The Whispering Forest: Part 2

Photo by Benjamin Carpenter

The four of them opened their eyes and saw a little deer standing in front of them. 

“That’s it,” said Jacob with surprise. “We were scared of a little deer?”

“Well it seemed bigger in the distance,” said Theresa.

“I wonder what the noise was that it made?” asked Adam.

“I don’t know,” said Kevin. “Maybe it injured itself or something like that.”

“Well whatever it was,” started Jacob. “It was really weird.”

“Well let’s just continue on,” suggested Kevin.

As they walked along some more they all felt as if something was watching them. Perhaps something was watching them. They heard more movements in the distance and more strange noises as the sky became darker. It was now almost completely dark out and they were far into the woods by now. 

“Well,” said Kevin. “I think we should set up camp here.”

“No way I’m camping here,” said Jacob. “It’s right next to a creek, and that’s how Ben Dover can get us.”

“When you say Ben Dover,” started Kevin. “It just makes me laugh.”

“Well then how about we just don’t say it,” said Jacob.

“Sounds good to me,” said Kevin. 

So they set up camp in silence trying to keep an eye out for anything in the dark. 

“Why don’t we make a fire to keep ourselves warm,” said Kevin. 

“Sounds like a good idea,” said Adam in agreement.

“What are we gonna start our fire with?” asked Theresa.

“Well I suppose you could go find some wood to start it with,” said Jacob.

“I also brought some matches too,” said Adam.

“We should probably head out then,” said Kevin.

“I’m not going out there,” said Adam.

“Why not?” asked Kevin.

“Because it could be dangerous out there,” said Adam.

“Well it’d probably be the safest if we all stuck together,” said Kevin.

“Well I’m staying here,” said Adam stubbornly. 

“Fine then,” said Kevin. “The rest of us will go.”

“While I’m here I’ll try to find some sticks and try to start a small fire,” said Adam.

“Fine by me,” said Kevin.

Kevin, Theresa and Jacob headed out into the dark forest leaving behind Adam, alone at the campsite. Adam stayed in the tent for a while crouched down in the back corner with his flashlight aimed at the tent door. After about ten minutes or so he decided that it was probably safe enough to go outside. When he walked out of the tent he trembled and walked around very quietly looking for wood to start a fire. He found some wood and dragged it over in front of the tent and began to fiddle around with some matches. 

“Oh come on you stupid things, work for me,” said Adam angrily. 

After a little longer of fighting with the matches Adam finally was able to make a small fire. 

“And they had to go out in the dark, scary forest to find wood to start a fire,” Adam smugly thought to himself.

Adam sat around the fire staring into it and praising himself for starting one all by himself.

“I wonder where those guys are,” he said to himself.

“Maybe they got caught by Ben Dover,” he thought, laughing in his head. 

Then he heard something move in the woods nearby him.

“Who is that?” Adam asked.

“Kevin, Jacob, Theresa,” he said. “Is that you?”

He listened carefully for if he could hear anything else.

“Huh,” said Adam. “Must’ve just been a squirrel or something.”

He sat by the fire a little longer when he heard something crack behind him. 

“What was that?” he said.

He looked around behind him squinting in the darkness trying to make out something. He looked a little longer and didn’t see anything. 

“This is starting to get creepy,” said Adam to himself.

He started to look around in the area in front of him. Then, Adam not knowing, something started to slowly come up behind him. Then Adam felt a cold breathe on him. 

“Who is that?” he whispered. 

Then a strange voice whispered, “It’s me.”

Somewhere out in the forest Kevin, Theresa and Jacob heard a scream from the distance.

“What was that?” asked Jacob.

“It sounded like Adam,” said Kevin.

“Let’s go see what’s wrong,” said Theresa, concerningly.

The three of them ran back to the campsite where they found some dimly lit coals and nobody in sight. 

“Where is he?” exclaimed Kevin.

“I don’t know,” said Jacob. “I don’t see any sign of him.”

“Do you see any footsteps or any trace of him?” asked Theresa.

“No,” said Kevin.

“Where do you think he went,” said Theresa.

“I don’t know,” said Kevin. “Why would he leave when he didn’t want to come with us?”

“Well didn’t you hear him scream?” said Jacob. “He obviously was taken by Ben Dover!”

“No way,” said Kevin. “That’s not possible!”

“Well you better believe it,” said Jacob. “Because there’s no sign that he left on his own!”

“Yeah, I agree,” said Theresa. “He especially wouldn’t leave since there was one hundred dollars involved.” 

“Well what should we do?” asked Jacob. 

“I say we should run for it,” suggested Theresa.

