I have been a police investigator for a good five decades of service. A lot of weird cases has come and go throughout my service, but one case has come to haunt me, about the woods at the end of the tunnel.
You see, the town where I work and live is very big, but there is a massive woodland area just an hours’ worth of drive from here. It connects both my town to our neighbor town. Along the straight concrete road covered with trees from town to town is one left turn somewhere in the middle that only leads to one place, a long dark tunnel.
About an hour after turning left is where it lies, the tunnel through the backwoods. It was blockaded, no one is legally allowed to enter as the area has been restricted for the public and only officers like me were allowed for investigations. The tunnel itself is another ten-minute straight drive within the darkness, you can only see the light at the end of it so traveling at daytime is a necessity, then you’ll reach a dirt road towards the woods that lies behind it. After exiting the tunnel and following the dirt road for ten minutes, there is an abandoned cabin that looked like a tornado just decimated it with roofs gone and windows are broken.
Whatever was going on within that woods are a big mystery. I saw internet forums claim that it was haunted due to missing cases reported. They say that the missing people only lasted three days, they say the woods calls people and you shouldn’t answer or you’ll die first, and all those stories. of course, I didn’t believe these ghost stories.
Out of my five years of service, three groups have been reported to disappear in that woods. This has led me to investigate the place three times already. But out of the three groups I’ve investigated, there weren’t any evidence that they all went to camp in the cabin, except for one piece of paper.
While investigating the third group that went missing three years ago, we found something new in the cabin compared to the last time we were there, a paper at one of the bedrooms that says…
“Liars don’t get to keep their head”
It was written with blood in a torn piece of paper.
That didn’t help anything at all, no bodies, no other clues. I figure that the woods will always be a mystery for me, or so I thought.
Another group has been reported missing just last week, their friends says that they have ventured in the tunnel woods, another curious internet group. A fourth case. Investigations has begun in that place yet again after three years of silence, but this time though without me.
You know, I’m planning to retire today after five decades of service, right in my birthday so It’ll feel more special and emotional.
“Thank you and happy birthday sir Gerald” says the cake. A party was held that day, my coworkers gave me a big envelope with supposed new evidence for the third case three years ago, it apparently was discovered from the investigation recently conducted for the new fourth case. I couldn’t care less honestly since I’m officially retired, I decided that I won’t open it now and spare it for home. But that’s not the only evidence that I received that night.
I got a present when I went back to my house, a package delivered in my front door wrapped in a dusty paper with a note “to officer Swindon”. I grabbed it and closed the doors of my house, sit down in my room and opened the present… A notebook that has the first page titled “Marcus’s woodlands diary”.
Marcus is a familiar name from one of the people that went missing three years ago. I remember seeing his face and talking to his relatives. I got a little scared and curious so I grabbed the envelope and the notebook that I both received thinking which one to open first, both are related to the tunnel woods after that’s been a mystery for as far as I can tell. I realized that the pages within the notebook looks similar to the note that we found, the one evidence that just gave me more questions. I decided to open the mysterious notebook first.
Only thirteen pages of the notebook was used and the rest were empty. The first 3 pages of the notebook contains rumors about the tunnel that Marcus found out by researching. He also wrote instructions and preparations about the journey and the friends he’s bringing with him.
The next nine pages are written like a diary with three entries. Curious, I start reading the first entry….
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1ST ENTRY
Dear notebook, this is the beginning of my new paranormal journey towards the tunnel woods, after months of research, preparation, and being bewildered, we’re actually going to go to it for real!!
I’ve met with my internet friends and there were five of us, I’m excited and thrilled because this time; were actually required to investigate quietly or we’ll all go to jail.
As usual I’m with my mates, Barbara and her boyfriend Jake. With us is the new couple Daryl and Cherry from the ghost hunting forums.
