Blackrose Forest

My name is Hector, I'm 19 years old and I'm moving out of my parent's house next week, I've saved up  money from numerous part-time jobs, I'm pretty sure I have enough to live off while I find a job in the area I'm moving to.

My friends decided to throw a moving out party for me, it's going to be an all night camping trip in the forest, they know I'm into scary places like old abandoned houses and forests. Blackrose Forest has been rumored to have had a number of strange occurrences; disappearances, ghosts and such so it was the perfect place for my party. I set off for the party at 8:00 pm, by then it was starting to get dark out, the kind of atmosphere I like.

My friends Kevin, his girlfriend Lacy, Steve and Joe were waiting for me at the entrance to the forest, "You ready to go in?" Kevin asked.

"Yep, sure," I replied and so we went into the forest.

The woods were so dense, the trees were very tightly packed, this made it difficult to move through the forest with all our camping equipment and food but we persevered. 30 minutes later we reached the clearing, we could see the night sky perfectly so we set up camp here.

I had a brilliant time, we had a few drinks, told scary stories round the campfire and Joe even brought some weed, so we basically did all the typical things teenagers did, we were acting like idiots but I didn't care, it was a welcome break from my shitty job at McDonald's. By 10:45 pm the place was a wreak, there were beer cans and food wrappers everywhere, we had no intention of cleaning up afterwards, people never come out here anyway so who's going to give a fuck?

Lacy, who was very drunk, went into the woods, possibly for a piss or to puke, I don't know, she didn't tell us so we didn't ask. At about 11:27 we were starting to get worried about Lacy, she hadn't come back so Kevin, like the lazy bum he is, said "Hector, you're the most sober out of all of us, could you please go look for Lacy?" I had no idea why someone as hot as Lacy was going out with a lazy fat slob like Kevin anyway.

I had to bail him out all the time, he constantly asked me for money so he could impress her since he was too lazy to go out and get a job and whenever me and the lads went to a bar he never brought enough cash for a drink so I ended up having to pay for his beer. Regardless I went into the woods to look for Lacy anyway, maybe she would finally realize what a lazy son of a bitch Kevin was and dump him and go out with me instead.

It was nearly pitch-black, the only light source I had was a flashlight I must have been looking around for a good 26 minutes before I found any sign of Lacy, I found her gold necklace, the one I had to pay for so Kevin could impress her, it had some blood on it, Lacy was hurt, I had to find her quick. I was getting increasingly worried and paranoid, not just for her but for myself, there could be some wild animal loose in these woods, or worse some psychopath. I ran, faster than I've ever done in my life, I only knew one thing, I had to find Lacy and fast.

After a few good minutes of running I found Lacy, what was left of her at least, her flayed corpse hung from a tree as her blood drenched the tree trunk and the ground below, her eyes were gouged out and her right arm was hanging by a tendon, I only knew it was her because her bloodstained clothes were next to the tree from which she hung.

I threw up and started crying, someone had done this I thought to myself, that's when I noticed the sign written in her blood on one of the nearby trees it read:

"CRIME: ANGERING US, SENTENCE: DEATH!"

Was this meant for her? No, it couldn't be, it was written in her blood, someone knew one of us would find her like this, that message was meant for us. Without thinking I just ran, I had to tell the others, we had to get out as soon as possible!

I reached the clearing I was going to tell them that Lacy was killed by someone, that's when I noticed it, the clearing was smaller than it was when we first got here. No, this just couldn't be real, it was the trees, the trees are moving. "Kevin! Steve! Joe! We have to get out! Lacy's dead! The trees are moving!"

I shouted, Kevin looked at me confused, that was until he noticed that one of the trees was right next to the extinguished campfire, like an idiot he walked up to the tree, thinking that it wouldn't move while he was looking, while this was true we were about to find out that it was only true for them moving from one location to another, making a sound like wood creaking the tree's trunk bent down and a branch picked up Kevin.

What followed was the most awful sound I have ever heard, Kevin screams of agony mixed with the sound of bones breaking, flesh tearing and the sound of leaves rustling. We watched in horror as as a waterfall of Kevin's blood fell from the tree, covering the trunk, the blood moved and formed an ominous message:

"YOU'RE NEXT!"

I was so horrified, both by the message and the fact that Kevin was dead, that I didn't notice the trees closing in behind me, Steve and Joe, I didn't understand how it was possible for the trees to move, their roots were still lodged in the ground and there was no sign of the ground being disturbed in any way, I didn't have time to ponder though, me and my remaining friends just ran.

Running through the woods was the worst thing ever, especially knowing any of the trees could pick us off and kill us, branches kept grabbing at us, I received numerous cuts from the branches, it felt like we were running for days and the exit was nowhere in sight then we found a dirt track, this had to lead to a way out, it just had to!

Finally in a stroke of luck we found a way out, we didn't know what to think, the pain from the cuts we received from the trees reminded us that we were alive. We agreed to never speak of this night ever again and we would have to tell Lacy and Kevin's parents that they went missing in the woods, we couldn't tell them it was the trees, they would never believe us.

I went to bed without saying anything to my parents. I'm moving out next week, I'm going to move to an urban area. I just hope I make it.

There's a tree in my front garden.