Post by kiwi cheesecake on Aug 23, 2016 19:20:58 GMT -5
It was dark when she awoke. The moon and stars were gone, leaving the sky black. No light found her in her resting place beneath the tall oak trees. There were no birds singing, no sounds at all to disturb her slumber. Why, then, had she awoken?
The woman raised herself up on her pale arms. Her eyes gleamed with a light all their own, casting an eerie red glow around the clearing. Her long heavy black hair covered her pale skin and slender body. She raised her gaze towards the sky, the deep, black sky, and stood. She reached into the air around her and covered herself with black shadows. The shadows twisted, forming into solid material around her body. They formed a silky black gown that trailed behind the woman as she walked into the woods.
Every tree in this wood was an oak. The woman smiled, running her hand along the rough bark. She had always loved the feel, the smell of oak. But she turned her mind back to the problem at hand. Something had woken her from her sleep. Very few things had the power to do that, and few with that power would even dare to try. Her smile grew wider, revealing her sharp, pointed teeth.
A snap echoed through the silent woods. The woman snapped her head around. Slowly, silently she crept towards the sound. She didn't know what had made the noise, but she knew one thing. It had to be stopped.
***
Lily ran after her friends. "You guys can't go in there!!!!!" she cried. Her friends turned around to look at her in the flickering golden street lights. It was Halloween night, and everyone who was trick-or-treating had all but finished. Lily and her friends Sophia and Emily were one of the few groups still out on the street.
"Why not?" Sophia asked her, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. "It's just a stupid legend. Don't tell me you believe that sort of thing."
"Yeah," Emily said, a little more cautiously than her friend. "Just a stupid legend..."
"But what if it's not?!" Lily called, her brown hair billowing out behind her as she raced into the forest after her friends. "What if she's real?!"
"Stop being such a baby," Sophia said, and rushed into the forest. Emily shrugged and followed her in. Lily sighed, but she knew if the creature was real, she couldn't let her friends go in there alone. She took one last look at the golden light of the street, and plunged into the black woods.
***
The woman ran her hands along the oak-barked trees as she stealthily slunk through the undergrowth. She stayed alert, looking everywhere and at everything. She remembered the last time she had let someone into her forest. It had not ended well. For them. The woman smiled, an evil, hateful smile, and continued on her trek.
***
Lily walked behind her two friends. They had gotten lost in the forest in a matter of seconds. She sighed as Emily and Sophia tried to figure out where they were.
"I'm pretty sure we came from this way."
"No! I think it was over here."
"Well, which way was it?"
"It was obviously this way.'
"No way!"
"I told you guys this would happen," Lily whispered intensely. They both turned to look at her. "First she gets you lost in the woods. Then... Well, nobody's ever lived to tell what she does to you."
Sophia laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. "No, we're fine. Just a silly legend, right? That's why they dared us to come in here. But they knew it was just a joke. Right?"
"Unless they thought you wouldn't go in at all," Lily whispered. The three girls all looked nervously around the tall endless oak trees that enveloped them and the black sky above.
"Well, if she is real, then we better keep trying to find our way out," Emily said quietly. The girls nodded, and headed deeper into the endless prison of wood.
***
Lily gasped for breath as she and her friends ran into an empty clearing. They had been running through the forest desperate for any escape. They hadn't found any. Sophia was increasingly reckless, charging through bushes without any thought of what might be behind them. Lily could tell she was scared. Emily was quieter, more cautious than before. She was scared too, but showed it in a different way. Lily was trying to keep her fear under control when they burst into the clearing.
"I think we need a rest," Sophia muttered, panting along with the rest of her friends. They all stopped in the clearing. Lily flopped onto the damp grass, the cold water feeling blissful on her skin. Then, just as Lily caught her breath, her heart nearly stopped.
Coming out of the woods in front of them was a little girl, 5 years old at the most. She was dressed in a little fairy costume that glittered with blue sequins. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and as soon as Sophia saw her she ran over to her.
"Hey," she said quietly. "Are you ok?" The little girl sniffled. Emily walked over to the girl as well, but Lily held herself back.
