The Forest

“Do you think Father is going to come back this time?” Sandy said quietly as she looked at her twin sitting on the moss covered fallen tree stump. Peering through her mouse coloured fringe she stared at her sister, waiting patiently.

“I don’t know... I hope so.” Megan frowned as she looked up at her twin’s dark troubled expression. Scrunching her nose, she bent down and played with a little stick, tossing over fallen leaves.

“What do you think he meant when he said... ”I love you as one.” He has been acting really strange lately.” Sandy said as she gazed about into the hazy hue from the light that filtered through the treetops.

Megan sighed, stood up and dusted the damp bark bits off her tracksuit pants. “I don’t know, but he seems to go away for longer and longer each time. What do you think he does in the forest all this time? I mean... there is nothing out here but trees, ferns and grass.”

“I followed him to the first clearing last night, but then I lost him soon after. He just seems to keep on walking, looking straight ahead of him.” Sandy said deep in thought. “Maybe we should go back to the first clearing and see if we can pick up on his trail?  With any luck we can trace him from there.”

Megan shrugged. “Might not be a bad idea. Come let’s go.”

Briskly the twins made their way through the forest and soon found themselves within the first clearing. “He was walking over there when he just seemed to vanish.” Sandy explained puzzlingly as she pointed toward the end of the clearing. Thicker forest beckoned just beyond, its darkness looking mysterious and overwhelmingly threatening.

Hesitantly, but yet fuelled with curiosity, they walked over scanning the ground for footprints. “Here, Megan, look!” Sandy called, pointing at a very clear imprint of a shoe.

A man made path opened up before them as they stepped into the thick forest, seeming to go on forever. Little light made it through the thick web of branches overhead and the forest was eerily quiet. No humming of bees or flies, no birds flapping about, just a quiet that felt like a claustrophobic cocoon.

Holding hands, they slowly made their way along the barely visible path, tripping occasionally over a fallen branch.

Megan gave a nervous laugh. “Flip, it feels like the forest is watching us.”

“I know.” Sandy swallowed nervously.

The words were barely out of their mouth when an eerie un-human scream ripped through the quietness. Freezing in their tracks, the girls looked around scanning the forest in every direction, their eyes wide, their legs trembling.

“Shit Megan... what was that?!” 

Another terrifying long scream followed... the sound echoing throughout the forest.

“Oh hell! Sandy, I am scared... I think we should go back.”

"Yeah, me too. Lets quickly see what is above this ridge and then we can go back. Ok?"

Slowly they edged their way forward, holding onto each other. At the top of the ridge, the forest opened out, revealing a small muddy pond.

The mud seemed to bubble from within, making little pop and slurping sounds as the bubbles continuously burst open and collapsed inwards.

Slowly a bigger bubble started to form... growing larger than the size of a human head. With a sick sucking noise, the bubble burst out of the mud, exposing huge shoulders. The form seemed to grow larger and larger, until a huge creature was standing before them.

Petrified the girls stood, unable to move and watched in horror as the creature slowly made its way towards them. The mud making a sucking-pop noise as it pulled its feet in and out of the sludge.

Opening its mud caked mouth, the creature ripped out another scream, sending mud bits flying in every direction.

Feeling the mud splatter on their skin, they snapped out of their paralysis and tried to run; only to fall over each other and slip screaming, knee deep into the pond.

The creature opened its arms and commanded... “Come, my girls. Come... and be one.”