Then...
Everyone says to stay out of the woods. What kind of kid listens to a warning like that? Telling someone not to do something is like saying, "Do it! Go ahead, just don't get caught." Now that I'm thinking of this, I wish my friends and I had listened. Sadly, no one can change time. No one can bring back those who were lost. No one should ever have entered the woods… But we did anyways.
Way up north, nestled in a peninsula of Michigan, is Edgewood. The forest around the town is like a great wall, three miles thick. Then on the east and south sides is water. It can be heard laughing day and night as the waves tickle the shore. Islands dot the horizon every time you look out to one of the greatest, fresh water sources in the world. Lake Huron. It acts as a moat around Edgewood's end of the Upper Peninsula.
Even though the scenes around Edgewood are magnificent, the town is actually pretty small, and unnoticed. Maybe four hundred people at most? It's more like three hundred and ninety now. No one really ever leaves this place either. I mean kids go to college, people move away for a time, but everyone finds their way back to Edgewood. My dad, for example. He grew up in this town, went to collage down in Lansing, moved to Detroit and stayed for some years. He didn't plan on coming back but when he married my mom, Ellie, he felt that they had to leave the city. It just didn't feel right to him anymore, big cities weren't for raising the perfect family. That's how the town reeled him back and dragged my pregnant mother with him.
After moving back to Edgewood, they had me and lived with my grandparents. My grandfather, a true blooded Indian always told me and my mother to keep out of the woods. My mother, being as perfect as she could be, listened without question. Being seven I had to ask him why. The answer was always an old Native American tale.
He said it began when white settlers first started to make homes for themselves around our area. They started to cut down trees to make their homes and this, of course, made the Indians angry. So the chief went to the settlers and asked them to stop and leave the land. The settlers would not do as he asked and when he persisted they killed him and threw his body into the forest. The chief's two daughters and his two sons found him and were filled with anger and sadness. The daughters began to pray to the sprits for help to protect the tribe, the brothers prayed for vengeance against the white folk. Both prayers were answered, but in ways they siblings couldn't understand. One daughter was turned into a great tree and became the forest's spirit, the other a pond hidden in the forest. The sons were turned into beasts of the forest. Edgewood's first coyote and wolf, to be exact. The sons raced to their tribe and found that their fellow Indians were changing into wolves and coyotes as well and together, with the trees on their side, they attacked the settler's camp and left no one behind. Some escaped though, but the daughter's spirits made the settlers lost forever in the twisting trees, or drown in the hidden pool.
I asked my grandfather how Edgewood was settled if everyone was killed and his reply was always, "Different settler's came and didn't hurt the forest. That's why they haven't awakened the daughters and sons of Chief Kea-ho-lo-so. As long as no more white folk go in there, they'll sleep." He also told me Indian blood was allowed in there. White blood wasn't, and there wasn't much Indian blood around anymore. I was lucky to be half Native American.
Seven years later, I went into the woods with three friends. Only one of us had Native American blood. All of us are still trapped. However, that's going to change soon. I'm going to get out alive, and I'm going to save Gil, the last of our explorer group.
At least I think he is. Holt however, couldn't have lived through what happened. No one could bounce back from being ripped to shreds by a wolf pack. I mean, they weren't normal wolves anyways. What kind of wolf is the size of a rhino and has empty eye sockets?
I shake the image from my mind and force back tears. Holt would have been laughing if he could see me right now. That's just how he is- I mean, how he was.
That's in the past now though. I can't help Holt. Gil I can help though. That is, if I can find him. It seems the forest has caught us in its maze of trees and darkness. Do I have a chance? Yes, because I have the key out of here. A key that runs deep through my veins.
After a while, I stop. Not by choice but because of the pain in my legs. How long have I been running, calling for Gil? My cell and watch are no help. They both mysteriously stopped working when we first entered Edgewood forest. My partner Gil had wanted to turn back when his stopped dead.
Gil… He didn't even want to join us today. Or yesterday? Time is lost here. It's impossible to-
Snap!
Something sounds behind me. "Gil?" No reply. I try again, breathlessly hopeless. "Gil! C'mon!" Still no reply. The air grows stale, and it's easy to tell I'm not alone. Something is out there. I can feel it. Instincts send me running. The hunt is on, and I will not give in. Water splashes my feet. It's freezing, and the air starts turning cold as well. More sounds come from behind. Groaning and creeping sounds of trees, then there's moaning of… people?
I stop. Yes, those are people. In pain I think. Do I dare look back? This could be another trick of the woods. It could also be my friends.
I'm about to turn around when the water I'm in becomes warm, so I run. It slowly becomes thick to move through, and I'm thinking its quicksand. Then, I realize quicksand wouldn't let you move. Looking down, a groan leaves my mouth. Blood. A pool of the crimson liquid is around my ankles. Now it's rising.
A swear word rushes out with my breath as I take off again. Blood, ghost wolves, ponds of evil, and a terrible curse? Yeah, I've taken them all on. Running through the woods, I can't handle. So after what feels like hours, I trip. By now, the blood is up to my knees. Landing face first causes quite a splash.
"Still falling for me, huh?" Laughter fallows the question as I rise. Eyes wide I turn around. Shell-shocked can't express my astonishment.
"Holt? Bu- but. You're…?"
"Yeah, I'm still drop dead gorgeous. Emphasis on the dead part." Despite his more transparent look, I can see his tattered clothes clearly. The wolves really did get to him. However, he continues speaking. "Listen babe, I wanted to let you know that you'll be enjoying the other side of life after this."
Other side… huh? "What do you mean? I can leave; I'm supposedly the only one who can! That's why-"
His smile flips upside down. "If that was true, how come you're still stuck in here?"
"I'm going to save Gil."
Holt fades away, but his voice lingers. "He's not here." Could he mean Gil is dead too? Or could he mean that Gil actually got out? I move to start moving again, but my feet won't go. The 'water', as I try to think it is, has risen to my waist. How can it be rising anyways? I'm in a forest not a fish bowl! Anyways, whatever is holding me in place has started to twist around and up my leg. A root! The forest is against me officially now, but it shouldn't be. I'm Native. I hold the key to escape!
But it's not only that. My family has another key. We hunt paranormal things. This 'trip' was a hunt. We were going to be the hunters that saved this town, my friends and I. Guess some other sap has the job now. With my last breath before I'm pulled under I pray that the next guy can get the job done.
Now...
Edgewood's only gas station was old, worn down, and rarely sees new vehicles come in. So when a sleek black Impala pulled up to a pump, you could just feel the wonder that everything in the town must have felt to see a new face.
The man driving however didn't look wondrous. He was easy on the eyes for sure, and so was the guy next to him, but he looked enraged.
"In the middle of nowhere Sammy. The middle of it." He said with a slam of the door. "Not a hot chick in sight either. You expect me to hunt in conditions like this?" Just like that, one young ghost's pray was answered.