"What's the matter?" Emily asked with that sweet voice of hers as she rubbed the girl's back.
"I... I got lost, and now... I can't find mommy!" The girl burst into tears. Sophia embraced the tiny fairy as she began to wail. Emily took a step back. She was never good with tears.
And then, just for a second, Lily saw a dark figure take the place of the little girl. Red eyes glowing, it bared its teeth at her and shrieked. And then the little girl was there again, crying, and Sophia was still embracing it.
Lily took a step back. "Lily?" Sophia asked. "Is something wrong?" Lily didn't reply as she slowly backed away towards the woods. Emily started following her, knowing that whenever Lily got scared, it was for a good reason.
"Sophie," Lily whispered. "Leave the girl. We have to leave."
"But she's lost too!" Sophia exclaimed. "We could help each other find our way back!"
"Unless I don't want you to find your way back," a voice rumbled from behind them. Slowly, the friends turned to see a huge, dark shape with glowing red eyes take the place of the little girl. "Boo," it laughed.
The girls ran, but Sophia was too close to the creature to escape its grip. She let out a scream as the creature grabbed her around the waist and tore her away through the forest away from her friends.
"Sophie!" Emily cried. She turned to look at Lily. "We have to help her!"
Lily looked at her friend being carried away from them. Then, without thinking, she said, "Alright."
***
The woman ran with the child in her grasp. She kicked and screamed, but the woman would not let her go. It was a shame she was only able to catch one of the children, but she knew one was enough to make what she needed. The woman smiled as she approached her little clearing. She was in desperate need of a new blanket.
***
Lily and Emily crashed through the undergrowth chasing after the woman who had taken their friend. Suddenly, they heard a loud scream just ahead of them. Emily wanted to keep moving, but Lily stopped her. Slowly, they walked up towards a large line of bushes that obscured their view. Lily parted the bushes and almost screamed.
There was a clearing just ahead of them. The woman and Sophia were there, but Sophia was tied up onto a pole. The woman approached her with a sharp knife. The woman smiled, and Sophia screamed again at the sight of her sharp pointed teeth. Emily tensed beside Lily. The woman started humming a haunting melody as she brought the knife to the base of Sophia's wrist.
Emily whimpered as the woman sunk the knife into Sophia's skin. She let out a shriek, but the woman did not stop. She ran the knife under Sophia's skin until the cut went all the way up her arm. Then the woman moved back down to Sophia's hand and made a slit on each of her fingers. Then she slowly started peeling the skin from Sophia's arm, red blood spraying and muscles tearing as the woman revealed her insides with a smile on her face.
Lily looked away, but Sophia's screams still echoed in her ears. The squirt and splat of blood on the ground continued for far too long.
***
The woman took pleasure in the slow kill, the suffering that came with slowly taking the life-blood out of a person. Once she had finished her work, she took the skin she had collected over to a table in her clearing. The woman worked the skin in her hands, pulling here and patching there until she had a blanket that would keep her warm for a very long time. She looked over at the bloody pulp that was all that was left of the child.
"Thank you," she whispered. The woman smiled with her pointed teeth.
***
Lily couldn't watch anymore. She huddled up against the bushes with Emily who had stopped watching long before. The girls tried to calm themselves down, but they just couldn't. Suddenly, Emily got to her feet. Her eyes were lit up with fright.
"I have to get out of here!" she cried.
"Emily!" Lily hissed, but her friend paid her no attention as she crashed wildly through the bushes. Lily parted the bushes that were hiding them. The woman had gotten up from her work, and was staring straight at her. Lily quickly drew the bushes back in place. She heard the woman's footsteps growing closer and closer to her hiding place...
***
The woman heard a sound crashing through the bushes. She turned to look at the dark bushes surrounding her camp. The other children! She had almost forgotten about them. She looked at the small blanket she had. It would be much better if it was bigger...
The woman walked towards the bushes. She thought she heard someone breathing. She stopped, looking down at the bushes. But another cry of horror rang through the forest ahead of her.
A scared target is much easier to find, she thought, at least, easier than one who isn't scared. And so the woman raced through her oak forest, chasing after the fleeing child.
