I am a student at Elmore Junior High. I have decided to keep this log in case it will be of use to anybody for any reason. In this, I will write about how we ended up here and our experiences thus far. I will continue to update this as our time in this cursed house continues. One other Elmore Junior High student is with me: Teri. We have both struggled to find a way to escape. She is faster than us and she hears everything. It took us a long time to realize that there is no guarantee we will make it out with our lives. But, we have to keep trying as long as she is, because, either we escape, or we die.
The school day was about to end, and all of our classmates were on the edges of their seats. Despite the fact that the school day always feels like it will never end, it always eventually does. Teri and I aren't in the same class, so we always struggle to shove past all of the other students crowding the halls. We eventually managed to meet up just outside the exit of the school.
"What took you so long?" Teri asked in a teasing manner.
I laughed it off. Teri was obviously much better than I was at squeezing through the tight spaces in the halls.
"Alright. Are you ready?" I asked.
She nodded as she began to show me the way to her home. Today was the day we planned an after-school visit to each other. To us, this was a way of renewing our friendship bond. Toward the beginning of the school year, we hardly knew each other; we were just random people wandering through the same hall from time to time. But as the year progressed, we began to get acquainted with one another, and we are now very good friends.
Whenever we visit each other, we don't usually do more than just sit down and catch up. We usually just talk to each other about our lives, gossip a little, and sometimes take walks around the neighborhood if we're in the mood. On the weekends, we would sometimes do more, though. We would walk around Elmore Mall, watch a movie, or something else like that.
Last Friday, however, we decided to do something we'd never done before. We've come up with some crazy ideas together in the past, but this was by far the weirdest thing we'd ever planned. The idea originated when we were both feeling adventurous during our visit, and the topic of the forest on the outskirts of Elmore was brought up. We came up with the idea of exploring it, and staying the night in it. We laughed at it for a second, as it was only meant as a joke. But then, we thought about it more, and realized that it could actually happen.
I was surprised by the idea, because I actually despise camping. Hiking, geocaching, anything of that nature, I didn't want anything to do with. I just find them...boring. However, I found this idea for an awesome expedition quite appealing. I didn't know if it was the adventure factor, or the fact that I was going with someone I know very well, but it honestly sounded fun.
I was even more surprised, however, by Teri's excitement toward it. She usually clearly expresses her complete distaste for any activity that remotely involves subjecting herself to any sort of uncleanliness or potential biohazard. But, despite my knowledge of her typical interests, she seemed just as excited as I was.
We spent the entirety of that afternoon outlining the details for the trip. This included creating a packing list, and heavily researching the forest to see what we were subjecting ourselves to by entering. By the time I left her house, this trip was definitely happening.
The next step was to beg our parents to let us go. It took about ten minutes to convince mine, which was still a lot faster than I expected. They left me with all of the typical parent-ish warnings, things like "don't wander off on your own, look both ways," and so on.
I don't really know what happened with Teri's parents, but I do know that whatever she did worked, because the very next day, she was on my doorstep.
"Ready to leave?" she asked.
"Yeah, just let me grab something real quick!" I replied, as I ran back into the house.
I stood motionless just out of Teri's vision, thinking about what was about to happen. This trip appeared so fast, I barely had any time to think about it. It was so exciting! I was about to go on an overnight expedition through a mysterious forest with my best friend! Even then, I couldn't believe it was really happening. With light bags on each of our backs, we began our trip toward the edge of town.
It soon became clear that Teri was just as excited about this trip as I was, as she was visibly holding in bursts of emotion. The time it took to walk to the forest was in the range of about half an hour to forty-five minutes. I didn't know if Teri knew this, but nevertheless, I decided to attempt to make the trip go by a little bit faster by breaking the ice a little.
"You know what I found out about the forest?" I asked mysteriously, adding a hint of a humorous tone.
"What!?" she replied, eagerly awaiting my response.
"I heard that five people have went missing in it!" I responded. Despite the seemingly outlandish claim, I wasn't actually making it up. I read about it last night on a website about the forest. Though her reacting facial expression didn't make it clear on whether or not she believed it to be true, it did make it clear to me that I successfully added to the mysterious tone we were trying to achieve.
"So? What did YOU find out about the forest?" I asked in response.
