The Woods

It had been a year since Anna had moved to the small town of Mayan where it rained every day. Also, it has been 8 months since she had become friends with Jo, Michael, and Mercy. She had never met such crazy people and she had never loved strangers so much.

They were regular 20-year-olds who often spent time in Jo’s basement watching series. Almost 6 months back they started a YouTube channel ‘Mysteries & Myths’ which was Jo’s idea. He wanted them to post some bizarre videos about Earth’s mysteries but they ended up giving movie and TV series reviews, and sometimes reaction videos.

“I’m telling you let’s do it,” Jo insisted to the gang as Mercy opened the door to the basement and walked down the stairs.

Jo was a short guy with fair skin and golden hair. His eyes went to Michael, the only other boy in the group. Michael was the quiet one with wheatish skin and a large mole on his neck. Anna was busy writing down topics for the next video, her long blonde hair falling on her face. Kathy sat in one corner adoring the new nose ring she had bought. Her dusky skin made anything looked beautiful on her. But ever since she had chopped most of her hair she was a little conscious of her looks.

Mercy sat down with them seeing the plate of French Fries on the table and jumped on them. Jo grabbed her colorful jacket and made her sit back. She was extremely thin and petite with weird black wavy hair. Her square-shaped face is always confused or angry.

“You,” he sneered at Mercy as she checked the group’s reaction, “What do you say? Do we go to the woods?”

Mercy pushed Jo back and cursed him. Why was he so obsessed with the woods that had been sealed for the last 50 years?

“Um, no,” she passed him a smug smile, “I’m not interested in meeting ghosts. So it’s a no from me for the zillionth time.”

Nobody knew what was in the woods outside the town. But the government had sealed it 50 years back. People assumed it could be ghosts or land mines. But no one knew. That’s why Jo wanted to find out. He thought this would make their channel world famous.

“There are no ghosts there,” Jo cried and looked at Michael for some support.

Michael nodded his head, “Yes, plus, who believes in ghosts? Come on, it's 2019.”

Anna had stopped writing and Kathy too was paying attention to the boys. Mercy ignored them and grabbed the plate of fries.

“This will be so great for our channel guys,” Jo went on insisting as the gang was paying attention, “Come on, in a few weeks our college will begin. Before that let’s do it. Or once college starts you all complain about projects and shit. What say?”

Anna closed the book and sighed, “It’s dangerous, Jo. Understand.”

“Plus, even if we say yes, how we will get in,” Kathy asked her eyebrows rose, “Government has sealed the place.”

Mercy laughed at Jo who angrily tried to snatch the plate from her.

Michael too agreed with Kathy, “If anyone finds out we’ll be in so much trouble.”

Mercy yelped, “What if they arrest us? What then?”

It started to rain and Jo began laughing. The windows were open and the air brought water droplets inside. Jo closed the windows and sat close to his friends.

“You know how my dad is a government employee,” Jo said his face nervous, “I heard him speak to someone on phone a few weeks earlier. He was saying anyone can get in the woods now. People are so scared that no one lives anywhere near the woods forget getting in the woods. Also, he knows what’s in the woods.”

The gang exchanged looks and deep down everyone knew it had to be ghosts or monsters.

“My dad was saying that government keeps treasure in those woods,” he whispered fearing anyone else would hear it, “Treasure they found at the depth of oceans. They keep it safely in the woods and use it whenever they want. This is why there are no seals. That’s just a story. Can you believe if we uncover this we would become fucking millionaires before 21?”

Mercy asked confused, “So we steal the treasure?”

Michael broke into a smile as Jo hit her arm, “No silly girl. We make a live video of what’s hidden inside the woods. Thief.”

“But –” Kathy had objections but Jo folded his hands and begged them.

“Well, okay,” Anna nodded and so did Michael, “We’ll go but we’ll go during the daytime and come home before sunsets. Fine?”

Jo was thrilled, “Alright. So we leave after 2 days at dawn. It’ll take at least 2 hours to reach there with no traffic.”

And just like that, they decided to explore the woods that were strictly forbidden.

