My name is Carter Liddelow. You can call me “Carter” for short. I am just writing this to get this weight off my chest.
This aching guilt has chained me to it for over ten years. To be specific, normal people would get over it in just a month. Yet I still haven’t got over it. For TEN years. That was quite stupid of me.
I only want you to know what I did. What had I done to get myself into this spiraling cycle of pain and depression.
I just hope that you guys can understand.
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Ten years before now, I was still attending high school. Made some new friends, such as Mike, Anthony and Mia. But none of them can beat Lucy. Lucille Bambridge in full, but I liked to call her that. We first bonded at our first chemistry class. We mostly bonded over many coincidences in our lives, like enjoying horror, finding new fuel to solve or maybe some reading.
Those three components of our friendship combined and then blossomed into a new hobby: Ghost Hunting. As in like, we would check out haunted places, check for any specters, then leave. We would then upload that to our YouTube channel, then do it over again. It was like a loop, get new inspiration, execute that, then wait for more ideas. Again, and again and again.
One day we discovered an influx in one type of comment. It always nagged us to go to the “Petrified Forest of Adelaine Lane”. They said that rumors had been spreading about how when someone goes in, they never come back out. We at first shrugged it off, thinking that it was just some scary tale to tell your children or some random part of the woods. But after hundreds of comments begging and pleading, we had to go.
It took us 30 minutes to get to Adelaine Lane. Before that, we had already packed up all our equipment, as we needed everything we could for this case. When we arrived, it looked… dusty. Dirty almost, as if no one had been living here for decades or so. At the end of the lane lay an entire number of pillars. That’s what we thought, but it turned out that the “Petrified” part had been correct. Trees scattered the area like statues. But they were statues. They were now composed of nothing but stone and soot.
After mastering to gain our courage to go into such an abandoned and creepy place, we went.
At the first meters or so, nothing really happened. It was just the stone trees, us, our equipment and the sound of our footsteps. But it wasn’t long before things began to become… off. The trees somehow managed to become even more barren, and weird obelisks began appearing. I’m not sure the word obelisks were the correct word, but they were like, tall rocks. Not-taller- than-a-human tall, but abnormally big. They had these weird symbols on them. It felt like they were used in some ritual.
The most disturbing part of it, something weirder than the stones or the barrener trees combined, were the statues. They looked real. As in like too real. Made from this same material as the trees but molded into humanoid shapes. They were cowering, running. Their mouths were all open, as if they were screaming, screaming for someone to help, screaming for mercy, as if their end was near. Just looking at them gave me a shudder down my spine.
Within the deepest parts of the forest, however, were these rocks, in a circle, surrounding something. That something was within circles of ash with even more of those inscriptions drawn in it. Surrounding the rocks, there were even more statues, randomly scattered around the circles. This time, they had the same symbols carved on to them.
Looking closer at the centre, there was a stone. A random stone with the same inscriptions in it. It looked like some offering to a beast, judging by its surroundings.
When I saw it, I just walked to pick it up. What I mean is that I didn’t understand why I did that. Perhaps it was a souvenir? Something to keep as a memory? Or maybe something put me in a trance, like a puppet on its strings. Who knows.
Getting the stone wasn’t so scary. But what happened after would stay with me for so long, tormenting my mind, staying with me for so long until now.
A guttural roar blew through the wasteland of pillars and ash.
As ghost hunters, we would have simply shrugged it off. We would just think it was just some random animal or the howl of the wind. But the bellow. It sounded like something otherworldly, something from the bowels of hell. Lucy was thinking the same thing.
The second thing we did after the roar was glancing at each other.
I was the first to break the silence. “You heard that?”
She looked back at me, then the surroundings. “Y-yeah. Swear that it was some wind gust or something.”
I could see the terror in her eyes. It was clear that she was lying.
“Lucy, that was NOT a gust of wind. That was something ELSE, and it KNOWS we are here!”
Looking back, she began to glare at me, as if I offended her.“I KNOW! I mean, like, would YOU say the same thing, huh? Of course, this would be the first response! It’s called denial! And-”
Another roar. This time, it was louder.
It paralyzed us right as we were talking, almost as if just its voice struck fear into our hearts. We just looked around, fearful, like frightened prey. Something was out there, and it was about to strike.
Lucy began to try and retrace her steps, but tripped. “Carter, we must get out. Pack the stuff, and we’re going to leave as soon as possible.
I glanced at the equipment.
“But Lucy, we have to get-”
Yet another bellow rang through the forest.
