Brisk fall days used to be my favourite time to get out of the house and walk along my local bike paths by the river. Getting to see all the spooky Halloween decorations encompassing people’s dwellings until the rows of houses gave way to the more extravagant orange, yellow, and red leaves lining the pathway was a breathtaking sight. I’d always go right after supper so I could burn off my meal while enjoying the serene calmness of nature. Though the last time I walked that path like I had done all those times before, my usual peacefulness turned into anxiousness and then into a terror-fueled nightmare.
It started like any other night, I walked the city streets enjoying the skeletons, ghosts, and ghoulish displays set up to signal Halloween was right around the corner, 3 days away in fact. Maybe that is why this happened, the full moon close before Halloween could never be a good time.
As the houses fell behind me I started down the path. I had a few very large plates of nachos so I was feeling a little sluggish and started the walk slowly. It was pretty quiet out with only a few bicyclists flying past, which meant I had time to stop at a few spots and watch the ducks floating in the sunset with no care in the world. Trudging deeper along as the trees grew thicker around me, there was no one in sight. The sun was beginning to fully set so I figured half an hour more and I would head back.
It was completely night when I heard the twig snap, the only lights as I looked around my surroundings were little electric lanterns spaced around 20 ft apart. I picked up my pace, growing a little nervous as more twigs snapped whenever I turned my head. This kept up for the next 10 minutes as I walked, a twig would snap and when I would look back, no one. Well, that was until I saw for a split second a blue hoodie duck behind the tree.
I broke into a run fear gripping me at the thought of who would be following me like this, were they robbers or was I going to get murdered with no one around. I could hear pounding footsteps from behind me as I picked up my pace, my heart beating rhythmically to near heart attack speed. I must have been faster than them because by the time I began slowing down there was no sound of anyone trailing me.
I stopped for a minute to catch my breath. I must have run a good 5 km. I closed my eyes rubbing the bridge of my nose at the predicament I had just got myself into when a giggle rang out from the treeline. Confused, I looked around taking a small step closer. My eyes strained at the dimness of the area as I tried to figure out what that was. With everything going on I decided to say screw it and turned around to head home. That was when I came face to face with a young girl no older than 9, with long straight white hair that matched her clean white frilly dress.
“Hello Mister,” She said.
It took me a second to straighten my thoughts to reply, “Hey there, why are you all the way out here, are you lost?”
I crouched on one knee to get to her height and reassure her I wasn’t dangerous, but she just stood twisting one foot like she was putting out a cigarette and said, “Just going for a walk, it’s a beautiful night”.
“Are your parents around here?”, I had to ask, “it’s dangerous to be walking around here by yourself, there could be some scary people around here”.
“Oh, I’m ok mister, I walk around here all the time”, she told me with a giggle before saying bye and skipping off back the way I came.
I’m not sure why I didn’t stop her. Honestly, it could have been the shock that a child was roaming around seemingly oblivious to the dangers or if it was some weird feeling I had when she talked. Whatever it was she had disappeared by the time I formed a coherent thought.
The night had already gone to hell so I decided it was time to begin walking back. I took the inside of the treeline just in case whoever was after me before was hanging around. I kept vigilant, making sure I had eyes on the path but was far enough that the lights never touched me.
After about 30 min I started hearing what sounded like a swoosh of air and then a sort of squelch sound that I could not pinpoint. I froze as the sound kept going, I rattled my brain trying to think of what could be making that sound. Curiosity, or maybe stupidity got the best of me and I began to head over. I suddenly remembered the little girl and panic clutched my stomach, thinking of what could be happening to her. I broke into a run to make sure she was alright. Dodging bushes and trees until I made it to the path and came across a grizzly sight.
An iron-rich scent filled my nostrils as I saw parts of a body lay scattered about the blood-soaked path as if someone had been torn bit by bit. I looked around for any sign of white fabric, praying it wasn’t her that was dead. My eyes found the torso, but it wasn’t a white dress that I saw but a tattered dark blue blood-stained sweater.
Filled with panic at what could have happened here, I began to run, more scared as I had been all evening. I could only make it five steps before I noticed movement out of my peripherals. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks. The little girl whose white dress was now dyed red stood there, a sword twice the length of her small body raised over her head. She brought the weapon down, slicing into another man, cutting his head clear off.
As I gasped in disbelief she turned to me with a blood-soaked eerie smile, eyes void of colour.
“These bad men won’t be hurting either of us now mister,” she told me nonchalantly as if she had not just butchered these men, “they did ruin my pretty dress though, so I’m ruining them”.
She turned and went back to hacking up her victims, so I started running until I got out of the forest.
I called the police when I got back home. They found the mutilated bodies but there was no sign of the little girl or her big sword. In the time since that day, the police have recovered 5 more bodies with no explanation of what happened. This has led most people to believe the path is a serial killer’s playground. I won’t step foot around there after what I witnessed, so I’ll probably never find out what happened to that girl or where she got that big ass sword.