Jo borrowed his father’s jeep saying they were going camping. Rest said the same story to their respective parents.

Kathy was driving while everyone narrated their first encounter with this story of haunted woods. Jo and Mercy sat at the back while Kathy and Michael were in the front. Anna was in the middle with their food and water supplies.

“My sister thinks the woods are a secret portal to some mysterious place,” Mercy said munching on some chips, “A place that leads to a different year.”

Jo rolled his eyes and grabbed the packet from her, “You mean like time traveling? Are you watching Dark with your sister? You promised us we would watch it together.”

“That’s not fair, Mercy,” Anna shook her head and laughed as Jo grabbed Mercy’s hand and bit her.

“What the fuck,” she wiped her hand on his shirt and pushed him away.

Kathy said unexpectedly, “My father told me a tale of a headless boy when I was 10. He said some boy was murdered – beheaded – in the forest and his ghost haunts the forest.”

Michael’s mouth opened in bewilderment, “My mom told me the same story.”

Jo noticed Mercy looked down scared so he gave her the chips back and winked.

“Well, my brother says something different,” Anna narrated her story, “He thinks there are some extinct wild animals and creatures hidden in there. Too dangerous to kill or live amongst us. But then you know Mojo is always watching those weird videos on YouTube.”

She smiled and looked at everyone. Only Jo was smiling because his dream was coming true.

After 2 hours they reached the place and saw it was sealed with steel wires. Michael took out his weapons and began cutting them. After a few minutes, they were staring at the woods surrounded by large trees and thick fog. It had rained in that place making the mud wet.

“Well, so I think,” Jo took charge and spoke, “Kathy, Michael, and Anna should come with me while Mercy should stay here and lookout. You never know if anyone’s guarding the area.”

Mercy objected angrily, “But – but you said no one’s guarding it and I’m not staying here alone.”

Jo sighed and shook his head, “Mercy it's 10.00 am in the morning and you are scared.”

Michael intervened, “I’ll stay with her just in case.”

Jo nodded and Mercy chuckled cursing him. He handed her a knife they had bought with them.

“You just want to get in with the two girls, no?” Mercy asked jealous and humiliated.

Hearing that Jo began laughing, “Yeah, right. Those two girls,” he pointed to Anna and Kathy who were trying to figure out the direction, “out of which one is a lesbian and the other one is a pansexual. Like I have a chance with them. You think I like them. You are an idiot, Mercy.”

Mercy knew Anna was homosexual and Kathy was pansexual and she still made the comment to hurt Jo.

“Mike,” Jo winked at him, “I’m sorry I’m leaving you with this asexual.”

With that, they left almost struggling to walk on the wet mud. Mercy wanted to kill Jo.

As they moved further, they realized the fog was getting thicker and thicker. At one point, they stopped as their visions were completely blurred.

Anna spotted a small, old hut on the right side and they lit up the torch. It looked like those haunted houses in the middle of the forest.

“So we go in?” Jo asked a little scared and tried to go live on Instagram.

“I’m sure there are ghosts in there,” Kathy said feeling petrified. She regretted coming but knew it was too late.

“Is your internet working?” Jo asked and looked down at his phone.

“Internet won’t work here,” Anna murmured and saw Jo staring down.

There was a small door to the bunker at their feet. They all looked at each other and saw the locks on the door.

Jo grabbed a rock and decided to break it open. But he was torn between the haunted hut and the bunker.

“Choose girls,” he told them sitting down on one knee.

“The bunker,” Kathy said and Anna agreed.

“If the treasure is hidden then it’s definitely in the bunker,” Anna said and glanced at the hut standing old and crippled, “I think this hut is purposely build to scare off people.”

It took some time but they broke the locks and got in slowly through the stairs. Once they got down they saw a vast empty space with a small yellow door at the far end. They walked like they were walking in an empty mall with no shops.

“We break this too,” Jo said and asked both the girls to start filming.

“Wait,” Anna held his hand, her own shivering, “What if – what if there are ghosts or creatures in there?”

Kathy blinked and was happy that even Anna was a little scared.

