I soon realised that time was getting on and that my daughter would be wondering what I was doing; so I said my goodbyes, finished my pint and left the pub. I’d only had three beers, no where near as much as I usually did but it had been a long day and with my wife away for the weekend I wanted to stay sober for the kids. But still, three pints is over the limit for driving and as it was such a beautiful summers evening I decided to walk rather than get a taxi.
It was on nights like this that I remembered the day she was born. Almost 19 years ago now that was! She was such a beautiful young woman and had the world at her feet. I still don’t know how I managed to make and raise something so amazing.
I decided to walk past the woods on the way home. The smell of the pine trees mixed with the oak and ash always brought home memories of my childhood. The birds were singing their final goodnights to one another, twittering mothers telling their young to shut up and sleep because flying lessons would surely carry on tomorrow. A small wild rabbit went bounding out in front of me and I wondered if a fox was following because of the speed of the poor thing. Nothing followed it.
Then there was a different sort of noise. It was a sort of moan coming from the darkness of the trees, the sort of moan that sent ice down your spine and made your hair stand on end. I stopped and looked into the darkness hoping to see whoever or whatever had made the noise. It came again but this time sounded as though whatever was making the noise was in a lot of pain.
“Hello?” I asked the trees, wondering if the person needed help and if I could be the one to provide the aid. There was a crack of a twig and another chilly moan wracked with even more pain than before. Being the good natured guy I am I decided to try and find the person and offer my assistance. Using my mobile phone as a light, I stumbled through the undergrowth of the woods to see if I could see anything that might look like a limb or part of the person.
Suddenly, a dark figure loomed out of the black, standing perfectly straight and wearing a long, black over coat and scarf around his head. “This is starting to turn into one of those awful horror movies my son watches” I thought to myself wearily. I knew I had the right person though because again came that strange guttural sound that sent the ice crawling down my spine again. My instincts were trying desperately to tell me to run, fast. Unfortunately, my curiosity was getting the better of me and I wanted to know if the person was alright.
“Hello?” I asked again, my stomach beginning to knot tightly and my throat going dry. “I heard you moaning from the road and wondered if you wanted any help?” Annoyingly the person didn’t answer. “What’s your name and where are you from?” I asked, getting annoyed at the lack of communication and the rudeness of the person in that they hadn’t even turned around to face me yet. My anger at the ill mannered person gave me confidence enough to tap them on the shoulder and walk round to face the front.
Now I think about it, the tap on the shoulder should have been enough to warn me this was no person.
The shoulder was Ice cold, jagged and the wrong angle for a shoulder. It didn’t have the curve from the neck down to the arm that shoulders have but rather a sharp angle and it seemed to make a slight chinking sound as my fingers made contact with it. This thing was definitely not human. It was only when I got round to the front of the creature that I realised just how inhuman it really was. The eyes were like sapphires, the hooked nose blue and sharp as a knife’s edge, the mouth was sagging yet still managed to keep the look that it had been chiselled in that fashion by some child. The teeth were almost vampire fangs and dripping with some orange gooey liquid which I now think was probably tree sap. I could think of nothing to do but to stand and stare. I didn’t want to touch the creature again for this was a creature of ice and if I did so the warmth of my fingers could cause it to melt. When another of the guttural moans escaped it’s ice lips, the breath was like the strongest peppermint and cool enough to revive me of what little alcohol there was left in my system.
All of a sudden the head made a sort of rolling motion and then those frightful eyes were looking at me with a far off expression. A voiced thought entered into my head, I thought it was the result of instinct finally beating curiosity. “Run, run away and don’t look back!” So I did, all the way back home.
The voice reminded me of peppermint… I never went back to that wood.