“No way,” said Kevin. “After what could’ve happened with Adam we shouldn’t risk going out there, and we should all stick together here and wait to leave until dawn when it’s light out.” 

“Well no way I’m staying here,” said Theresa. “I want to go back to my house where I know I’m safe.”

Theresa was about to walk off in the woods when Kevin grabbed her arm.

“What are you doing?” she said, trying to pull away.

“You’re not going out there,” said Kevin. “It’s too dangerous out there!”

“Well it’s more dangerous staying here,” she said.

She got out of Kevin’s grip and looked as if she was about to run off, but something stopped her.

“I can’t,” she sighed. “I can’t just leave.”

“We can all just stay in the tent together where we’ll be a little safer than just staying out here,” said Jacob.

“That sounds like a good plan,” replied Kevin. 

When they walked to the tent Kevin noticed something lying in the dirt. 

“What’s this?” he said.

“What, what is it?” asked Theresa. 

“It’s some sort of key chain with blue and maybe green or possibly yellow stripes on it,” Kevin described. 

“Where do you think it came from?” asked Jacob.

“Maybe it’s one of our’s,” suggested Kevin

“It’s not mine,” said Jacob.

“Nor mine,” said Theresa.

“Well I know it’s not mine,” said Kevin. “And I don’t think it was Adam’s because I’ve never seen him have this.”

“Then where did it come from?” asked Theresa. 

“Ben Dover,” said Kevin. “Or whatever their name really is.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Jacob.

“Well if it’s none of ours,” said Kevin. “Then the only person it could be is whoever Ben Dover is.” 

“Why do you keep saying ‘whoever Ben Dover is?’” asked Jacob.

“Well isn’t it obvious?” said Kevin. “It has to be somebody, some real person from around here because it has colors on it that are the same as the schools’ theme colors around here.”

“Didn’t you say it looked like blue and a greenish, yellow color?” asked Theresa. 

“Yeah, why?” replied Kevin.” 

“Well isn’t that our school colors,” said Theresa.

“You’re right,” said Jacob.

“Then it’s someone who is from or went to our school,” said Theresa.

They all stared at the key chain in silence.

“Well we should probably get in the tent now,” said Kevin. 

The three of them went into the tent and kept close together and as quiet as they could.

“Well,” said Kevin. “I suppose we should try going to sleep for the night to try to make it go by quicker.”

“One of us should stay up though, to keep an eye out,” suggested Theresa.

“Yeah, and we should do it in shifts,” said Kevin.

“I’ll go first,” said Jacob.

“Are you sure?” asked Kevin.

“Yeah,” said Jacob. “And I’ll probably be fine.”

As Kevin and Theresa went into their sleeping bags to get to sleep Jacob stayed up sitting by the tent door with a flashlight in his hands.

After about a half an hour Kevin and Theresa finally fell asleep. Jacob sat awake for about two hours watching the door and listening for noise in the surrounding forest. 

“I’m not sure how much longer I can stay awake,” he whispered to himself. “Maybe I can just close my eyes for a few minutes,” he yawned to himself.

“But I can’t fall asleep,” he thought to himself. “I’ll need to wake up somebody else to take over for me.”

Jacob closed his eyes to give them a little break, and within a few minutes he fell asleep and he started to snore. Slowly, his flashlight fell out of his hand onto the ground of the tent. Shortly after that Theresa woke up and saw that Kevin and Jacob were asleep. 

“Perfect,” she whispered. “Now I can leave without them knowing.”

She slowly got out of her sleeping bag and slowly made her way across the tent to the tent door. As she started to unzip the door she heard Jacob stir. She stopped and held her breath. Then Jacob went back to sleep again. She sighed in relief and started to unzip the tent again. When she got it unzipped enough she snuck out of the tent and made her way into the forest away from the campsite. When she got far enough away she took out her phone and turned on her flashlight.

“Man it’s cold out here,” she thought to herself.

“I wonder how far away I’m from the edge of the forest,” she whispered to herself. 

She walked a little more through the woods looking for some sort of clue that led to the end of the forest. Then she heard something in the distance.

“Who was that?” she asked. “Don’t come near me!”

Then she saw a dark figure start to come out of the thick forest towards her.

“Get away from me,” she yelled at it.

Then the dark figure started to come at her faster.

“I have to get out of here,” she said. Theresa started to run away from the dark figure and through the forest.

“Where is it?” she said. “Where is the campsite?”

She looked around in the darkness to try to find the campsite. She couldn’t see anything so she started running through the woods some more.

“Come on,” she said. “Where is it?” Then she heard another noise come from behind her. 

