “Don’t go in da forest… Brutha…” And there and then… She died… I had to go in the forest. I had to avenge her. I was stronger so a couple of cuts and bruises wouldn’t harm me.  I had to see what had happened. So the next day, I did.

I had packed a sandwich with a water bottle, some plasters and bandages and a torch with some extra batteries, I wore some thick, padded clothes to make it harder to hurt me. I looked like a walking marshmallow with cupcake hands. But I was prepared, I ventured into the woods and it suddenly got dark. I got really confused since when I left the house, it was only 10am. But it looked more like 10pm. I turned on the torch, which instally turned off. The batteries had ran out. This couldn’t be true since I tested it back at the house. I put in the other set of batteries and they wouldn’t work either. I decided that it was too late to go back home and grab some more, so I continued my voyage into the unknown. Then I heard screaming, it sounded like Kim. I knew it couldn’t be her, I knew it, yet I screamed her name and ran towards the sound. When I got there, there was a door. I curiously opened it to see utter darkness. It wasn’t the best idea to go in there. Yet, it might lead me to where Kim was hurt. I squeezed through the door into darkness. I couldn’t see anything. I kept walking forwards until I came to a step. I leaped down and found myself in what appeared to be a room of some sort. I could see a faint shine of a candle in the far coroner, I made my way towards it and put my hand out to feel the heat. Then… It started to move. Left and right, left and right, left and right, then, it went out, and I was surrounded in darkness again. I tried to keep moving forwards in an attempt to find what happened to Kim, but I mostly walked into a wall until I found a gap. It was only a few centimetres wide, yet I could just fit my hand into it. I had to reach all the way in, then I could feel a switch, I flicked it then I heard loud creaking. A stair case opened, I started to walk up the stairs, then…”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

“Ok, we will have to continue next session.”

“Thanks. Bye”

 

OHHH THE CLIFHANGER!!! I've been working on this story and I'm really proud of it! Please tell me your thoughts in the comments! DANKA!!!

-Katie