I've attended and worked at the same summer camp for the last 15 years. The ghosts are the least of your worries- I know what?s living in the woods (Part 10)

Part 9
Last night, I had the most vivid nightmare.
I was laying in the middle of the woods, surrounded by darkness. The thick fog was stifling, I felt like I was drowning. I tried to stand, but an overwhelming dizziness overtook me, causing me to fall back to the ground. I frantically tried to crawl out of the woods, but I couldn?t see between the thick fog and the dark sky. After crawling for what felt like ages, the fog cleared as I reached a circular clearing in the trees. I carefully returned to my feet, the dizzy spell slowly lifting. Peering through the dark, I was able to make out the vague shape of a man. He was very small, not necessarily height wise, but his frame was small. He was hunched over so I couldn?t see his face, but it looked like he was cradling something in his arms. I inched closer, worried about disturbing whoever this was, but they didn?t budge. I could vaguely make out him humming something that sounded like a lullaby, and that?s when I looked down.
It looked like a fetus? sort of. The lump of flesh was tinged a blue-purple, with pulsing black veins covering it. It looked almost like it was trying to form itself into a person, but it wasn?t quite there. I could make out a small arm and a foot in the mass, but that was about it. There was a strange energy surrounding it, almost like the air was vibrating around us. I didn?t realize how close I had gotten until I looked up.
A man a little bit older than me was standing impossibly close to me, unblinking eyes locked with mine. His hair was white, and he had eyes to match. His lips were tightly shut, and I could see a vein in his forehead straining against the skin. He was dressed in dark clothing, blending into the night. I stood frozen, trying to scream, or say something, but it was like my mouth was stuck shut. Then, he opened his mouth.
Eyeballs. One after the other spilled from his mouth. I recognized the eyes of my friends, the ones I had sworn to protect, as well as the grotesque eyes of the dark creatures of the woods. I tried to get my mouth and my body to move, but I was stuck. I fought back tears, not wanting to gratify whoever this monster was with the satisfaction of making me cry. Once all of the eyes had left his mouth, he began to laugh. He laughed so hard tears were streaming from his eyes. His laugh hurt my head; it felt like a worm that had infiltrated my mind and was rattling around in my skull. Suddenly, a bright light flashed, and a wall of heat hit me in the face. In a tornado of fire, he rose up to the tops of the trees before disappearing into the flames. Free from my hold, I looked down and saw that he left two more eyes. Hazel with flecks of green. Eyes that looked alarmingly like mine.
Panicked, I ran deeper into the woods, when I stumbled upon a large puddle. I crawled up to it, bracing myself before looking down.
I had no eyes.
My own screaming woke me up. I instinctively reached for my face, breathing a sigh of relief when I felt my eyes, before rolling out of bed getting ready for the day. After the horrors we?ve been experiencing these past several days, I take solace in the monotony of my morning routine. Sweeping my hair into a ponytail, and throwing on my uniform, tucking my trusty Camp Hemlock t-shirt into my worn cargo pants, I just kept trying to remind myself that it was just a dream. Lacing up my hiking boots and grabbing my knapsack, I took a deep breath. Let?s get this mother****er, I told myself, as I walked into the brisk morning weather.
After I grabbed Simon, we began our morning patrol, bracing ourselves with what we might find. I stopped in my tracks when discovering the first Aeren.
The scene was the same, limbs tied in a circle, head on a spike with the eyes missing, except for one thing. On the forehead was branded the letters ?R.S.?
My initials.
My head was swimming, and I stumbled back. Surely this must be a coincidence. It wasn?t until I heard the static of my walkie talkie that I became concerned.
?Roz, I need you over here. I found the Malus, and uh, I just need you here.?
He gave me the coordinates and I trekked over to his location. I walked over to him and the Malus, and instinctively grabbed Simon?s hand as I looked at the troll?s forehead. ?S.P.?
His initials.
?Roz, this thing knows us.?
I looked at him, seeing a small, blinking red light just behind his head.
The camera. I sprinted past him, grabbing the camera and stopped the recording.
?Simon, I need to go back to the other scene and see if I set the other camera up in the right place.?
?No, Roz. We need to get out of the woods and tell Director Garc-?
?Simon-? I snapped at him, cutting him off, ?Come with me or not, but I have to go get that camera.? My voice began to rise, full on yelling, ?I need to know what the hell is going on, and you?re not ****ing helping! It?s my job to help them, to save them, and I can?t do that if I don?t get that damn camera! ?
He looked at me with his sparkling blue eyes, searching for something. ?Roz, none of this is your fault. You can?t take sole responsibility for protecting the Aeren, you know that right? There?s a whole bunch of Tutors back at the cabins who want to protect the Aeren too. Let us help you.?
?I know, I just- I can?t stand this anymore. I don?t want to see any more of my friends die.? I felt my legs wobble as the weight of the grief I had been carrying hit me. Simon caught me as I fell, slowly letting me down onto the ground, resting my head in his lap. I honestly don?t know what I did to deserve someone like Simon, even after ignoring him and berating him these past few days, he continues to be one of the most understanding, kind people I?ve ever met. That?s why he?s such a good Tutor, much better than me. After a few moments of just letting me cry, smoothing my hair and assuring me that we?d be okay, that we were doing the best we could, I finally was able to get up and look at him, smiling a wobbly smile.
?Thank you Simon.?
?Roz, you know I?d follow you to the end of the Earth if you asked me. Now, let?s go get that camera.?
We walked to the original location we found the Aeren and sure enough, I saw the blinking red light through the trees, Thank god Director Garcia and I were right, I thought, before grabbing it and turning back to Simon.
