A Walk in the Night

By: Jordan R. Was Here

Disclaimer: I don't own Love Hina.

(Some of you should know that!)

Summary: While out camping with everyone from the Hina Apartments, Naru becomes lost in the woods. But what lies in the shadows of the woods anyways. As long as she keeps her cool, she'll be fine. Can she?

A Walk in the Night

"Damn it," she thought to herself, "Where am I?" She has been walking around the woods for at least an hour. The day had slowly vanished from the sky and the moon was now emerging into the night sky.

"This is nuts," she mumbled to herself, "I was only taking a short walk down the trail and now I'm lost. How could I have gotten lost?"

She cussed and then pulled out the map she had brought along. She looked it over and found out where she was. According to the map, she was still on trail, but only farther away from the campsite.

"Everyone must be worried," she thought, "I got to get back soon or I might have to camp out here for the night!"

She didn't like the thought of being stuck out in the middle of nowhere far away from the comfort of her friends. It was really tearing away at her. She took another deep breath and continued forward.

She looked around as she walked. The trees in the area seemed to have been dead and the grass in the area had withered away to nothingness. The air was strangely warm and comforting despite the eerie feeling of the woods around her.

She continued to walk until she began to notice something similar about her surroundings. They all looked the same as if they were following her. It chilled her, but she continued on forward.

"I have the strangest feeling I been here before," she thought after she had walked for 15 minutes. She stopped and took another looked around. The scene was still the same as before. Dead trees and dead grass.

The shadows began to appear more and more as she decided to move forward. The warm feeling that had surrounded her before had now changed into a dim cold shiver that went all through her bones.

"I swear I been here before!" she thought. She stopped once again and looked around. Same as it was ever going to be for her. Everything was dead. She then looked at the ground and saw some very chilling.

Footprints. A whole straight line of footprints going forward in front of her. The worse part of this was that they were her own. It was a sense of dread that was now evident. She had been walking in circles for the last half hour.

"This really sucks," she muttered looking around, "Have I been walking around in a complete circle?" The thought was dreadful and hard shallow. It really looked like she had been walking in a circle.

She then began to shiver at the next thought that crossed her mind. If she would continue to move on forward, would she continue to walk in a circle? It was horrid thought, but she realized that it might be a reality for her if she continued.

"If I keep walking," she said it out loud, "I'll probably just become lost in a circle for who knows how long. But there might be a possibility I can use." She averted her gaze off the trail in front of her and into the woods that were becoming darker by the minute as the moon crept high into the sky.

It might be a good idea. It seemed pretty good to her. She could easily move off the trail into the woods and probably move forward instead of circling around and around. Then again, it seemed like a bad idea.

What if she began even more lost than what she was already? What if she never could find the trail again or even find her friends? She could be lost for days, weeks, months, possibly forever. Could she risk it?

She took a large deep breath. She cleared her mind and went over the possibilities once again. The idea of moving off the trail seemed to have been the best. But a small voice said no. She chose to ignore it and left the trail behind her and disappeared into the darkness that had surrounded her once she left the beaten path.

The moon now hung high in the sky. Luckily, it was a full moon tonight; it managed to give light to the area. It wasn't much as she needed. She was wandering the woods now for at least two hours now. "Damn it," she uttered under her breath, "Everyone must be so worried."

The wind began to pick up and the air began to freeze even colder than before. The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees right then. She shivered and hugged herself tightly in hope to keep the warmth of her body heat in her. It was slowly draining away from her.

All of a sudden, there was a howl. She looked to where the sound came from. Another howl came from there. The creature making it sounded like it was in pain. "Go away," she said scared, but that would do no good.

There were hoots and crows from the birds in the area. They sounded so evil. She shivered even more. "Why were the animals stirring now?" she thought to herself, "Where did they come from?"

It was an excellent point. Ever since she had been lost, there were no sounds of nature or animal life. Just the long silence that was eerie and could make anyone shiver knowing something wasn't right.

