The Woods Behind Hollow Creek High

Every school has that one place everyone talks about but nobody really goes to. For Hollow Creek High, it was the woods behind the football field.

They were just called the Hollow.

Everyone had heard the stories. How a kid named Evan disappeared there five years ago during senior week. How people saw strange lights moving through the trees at night. How sometimes you could hear a voice calling for help, even when there was no one there.

Nobody believed it, not really. But that did not stop people from daring each other to go in.

On the last night of fall break, four students decided they would.

It was supposed to be just a joke. They brought flashlights, a bag of cheap beer, and that restless feeling you get when you are seventeen and too tired of everything to care about what happens next.

There was Noah, who always talked too loud and laughed like he wanted someone to notice how broken he really was. His girlfriend, Jenna, who wore her eyeliner like armor. Tyler, who filmed everything for his channel but never said much in person. And Mia, the quiet one who never quite fit anywhere but somehow ended up with them that night anyway.

The sky was already bleeding orange when they climbed the fence behind the bleachers. The woods started almost immediately after. Trees leaned close together, their branches curling like ribs.

“Come on, this is perfect,” Noah said, kicking through dead leaves. “We’ll camp for an hour, drink, and get proof that nothing’s here. Tyler, you’re recording, right?”

Tyler lifted his phone. “Yeah.”

They walked until the field lights disappeared behind them. The deeper they went, the quieter it got. The air felt colder, heavier. The smell of earth and rot clung to everything.

Jenna stopped suddenly. “Wait. Do you hear that?”

At first, they heard nothing. Then a faint whisper. It sounded like wind, but the words were too clear.

“Help me.”

Mia turned toward the sound. It came from the darkness between the trees.

Noah grinned nervously. “Alright, whoever’s messing with us, it’s not funny.”

No one answered.

They found a small clearing and built a fire. The flames flickered weakly against the damp air. The woods around them seemed to breathe. Every time the fire hissed, someone flinched.

Noah cracked open a beer. “This is so stupid. It’s just a story.” He looked at Mia. “You don’t really believe any of it, do you?”

Mia hesitated. “My brother used to talk about the Hollow. He said you could hear things that sounded like your own voice.”

Tyler lowered his camera. “What happened to your brother?”

She looked away. “He went missing three years ago.”

The fire popped. Jenna shivered. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

The silence that followed was heavy.

Then the whisper came again. Louder this time.

“Help me.”

Noah stood, shining his flashlight toward the trees. “Who’s there?”

The beam hit something red. A shape between the trunks. It moved fast, vanishing when he blinked.

Jenna grabbed his arm. “Let’s go back. This isn’t funny anymore.”

But when they turned around, the path was gone. The trees looked different, twisted into unfamiliar shapes.

Tyler’s flashlight flickered. He smacked it, but it died completely.

“No way,” he muttered, pulling out his phone. No signal.

Mia was staring into the darkness. “Do you hear that?”

The whisper was louder now, closer. And this time, it sounded exactly like her.

“Please help me.”

Her stomach turned cold. “That’s my voice.”

The whisper came again, and again. Dozens of them. Each one sounded like a different person. Noah. Jenna. Tyler. All crying for help at once.

Then came the smell. Metallic. Thick.

Blood.

Jenna gagged. “Oh my God.”

The ground beneath their feet glistened wet in the firelight. It was not dirt anymore. It was dark red mud, slick and sticky.

Something moved beneath it.

Noah screamed as a pale hand shot up from the ground and wrapped around his ankle. He fell hard, kicking. The hand pulled harder, dragging him down. The others grabbed him, but the mud swallowed him up to his chest in seconds.

“Pull him out!” Jenna screamed.

They tried, but the ground sucked at him, greedy and loud. When his face went under, the bubbling sound filled the clearing. Then silence.

The fire went out.

Tyler’s flashlight flicked on by itself. Its beam caught something on a nearby tree. It was a face carved into the bark. Noah’s face. Eyes wide. Mouth open in a silent scream. Blood seeped from the carving like sap.

Jenna ran. Mia and Tyler followed, crashing through the woods. Branches tore at their skin, but they didn’t care. Every tree they passed had another face. Jenna’s. Tyler’s. Even Mia’s.

Tyler tripped and fell. The ground split open beneath him. He didn’t even scream, just disappeared into the dark.

Jenna kept running, sobbing, her mascara streaked across her cheeks. “We have to get out!”

But the whisper followed them.

When Mia looked back, she saw shapes moving between the trees. Shadows that looked like them, copies walking just a few steps behind.

Jenna’s hand slipped from hers. Mia turned and saw her standing still, staring into the woods.

“What are you doing?” Mia shouted.

Jenna smiled. “I hear him. Noah. He’s calling me.”

She walked into the dark and vanished.

Mia was alone.

The whispers stopped. Everything went quiet. Then, softly, her brother’s voice came from behind her.

“Mia, you found me.”

She turned.

The thing that looked like her brother stood there, smiling with blood running from his eyes. “Stay. You belong here.”

When the police found the clearing two days later, they found four flashlights, one cracked phone, and carvings on every tree.

Each carving had a name.

And every face was still bleeding.