It is the tenth anniversary of Mary’s disappearance, and I’m sitting here, drowning my guilt in the bottle of vodka and penning these paragraphs. Each one of those hopeful messages and kind wishes on social media wishing for her to return home safely to her parents are tearing apart my heart, for I know the truth. Mary is dead. She shall never return from the Neverending forest.
As all stupid ideas, this one spawned out of the mind of bored teenage daredevils. Our little group had a peculiar tradition. Every few nights, we would gather somewhere secluded, sit in a circle, and scare the everloving fuck out of each other. We’d tell those cliche babysitter stories, legends, and most importantly of all, paranormal rituals.
We were crazy about that sort of stuff, and our most prominent storyteller was, without a single doubt, Holden. He was a weird kid. You know the type. We were his only social lifeline. He was our main terror peddler. After Mary, Jenna and I would conclude our sub-par tales, he would clear his throat, lower his voice to an almost inaudible whisper, beckoning us to shut off all distractions and focus on him entirely, and begin his story.
He utilized the shadows looming around us in storytelling. The terror was his friend and he knew how to describe that being that only shows up when you close your eyes in the shower in such a way that would make your blood run cold.
By the end of his story, Mary, Jenna and I were a creeped out mess, huddling together and nervously glancing around. His task completed, Holden’s thin lips would mold into a satisfied smile.
As I said, he didn’t like us to be passive listeners only. He’d frequently engage us in his story. It was times like this when I wanted to stand up and run back home. I persevered only because I feared Mary would think less of me.
We interacted with Ouija boards, attempted to summon spirits with solitaire cards, and meditated on sigils together, among other things. These things never really led to any entity manifesting itself, but it was about the journey, not the destination.
By the end of the ritual, it didn’t matter to us that nothing actually happened. Every noise in the night was an apparition coming to get us.
Now that you know the background of this unfortunate event, I can move forward and explain to you why guilt is tearing me apart.
It was Friday, and we were hanging out at recess. As usual, Holden wasn’t talking much. He was saving his breath for his nightly performance. We were happily chatting about some trifle, when his dry, monotonous conversational voice intercepted our chatter.
“We are meeting up in the Hollygreen Park tonight.” He said, matter-of-factly.
“I thought we would hang out at Jenna’s place.” I protested, confused at the sudden change of plan
“Hollygreen park.” Holden concluded.
Not seeing any reason to protest, we gave in and agreed. We couldn’t have known.
Air was chill and brisk that night in Hollygreen Park that night, and I remember cursing myself for not bringing a jacket. The three of us were following Holden, who seemed to be walking with some sort of purpose. His right hand was swaying freely, but he seemed to be clutching something in his jacket pocket with his left hand.
After we had walked well into the park, he stopped dead in his tracks in front of a giant oak tree. It was one of the oldest trees in the park.
“Here it is. Wide enough for an entrance.” He softly whispered to himself.
“For an entrance?” Mary inquired.
“Correct.”
“What? Entrance? Are you fucking high or something?” Jenna hissed at him.
“Please sit.” He beckoned, pointing his index finger downwards, then he himself sat on the dirt path, turning towards the tree, with his back turned to us.
The three of us exchanged worried glances before settling on the dirt path behind Holden.
“Okay. What’s the deal?” I asked.
“We have what we need. We can open it and visit.” He offered an explanation, though it did not explain anything.
“Visit…Where?” Mary asked.
“The Neverending forest.” Holden exclaimed, finally pulling out his left hand from his pocket. Something disgusting and fury was twitching and fighting to be released from his grasp.
A few more twitches and it successfully freed its long, fleshy tail from Holden’s grasp and feebly swung it around in the air a few times.
Holden began muttering something as he placed the captive rat on the tree and cupped him with both hands. The intensity of the mutters accelerated as he applied pressure and crushed the poor animal against the tree, rubbing his mangled corpse in a circle.
“Fucking hell, Hol. What’s wrong with you?” I muttered.
Holden laughed. “Do you expect to be let in without a sacrifice?”
At this point, we should have probably turned back and booked it home, but the truth was, we were intrigued. We knew that he definitely had a plan in mind. He was doing this with a tangible sense of purpose.
“I need help from one of you. Place your hand here while I chant.” He instructed, pointing to that disgusting, fleshy crimson circle.
“No way I’m doing that. “ Jenna cut in.
“I-It’s okay, Jenna. I’ll do it.” I mustered up the courage to come into contact with that viscous liquid and dangling flesh.
I began to edge towards the tree when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Mary.
“Let this one slide. I’ll do it.” She smiled.
“Are you sure? It’s filthy and…”
“No worries, I got this.” She assured me.
“Will you two sort it out already? I need a hand here, quite literally.” Holden smirked.
Mary crawled towards the tree and cautiously, with a healthy dose of disgust, placed her hand in the middle of the circle.
