We Were Never Supposed to Go There

It started as a dare.

Everything stupid in high school does.

We were sitting behind the gym, passing around a cigarette and pretending not to care that graduation was two weeks away and none of us knew what we were doing after. The woods loomed behind the chain-link fence, dark and heavy. Everyone called them Deadwater Woods. They said a girl named Elise went missing there ten years ago and that sometimes you could still hear her crying if you got close enough.

Jamie said it first. “Let’s go in tonight.”

I laughed. “That’s the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.”

Jamie smirked. “You scared?”

And that was it. Nobody wanted to be the one who said no.

So it was me, Jamie, Cass, and Ryan. Four seniors who thought we were invincible. We met after midnight, flashlights in hand, the air cold enough to sting our lungs. The world felt far away out there, like the woods existed outside of time.

Ryan was already drunk, stumbling ahead with his hoodie half zipped. “You know what I heard?” he said. “They never found her body because the ground ate her. Like it swallowed her whole.”

Cass rolled her eyes. “You’re disgusting.”

“I’m serious,” he said. “They said when the cops dug around, the dirt was soaked in blood.”

Jamie laughed too loud. “Bullshit.”

But I noticed the way her flashlight shook when she said it.

We kept walking. The trees grew taller, their branches knotting together like veins. The deeper we went, the quieter it got. Even the crickets stopped.

After maybe half an hour, we found a clearing. A ring of dead leaves and a pile of stones in the middle. It looked like an old fire pit. Someone had drawn shapes around it, strange circles and lines carved into the dirt.

“Creepy,” Cass muttered.

Jamie crouched beside the stones. “Look. There’s something under here.”

She pulled one away and uncovered something small and white. It looked like bone.

Ryan started to laugh but it caught in his throat. His flashlight flickered, then died. “My light’s out.”

“Use your phone,” I said.

He tried, but it would not turn on. None of ours would. One by one, the screens went black.

Cass grabbed my arm. “Let’s leave.”

We turned back toward the path, but there was nothing there. Only trees. No trail. No light from the town. It was like we had never walked here at all.

Jamie whispered, “Guys… do you hear that?”

It was faint at first. A voice, maybe a girl’s, crying somewhere in the dark.

Cass shook her head. “No. No, we’re not doing this.”

Then something moved. Just a shape at the edge of the clearing, pale against the trees.

Ryan raised his flashlight, smacking it until it flared weakly to life. For a moment the light caught something. A figure standing just beyond the tree line. Long hair, white dress, skin gray like smoke.

Cass screamed. The figure moved closer, but not like a person. It glided, its feet never touching the ground.

Ryan dropped the light. Everything went black again.

Something brushed my hand. Wet and cold.

Jamie yelled, “Run!”

We ran in different directions. Branches slapped my face. I could hear Cass screaming behind me. Then the sound stopped, cut off like someone pressed mute.

I stumbled over roots, scraping my knees raw. My flashlight finally flickered back on for a second. It showed red on the ground. Not leaves. Blood. Thick and dark.

Jamie appeared from the shadows, panting. “Where’s Cass?”

I shook my head.

We found Ryan next. He was on the ground, his throat cut open. His eyes were still moving. He tried to say something but only bubbles came out.

Jamie fell to her knees, shaking. “No, no, no…”

Something moved behind us. We turned, and there she was.

The girl from the stories. Elise. Or what was left of her. Her eyes were hollow, skin shredded, mouth split open in a smile that did not belong to her.

She whispered something, but it was not words. It was the sound of dirt being shoveled, of breath caught in a throat, of the ground opening.

Jamie screamed and swung her flashlight. The beam sliced across Elise’s face, and for a moment I saw what looked like more faces beneath her skin. Dozens of them. Mouths stretching, whispering, trapped.

I ran. I did not look back.

The woods seemed endless. Every direction was the same. Trees and shadows. I kept running until I collapsed. The ground was soft beneath me, almost warm. I realized too late that it was moving.

Hands reached up from the soil. Small ones. Thin and broken. They grabbed my ankles, pulling. I kicked and screamed, clawing at the dirt, but it pulled harder. The earth filled my mouth, my nose, my eyes.

The last thing I heard before everything went dark was Jamie screaming my name.

When I woke, it was morning.

The woods were quiet. My clothes were clean. My skin was pale but dry. I thought I had dreamed it all until I saw the carvings on the trees. Four names. Mine. Jamie’s. Cass’s. Ryan’s.

Only one was crossed out.

Mine.

They never found the others.

Sometimes, when I stand behind the school and look toward the fence, I can see the woods breathing. I swear I hear someone crying.

I think it is Jamie.

And sometimes, when I blink, I see dirt under my nails again.

Like the woods never really let me go.