Teri's delightful expression suddenly turned into a somewhat frightened frown that was so powerful, it completely killed my good mood. I could tell that whatever she was about to say would not make me feel any better. She sighed, and began to speak.
"I was browsing on the internet when I came upon a document describing a house in the middle of the forest. It's said to be an old, broken-down two-story house held together with old, gray stucco, rotting wood, and windows so old you can't even see out of them anymore. The house was thought to be abandoned, but there is still one known resident. She is described as a horrible, twisted old woman that only wears a dirty gray gown. She holds a wooden baseball bat stained deep red with blood. Reports say that she kills anyone who she sees near her house, and that if you see it, it's already too late. Some reports have also said that she gives you five days to live, and after that, there is no escape from your own death."
We felt our souls drop deep into a dark pit as the atmosphere suddenly shifted to a greatly undesirable feeling. Everything around us halted as the ambiance transformed into nothing but a somber, eerie silence.
We both burst out laughing. My lungs were under such enormous strain; I struggled to form a sentence. "Man, where did you find that document?" I asked.
Teri, who also seemed to be in the same situation as me, responded, "Some fake police website. It looked like it was made with Windows Vista!"
We laughed even harder. "Nice creepypasta! What thirty-year-old fat dude living in his parents' basement wrote that?" I joked.
It took a while, but we eventually calmed down. After that story passed, we struck up more conversations while we walked that kept us entertained. We played 20 Questions, discussed what the forest was going to be like, and so on. Overall, they helped to distract us from the long walk.
After a bit less than an hour after we left our houses, we came across the end of the pavement, which immediately led out into the forest. The sun had just set, but it still lit up the skies just enough for us to see. The ground ahead was pretty flat, with no visible hills or large obstacles that could pose a threat to us if wandering through darkness. It was littered with leaves, pine cones, and rocks, some large and some small.
The trees were intimidatingly tall, and they varied in thickness and color. They weren't very spread out; they appeared to be about ten feet apart from each other. Overall, the forest gave us each mixed feelings. However, I believed we were both a little shocked, maybe even a little frightened, at the sheer size of everything around us.
We stared upward into the maze of trees and dead branches with feelings of thrill and excitement. We looked back at each other, and one look at each other's faces indicated that we both really wanted to enter. But, I was feeling a little tired after the long walk, so I suggested we sit first. We spotted a log just before the very apparent edge of the forest, and we sat down. We each unequipped our bags and reached for our water bottles. I also unpacked my compass I brought to help us find our way.
About five minutes had passed while we rested up and got rehydrated. Teri placed her bottle back into a pocket on her bag and looked at me. "So, are you ready to do this?" she asked.
I wasn't prepared for that question. I had honestly forgotten that we were really going in there. My palms suddenly became sweaty as I reevaluated what I was going to do. But no; I would not give in to my feelings of cowardice. I was going to explore...no...I was going to conquer this forest with my friend, Teri. I clenched my fists, took a deep breath, and stood up. I looked directly back at her.
"Definitely." I said. She was really glad I replied with that.
"Then let's go." She said as she confidently began to venture into the forest. I happily followed behind her, compass in hand.
The next few hours contained some of the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. The sun had completely set shortly after entering, so we took out our flashlights. We happily continued in the new creepy environment we had. The dark forest looked like it came straight out of a horror movie, but we loved it so much. Crickets were chirping and owls were hooting, but other than that, there were no signs of other animals.
We ran around the area, playing games, exploring to our heart's content. And, we never grew tired, not even once. At one point we came across an old red pick-up truck surrounded by several shattered beer bottles. The headlights were broken and the windows were gone. It was leaning to one side, as there were no tires on that half. We hurried to check it out. We found a rusty old key inside, which we inserted into the ignition slot. To our surprise, the truck shook and sputtered, despite it looking like it's been here for years.
We also found a chainlink fence topped with barbed wire, which also looked very old. There was a large black sign which read, "Keep Out" in yellow letters. We, of course, had to cross it. The fence ended up being so weak, we could push it over with our bare hands. We walked over it to the other side, which did scare us a little.
I looked at my wristwatch, which read 11:35. I looked around and noticed that we were standing in the middle of a small clearing. I thought it would be a good place to stop for the night. I hated to be the killer of fun, but we could always have more the next morning. Besides, this didn't mean our night was over; we were just settling down.
