'Come on!' he said unlocking the iron gate
'But,' I said, unsure on the idea of entering
'But what,' he laughed, giving me a blank emotionless look. I didn't answer; instead I just shrugged and gave him a small weak smile, which he obviously took as a yes. Above us there was a starless black sky, which seemed to stalk me as I entered through the gate. The light of my torch was a strange grey colour, infected by a cloud of dust that hung over me. I heard the heavy iron gate slam as I walked forward through the gloom. I wondered where I was actually going, but I didn't bother asking as I was kind of curious and wanted to be surprised. The turbulent wind brought a draft of rain, which gently impacted against my face. I trotted down the slippery path, my arms spread apart, to keep my balance. The darkness bred some kind of mystery which made me want to get to my destination as soon as possible, wherever it was. 'Be careful,' he choked. 'It's slippy down here.' And it was, the cold sloppy mud overlapped my shoes and squelched as I stepped deeper into thing rockets of fear down my spine.
'Where are we going?' I asked in a hollow voice. There was no answer, just a long spine chilling silence. I didn't even have time to turn around. I heard a quiet whistling noise which made me freeze with fear, and inspect the darkness ahead. I didn't want to turn. I didn't want him not to be there. 'James? Say something,' I anxiously moaned. 'Please.' No matter how much I wanted him to speak, he just didn't. I wished that he would give me any sign that he was there...anything at all. Finally I managed to gain the courage to spin around, but to my disappointment he wasn't there. 'James!' I shouted heatedly. 'Stop messing around!' But I knew deep down that this was no joke, there was something wrong. I squinted heavily, trying to look up to the top of the muddy slope. I tried to run up the slope, but the torrential downpour made me slip onto my front harshly and tumble to the bottom of the slope, in a murky puddle of grime. I tried to breathe but it was almost impossible, I was winded. I started to gasp for air loudly, crawling slowly up the slope. Tightly grasping onto a tree root which poked from the slope, I managed to heave myself up to a standing position. My canary yellow jacket was soaked in mud, flat shapes from the ground imprinted in brown upon my skin. There was no chance of me getting back up the dangerously wet slope, and so I turned towards the forest. A forbidding gut feeling told me to stay away from the gloomy forest, but it was the only way of getting anywhere. James had told me to go this way; so obviously he was leading me somewhere, then again he was the one that mysteriously vanished from right behind me. I peered into the entrance of the forest solemnly, I really didn't want to pass into the forest but I had there. Taking a deep breath and with one placid blink of my eyes I entered through the charcoal coloured vines that led into the forest.
I permitted myself to overcome the taunting shadows that hung from the black trees. Even within the blackness of the forest, some shadows existed somehow. The only sound that I could hear was the thin sticks crunch beneath my feet, as I advanced through the forest. After a while of wandering incessantly through the seemingly endless forest, my hands felt like they had been dipped in a barrel of icy water. Pain overlapped my hands, running from my wrist to the ends of my fingertips. I moaned loudly. My hands turned a resentful salmon colour, as I stuffed my hands into the warmth of my canary yellow jacket. All of a sudden my hands returned back to their original temperature, mysteriously the coldness had only affected them. The silence seemed to close in on me, taunting me every move. The thick of the forest encircled me; it had deceived me like a maze. No matter how many turns or "short cuts" I took, I never found an exit. Every black tree, every surrounding thing looked identical wherever I went. I began to worry, to worry if I would ever get out, or die in the darkness of the forest. Nobody would find me, because the forest had stayed unvisited for a long time, just because I had come here, it doesn't mean anyone else will... ever. Step by step, I wandered deeper into the forest, hoping that I wouldn't rot here and that there was an explanation of James's disappearing. The branches sloped down, closer to the ground so I couldn't stand up straight. I lowered myself down onto my hands and knees, flinching as the sticks scratched my skin. I scampered forward, keeping my head lower. Eventually I was forced onto my stomach by the branches which carried on getting lower. I was mimicking an army crawl, keeping my mouth tightly shut. I could see something different than the rest of the forest; in front of me I could see a small opening, it was wide and inviting. The branches dug into my back. I screamed. I could either carry on and suffer some more pain, or I could turn back and get lost more in the forest. I took a few seconds to think of my choices, then I decided. I dug my shoulders into the mud and used them to yank my weight to the other side, and into the small opening. For a moment I thought of screaming, in case anybody heard my voice echoing. Fortunately I didn't, because I would make myself seem mad, and that would make me feel stupid.