***
Lily let out a sigh of relief as the woman passed her hiding place and raced into the forest beyond. She slowly crept into the clearing and towards the table where the woman had been working. Lily refused to look at the skin-blanket on the table, and instead looked for something to help her escape the eternal forest.
"She never lets you go," Lily's father's voice echoed through her mind, "unless you can find her map. Even a great and powerful monster like her gets lost sometimes. So she keeps a map in the clearing where she sleeps, just in case. Find that, and you're safe."
Lily looked desperately around for the map. She looked everywhere-except at her friend's skin. Slowly, Lily turned her head to gaze at it. If the woman was trying to hide it from them, wouldn't it make sense if she hid where they were least likely to look?
Lily touched the skin, still soft and warm. As fast as she could, she looked under the skin. Right underneath was a piece of parchment. Lily grabbed the parchment and ran. She heard Emily's scream as the woman caught her, but she didn't look back.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Lily burst out onto the street. The street lights were all out as the first light of dawn broke over the horizon. She kept running, though. Lily ran until she reached her house, where she and all her friends were going to sleep.
Her friends. Lily crumpled up as soon as she stepped in the door. Sophia and Emily were dead. Lily started crying. She had never let herself cry before, but now, with it all over, she dissolved into tears. Her father heard her and walked into the hall.
"Lily!" he called. "What happened? We were so worried about you... Where are Sophia and Emily?"
Lily cried even harder. Her father stroked her head softly. "Oh honey... What happened?"
Lily looked up at her father between sobs. Her head ached, a pulsing pain right at the base of her neck.
"Even those who do escape the forest," her father's voice echoed through Lily's mind again, "they won't escape death. If you look at her, if you stay in her forest the entire night, you'll die as soon as you leave. The best thing you can do is tell your story before you do."
Lily's vision blurred, the pain in her head increasing until it became unbearable. Her father tried saying something to her, but Lily couldn't hear any more.
"Of course, that's just a legend. The legend of Anieenesa."
(My first ever try at writing horror. I'm pretty sure it's terribly cliche and bad, but hey. Maybe not. Feel free to give fritique below. Thanks.)
The woman raised herself up on her pale arms. Her eyes gleamed with a light all their own, casting an eerie red glow around the clearing. Her long heavy black hair covered her pale skin and slender body. She raised her gaze towards the sky, the deep, black sky, and stood. She reached into the air around her and covered herself with black shadows. The shadows twisted, forming into solid material around her body. They formed a silky black gown that trailed behind the woman as she walked into the woods.
Every tree in this wood was an oak. The woman smiled, running her hand along the rough bark. She had always loved the feel, the smell of oak. But she turned her mind back to the problem at hand. Something had woken her from her sleep. Very few things had the power to do that, and few with that power would even dare to try. Her smile grew wider, revealing her sharp, pointed teeth.
A snap echoed through the silent woods. The woman snapped her head around. Slowly, silently she crept towards the sound. She didn't know what had made the noise, but she knew one thing. It had to be stopped.
***
Lily ran after her friends. "You guys can't go in there!!!!!" she cried. Her friends turned around to look at her in the flickering golden street lights. It was Halloween night, and everyone who was trick-or-treating had all but finished. Lily and her friends Sophia and Emily were one of the few groups still out on the street.
"Why not?" Sophia asked her, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. "It's just a stupid legend. Don't tell me you believe that sort of thing."
"Yeah," Emily said, a little more cautiously than her friend. "Just a stupid legend..."
"But what if it's not?!" Lily called, her brown hair billowing out behind her as she raced into the forest after her friends. "What if she's real?!"
"Stop being such a baby," Sophia said, and rushed into the forest. Emily shrugged and followed her in. Lily sighed, but she knew if the creature was real, she couldn't let her friends go in there alone. She took one last look at the golden light of the street, and plunged into the black woods.
***
The woman ran her hands along the oak-barked trees as she stealthily slunk through the undergrowth. She stayed alert, looking everywhere and at everything. She remembered the last time she had let someone into her forest. It had not ended well. For them. The woman smiled, an evil, hateful smile, and continued on her trek.