The cries, howls, and crows began to grow louder and stronger. She covered her ears in order to drown out the sound, but it only increased. "Stop it," she muttered, "Stop it."

The sounds of monstrous creatures increase making her sweat, twitch, and shake at the sense of dread around. "Stop it!" she began to talk louder trying to become louder than the noise, "Leave me alone!"

Everything seemed to shake and spin. Everything seemed to toss and turn. Glowing eyes stared at her from all directions. It was driving her over the edge. Everything was too much and she dropped to her knees in fear. "STOP IT!" she shouted in the night, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Just as she finished, the noises stopped. Everything began calm. The stirrings, cracks, and flapping of birds wings ended as well. Everything just became like death itself. Everything seemed to have died abruptly.

She cried, "Thank God. It stopped. I can't stand this anymore." There were then some footsteps on broken twigs and dead leaves. Her head looked up. Her eyes widen and her whole body began to shake. All the blood in her body chilled and impulses from her nerve system shot off hitting her brain hard like bullets piercing through a person's bone and tearing it apart. It was all coming all too quickly.

"Miss?" said a soft, tender voice, "Are you lost?" She had closed her eyes, but now opened them to see who it was. A young man about her age stood in front of her. He had bushy silver hair, light-blue eyes, and a clean shaven face. He wore blue jeans that were shredded at the knee and a ragged and dirty sweat shirt.

"Do you need some help?" he asked in a smoothing voice. Her fears seemed to have melted away. He seemed to have realized it and offered out his hand to help her to her feet. She gave a small smile and took his hand.

Both of their hands touch and more of her worries disappeared. He gave her a smile that seemed to melt her memory away. She soon forgot she was lost and that her friends were somewhere in the forest waiting for her return. "Thank you," she said to him.

"Of course," he said, "I do enjoy helping a maiden in distress." He was saying all the right things and seemed to be trying to deeply charm her. But his smile… his looks… they did all the work. They seemed to have hypnotized her.

"I was in distress?" she said engulfed in his beauty.

"You seemed to have been," he said to her, "It isn't safe for such a fine… fragile… beautiful lady like yourself to be in these woods."

"Why not?" she asked him.

"I suppose you don't know the legend of what lives in these very woods," he said to her. His tone was now very serious. It was so… grim.

"From your silence I suppose you don't know," he said sighing and then he said in a cheery voice, "I'm sure you don't want to know such a vile tale such as this one." It seemed like he was now trying to shield her from the blinding light of the truth.

"Please tell," she said to him, "I'm interested in hearing this."

"If I tell…" he said to her with a darken tone of voice, "You'll never be the same again." She looked into his eyes once again. They had darkened. Instead of light-blue eyes, they were white dead eyes that could pierce through her body like a knife.

"I see you are interested," he said to her lowering his head, but keeping his eyes on her, "Please walk with me. Perhaps we'll find your camp. I'll tell you the tale." She nodded and started to walk following him along his right side.

"Many years ago," he said to her, "During the time of the samurai and ninjas, a small village existed near this very forest. There was a warrior. He had returned home from the war. He learned while he was out at war, his wife had moved on from him to another man."

"That's terrible," she said to him. He nodded slowly.

"The young warrior was saddened by this," the boy continued, "But he was more angry than sadden. His rage is to have burned as strong as a forest fire. It was deadly and devastating. He swore to end the life of the man and the women that had done him wrong." As he said these words, the wind began to pick up.

He cleared his throat and continued onward, "But he didn't dare kill them because he would disgrace his family name. That is when he was said to have obtained this book. A book of dark sorcery. He read through until he discovered something. On the page was a spell to summon a monster." He stopped abruptly and stood still. He shivered.

"What…" she asked him, "What kind of monster was it?"

He looked into her eyes. They seemed to have glowed yellow, but she thought it was the trick of the moonlight. Either way, she didn't feel safe to stay anymore. "I…" she said to him, "Must… be getting going."

