Dark and Fear

The sun was going down across the horizon but the tree hid the light of the sun. The trees stood tall with the leaves swaying ever so slightly from animals and birds moving around in them. I was walking my little white puppy, Ace, around on the nature trails behind my school. I go there all the time no matter what day, I’m always there. I had a yellow, white, and black striped long sleeve shirt and ripped jeans with black combat boots. I had my blue and polka dotted headphones on my ears with “Follow Me Home” playing.

I was turning onto a new trail when Ace stopped walking. I tripped right over him and fell face first into the ground. My headphones and my phone fell to the ground as I had done.

“Come on, Ace.” I went from my stomach to my knees with Ace licking my cheek as though to say sorry. I couldn’t be mad at him so I petted his head and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. He licked me again before running away from me. I didn’t notice I dropped his leash when I had fallen. I got up as fast as I could and tried to grab his leash but I missed.

I ran through the woods to try to find him but it was too late, he was long gone. The sun was almost gone and the dark was coming out more. I went to take the trail home but where was home? I couldn’t see the trail and I was now all alone. I had no clue where I was except that I was in the middle of the woods with nobody to help me. I looked every which way and still saw nothing. The darkness seemed to surround me like a huge black blanket. I started to hyperventilate and I almost cried as I stood there in the dark. I sat down on the ground with my knees to my chest and my head resting. I couldn’t stand being alone in the dark, I was scared of the things that lurked in the darkness. If only I hadn't tripped over Ace I wouldn't be lost in the dark. I thought I heard somebody coming from the distance but I wasn't sure. So I just sat there and waited for the darkness to surround me some more. I swear I heard barking and a person's voice when I was too nervous to even respond to either of the sounds. As I sat there the darkness had completely devoured me.

I heard a man's voice calling my name, I picked my head up to see which direction the sound came. I heard the man's voice again calling my name. I sat there some more and I could hear footsteps coming closer and closer to me. I heard him calling my name again and again, he wouldn't stop calling my name. I couldn't recognize the voice or I would shoot up from the ground and run towards them. I was very unsure. But then a couple seconds a black silhouette of a man was standing in front of me. He held his hand out to me.

"I don't think a young girl like you should be out by yourself. Come I'll help you get home.

" The man held his hand out to me some more and waited for me to take it. Me being who I am, I refuse to take his hand. I just sat there and just looked up to the silhouette.

"I'm sorry but I don't recognize who You Are. Can you tell me who you are and maybe I'll take your hand. " I tried to get a better idea of who this man was.

"Don't be afraid. I'm just like you, all alone with nowhere to go. " The man said, still standing there waiting for me to take his hand. " I'm just like you, why don't you come with me? "

"No no no no! I'm not going to just go run around in the woods with a stranger. You won't even tell me your name. " I shot up from the ground like a bullet leaving the guy and ran as fast as I could away from this man. That can’t be true, I think I’m somebody. But what am I? I kept running away into the darkness and I thought I was alone when something pulled my shoulder back. I fell into a dark hole with nothing to grab onto. I fell and tried to find a way out but there wasn’t one. I stopped trying to find a way out and allowed myself to keep falling. I had no clue when this was going to end nor did I really care if it ended. I wanted to fall and be erased from this darkness. I closed my eyes as I felt my body plunge into a ton of water. I thought to myself, am I in my pool? Or even the pond near the trails? I held my breath as I swam up with my bubbles going right in front of me. I kept going and came up to the dark surface. I gasped for air and looked into the darkness with nobody there. Not even a single light in the darkness.

“Hey…I see you little one…” Someone’s voice came from behind me so I turned around to see the man from the woods holding their hand to me. This time he had my phone for a flashlight and I saw him wearing a black cloak so I couldn’t see his face. I knew it was him since his voice was the same. I took his hand as he pulled me up out of the water. He just sort of hovered over the water.

“Thanks,” I said to him as he pulled his cloak down, revealing his face to me. I was shocked and let his hand go. He wasn’t even a human at all. His face was a skull with no flesh on them. I was scared and I fell backwards into the water. I could see him shine the light down into the water where I was. I stayed very still as he grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me up.

“I don’t wanna die!” I cried, trying to get him to let go of my shirt. He didn’t say anything to me but showed me nobody was here but him. He gave me my phone and just looked at me with his scythe in his hands. He just looked at me as I tried to get him to let me go. He held his grip as I stopped fighting him. I let him pull me up.

“You don’t know, do you?” He said, letting my shirt go as I stood there in front of him. I shook my head in confusion. “Kid, you're basically killing yourself in her head.”

“I am? But how are you here? I thought you came to collect the souls of the people and animals that are dead.” I couldn’t believe my eyes nor could I even wrap my head around what was going on.

“That is true but with you killing yourself mentally I had to come to set you straight. You made it clear to me you didn’t want to die so you need to fix yourself.” He showed me a light that was to my left side and looked at it as did I. “That’s where you want to be, not over here kiddo.”

“But I can’t get over there.” I turned back to face him as he turned to me.

“Oh but you can. You just have to clear your head and go over there.” He turned away from me and left me in the darkness with only my phone for a light. I looked back to the light in the distance and took a step towards it. Surprisingly I didn’t fall into the water like I thought I would. I kept walking towards the light as it came closer and closer to me. I began to run to the warmth of the light when I stopped.

“If I go there what will happen to me?” I whispered to myself when I saw the people who care for me standing in front of the light.

“Come…come to us…we need you” They called out to me, as I ran over to them. I needed to be with them. I just had to be with the people who loved me and cared for me.

“I’m coming!” I shouted back to them as I ran right into the light with them at my side.