This time, it was Lucy who broke the silence, with a terrified “What the hell…?” She was pointing towards a part of the woods. It was where the feral screams had been coming from.
When I noticed what she was pointing at, I understood why she was so terrified.
It was shambling through the stone trees, with an animalistic gait that dug into the ground with each step. The thing with the feral stance resembled a human yet didn’t resemble it. It was muscular yet looked frail. Out of some places, bones barely jutted out, loosely covered by grey skin. Within the grey skin, the arcane symbols from the circle had been carved into it crudely, glowing slightly with a red light. But the most dreadful part of the beast was its eyes. They shone like spotlights, piercing into the darkness. And the flesh of the whole being resembled stone, like the trees and the statues. Like a living statue of a demon.
The thing that was slowly approaching us resembled a gargoyle, but from hell. It was certain that it was summoned for some purpose, but judging from the looks on the other effigies, something must have gone wrong. I still don’t know why, but it was now searching for us, to do something terrible, to maim, to make sure we never escaped Adelaine Lane.
We were horrified, barely moving, barely breathing. The only thing between us and certain death was some of the statues. Once we somehow managed to gather up courage, we began to sneak past the demon-statue-thing, to try and get the equipment. As we managed to snatch up the camera and the other pair of night-vision goggles, it suddenly flung its gaze towards us. We never knew it, just the sudden bright red tint covering us.
We were caught.
That was all it took to drain what remained of our confidence, and we ran. Not just because we were scared, but because it was trying to take us. For something.
We barraged through the stone forest, weaving through brambles of petrified wood, just scared for our lives. Dogging our steps was the behemoth, smashing through whatever obstacles it had. As we ran, my mind just blanked out. Nothing. Just the thought of escape. I didn’t care whenever a tree got knocked down. I didn’t care when the demon let out yet another screech of fury. Nothing stopped me. But when I finally snapped out of my panicked stupor…
It was Lucy’s scream.
Flinging my head back, I saw her desperately grasping the ashen soil, one of the beast’s gangly digits embedded within her ankle. I didn’t know how, but it must had managed to catch her off guard, or perhaps she tripped. As she writhed about, trying to break free, the thing dug further into her leg, causing her to let out yet another gut-wrenching shriek of agony.
Then, in front of my unmoving body…
She transformed.
Her flesh was transmuting into mere stone, spreading from her shank. It voraciously devoured features as it went, reducing them to simple bumps, or nothing at all. Throughout the whole process, Lucy just flailed and screeched even harder, but the abomination just shrugged it off, like it was some sort of sick symphony to it. Eventually, her painful screams subsided alongside the remains of her humanity.
She’s now nothing but a mere statue, identical to the others. I felt tears welling within my eyes, seeing my own best friend lifeless, dying in front of me. But then it stared at me. The piercing glare of its bright red eyes were like daggers, merciless, unstoppable, killing me. However, despite the pain and suffering, I felt courage. As if the sight of Lucy getting morphed into a statue tapped into my instincts. So I ran. Ran as far and as hard as I could, back to the car. My heart felt like it was going to explode, and I felt like I was going to overdose on my own adrenaline. Still, I ran.
After what seemed like forever, I finally breached the woods and into Adelaine Lane again. Still barreling through the street, I managed to shove myself into the car, then slammed the accelerator. Anything to get out. Behind me, the monstrosity roared, then left. Almost as if the road was a forbidden barrier, and it can’t go beyond it’s territory. But I didn’t check.
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All of that was 10 years ago.
I still remember everything, crystal clear. Our trip, and everything within it, had been branded into my memories. Every time I try to forget it, it will just always come back. I had tried everything. Pills. Therapy. Alcohol. Anything to help me get over it. Yet they didn’t work. Alcohol usually worked the best, but that was only for a day or so. Then the memories return.
So as I’m typing this, I am popping down my last pill before having to buy another packet again and guzzling my 2nd bottle of beer. I am now warning you after so long not to explore the Petrified Forestof Adelaine Lane. I went into it with Lucy, and came out just alone, and traumatized for life. I will never forget it. Ever.
This will also be my chance to give my sincerest apologies to Lucy. I never intended this in the first place. I never knew about the demon. And now that you are just another victim claimed to the woods, I’ve never forgive myself for trying to help you in your final moments. I still have our YouTube channel. I often rewatch it for fonder memories. I still have the rock. Perhaps I should throw it away now.
I never wanted this in the first place.