She then backed away from him and ran away. The wind started to blow harder and harder on her. Almost as if it was trying to blow her back to the teen. She then felt a hand clamp onto her shoulder. "You didn't let me finish," said the boy's voice whispering into her ear.

She screamed and shoved him away from her. He fell to the ground and gave her another look. His eyes flashed yellow once more. She shivered and ran away from him.

She continued to run, but she kept hearing his voice. "The monster…" he continued, "It was suppose to have soaked the soul away from the warrior's wife and new husband. It would take the shape of someone the victim could be attracted too. After leaving the person into a false sense of security…"

His voice had vanished once again. She stopped and took in deep breathes. Her heart was throbbing hard. She felt like it would explode and she could even here it beating back and forth... Thump… Thump… Thump... Thump.

"THEN IT WOULD STRIKE!" The voice was louder than before. A figure burst out of the trees in front of her just then. Her grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her onto her back on the ground. The nails were digging into her shoulders extracting blood. The monster now stood over her with his face close to her. He had pinned her.

"GO AWAY!" she screamed at the beast closing her eyes tightly. But she couldn't keep them close. She opened them and saw it was the teenage boy. His eyes were bright yellow and his skin was during deathly gray.

A over powerful stench then came off the monster in came into her nose. The smell was familiar. From her past, she remembered discovering a decaying rabbit that had been killed. The rabbit had been lying out for at least 2 days in the hot dry sun. The smell was familiar, it was rotting flesh.

"The monster would appear to kiss the victim after it moved in," the boy said in a raspy voice, "But what it was really doing was that it was sucking out the soul. This monster feed on souls and could live forever it just feasted on souls. Do you know what happened to the warrior after the monster killed the two?"

She knew, but couldn't bring herself to say it. She shook her head no and started to cry as the pain in her shoulders increased. The beast attacking her smiled and jagged tooth smile.

"It did what it was intended to do," the monster said, "It sucked out his soul as well. It was his ending and now it is yours…" It then move in for the kill.

"Naru…" Keitaro said softly into the dark in front of him, "Where are you?" Everyone had gone to bed, but he stood a little bit out of the camp and in the woods waiting for her return. It didn't seem to matter how long he would wait, he just waited.

She had just taken a walk into the woods, but now it seemed to have swallowed her. "Where was she?" he thought, "Should I go and find her? Would I be swallowed up as well by the woods?"

These questions taunted him over and over again. He shivered and thought of going to bed now. He had been waiting for her to return for hours and hours it seemed. Would he just give up, go to sleep, and then hope she was here in the morning like everyone did?

No. It was the first answer that came to him. It didn't seem like much, but he stood by it. "I'll wait for to come back," he said, "Even if it means forever."

There was then some motion in front of him. He squinted and adjusted his glasses. He couldn't see anything. He turned the flashlight he had with him on the spot. There, he saw her. She was running towards him.

He took a deep breath and smile. She was ok. "Naru," he said to her, "I'm glad to see you are ok. Everyone has been worried and stuff. They'll be…" He stopped talking and looked into her eyes. He wasn't sure, but they looked yellow…

The End

Author Notice: Yes… I believe this is my best horror story I ever written. My style I used to write this was supposed to be similar to Stephen King. Considering those facts, how did I do with this story anyways?

You know, I write a lot of one shot Love Hina stories that are labeled under horror or suspense. This one makes 4 and I have a new one prewritten. I was thinking, should I just make story that is full of one-shots. Kind of like the book Skeleton Crew in which is just composed of many short stories? First of all, is that legal to do on this website?

Thanks for reading and don't forget to read my other Love Hina horror one-shots I written if you enjoyed this one (Dark Writing, Mine Forever, and The Darkness).

Until next time, this was Jordan R. Was Here signing off!

P.S.

Peace out and rock on everyone!