Daryl is a pretty tough guy according to Cherry, it makes sense considering he was very tall, like 6’4 and looks like he can push the car by himself with ease. Apparently, he had already investigated multiple abandoned places but he can also be a total dick sometimes. Cherry seems like a sweet person though based on how she talks to me. My friends Barbara and Jake are both paranormal thrill seekers, they have made stories about a couple of places already in their website and had influenced me to come to their recent adventures. This is the first time it was nature though instead of abandoned facilities, I recommended it here.
We entered the tunnel at 5am to avoid the cops, we removed the barricade temporarily so that the car can pass through and then returned them to avoid suspicion. Traversing the tunnel is spine chilling, long minutes of straight line that feels like jumping from one world towards another, Jake was careful and is keeping a medium speed so we won’t crash if there is a sudden bump that is hidden under the carpets of the darkness.
Finally, we’ve reached our destination, the tunnel woods. Unfortunately, the car didn’t seem to be able to proceed to the sudden change to dirt road so we have to leave it behind and carry our stuff.
Daryl had to carry the most so he was at the back while we were led to the cabin by Jake, this is important because tonight; I’m sleeping with him and Cherry because of this small shenanigan. While walking, he suddenly gave a scared loud scream, he says that something tapped him in the shoulders three times and he looked back and saw nothing.
Cherry rolled her eyes “here you go again, not even on the cabin yet and you’re being a dick already”
“I mean it! I really do! Something just tapped me in the shoulders and I saw there was nothing!”.
We ignored him and continued our journey towards the cabin with Daryl now in the middle and me at the back.
With that, we arrived at the cabin. The cabin is pretty and neat, not abandoned like people says it was. It was definitely habitable with roofs, doors, and windows intact. Every door can even be locked from the inside. There’s even an axe and a generator outside to give some electricity at the cabin; good thing we have tons of gasoline so we powered it up for some lights.
Daryl and Cherry went outside to scope the area while Barbara and Jake cooked us meal and prepare the place. There are three bed rooms, a kitchen, and a living room all in one floor. I decided to take the middle room with no window to give the couples some privacy.
Time passes and it’s about 4pm already. After a long travel and some preparations, we finally got to eat together and share a little meal by the fireplace.
Daryl and Cherry found out that there are no receptions as expected, they also saw a tall dead tree not too far which we presumed as the “tree of death” as the internet groups claimed, we ate and share rumors about the supposedly “fruit of death” that spawns within the tree.
It’s 7pm, we decided to investigate the tree together. We went to check the tree while it’s dark and spooky, it was very tall but no leaves, it was creepy but I’m more creeped out by the well beside the tree that was shut closed by a heavy rock. It wasn’t mentioned in the websites at all.
We returned to the cabin after the small inspection and then decided to go to bed.
Daryl came by to my room and talked to me privately, he looks scared and very paranoid.
“I know Cherry warned you about me playing around at times like these but you’ve got to believe me on this one”
“Is it about the shoulder tapping thing earlier?” I asked.
“Yes! I was scared shitless bro. My body straightened and my eyes looked as far as it can to the left and then to the right but my head didn’t want to turn, but I was so terrified man so I did turn and saw nothing. Not only that, earlier when I was scouting the place, I saw this creepy note placed in the well”
He took out a note out of his pocket and showed it to me. The text was written in blood…
“Let’s play a game, don’t sleep tonight”
He told me that he didn’t want to share it to everybody because he didn’t want it to look like a joke that he had in store for all of us. I sighed and told him that I’ll sleep with them so he won’t be too bothered by things. The note feels like a try hard push in attempt to scare me. But I told him he was being too paranoid and should take it easy. With that we slept. Today has been quite tiring and Daryl’s weird behavior is getting on my head. I’m going to put the diary back into my room now and sleep with them.
2ND ENTRY
I couldn’t have predicted that things will go out the way it did today. I don’t want to die here. Two of us died a horrible death. We need to get out of here, we want to get out of here but we can’t. Sitting here in the car; I have the feeling that I should continue writing on my diary in order for me to pass on what happened and somehow tell the story on what went on in here.
