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Have you ever felt a wave of rush come across you, like an electric shock? The true impersonation of fear bestowed over you. It’s as if meeting face-to-face with the devil himself. Well if you haven’t, lucky you. This isn’t a story to be shared but if this will prevent more souls from being sucked out of their bodies into the unknown and never-ending wails of pain, then my encounter in Pine Woods will be a lesson to learn from.

I had never gone for an overnight hike or camp, to be honest, this was what we usually called a friends’ hangout. The usual was to be brought on the trip, booze, heavy intoxicating substances, and one hell of a nighttime experience anticipated.

We left at 7 pm from our meet-up point which was at my best friend’s place since he owned a car. A privilege most African parents wouldn’t allow their children to have especially if they didn’t work for it. I understood though, because growing up the mantra that pushed me to the limits is that hard work pays.

The trip went smoothly without any bumps and buckles. The streetlights disappeared into the night as we headed deeper into the forested area. The stars would shine so brightly making the forest look like a fairytale come true. Or maybe?

We saw the writing engraved on the squeaking wooden board hanging from a tree welcoming us into the camping ground. We were welcomed by an odd-looking guard who smiled in thrill to see new guests. His eyes shimmered in the dark as if engulfed by fireflies as we drove further away from him and directly to the reception grounds. There we were introduced by a singular poster explaining the ground rules of the camp and a pen requesting for a signature to be drawn on the paper.

We were in too much awe and excitement to care less about what the papers said, but I should have read it before going deep into the woods. Maybe all the chaos that went down could have been avoided. Blasted music was all that could be heard from the car as three of my friends and I chugged on the liquor that we had brought exhaling heavy puffs of smoke from our heavily infused vape pens.

As the night got older, we got more intoxicated by the minute. I don’t know why I listened when my friend suggested we go deeper into the woods on foot and set up camp. Already all this was usual since I had watched enough movies to indicate how camps went down so I tagged along like a puppy on a leash.

As we set up camp and lit the bonfire, certain sounds began escaping my ears but I ignored them thinking it was the liquor and heavy intoxication messing with my head. However, things started getting serious when one of my friends went to get the Bluetooth speaker from the car and never returned. The only thing that was left of her was her excruciating wail from a mile away.

When we heard this we went in search of her suddenly becoming sober at once so that we could leave. As we dug deeper into the forest, a pungent smell attacked our noses but we couldn’t quite tell what or where it was from. However, all that mystery was brought to a halt when we found our friend hanging upside down on a tree decapitated eyes at the back of her head. We screamed in disgust and fear as we ran further from the body. I suddenly tripped and fell on another body only to realize that it was my best friend’s body. How I didn’t notice him missing is still a mystery to me to date.

Now with two of us left, we began trailing our footsteps back to the car in fear and as fast as possible. Around us were different engravings in a language we couldn’t understand. All this continued until we came across a huge tree. On it writings were written in bold and blood, “CRUHBIN GOLTING HEN!!” This was strange because past there was a gated cemetery with thorns guarding it. When we turned back, the guard that we left at the entrance was behind us with his rolled back and flies surrounding him. He smelled like a dead corpse and sounded like a wailing zombie. However, I knew all this couldn’t be real because zombies aren’t real right?

He came closer to us and whispered in delight, “Thank you for the fresh souls, we were waiting for you.” When we heard that we ran as fast as our legs could carry us. We finally got to the car and drove fast out of the woods and towards the city light. We exhaled as we thought we were done with all that had happened that night. I looked at my friend to see how she was fairing off when I noticed her eyes in the rearview mirror rolled to the back of her head. I skipped outside of the car and ran towards a shed I found which is lockable from the inside.

I have been here for the past two days and I’m running out of resources. For anyone reading this, please help me, and don’t forget “WELCOME TO PINE WOODS!!”