I made the suggestion to Teri, who was surprisingly open to the idea. We set our bags on the floor and we each began to unpack our small tents. We found it difficult to set them up and hold our flashlights at the same time, which gave us the idea of a campfire. We had both researched the forest prior to the trip, so we knew that fires were permitted.
Teri finished her tent fairly quickly, whereas I had a bit more trouble. So, after she finished hers, she went to help me. After we were both done, we set our bags inside of them.
"Alright, I'm going out to collect some wood." said Teri as she started to walk away from the campsite.
"Hey, let me join you! My parents said to not go off alone, you know." I said happily. She smiled and gestured me over. So, we grabbed our flashlights, and headed off to find some firewood.
Before we went, however, I said, "Wait, I have an idea."
"What is it?" she responded. I ran back to our campsite and laid my flashlight in the center, which brightly illuminated our space.
"There. Now we'll have an easier time finding our way back."
"Ah, good thinking."
We continued to walk around together, collecting as many dry sticks as we could. I had both of my arms decently full of sticks, but Teri could only hold so many, because she was holding the flashlight, too. Even though we couldn't see the campsite anymore, we made sure we still knew how to get back to it.
We had been walking for about five minutes in the same direction.
"So, how much wood did you find so far?" I asked. Teri looked down at her arm for a second, then back up.
"Well, I found..." She stopped in the middle of her sentence. She had also suddenly stopped walking. I looked at her confused, and her face looked like she had just witnessed a murder. Her mouth was open wide, and her eyes were the same. She was looking up at something, and no matter how much I waved my hand in front of her, she just, stared. She looked petrified.
I finally followed her eyes to what she was looking at, and what I found made my heart drop directly into my stomach.
It was an old, broken-down two-story house.
It was made up of gray stucco, wood, and scratched and stained windows. I began to tremble as I, too felt what it looked like Teri was feeling. I felt my soul leave my body that moment. I dropped all of the sticks I was holding.
"Let's get out of here," I said softly. We both ran the other direction back to our campsite.
"I thought you said that document was fake!" I said panting.
"It was! At least, I thought it was! I still think it is, it's probably just a coincidence! But still, I don't want to be near that thing any longer!" replied Teri.
A few seconds later, a light on the ground began to come into view. I was relieved to see it so much. I arrived back at the campsite and I stopped running. I put my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath.
"Wow, that was pretty scary!" I laughed. I didn't hear a reply. "Right, Teri?" I asked in response. I looked around and found that Teri wasn't following me. She was nowhere to be seen.
I began to get scared again. "Teri!?" I called. Still no reply. I tried a couple more times until I got really freaked out. I was feeling exactly what I was feeling earlier, only a hundred times worse. Every alarm was going off in my head. "Alright, you got me!" I said shakily, in hopes of having her come out of wherever she was hiding. But to my dismay, absolutely nothing happened.
I was shaking so much, I struggled to grab the flashlight on the ground. When I eventually did, I began to walk back in the direction we ran from, in order to find my missing friend. I could barely keep the light steady. The fear was almost painful; I just wanted it to stop so badly.
I searched along the path we took for about a minute when I heard a twig snap behind me. I almost jumped out of my skin. I quickly jolted my shoulders around 180 degrees to see what made that sound. I moved the light around behind me a little to see if someone was there.
"Teri? Is that you?" I shouted. Even after a good minute, there was still no response. I turned back around and continued walking, completely anxious.
What happened next I don't think I'll ever recover from.
Something grabbed my neck and pulled me. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was turned around by something and I saw a horrible, twisted old woman in a dirty gray gown. But she was much worse than I ever could've imagined. She had large pale eyes and a dark face. She had a large, gaping mouth complete with large, bloody teeth. She was something straight out of the worst nightmare any human has ever had. Every muscle in my body froze immediately as I stared helplessly into her face. The fear and the helplessness was way too much for my body to handle; it hurt so badly.
That was it. I was going to die. I was on the verge of tears when I felt something hard and painful strike me in the back of the head. I was let go of, and I fell onto the floor. I was in severe pain until my vision went blurry, my eyelids became heavy, and I blacked out.