?Alright, let?s head back.?
Simon headed to the mess while I went straight to Director Garcia?s office. As soon as I walked in, Director Garcia looked up at me, hopeful for answers. I just nodded, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She ushered me over to the computer, and we plugged it in, pulling up the footage from the first camera. For a while, there was nothing. Then around the 2:30 mark, there was movement.
There was rustling in the trees, and a dark figure appeared, hunched over, dragging something along the forest floor. The figure looked like it was struggling dragging the Aeren, like he wasn?t strong enough. The dark figure eventually settled the Aeren in the center of the circle of trees. It looked like the Aeren was awake, struggling against invisible restraints, like he was paralyzed. I wanted to look away, but I was mesmerized by the man as he walked in a circle around the Aeren, dropping something every few steps. He made a full revolution before stepping back and snapping his fingers.
I jumped when the items that he dropped sparked into flames, fully illuminating the small clearing in the woods. From that point I could see the person who dragged the Aeren out better, but a hood was covering his face. He pulled something out of a bag on his back, a tome of some sort, and he ran his fingers over the cover. He set it on the ground, and all of a sudden, a massive gust of wind, unnatural in the still night, blew the pages open, flipping until it reached the correct page. There was no sound in the video, but from the way he was moving I could tell that the hooded figure was muttering something, some sort of incantation. The Aeren struggled even harder against the restraints to no avail. My stomach dropped as the person in the hood began to rise off of the ground, in a swirl of flame, and raised his arms, throwing them out to his sides. I looked down at the Aeren, horrified as his arms also shot out to his sides, vibrating in the sockets. When the person swirling in the sky raised his arms, my hand went to my mouth as the Aeren?s arms flew off of his body, ricocheting off of the trees on either side of him, falling like dead weight to the forest floor.
The Aeren?s mouth was open in a silent scream, and tears flew down my face as the entity did the same thing to the legs. I tried to look away but I was stuck, eyes wide in horror as the swirl of hellfire inched closer to the Aeren, rising to an impossible height, almost out of view from the camera. His hands reached to the sky, and when he threw his hands down, the Aeren?s torso exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces, organs and hunks of flesh and bone flying in every direction. Director Garcia grabbed my arm and squeezed, equally horrified at the sight in front of us. Hot tears were streaming down my face as I fought the bile in my throat, trying not to puke on the computer. The figure slowly lowered himself to the forest floor, before picking up the head, scooping out the eyeballs with his bare hands and putting them in a small bag he pulled from his pocket, before returning it there. Then, the man in the hood stilled, before turning directly toward the camera, taking a few long strides until he was closer to the tree it was settled in. He set down the head of the Aeren and reached for his own, slowly removing the hood.
I leapt out of my chair, backing up against the wall. The man in my dreams. His shocking white hair, his white eyes. The dark, pulsating vein on his forehead. He smiled a tight lipped smile, and waved to the camera, before snapping his fingers, abruptly cutting off the view of the camera footage. About an hour later, the view returned and the scene of the ritual was as we found it, complete with the fresh branding of my initials.
My body was frozen in fear, my mind racing. It wasn?t until I felt Director Garcia shaking me that I snapped out of it.
?Roz, I think I know what this is. Roz!?
?Wh-what?? I looked at her with wide eyes.
?The census? pull out all of the census documents from the 1700s.?
Director Garcia and I poured through the documents. I learned that before a camp was settled here, there was a small village. Many of the human inhabitants were Tutors, and they vehemently protected the woods from outside forces, whether it be human, or otherwise. The witch trials, most notably the ones in Salem, MA, caused a large flock of witches to migrate to the woods, where they took solace in the protection of the trees. Most of them were good, and were welcomed by the Aeren. Some of them were not, and were welcomed by the Malus. In the late 1700s, like the Shopkeeper said, the clan of witches that belonged to the Malus attempted to perform a ritual to wipe out all of the Aeren as well as the village, giving them impossible power. So the Tutors did the only thing they could think of to do.
They torched the Witch Camp, destroying all of the Malus in the cleansing fire.
There was one problem. When counting the dead, making sure they were all defeated, there was one Malus missing. A young boy, no older than 3 or 4. Unconcerned by the age of the boy, thinking he was too young to understand black magic, the leaders dismissed it. And they never had a problem.
Until now.
Realization dawned on me, hitting me like a ton of breaks.
?He wants revenge.? I whispered.
Director Garcia nodded. ?And he doesn?t care who he destroys to get it.?
I ran over to the map, looking at the points in the circle, head spinning.
?The circle isn?t quite complete, but he?s getting close?? I said, before pausing. Once I caught my breath, I turned to Director Garcia. ?What?s going to happen when he does??
?I don?t know, but I don?t want to find out. Roz, I?m going to put you in contact with a neighboring society of Tutors. They have a large clan of witches on their property, they should be able to give you better answers than I can.?
?Okay, I?ll leave at sun up tomorrow.? I said as I started to leave.
?Roz,? Director Garcia stopped me, ?Take Simon with you. We need as much help as we can get.?
I swallowed, nodding resolutely.
?Okay.?
Director Garcia watched the other tape alone, I couldn?t stomach it. Sure enough, it was basically the same exact video, substituting the Aeren for the Malus and my initials for Simon?s. Simon and I packed our bags, we set out tomorrow morning. I?ve got the cameras, the pictures, and the documents. The nearest Tutor camp is at least 3 hours away, so we have a long road ahead of us. I don?t know what we?re going to find, but I hope we get some answers.
I know what?s living in the woods. I don?t know what he?s capable of. And I?m scared.


Source.