“I need to get out of here,” she whispered to herself. Theresa started frantically running through the woods trying to find a way out of it. As she ran she kept seeing a shadow behind the trees, and it seemed to be following her. Then she came to a point where there were three trails going three different ways. 

“Which way is it,” she said. “Which one leads me out of here?” She looked around at the trails trying to decide which trail to take. 

“I don’t know which one it is,” she said. 

She started to back up when she tripped over a log and fell and hit her head on a rock. After a few minutes or so, Theresa came to and saw something standing a few yards in front of her. 

“What do you want?” she whispered.

“I’m just here to help you,” said the dark figure. 

“What was that?” said Jacob, suddenly waking up. 

“What?” asked Kevin, yawning. 

“Sounded like a person screaming,” said Jacob. 

“Where’s Theresa?” asked Kevin.

“I don’t know,” said Jacob. “She probably snuck out of the tent when I went to sleep.”

“You fell asleep!” exclaimed Kevin.

“I couldn’t help it, I was so tired,” said Jacob.

“Then that probably was her scream,” said Kevin.

“We need to go find her,” said Jacob. But before either could move they heard something outside of their tent.

“Don’t move a muscle,” whispered Kevin. They sat there quietly listening to the ruffle of leaves outside the tent.

“It’s him,” whispered Jacob. “It’s Ben Dover.”

“Be quiet,” whispered Kevin. “Don’t let them hear you.” They sat there in silence listening to something move outside the tent. Then they heard it slowly shuffle towards the tent. Right outside the tent door it stopped and became silent. For a few minutes they didn’t hear anything. Then they heard it scrape its fingers down the side of the tent. Then the tent started to shake violently, and the pegs started to come out of the ground and slowly lift the tent off the ground. Then it suddenly stopped, and there was complete silence. 

“I think it went away,” whispered Jacob. 

“We can’t be sure,” Kevin whispered back.

“I’ll go check,” said Jacob. 

“Don’t go out there,” said Kevin. “It still could be close by.”

“Don’t worry,” said Jacob. “I’ll only go out the door, and I have a flashlight.” Jacob got up and made his way out the tent door. 

“What do you see?” asked Kevin.

“Nothing so far,” said Jacob.

“Do you hear anything?” whispered Kevin.

“Not really,” said Jacob. “But wait, I heard something.”

“What?” asked Kevin.

“I’ll get a closer look,” said Jacob. 

“Don’t go any farther,” whispered Kevin helplessly. Kevin saw Jacob walk a little farther ahead. 

“Can you see anything?” asked Kevin.

“No,” said Jacob. “Wait, I think I see something.” Then there was a sudden cold, loud howling wind that came blowing into the tent.

“Jake,” yelled Kevin. “Are you ok!” Then he heard Jacob yell for help.

“I’m coming for you Jake,” yelled Kevin. But right as Kevin got up he saw a dark figure come to the door of the tent. Kevin, out of shock, fell backwards onto the ground. He turned on his flashlight on his phone and aimed it at the dark figure. He saw that the dark figure was about two feet in front of the door. He looked at his phone and saw that it was at five percent. 

“It’s not gonna last,” he whispered to himself. 

“Who, who are you?” he asked the dark figure. But it didn’t respond. 

“Where are they?” Kevin asked. The dark figure didn’t say anything, but stepped closer into the door of the tent.

“Don’t come any closer,” said Kevin. The dark figure not listening to him stepped all the way into the tent. 

“What do you want with me?” asked Kevin.

Then the dark figure in a low voice said, “Not just you, but everyone.” 

“Where are they?” Kevin asked a second time.

“In a place where you’ll never find,” said the dark figure.

“Are they dead?” Kevin asked. 

“Not yet,” replied the dark figure. Kevin looked down at his phone and saw that it was at two percent. 

“Who are you, and why are you here?” asked Kevin.

“You know who I am,” said the dark figure. “And I’m here to get my revenge.”

“Ben Dover,” said Kevin. “Or if that’s who you really are.”

“You know who I am,” repeated the dark figure. “I was the one who brought you out here.” Kevin looked down at his phone and saw that it was at one percent. Then he looked back up at the dark figure and saw they were face to face, and it pulled back its cloak and Kevin saw who it was.

“Greg,” he whispered. Greg nodded, and Kevin’s phone went dead and his flashlight went out.

Then, Kevin suddenly woke up and looked around himself and saw that he was lying in his bed, in his room. He looked at his alarm clock and saw that it showed seven o’clock am. He looked down at his phone and saw that the date was Friday, October 13th. 

“It never happened,” he whispered to himself.

Then he looked down at his phone again and saw a message from Adam. 

“Are you ready for the camping trip?”