When I was around the age of 10-11, I used to live in the middle of practically nowhere, It was the same, Never-ending Grass fields, The same scenery for miles. My house was a tiny cabin, one room, a little sink and wood countertop, little bathroom place , that’s all. I lived with my mum, dad and my older brother, Mark who was 13 at the time. He was a troublemaker, And with his little ventures, He dragged me in just so it was both of us if we ever got caught.
Near our house, There was a seemingly infinite forest. It was thick of trees and grass, bushes, plants. The forest was pretty dry, Our region didn’t receive rainfall very often, And when it did, It rained for a good measure of time, And it rained heavily. Me and Mark had explored the forest numerous times, Although we didn’t go very far because both of us were afraid of it, Mostly because of what our parents told us.
There was this one time, I’ll never forget. It was Mid-November, It was raining pretty heavy and our mum and dad were asleep, Mark was obviously bored and wanted to get us into trouble. So he convinced me to join him to have a little walk around the forest. We put on our raincoats and grabbed an umbrella, Part of me was afraid mum and dad would wake up and find out, And the other part was afraid of the forest. Something about those stories that our parents told us just for us to not get into danger really got to me but Mark wasn’t an easy person, If he wanted to do something, He wanted to do it right then and no matter what you tell him he wouldn’t back down. Which was the many reasons it was him who was grounded most of the time. And me ? I was grounded too, But since he always dragged me with him, Mum and dad blamed me too.
So, me and Mark sneaked out of our house, careful to not wake up our parents, we decided to grab a flashlight after, realizing it got pretty dark because the forest was anyways covered with trees. It must’ve been about 6 when we left, the sun didn’t set yet but even if it did it wouldn’t make much of a difference because the clouds above hid each beam of the sunlight which hit the ground. Mark and I were just with each other, I held the umbrella, and he held the flashlight, we entered the forest and shone the flashlight, The forest was covered with moss, sticks and the ground was wet with the rain, The flashlight beam caused the forest to give out a blue-ish hue, And it felt really cool. Little sounds of birds chirping, some animals and the water gently but rapidly splashing down were heard. We were sure that there weren’t any predatory animals because the forest may have been thick and large but it wasn’t a good habitat for predatory animals. We walked down the forest, looking around, It soon grew really cold and we both regretted not wrapping up warmly enough. We looked around and scared ourselves by our own shadows, And we realized it wasn’t as fun as we thought it would be. So we made a decision to go even deeper in. And to our surprise, We found an old barn, decayed and abandoned, Creepy atmosphere. And that was when Mark made the stupid choice of checking it out. And since I was creeped out enough to go out of the forest alone, I had no choice but to stay with him until he decides it’s time to go.
We nudged the door, a little creak escaped and we set our foot in. The floor creaked beneath us and our flashlight kept on flickering. It was really warm inside surprisingly, so we felt better. The barn was empty from the inside, A bit of old hay, around and plants that engulfed the floorboards, We decided we should leave when Mark noticed a flight of stairs, He instantly convinced me to investigate it with him, And so we went upstairs. The place had a weird atmosphere upstairs, It was really moist and we thought we saw blood stains. We noticed a little room at the corner, The door slightly ajar. We entered of course, And we saw old mattresses, Food, and stained knives. The food seemed fresh and we quickly realized we might be where we aren’t supposed to, And that’s when we spotted a person. Blood laced his hands, His clothes, And his face displayed insanity. He clearly noticed us way before we did, Because he held a butcher knife, And looked as if he were to jump up any moment now, Mark instantly realized what was going on and grabbed my hand and fled as fast as his legs could take him, And this caused the man to charge at us, I was behind and I noticed it, I screamed and let go of the flashlight, Which hit his foot and he groaned loudly. Mark sped up even more at that and hand in hand, We both charged back to our house as fast as we could.
When we reached back, we found our parents talking to a policeman, who we guess they called because they couldn’t find us. We were terrified and they noticed. We told them about the man we saw and all about what happened, The police took notice and ordered five armed men to go catch the man. Fast forward an hour or two, They didn’t find anyone, But they did find the stuff that was in the barn which made them believe us. After this we moved to a more urban area and our parents didn’t trust us alone for a few years. But the incident is stuck to me really well, I remember it vividly, It still makes me have nightmares to this day. And Mark learned his lesson well, Thankfully.