This year, I agreed to go camping in a forest with my younger brother, Dave. We agreed to stay for a night. He was 18, 2 years younger than me. Our relationship wasn’t great. We were never close.
I had always been jealous of his seemingly perfect life - he was popular, athletic, and always seemed to have everything going for him. He was taller, stronger, and more outgoing than me, while I was an introverted nerd who spent his whole days learning, playing video games, and programming. But I agreed to go on the trip, hoping that maybe I could finally bond with him and shake off some of my resentment.
As we set up our tent in the dense forest, I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that settled in the pit of my stomach. The trees seemed to loom over us, their gnarled branches reaching out like twisted fingers.
The wind howled through the trees, causing the branches to creak and moan. The forest was eerily quiet, save for the occasional rustling of leaves and snapping of twigs. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth and pine, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched.
Dave, on the other hand, seemed completely at ease as he built a fire and started cooking our dinner. I couldn’t help but resent him for his carefree attitude, as I sat on a branch, trying to shake off the feeling that we were being watched.
“So, how was university the last week?” Dave asked me, trying to break the awkward silence.
“Yeah, it was fine, I think my math exam will be easy,” I responded. “But I’ll have problems with the other ones.”
“Fuck, man, I hate math. I never understood this about you.”
“Yep, you suck at math.”
“Well, at least I’ve seen a girl naked before, unlike you, eh?” he raised his eyebrows.
“Fucking asshole,” I forced a smile. What a punchable face he had…
We were talking for a few minutes about school and other things, then ate our lunch and went back to our tent. Dave fell asleep quickly, I had no idea how he could fall asleep so fast every time.
Suddenly, I heard some strange voice from far away, deep into the forest. It was like the howling of some animal, but… different. It was strange, I had never heard something like this before. I felt uneasy.
The strange voice echoed through the forest again, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. I sat up in my sleeping bag, my heart racing.
“Dave, did you hear that?” I whispered, trying to shake him awake. Dave stirred beside me, rubbing his eyes.
“Hear what?” he mumbled, still half-asleep. “Why did you wake me up? I was dreaming with the gym teacher’s daughter.”
“There’s a voice coming from the forest,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “It sounds like it’s getting closer.”
The voice was getting louder and more urgent, and it sent chills down my spine. I had the overwhelming feeling that we were in danger. It was as if the forest itself was alive, and it was beckoning us to come closer. I got up and glanced out of the tent, expecting to see something lurking in the shadows.
“The fuck is that?” Dave asked, rubbing his eyes. “A wolf?”
“It doesn’t sound like a wolf to me.”
We heard the sound again.
“Eh, probably just the wind,” Dave laid back in his sleeping bag to sleep. “Now let me sleep, I want to dream again.”
“Mate, c’mon,” I argued, but he didn’t even move. What a fucking idiot, I thought. And for some reason, he was our parents’ favorite child. I never understood why. He was just a stupid idiot. I wanted to kill him right there. Smashing his head with a rock, or suffocating him with a pillow.
I quickly tried to forget these thoughts. What the fuck was I thinking? Killing my own brother who never hurt me? It was the forest, I knew it. The forest wanted me to kill him. I always knew the fucking forest was evil. Maybe there was an evil spirit living in the woods. An evil spirit, waiting for blood sacrifices for him.
As I was still thinking about this, I immediately jumped up as I heard the same sound just behind the tent. It was super loud and terrifying. It was a high-pitched scream which didn’t belong to a human, that’s for sure.
“Dave, Dave, for fuck’s sake,” I tried to wake him up again. I couldn’t believe he didn’t hear the scream. It was louder than sirens, and he slept as if nothing had happened. What a piece of shit he was…
“Fucking hell, mate, let me sleep,” he covered his eyes.
“Dave, there’s something here, we have to go, now!” I said. “You didn’t hear that just a few seconds before? It’s there, a few meters behind our tent.”
“Man, you’re acting like some kid from kindergarten. You’re shitting your pants because of some noise you’ve heard, which was probably the wind or some animal from far away. Try enjoying this camping instead of trying to go home. You play too many horror games, man. But it’s fucking reality, we are not in a horror game, horror movie, or horror story. There isn’t a monster waiting for us,” he stood up and left the tent. I’ve never seen him this angry before.
“Where are you going?” I followed him. I became angry too. He was throwing a fit like an idiot. Probably because he was an idiot.
“See? There’s nothing outside. Not even a small rat or bird, we’re alone in this whole forest. But go home if you’re scared, mommy will probably protect you from whatever is outside, nerd!”
He was a fucking bastard trying to offend me. I don’t exactly remember what happened the next minute. I remember punching him in the face. He fell and hit his head on a rock. Blood immediately splattered on the rock and ground.
I killed him. No, it wasn’t me. It was the forest. The forest wanted me to kill him, and it succeeded. The forest gave that strange howling just to create conflict between us. It was the evil forest that killed my younger brother. But how will I tell our parents?
I kept thinking for a few minutes. Thinking about what I’ll do now? Should I go back home and tell everyone what happened? Or should I try to convince them that Dave fell on his own? Maybe they would believe it. But maybe I should just run away and change my identity, trying to start a new life in another city. I wish I would have enough money to do that.
I sat there for like hours, thinking about everything. I don’t even remember how much time went by, until the sun started to rise behind the mountains. I looked around. The forest wasn’t as scary as before. Actually, I found it beautiful. I don’t know why I was scared when we arrived. It wasn’t scary. It never was.
There wasn’t even an evil spirit haunting the woods that forced me to kill my brother. There was no monster howling in the night. It was me. I killed my own brother, just because I was angry. He had never done anything wrong. When we were kids, he always looked up to me. And I killed him, then tried to blame some kind of evil spirit for it. I hope he can forgive me for this in the afterlife.