the woods- a short story

The woods

A gentle wind blew on a cold winter morning, thomas saw a rabbit scurry by and a feeling of peace went through his body he hadn’t seen allison that morning but he figured that she was doing her on thing. “come over here now!’” screamed craig, thomas came running over to find a waterfall. “Isn’t this cool!” craig said, “yeah craig” thomas said firmly. Craig sighed and left to go back to there camp. As thomas was walking to the camp he heard a rustle and he stood on point gripping his knife out of now where allison comes out of the shrubs “ I thought I lost you!” allison said in relief and joined thomas on his trip back.
“What happened to all the water!” thomas yelled craig and allison both said they didn’t know “well at least I can get some water from that waterfall, allison will you come with me” she nodded in agreement. Her and thomas left the quite upset craig trying to make there way back to the waterfall. They walked for hours on end finally finding the place the craig had called him to before, but… where is the waterfall? “where is it? It was right here!” allison looks at him in cofusion and says “are you sure this is where it was at?” “I am sure! I was standing right here!!” thomas said with an angry inflection what are we going to do they said together in unison. They headed back to the camp very confused and very scared for what the future holds.
Thomas arrived back at the camp in quite the rage and Allison explained to Craig what had happened. “That doesn’t make any sense!” shouted “Craig that’s what I said” muttered Thomas. The sun had gone down fast and they knew they needed water but they knew they could make it through the night but they would need to find it in the morning or else there will be a problem very, very soon. Thomas awoke, it was still quite late he guessed it was around 3 or 4 in the morning still dark enough that he could not see a thing. He heard a noise the same noise he heard when he was trying to find the waterfall. He sees a gleaming some sort of tint far a way it looks like a pair…it was eyes. It wasn’t an animal it was to high, Thomas’ heart beat out of his chest he nudged Allison, “Allison, ALLISON,” he tried to say quietly he heard Allison respond and he told her to give him his knife. There was no time to explain the situation to Allison or Craig, who had woke up from the commotion. Thomas stood up as quiet as he could and was prepared for a battle.

Thomas edged towards where he heard the noise walking so slow and steady it seemed like a lifetime. Before he could reach the eyes the eyes reached him it was a man about 6 feet tall scraggly beard probably about 35 or 40. Thomas being in his late 20s and Allison and Craig being the same age they knew there is no way they could take on this man. Thomas panicked even though internally he knew it wouldn’t work he lunged at the man with his knife, and without skipping a beat the man punched Thomas in the face and knocked him out

Thomas awoke in a stir looking for the man he saw him and lunged at him only to be stopped by Allison who stopped him before he could saying that he was a good man and he only misunderstood. They some how created a fire and Thomas wasn’t exactly sure how so he asked Allison, “Phillip built it” she said “ looks like our friend has a name” Thomas said angered and in pain glaring at the man. They sat by the fire and talked about why Phillip had punched Thomas in the face and Phillip responded saying “ to be fair you came at me with a knife.”, And they talked about where the man had come from why he was there and he told them everything. “My name is Phillip Johnson, I am 43 years old I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I came to these woods with my brother a long time ago to hunt we were sleeping one night but when I woke up he was gone I don’t know where he is and I don’t think I ever will I have been in this forest for over 11 years.” He said sternly but was interrupted quite quickly. “WHAT THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE” screamed Thomas. Phillip then said ” Listen I don’t know what this place is or why it is here but once you come in you never come out. This places only goal is to drive you crazy, you will see something one minute and then it will be gone” Thomas thought to himself that that explains the waterfall.


Thomas had been out for a while because it was already missed the whole next day and it was the night of the next day, which means they had been in the forest for 3 days. Phillip said that he was leaving because he prefers to be alone which Thomas found quite odd because they were just starting to become friends. But Thomas was sure he would see Phillip in the forest again especially if they were going to be in the forest like Phillip for 11 years. They were sitting in the forest when they decided that they need water now. So they all left together and took there sleeping bags so they could camp wherever the water source was. 1 day later the group stumbled upon a river they all drank from the river and were so happy that they had a water source.

They slept by the river for a night and only having eaten a snake Thomas found and killed they realized that they would try to escape and were sure that they had enough energy to go. 1 week had passed and there was no sign of civilization and they had been following the river what they figure would be a good idea. Thomas spotted something, someone “HEY, HEY YOU, HELP US!” Thomas shouted until the whole group the started screaming the person still didn’t turn around. The person started to run they ran after him screaming and while they where running Thomas realized that he looked familiar he recognized the scraggly hair and the dirty clothes… it was Phillip. They continued to chase him and chase him until they could no longer and the man stopped. Slowly he turned around and it was Phillip and slowly… he disappeared.

He was gone as if he was never there Thomas questioned his sanity as the whole group verified with each other what they had just saw. they searched where he was standing and as they reached the point where he was standing they saw it, it was a road a road with cars, Phillip had lead us here. The group stood in the middle of the road flagging down the first car that they saw. They sat in the car with this stranger wondering what had happened this was such a strange sight to see they were mentally scarred with no chance of help. But it was over. It was all over. Thomas wondered if Phillip had ever been real or if it was just an illusion but he realized. There was no way he would ever know.