“Then we run,” Jo said confidently, “We run like the wind. But don’t worry. It’s just treasure.”

The girls nodded their heads and he began breaking the locks. They opened the door slowly and no animal or ghost came to them. The door opened to a large room with many doors and a pole in the middle.

“What do we do?” Kathy asked staring at the numerous doors.

They walked ahead to open the first door when something slid down the pole.

Shocked, they stepped back and saw a known face. It was Mercy. But she looked different. Her face was whitewashed and pale. Her hair long and thin.

“Is that Mercy?” asked Anna filming everything and watching Mercy stare at them with her dead, sleepy eyes.

Kathy looked at her feet and realized it wasn’t Mercy. The girl’s feet were like long twigs of trees. She signaled Anna to look at her feet.

“That’s not Mercy,” Kathy said and finally Jo noticed her feet and then her abnormally large hands that came to strangle Jo.

Her long fingers were around Jo’s neck as they screamed. She screamed too showing her black teeth.

“Oh my god,” cried Anna while Jo was choking. She picked up the rock that had fallen from Jo’s hand while Kathy grabbed the girl’s hair and pulled her back. Most of her hair came in Kathy’s hand while Anna crushed her head with the rock. The girl fell down with black liquid oozing from her head.

“What the fuck is that?” asked Anna her hands shivering.

Jo looked up from the girl’s body and saw figures standing behind Anna and Kathy.

The girls ran behind Jo and saw their doppelgangers walking towards them. They had the same face as those people with pale skin and thin hair.

“Who are these people?” asked Kathy her voice cracking, “And why they look like us?”

The guy who looked like Jo walked towards Jo with a confused face and inserted a broken piece of glass inside Jo’s chest.

The girls cried as Jo fell down in that man’s arm. He held Jo close to his heart and smelled him.

Kathy and Anna held each other’s hands and moved back but the door was closed and locked.

Finally, the man began speaking, “Hello,” his voice was coarse and thick. But sounded similar to Jo’s.

“Who are you?” Anna asked crying, her phone lying down.

The man smiled while the doppelgangers of Anna and Kathy stood like zombies.

“We are you,” he said moving ahead, “We come from planet Idris, Earth’s twin planet. Everything on Idris is the same as planet Earth, even people. We few were curious to explore the beautiful planet Earth. The first planet to give life so we came here. But you humans didn’t treat us nicely and captured us here. Our ancestors were killed here. But we are here in front of you. However, we can’t go out for vengeance till you live.”

A loud noise was heard by Mercy and Michael as they stood bored and tired.

“I think they are out,” Michael said trying to see past the fog.

“I hope,” wished Mercy looking at the grey skies, “I’m hungry and bored.”

After a while, they again heard a noise and Michael told Mercy he would look around and return.

“But –” she objected to no avail. He was disappeared behind the fog. She turned around and saw the jeep. The keys were lying on the driver’s seat. She wanted to get the hell out of the place. Thankfully, she had recently learned driving from her sister.

When she shifted her gaze to the forest she saw a few people approaching her. They looked like the trio but Michael wasn’t anywhere.

Jo was leading but they were walking really slowly like their legs were cuffed together. Mercy thought it had to be the mud.

“Um, guys,” Mercy waved at them but they didn’t wave back, “have you seen Michael? Where’s he? He just went to get you.”

They didn’t answer and walked like they were crawling. The fog appeared and she lost them. Finally, when she saw them clearly she noticed Michael behind them walking unhurriedly just like them.

Her eyes fell on their clothes which looked different. But then she figured it was the fog playing games with her.

“Guys, come on fast,” Mercy waved and moved a little back, “We have to reach home before the sun sets.”

They were a few feet away when Mercy decided to get in the jeep and sit down as her legs hurt.

“Come on guys,” Mercy said and turned around to face the jeep. But before turning her eyes noticed something strange. She saw Jo’s weird feet and knew it wasn’t the fog that was playing with her eyes.

Her heart was in her mouth but her eyes were on the keys lying inside the jeep. Sighing, she decided to make a run because those weren’t her friends.