***
Lily walked behind her two friends. They had gotten lost in the forest in a matter of seconds. She sighed as Emily and Sophia tried to figure out where they were.
"I'm pretty sure we came from this way."
"No! I think it was over here."
"Well, which way was it?"
"It was obviously this way.'
"No way!"
"I told you guys this would happen," Lily whispered intensely. They both turned to look at her. "First she gets you lost in the woods. Then... Well, nobody's ever lived to tell what she does to you."
Sophia laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. "No, we're fine. Just a silly legend, right? That's why they dared us to come in here. But they knew it was just a joke. Right?"
"Unless they thought you wouldn't go in at all," Lily whispered. The three girls all looked nervously around the tall endless oak trees that enveloped them and the black sky above.
"Well, if she is real, then we better keep trying to find our way out," Emily said quietly. The girls nodded, and headed deeper into the endless prison of wood.
***
Lily gasped for breath as she and her friends ran into an empty clearing. They had been running through the forest desperate for any escape. They hadn't found any. Sophia was increasingly reckless, charging through bushes without any thought of what might be behind them. Lily could tell she was scared. Emily was quieter, more cautious than before. She was scared too, but showed it in a different way. Lily was trying to keep her fear under control when they burst into the clearing.
"I think we need a rest," Sophia muttered, panting along with the rest of her friends. They all stopped in the clearing. Lily flopped onto the damp grass, the cold water feeling blissful on her skin. Then, just as Lily caught her breath, her heart nearly stopped.
Coming out of the woods in front of them was a little girl, 5 years old at the most. She was dressed in a little fairy costume that glittered with blue sequins. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and as soon as Sophia saw her she ran over to her.
"Hey," she said quietly. "Are you ok?" The little girl sniffled. Emily walked over to the girl as well, but Lily held herself back.
"What's the matter?" Emily asked with that sweet voice of hers as she rubbed the girl's back.
"I... I got lost, and now... I can't find mommy!" The girl burst into tears. Sophia embraced the tiny fairy as she began to wail. Emily took a step back. She was never good with tears.
And then, just for a second, Lily saw a dark figure take the place of the little girl. Red eyes glowing, it bared its teeth at her and shrieked. And then the little girl was there again, crying, and Sophia was still embracing it.
Lily took a step back. "Lily?" Sophia asked. "Is something wrong?" Lily didn't reply as she slowly backed away towards the woods. Emily started following her, knowing that whenever Lily got scared, it was for a good reason.
"Sophie," Lily whispered. "Leave the girl. We have to leave."
"But she's lost too!" Sophia exclaimed. "We could help each other find our way back!"
"Unless I don't want you to find your way back," a voice rumbled from behind them. Slowly, the friends turned to see a huge, dark shape with glowing red eyes take the place of the little girl. "Boo," it laughed.
The girls ran, but Sophia was too close to the creature to escape its grip. She let out a scream as the creature grabbed her around the waist and tore her away through the forest away from her friends.
"Sophie!" Emily cried. She turned to look at Lily. "We have to help her!"
Lily looked at her friend being carried away from them. Then, without thinking, she said, "Alright."
***
The woman ran with the child in her grasp. She kicked and screamed, but the woman would not let her go. It was a shame she was only able to catch one of the children, but she knew one was enough to make what she needed. The woman smiled as she approached her little clearing. She was in desperate need of a new blanket.
***
Lily and Emily crashed through the undergrowth chasing after the woman who had taken their friend. Suddenly, they heard a loud scream just ahead of them. Emily wanted to keep moving, but Lily stopped her. Slowly, they walked up towards a large line of bushes that obscured their view. Lily parted the bushes and almost screamed.
There was a clearing just ahead of them. The woman and Sophia were there, but Sophia was tied up onto a pole. The woman approached her with a sharp knife. The woman smiled, and Sophia screamed again at the sight of her sharp pointed teeth. Emily tensed beside Lily. The woman started humming a haunting melody as she brought the knife to the base of Sophia's wrist.
