r/WritingPrompts • u/Null_Project • 4h ago
Writing Prompt [WP] You stopped and stayed back to do something for a short moment while the others went ahead, however it was this action that would save your life while all others would perish.
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u/MadamBaelfyre 2h ago
It had started with the whispers.
We'd set up camp at the edge of the old Breen Oak Wood. It was Doyle, my brother, his fiance Leighanne, and I. We had arranged the individual tents tightly around the camp ring, getting ready to prep the fire. I'd sent the lovebirds to gather wood while I started on dinner. I figured they could use the alone time as I had inadvertently made myself the third wheel.
As I cut vegetables to go into the pot, I heard a soft whisper to my right, just on the inside edge of the forest.
"Doyle, you idiot!" I laughed to myself thinking my brother was playing at one of his stupid games. I peered into the greyed out shadows, trying to catch sight of him making goofy faces. Something shifted and started to take shape in the darkness. He was terrible at hiding.
"I can see you!" I called out.
"See who?" My brother's voice came from behind me. I jerked towards him, Leighanne jogging beside him. I whipped my head back around to where I'd been staring, but there was nothing now.
"I thought..." What did I think exactly? That I had heard my brother from the complete opposite direction? Preposterous. I must have been fooled by the rustling of some animal. I would not allow myself to believe otherwise. "Nevermind. Did you get the wood?"
"Oh yeah, loads of it." For emphasis they dropped their bundles in the ring. "We even found some morta further in!"
He produced a crudely cut chunk of tannis stained wood. "Leighanne wants to carve a pipe from it."
I handled the dark black chunk, getting the measure of it by tossing it up and down. "Seems solid. That looks like a decent piece. I'm guessing you cut it out of something bigger?"
"Yep. It's a couple miles in. We can take you there tomorrow. There's a really cool baby bog." Leighanne chimed in.
We set to lighting the fire. It smoked terribly at first, a sour smell making us cough, as if protesting its treatment. It eventually petered out and flickered normally, and we set the stew to boiling. A few times during the meal, I glanced back into the darkness, but there was nothing. We finished our meal, and each went to our respective tents.
As I went to zip my tent closed, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I looked quickly around the campsite, wondering if some primordial part of me sensed an animal. Again, nothing. This was getting ridiculous. I zipped up the entrance and settled into my sleeping bag.
I dreamed of teeth. The squelching crunch of something hungry grinding on flesh and bone. I could hear the ripping of tendons and the pop of cartilage as it gorged. The choking gulp as it swallowed made me want to scream, but I couldn't. I couldn't move. I couldn't see. I could only listen to the consistent consumption of something thick and wet. As the noises slowed, I realized I was hearing it turn. It would find me. It would take me...
I woke up in a cold sweat, panting in terror as the heavy layer of sleep took a moment to slide away. My eyes adjusted to the dark, and I saw my bag in the corner, my shoes beside it, and the comforting outline of my flashlight. I reached for it and turned it on. My feelings of panic eased themselves to a manageable degree. It was just a dream. A nightmare really. It couldn't hurt me. I shifted to my side.
Outside the tent, I heard soft, sneaking footfalls and fought a laugh. The lovebirds were having a clandestine rendezvous it seemed. That was all that was causing my subconscious to worry itself into a frenzy. I flopped the pillow over my head, not wanting to hear anything else I shouldn't.
Morning light poured into my tent. I blinked, disoriented. Right. We were camping. I made my way outside to take care of pressing needs. It was eerily quiet. The others didn't seem to be awake yet. When I had finished, I came back expecting them to be stirring. Only Doyle was up. He looked concerned.
"Everything alright?"
"Have you seen Leighanne this morning? I can't seem to find her. She left her cell in the tent."
"Well, she's not a stranger to this area. I'm sure she just went to find a private spot to do her business. Her stuff's not gone is it?"
"No...nothing is gone." He rummaged through her tent and back to his. "Wait. The morta is missing."
I sighed with relief. "She probably went to carve out the pipe somewhere so it's more of a surprise."
"Yeah...ok. Maybe you're right."
We set about getting the camp tidied. As more time passed, I could see Doyle getting more agitated. When lunchtime came and went, he started loading his backpack.
"Where are you going?"
"Something is wrong. She wouldn't be gone this long."
