Fear
My burst of energy had
ended. I was getting frantic I had been down this path before and
still no Anna. Everything is beginning to look different with the
setting of the sun. How could she get lost we’ve been coming this
way for years it’s the quickest way home. Cutting through the
wood instead of going around it. It cuts a good fifteen minuets
off our journey. We had been late leaving school and mum would kill us
for being late and even for us coming this way.
“Anna this isn’t funny!” I
snap
But the woods yield no
response and I plough onwards thinking back on what got me in this
mess. It had been such a stupid argument; it was just like Anna
to take it the wrong way. She had run off straying from the path.
After a few minuets I had
become concerned and now I’m lost, cold and absolutely starving. My
rumbling stomach sounds deafening, fighting to be heard over the
pounding of my heart. It disturbs the quiet of the forest.
The trees close in on me as dusk gives way to night. Bringing with it a
chill breeze the thin T-shirt I am wearing does nothing to keep out the
gnawing cold. I stumble on in my confusion; my eyes are not
accustomed to the complete, all encompassing darkness. A few
stray rays of moonlight manage to brake through, illuminating stray
objects.
The once quiet forest seems
to come alive with the disappearance of the sun. Having been deprived
of my sight. My other senses come alive with, touch taste but
mainly smell, hearing and the other senses long forgotten in the modern
world, the thrum of silence is deafening. The primeval fear of the dark
takes hold of me creeping in gnawing at the very edge of my soul but.
Fight it, I must
I stop dead in my tracks, my
ears straining to interpret the sound that rippled though the
woods. The last resonant echoes dying in the wind. Around
me the woods react, preparing itself with an age-old mode of protective
actions. The birds scatter from the treetops seeking safety far
from this place as possible. The woodland floor becomes alive
with scurrying creatures of various shapes and sizes as they burrow in
to their shelters.
Fear is a palpable force you
can smell it, taste it, feel it hanging in the air bubbles up from the
sound land spills out in one singular sound, the scream. This all
happens in the blink of an eye as the brain struggles to process what
the senses are telling it. Scrambling the body into action.
Fight or Flight. The oldest reflex, from before man, before
evolution took hold and gave us thought. Rational thought seances as
again it comes louder like the very bowels of hell have opened reached
up and given birth to it. A loud high pitch laughter, piercing my
soul.
It is there, ever present, it
surrounds me. Evil has a touch. It’s an encompassing cold, filled
with pain endured and endless more yet to come. It caresses my
exposed flesh sending shivers deep into my soul. I quicken my
pace faster and faster I go stumbling on branches, twigs and leaves
hindering my progress, snagging, clawing at my bare arms.
Someone, something, the unknown is crashing towards me. I run, I
run, I feel the quaking shake of the ground being rocked with the force
of this thing’s power and presence. The embodiment of evil, lumbering
towards me with purposeful harm and deadly intentions. It’s only
reason for existence is to steal my own, from me.
I stumbled and fall
hard. My breath coming in ragged gasps each breath searing my
lungs, my blood pounding in my ears. Paralysing fear takes over
me as it approaches as power over my arms and legs seeps away.
The full moon comes out from behind a cloud. Illuminating the
clearing casting and eerie glow and sending woods into even greater
darkness. It is there on the edge of the clearing. Even though
there is not nearly enough chill in the air to manifest fogs of breath,
but they were there nonetheless. Leaving its putrid mouth in
waves. Not condensation. Decay. A visible decomposition. The
staggering smell reached me; it was the foulest odour I have ever
smelled the sight of it rips the breath from my lungs. It
approaches me promising the end. I try to scream but my lungs have
ceased to function. I am immobilised by fear as it reaches in and takes
hold of my soul freezing it.
The pain awakens the memory.
I know what this is; I force my body to relax as I struggle to
breathe. Forcing the paralysing pain out. My eyes spring
open and I suck air into my lungs. The coldness leaves replaced
by the warmth of my bed. I relax and breathe taking in deep gulps
of air. Rational thought returns. Sleep Paralysis, A
Hypogogic state, scientific fact. As my breathing rate and pulse
rate return to normal I reach over and turn my light on, wincing as the
light hits my eyes. I look over to my twin who is sleeping
soundly in the bed opposite me. I trun the light off and roll over and
go back to sleep. It was only a dream as it is only the dark I
can’t hurt me. Can it?