Emily whimpered as the woman sunk the knife into Sophia's skin. She let out a shriek, but the woman did not stop. She ran the knife under Sophia's skin until the cut went all the way up her arm. Then the woman moved back down to Sophia's hand and made a slit on each of her fingers. Then she slowly started peeling the skin from Sophia's arm, red blood spraying and muscles tearing as the woman revealed her insides with a smile on her face.
Lily looked away, but Sophia's screams still echoed in her ears. The squirt and splat of blood on the ground continued for far too long.
***
The woman took pleasure in the slow kill, the suffering that came with slowly taking the life-blood out of a person. Once she had finished her work, she took the skin she had collected over to a table in her clearing. The woman worked the skin in her hands, pulling here and patching there until she had a blanket that would keep her warm for a very long time. She looked over at the bloody pulp that was all that was left of the child.
"Thank you," she whispered. The woman smiled with her pointed teeth.
***
Lily couldn't watch anymore. She huddled up against the bushes with Emily who had stopped watching long before. The girls tried to calm themselves down, but they just couldn't. Suddenly, Emily got to her feet. Her eyes were lit up with fright.
"I have to get out of here!" she cried.
"Emily!" Lily hissed, but her friend paid her no attention as she crashed wildly through the bushes. Lily parted the bushes that were hiding them. The woman had gotten up from her work, and was staring straight at her. Lily quickly drew the bushes back in place. She heard the woman's footsteps growing closer and closer to her hiding place...
***
The woman heard a sound crashing through the bushes. She turned to look at the dark bushes surrounding her camp. The other children! She had almost forgotten about them. She looked at the small blanket she had. It would be much better if it was bigger...
The woman walked towards the bushes. She thought she heard someone breathing. She stopped, looking down at the bushes. But another cry of horror rang through the forest ahead of her.
A scared target is much easier to find, she thought, at least, easier than one who isn't scared. And so the woman raced through her oak forest, chasing after the fleeing child.
***
Lily let out a sigh of relief as the woman passed her hiding place and raced into the forest beyond. She slowly crept into the clearing and towards the table where the woman had been working. Lily refused to look at the skin-blanket on the table, and instead looked for something to help her escape the eternal forest.
"She never lets you go," Lily's father's voice echoed through her mind, "unless you can find her map. Even a great and powerful monster like her gets lost sometimes. So she keeps a map in the clearing where she sleeps, just in case. Find that, and you're safe."
Lily looked desperately around for the map. She looked everywhere-except at her friend's skin. Slowly, Lily turned her head to gaze at it. If the woman was trying to hide it from them, wouldn't it make sense if she hid where they were least likely to look?
Lily touched the skin, still soft and warm. As fast as she could, she looked under the skin. Right underneath was a piece of parchment. Lily grabbed the parchment and ran. She heard Emily's scream as the woman caught her, but she didn't look back.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Lily burst out onto the street. The street lights were all out as the first light of dawn broke over the horizon. She kept running, though. Lily ran until she reached her house, where she and all her friends were going to sleep.
Her friends. Lily crumpled up as soon as she stepped in the door. Sophia and Emily were dead. Lily started crying. She had never let herself cry before, but now, with it all over, she dissolved into tears. Her father heard her and walked into the hall.
"Lily!" he called. "What happened? We were so worried about you... Where are Sophia and Emily?"
Lily cried even harder. Her father stroked her head softly. "Oh honey... What happened?"
Lily looked up at her father between sobs. Her head ached, a pulsing pain right at the base of her neck.
"Even those who do escape the forest," her father's voice echoed through Lily's mind again, "they won't escape death. If you look at her, if you stay in her forest the entire night, you'll die as soon as you leave. The best thing you can do is tell your story before you do."
Lily's vision blurred, the pain in her head increasing until it became unbearable. Her father tried saying something to her, but Lily couldn't hear any more.
"Of course, that's just a legend. The legend of Anieenesa."
(My first ever try at writing horror. I'm pretty sure it's terribly cliche and bad, but hey. Maybe not. Feel free to give fritique below. Thanks.)
