The Town Walk

==Why I looked and How I Found The Town Walk==
Back a long time ago, a friend of mine's dad told me of a haunted park, and how almost half of the town disappeared inside of it.
I wasn't much of an urban legend and myth believer, but it did shock me. My mother was 28 back in '78, when she disappeared. Along with most of the town.
The Police told us that there was a motor crash that killed her, but she wasn't near any roads. Dad told me that she was going to the Town Walk.
My friend's dad told me that the mayor called all who would come for a "refreshing" walk in the new town park. And he knew because he was one of the few that didn't go.
When I showed interest, he told me he'd get me in contact with one of his friends who works at the town library. He said that he was collecting information on the subject and would be glad to share it with me, IF, I promised that I would never look for the Town Walk. I did.
I trudged through the sludge-like snow up to the town library, where I met up with the librarian and he gave me the book which he said had all the stuff I needed in it. I took the book titled "A Summary of Our Town's History" to a table and opened it to a page filled with newspaper clippings and papers. As I read, I started to piece together the story. Back in '78, the town finished the construction of the town's own park. The mayor at the time then asked the populace if they would like to accompany him on a "Town Walk" to explore the new park. One thing that caught my eye is that he said that he "personally attended" to the construction of the park to make it a very "invigorating" run.
Another thing that caught my eye is the amount of protest AGAINST the walk. One elderly lady said that she walked through the park just after the construction ended, saying that there were "horrible creatures" inside the park with "eyes that glowed like miniature suns."
I looked through the interviews that the town newspaper took before the event. "I'm really excited, I mean, we really don't get much exercise around here," says—I stare shocked by the name, my mother's name.
Now I knew my path was clear. I knew what I had to do.
I grabbed my coat and a flyer from the book telling me where to go and left the library.
I trudged through snow to the abandoned park. I looked down at the flyer, this is where the entrance should be. As I looked up, a new sight dominated the earlier forest line. An eerie brass sign that read "The Town Walk" now sat next to an equally eerie dirt path that had not been there a second before. I then stopped to think, if this path killed half of the town or did God-knows-what to them, should I go in there? But I had to know what happened to my mother, so I did go in.
==Inside The Town Walk==
When I entered, I didn't feel anything unusual, I just walked through the normal looking path with a mingling feeling of uneasiness. As I walked, I listened to the small sounds of the forest as I walked, but as I walked, the sounds faded, I was stuck with complete silence. After a while, I would hear branches break as I walked past, or leaves scuttle as if something stepped on them behind me. Occasionally, branches would snap forward from unnatural bent positions and hit me, as if the forest itself didn't want me to be there. Also, as I walked, I saw some brown-blurred flashes in the distance, I assumed wildlife. The only thing creepy about that is that some of the flashes were white, like little lamps were moving. As I moved farther in, the forest started to become warmer, and trees started to obscure the sky and the path, and soon, I was in a foggy, warm, dense forest, despite it being winter.
Not just the obscure sightings and strange noises, that wasn't the only thing that scared me. Every time I tried to get off the barely visible path to follow some sort of thing, I found myself blocked by a menacing looking tree or a steep dropdown, with strange noises coming out of the fog as I got five feet away from the path. It was as if the forest was thinking. And not only that, it was anticipating my moves. And whenever I was spooked by something I saw, the forest would plant a trick branch or a conveniently timed crack behind me to make me jump.
You know those flashes I was talking about? The ones with the lights? Well, I was right, they were animals, with glowing flashlight eyes. They stared to stay long enough for me to see them clearly, I can't assume that's a good thing. After I saw one that looked like a bear, except it was dangling from a vine, run off, I heard a earsplitting shriek, like a screaming girl, being tortured on top of that. The first thing that came to my mind was this, "Aww no, it's bringing friends."
After that, I ran. As I ran, it seemed as if all hell broke loose. While I ran, hundreds, if not thousands of those trick branches snapped as I passed, causing me not to bleed regular blood, but green, mucus-like pus that boiled from my wounds, leaving a stink-covered trail that made the horrors from some place worse than hell yowl and scream in excitement, for their prey was close. As I limped, a particularly large trick branch swung at me and with a sickening crack and a sharp pain, broke my arm. I chanced a look over my back as I limped through the forest. There were many lamp-eyed creatures chasing me, some swinging through the overhead branches, or continuing the pursuit on ground.
As a ran around a corner, I found a rare and lifesaving thing, a clearing. As I stepped into the center, I saw bodies. Tens of bodies, all in different states of mutilation and decay, were lying on the ground, bleeding the same pus-ichor that I was. And, in the center, I saw my mother's body. Covered in wounds, mutilations and pus, sat the once beautiful face that had charmed so many men, lying on the ground, looking stepped on.
Then, I decided, I would give up.
The Town Walk would get its wish, in the space where my mother had died in an innocent act. The horrors of the forest crowded around; rabbits, bears, deer, all bearing sharp, gnarled teeth and those unblinking, lamp-like eyes, the symbols of the forest's defilement of nature.
Then, as I stared back at the horrors of the forest, I noticed something that made me so scared that I was senseless, the horrors, they were tagged.
Then, an unusual breeze brushed my neck, turning me back around to reality. I turned around and saw something so beautiful, the exit.
Immediately, my reflexes kicked in and outran the horrors as I dived for the exit, and made it. After I made my bid for safety, I soon fell unconscious. I was helped by passing civilians and sent to the hospital, where I'm writing this story right now.
One thing in my brain kept nagging at me though. What's the purpose of the Town Walk? Well, I believe the purpose of the Town Walk is frightfully clear. Nature spawns its own hell, and doesn't care if you survive. Nature will kill you and your whole species, and pave over it like you never existed. So, in a manner of speaking, nature, the whole world, is worse than hell.
Category:Disappearances
Category:Nature
Category:Places