It started when I woke up late in the cabin, I stood up and see Barbara cooking. She told me that it was noon already and that Daryl has gone missing. Cherry and Jake has been looking for him for about four hours already and they haven’t return yet. I was so confused and concerned considering that Daryl was acting weird yesterday and deep down in my heart, I believed his concerns too. Barbara told me that we should wait for them to come back and Daryl is probably with them already. But there was only two of them when they returned.
They said that they have looked all over they can but they couldn’t find him. They also look back in the car and Daryl wasn’t there as well.
I asked about looking at the tunnel and beyond it jokingly thinking that Daryl might have run back to the town through the tunnel on foot but I was responded by a serious answer. Jake says that Daryl had the keys and should have just used the car instead if he desired to cross.
We kept searching outside until it was dark, rain is about to pour as thunderclaps lit the dark and cloudy night sky. I’m starting to get scared because of the creepy information about the weird stuff that happened to him yesterday.
It was about to rain when and we decided to go back. On our way we noticed something weird. The cabin is completely open. All the windows and doors were open. We immediately run inside anticipating Daryl but instead we saw a note at the table…
“You didn’t find him in time”
It was written in blood and it looks just like the note Daryl showed me. Along with it is a single chopped off foot, it was Daryl’s.
We panicked and closed the cabin immediately while Jake grabs the axe, and that’s when we hear a loud scream from afar, Daryl’s scream.
It was coming from the dead tree so we ran towards him as quickly as we can. His scream becomes louder and louder as we ran closer with fear in our hearts. When we got there, I shine my flashlight towards the screaming, above the tree. We all look up and saw it, the fruit of death, it was Daryl.
His neck was hung up in a barb wire noose and he was dying out of strangulation. Gasping for air, both his eyeballs has been pressed deeper in his face that made it looked like he was crying blood as he screams. All of his bones are twisted the wrong way, even all of his fingers. His twisted and unresponsive arms and legs dangled like jelly as he wriggles in desperation, slowly suffocating. All he can do is scream.
Thunderclaps roared at the sky as Jake tries to find a way to get him out of there but the tree is too tall and he was so high up. All I can do is shine the flashlight at him and watch in horror.
The light rain falls and suddenly Daryl drew his final scream, he was in so much pain and desperate. But he stopped and died.
Terrified, we ran all the way back to the house and locked all doors. The note isn’t there anymore, instead a new note was presented before us.
“Let’s play a game, don’t let us catch you in the dark”
Again written in blood.
We were on edge. We hide in my bedroom all horrified. I ran up to the bed and sat against the wall, scared. Cherry insisted that I hugged her as she leans her back into my body and we both focus our attention on the door at my room. I wrapped my arms around her knowing how horrified she must’ve felt. Jake locked the room door and stood next to it holding an axe with Barbara behind him. We were all alert when suddenly the power went out. It was pitch black.
We were all silent. All we can hear is the rain falling outside the cabin. The silence was broken when we hear the cabin door outside the room slowly opens. Jake is probably ready to strike with the axe at that point if he hears the room door open. Then we suddenly hear a strong snap coming from inside the room, it sounded like wood being broken in half.
The lights got back after the sound and I was greeted with something I would never forget. Cherry’s face is looking straight back at me, her head was completely twisted against her body. Her eye balls were pushed all the way at the back of her head, blood starts to drip from her eye sockets, all I could think of was to scream. Jake immediately took Cherry’s body weighting in my body as I become paralyzed from fear and shock.
I hear Jake say “It’s not safe here, follow me”
I grabbed my diary and ran outside, looking at Jake as he led us back to the car.
We went inside the car that was parked at the side of the tunnel. We lock every door and rolled up the windows, I can barely see what’s outside as the rain drops and the black tint of the window covers my vision. I grabbed a pen from the car and write, it is all I could think off as we wait for daylight.
I don’t want to die. I hope someone finds this notebook. I shouldn’t have recommended this place. All of this horror is happening because I wanted to know what happened to my Dana. I thought maybe she’s just missing and is still here, now I know she was dead for sure. I just hope she didn’t suffer the way Daryl did. I should’ve just trusted the police. I’m sorry Daryl, I’m sorry Cherry.