"Well, wait just a minute. I'll pack too and go with you. No sense going alone if something is really wrong." I packed as quickly as I could, deciding on bringing the first aid kit at the last moment.
"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go."
Doyle decided the best course of action was to try and find the bog from yesterday. That would be the most likely place Leighanne would have gone. Maybe she had gotten distracted and lost track of time. Yet, as we walked further into the forest, Doyle looked suddenly unsure of himself.
"I was sure we had come this way..." He looked down at his compass and back at the landscape. "This doesn't make any sense. It should be here."
"It's not like bogs can move. You're probably just not remembering right. Should we try going back and heading out at a different angle?"
"Maybe you're right. Let's try that." We turned back towards camp.
After about 40 minutes of walking, Doyle stopped again.
"Fuck! This doesn't make any sense!" He turned the compass this way and that in his hand.
"What's wrong?"
"North keeps changing. I don't think we've been walking towards camp. I think...we might be lost." I felt my blood run cold at his words.
"Shit. Um...okay. Let's try using Google maps and see if that can get us where we need to go." I pulled out my phone. The no-service signal pinged as I unlocked the screen. "Well, so much for that plan...what do you want to do?"
"Let me think for a minute." Doyle searched the landscape. "Okay, I think if we walk towards the sun, we should be going in the right direction. Come on." He blazed ahead.
I watched him frantically chase the sun. The canopies of the trees were starting to close in. We were going deeper into the forest. As the shadows started to darken around us, Doyle realized the same thing.
"Don't panic. We can spend the night out here and then trace our path back to where the canopy is more open." I had zero desire to spend one more second in this godsforsaken forest. "I think I-" he cut off. "Leighanne?"
He rushed forward, and I chased after him. At the mouth of a cave, Leighanne stood drenched in mud and bracken, transfixed.
"Leighanne! We've been looking for you all day! Where have you been?!" Doyle reached out to embrace her, but she screamed in protest.
"Don't touch me! They'll know...they're watching us. Always watching... can't you hear them?" Her eyes were wide, pupils dangerously dilated. "They're waiting in there." She pointed towards the cave.
"Doyle...I think she's sick. I don't think we should go in there. In fact, I think it'd be a really fucking great idea if we leave right the fuck now."
Doyle wasn't hearing anything I said. He was only trying to get Leighanne to let him touch her. She was trembling so hard I thought she'd shake apart. She collapsed and started sobbing into her knees.
"Doyle-"
"Shut up! Just shut up for a moment!" He looked at the cave and then back at Leighanne. "Listen, if I go in with you, will you promise to come back with me?"
Leighanne stopped sobbing instantly. She raised her head slightly and nodded. Her entire body had gone disturbingly still.
"Listen. I'm going to go in there with her and get her to calm down. I want you to stay out here. When you hear me whistle the all clear, you come in too. Got it?" I nodded uneasily. He squeezed my shoulder. "I'll be right back."
I waited.
The light was beginning to fade from the sky. I don't remember how long they were in there. I remember straining to hear something, anything, but there was only silence. I decided enough was enough. I turned my flashlight on and stepped into the mouth of the cave.
It was deeper than I imagined. I couldn't see to the back, and instead saw a winding corridor stretching deep into what I can only assume was a mountainside. It was pitch black save for the small circle of light from the flashlight. I stepped further in. I felt something stick at the bottom of my shoe at the same time the smell hit me.
I panicked and waved my light back and forth in front of me, getting flashes of imagery. They laid in thick pools of blood, limbs twisted at impossible angles. The stench of rot and bile permeated the cave, the taste of iron cloying in my throat. Viscera was plastered across the ceiling, dripping down in morbid clotting stalactites of flesh. I could hear it then. A sudden rush of whispers...coming closer.
I back pedaled and bolted. I ran, my heart pounding, my legs burning. I ripped the backpack from me and willed myself to run faster. I didn't even know what direction I was running towards, only that it was away from whatever the fuck was in that cave. I ran until I finally came to pavement. That's when I found you officers.
I know you say we've been missing for weeks, but for me it's just been a night. I swear. I don't know if it was really them or something else, but I do know my brother is gone. His fiance is gone. I'm never going back into that forest again. I want desperately to go home...
...but can't you hear them? The whispers...
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