“Well done, Mary.” He muttered and began chanting anew.
I could not tell you how long we sat there listening to that chant. There was something hypnotic about it. I tried many times to find the language Holden used but no matter how many obscure dialects I sifted through, none matched this one.
I did not see it form, yet entrance was formed in the old oak tree. We all stood up and Holden turned around and faced us.
“This is it. Who wants to go first?” He asked.
“I’m not so sure about this.” I replied.
Holden rolled his eyes. “Way to go, man. Bitching out now. Let’s just go for a walk. We can go back the way we came.” He explained.
“Isn’t it.. You know… Dangerous?” Jenna asked.
“If you listen to every word I say, it won’t be.” Holden replied.
Even though every fiber of my body was screaming at me to get away, I wanted to enter. I wanted to know what lies on the other side. “I’m in. What about you, Mary?” I turned to her.
“I… don’t know. I’m scared. I want to go home.” She replied, her widened pupils piercing my gaze.
“Come with me. Just for five minutes. We’ll stick together. Nothing will happen, I promise.” I said. Oh, how I would come to regret these cursed words.
“Okay, everyone ready? Let’s enter. Follow my lead.” Holden announced, already walking into the entrance. With cautious steps, we followed.
The entrance was pitch black, yet entirely immaterial. You’d just slide through it.Once we passed, it was clear that this was a place no human should dwell.
The trees were… Gigantic sprawling wonders that reached up to the blackened sky itself. We were merely insects in their grandiose presence.
As we were silently tiptoeing and following Holden, I observed unknown specimens of flora on the ground level as well. Suddenly, Holden’s instructions broke our uneasy silence. “We will walk to the circle and then head back to our own realm. Keep up the pace, gang.”
There was something about this statement of his that just… rubbed me wrong. Unfortunately, I could not give it a second thought. To our left in the distance we could see a great mass of flesh on four legs moving. As that huge shadowy colossus was slowly dragging itself next to those trees, I took a good look at its torso. When my eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness encapsulating this forest, I could see groups of smaller… Beings on two legs making their way across its vast body. Suddenly, the slow, but continuous momentum of that colossus stopped. It stopped and turned to us. I expected everything. Everything except the unmistakably human-like features of its head.
Those few seconds of standstill felt like eternity, yet they came to an end when that horrible abomination released a deep, guttural laugh.
“Ignore it and pick up the pace.” Holden instructed and we followed suit.
Keeping our heads down, we marched until we came to a circular clearing surrounded by those unnatural trees from every side except from where we entered. We finally stopped in the very center.
“Here we are.” Holden said. “The circle.”
That was it. The circle. The fucking circle. “Holden. How do you know the circle was located here?” I asked, praying that the theory my mind formulated was not true.
“Were you here before, Holden?” I asked.
Holden’s response came only in the form of that sickly grin of his.
“Answer me! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU BRING US HERE?” I screamed.
“Dear lord, save us. save us… save us…” Mary dropped to her knees while pointing to something behind me.
Cautiously, I turned around. My jaw unhinged itself in utter shock as the head of that horrible abomination peered through the entrance of the circle. Its exposed sharp rows of teeth and hungry eyes still haunt the endless vistas of my dreams even after all this time.
“Some fine lambs… You have… brought me. Holden.” It ejaculated, its voice slimy and its pronunciation elongated.
“SHALL MY HEART’S DESIRE BE GRANTED, MIGHTY STEED OF THE NEVERENDING FOREST?” Holden sneered.
“All in… due time. Let us sample the offerings.” He said.
Before I could react, his mouth opened and his neck swiftly extended and shot towards us. There was only a pair of sneakers with disembodied feet in them where Mary stood a moment ago.
Realizing that we were next, I grabbed Jenna’s hand and ran straight underneath it’s head while it was still chewing Mary, as was evident by droplets of blood falling towards the ground.
That monster didn’t count on us making an escape attempt, and we seized the moment. I remembered some landmarks in the distance and used them to orient myself. Still, it’s a miracle I managed to do it. We must have ran for at least half an hour with some fiends trailing us before we finally arrived at that old oak tree and threw ourselves through the portal.
We didn’t stop running until we reached Jenna’s house. There, we hugged each other and cried, trying to process what we just went through and what our next move would be.
Unanimously, our decision was to lie. And who would believe us, anyway? We would go on to tell the cops that we split apart after we entered the park and went to Jenna’s house shortly after. Luckily, her parents were out of town.
Naturally, no trace of Mary or that bastard was ever found.
As I write this, there are two more tabs opened on my laptop. One is, as I previously mentioned, Mary’s disappearance anniversary.
The other is Holden’s.That bastard. I want to scream to the world and reveal what he did, but if I do that, I’ll be labeled a lunatic.
I am reading all these comments under his picture. Comments of people wishing he would come home.
Holden will never come home.
He is right where he wants to be.
In the Neverending forest.