LAST ENTRY
I’m writing this while hiding in my cabin room, this is probably the last time I’ll write on this notebook for I don’t want to care about recording anymore. Cherry’s rotting corpse reminds me of the horrible things that could happen to me anytime by now. It is so quiet here that I could hear my pen write against the paper. I don’t want to die here, if you read this note; get out of here immediately.
I woke up earlier to find out that Jake has been looking for Barbara who went missing while we slept inside the car. He told me that he read my notebook while I’m asleep and learned that I lied about coming here out of simple curiosity, that I have a more personal reason.
I swear he wanted to hit me with the wooden end of the axe, he probably blames me for all the things that we’ve gone through here. But if I do tell them the truth beforehand, I know that they would just call me off and tell me that the police already did their best; so with that I had to drag them all.
We’ve been looking for Barbara and it’s getting dark, rain is about to pour once more it seems. I didn’t tell him that I found a note in the car written in blood and it tells me that Barbara is already dead swimming in that closed well. He must’ve rushed out of the car, as soon as he realized that Barbara isn’t there for him to miss this note. I didn’t want him to dive in that well out of false hope on saving her, but I just realized now that maybe I should have, considering that it is why we were even here in the first place. My false hope on saving my loved one.
Searching along the muddied woods slowed me down, I lost him in the dark while we were looking, he was fast and didn’t seem to care about me anymore.
Luckily, I saw the cabin lights from here. I figure that I could go back to the car and follow the dirt road from the cabin. I almost miss it in the corner of my eyes but I noticed it, while looking at the cabin from afar; I saw something at the top of the trees. It was something tall with long hair, its lower body seems to be ripped off and missing. It uses its hands to crawl quick like a spider, vanishing behind the leaves from tree to tree. It was quick and it disappear towards the deep woods.
I spaced out for about a minute, my brain froze and cold winds breezed along my skin, I didn’t want to move out of fear. I slowly snuck my way towards the cabin while keeping a close look at the direction it banished. I locked everything and hid here. No way I’d walk alone towards the car after what I just saw. I wonder if that thing dragged Daryl away towards the window while we slept.
And now here I am writing in my notebook with my friends corpse. I feel like I don’t have anything to write anymore. I don’t know what to do now that I’ve finished telling my tale.
Wait, I just hear the door from the other room open…
The rest of the page is torn…
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I was, stunned…
I don’t know what to make in all of these. Specially knowing that this is legitimate. The evidence that we got three years ago, it was ripped from this very same page that I’ve just read.
My shaking hands slowly placed the notebook down the table, I decided to grab the envelope next.
This was from the recent investigation conducted this week, a group of five girls missing. I lifted a big photo out of the envelope, what they have found has raised the fear that I feel even further.
It was a picture of a mans severed head, it looks like it was ripped from the body, it was spiked on top of a pine tree. The head was either preserved or recently ripped considering it looks fresh. But most importantly, it looked like it was Marcus. It wasn’t there the last time I investigated.
I dropped the picture into the desk and spaced out for a minute, my brain froze and cold winds breezed along my skin. I didn’t even remember seeing a dead tree when I investigated the tunnel woods. I was piecing things together; my mind is full.
I was so silent. I’m still terrified from all the horror. I feel like I shouldn’t have read this notebook and should’ve committed to the retired life. I feel like I’m not meant to read this.
Frozen in place, something tapped the back of my shoulder three times from behind.
My body straightened and my eyes looked as far as it can to the left and then to the right but my head didn’t want to turn. I didn’t believe in these ghost stories, so why be scared. I wanted to turn around…
But my eyes slowly gazed at the picture of Marcus’s severed head spiked on top of a tree.
“I am a police officer” I told myself and made up my mind to look. I turn around head first and then stood up with all of my body facing the back as quickly as I can.
There was nothing, nothing but a single piece of note on the floor.
Something is written in it…
with blood…
“Let’s play a game, do not let us catch you sleeping in the dark tonight”