All I knew was there were three of us. It was supposed to be a fun night adventure in the woods with my brother, but footsteps don’t just manifest out of nowhere. We both stopped and looked around with our flashlights. We both had the dreaded feeling of being watched. I signal for us to crouch down and cover the light, to see if we could hear anything. That's when I heard the voice. “Run.”

We arrived at my grandmother’s house, the giant pile of wood ready to be stacked is staring at me. The wind blows through the trees, which draws my attention to the woods. I get that nostalgic feeling, it’s like being a kid again. The woods outside my grandma’s house held so much adventure. Throughout the day, we worked towards stacking this giant pile of wood. After the grueling work of wheeling barrel load after barrel load of wood to the backyard, we finished the pile and got to go party for my aunt’s birthday.

By the time midnight rolled around, my brother Wraithen and I were in my grandmother’s garage sitting on red and blue lawn chairs, talking about stories and our childhood. That is until we came to a story about us exploring the woods and seeing some weird figure. 

“You wouldn’t want to go back and check it out, would you?” he asked.

“I mean, I’ll take a walk through the woods, but to seek out something like that doesn’t sound very appealing,” I responded.

“Oh come on, don’t you want to know what it was? It was probably a tree or a weird statue.” he tried, convincingly. 

“As I said, I’ll go for a walk in the woods, where it takes us, that's to be decided.” I came back with.

After talking about it, he went into the house to grab a long-sleeved shirt, hat, and flashlights. While I waited I was scrolling through my wallet, until I stumbled upon an old photo of my girlfriend and me. It’s a clean white polaroid that takes me back to prom. It’s a perfect photo. She is standing there in her long, flowing ice blue dress. Her hair is pulled back in a gorgeous bun with a smile that could brighten the darkest room. It’s one of my favorite photos of her.

SLAM! He walked out with a black cap sat on his head, he was in a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, gray sweats, and black boots. He looked bigger and leaner. He had this stupid smile on his face that looked like he was up to something. 

“Be careful with her door, if she catches you slamming it she’ll have your head on a platter,” I said, startled.

“It’ll be fine, are you ready to go?” he asked, handing me a flashlight.

“Sure” I responded.

We walked over to the entrance of the woods. Time stopped. The entrance, with its inky black gaze, stared me down. I felt as if something would jump out and attack us. My mind races with many thoughts to back out. Click. The sound of the flashlight snapped me out of my trance.

“Let’s go,” he said.

We walked in and the sound of crunching leaves echoed through the woods. We continued down the written path until we both heard rustling leaves. We stopped and looked around. We couldn’t see anything and we heard nothing but the sound of our breathing and the leaves. Blowing it off as a raccoon or something we lept off the path and went in a southern direction.

“Oh, man, that smells awful! Next time you fart, walk a few feet away.” I let out.

“Bro, I promise that wasn’t me, but it does smell rank,” he responded.

We keep walking and we notice a clearing. A small opening in the trees. We looked up and there was a bright full moon. 

“Hey, turn your light off and look up,” I said

He does as he’s told. Bright stars lit up the sky. Right above us, there was a scene you’d only see on a painting. 

“Dude, this is amazing,” he said in shock.

“It really is, but we should keep going,” I said

We both simultaneously turned our lights on and we were shocked. The awful smell came back. We looked around and there was bloody, rusted barbed wire all around us.

“That wasn’t here before. How does it just pop up?” He asked, confused.

“I don’t know, but I’m not sure I like it,” I responded, “We should turn back.”

“Agreed.”

We turned around and started to walk back at a more brisk pace. Behind us, there was a sound of fast leaf crunching. As we jogged everything got louder. The trailing leaf sound, our breath, our steps. It got loud, overwhelmingly loud. My head felt like it was going to explode. Then it all went silent. 

My head was throbbing with pain, but All I knew was there were 3 of us and footsteps don’t just manifest out of nowhere. We both stopped and turned our flashlights to see if we could do anything again. We both had the dreaded feeling of being watched. That's when I heard the voice. “Run.” It was a soft, child-like voice that was followed by horrible laughter. 

“We need to go!” I yelled

We picked ourselves up and ran. We got to the path and made a mad dash to the entrance. I tripped on a root and fell. My glasses flew off my face and my wallet landed next to me. Wraithen took off and didn’t look back. I tried to get up but I had a huge gash on my legs. That's when I heard the same laugh. It felt demonic like. I felt pressure on my leg as if I was about to drug further back into the woods. I panicked and quickly picked myself to run. I look down and all I see is the prom photo and my mind enters a state of bliss. I think of nothing but the amazing times I’ve had with her. It was like a small portion of my life flashed before my eyes. At that moment I felt nothing, the pain in my leg subsided. I grabbed my wallet and photo and made a run for it. I had nothing on my mind but get to the exit.

I made it out and ran a safe distance away and tried to comprehend what just happened. I was so glad that the little prom photo shocked my brain for that half-second that saved my life. After a few moments, I felt safer knowing I had that photo on me.

“Hey, let’s not go back into the woods,” I said, still startled

“Yeah, That sounds great,” he said out of breath.