“Kevin, Joe, wait up! Wait!” I panted as I ran as fast as I could from the little girl in the church.

I could hear them both running up ahead, brushing past the trees and brush in total darkness. I had my flashlight on and only that did so much in this impenetrable blackness. I couldn’t see three feet in front of me without the faint light of the flashlight. The sounds of running stopped and all I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears.

“Guys, where are you? GUYS!?”

I kept running forward into the brush. I could hear whispering in the distance, very faint. I couldn’t tell if it was Kevin or Joe or something truly spectral.

“Kevin? J-joe? Please be there.”

I started to shake uncontrollably as I felt this presence with me. It was all around me, suffocating me. The air around me was heavy and dank with the smell of rotting meat and sulfur. My heart started pounding harder and faster as the smell grew thicker by the second. Out of the blackness I could hear laughter, and that laughter was literally right next to my left ear. It was the laugh of an older woman, it sounded almost demonic. I bolted out of there as soon as the laughter fell upon my ears.

“Jacob! We’re over here!” Joe, or what I thought was Joe yelled from what sounded like twenty yards away. I ran into the direction of the voice, but there was nothing there. Something was playing with me, playing with my mind. Now it was impersonating my friend. I turn around to flash my light upon the girl again, only this time she was covered in flies.

“Am I pretty?” She said in a borderline demonic voice. I screamed at the top of my lungs and ran as far away from the creature as I could.

Suddenly I made it to the trail again and I was back in front of the church. I looked at the church to see that it was filled with people, but they were already dead. They stood at the stairs of the church, dressed in Victorian era clothing. Men, women, and a large amount of children. All of their eyes were a deep fire engine red, glowing menacingly at me. All of them opened their mouths to speak, or perhaps to sing and ear shattering moans fell upon my ears. It was almost deafening. Flies began to cover the people at the church’s steps.

I turned around and bolted down the path. At this point I was crying, I was beyond frightened. Then out of the blackness I see Joe and Kevin! They were alright, thank god, but something was off. Their eyes were bloodshot and dilated and their skin was shiny and glowing a ghostly white.

“Kevin, Joe! Where have you been? I have been looking everywhere!” I panted and cried as I talked.

“What? Where have you been? We were looking everywhere for you.” Kevin said in a monotone voice. Joe stood there silently like a stiff board, unmoving and unchanging.

“You guys have got to snap out of it! Please snap out of it!” I desperately tried to get both of their attention.

“You took the pictures. You weren’t supposed to do that.” Joe said and grinned widely.

“Oh my god, stop this nightmare!” I screamed. They both began to laugh and I ran off up the tedious path in the woods.

“You can’t run forever!” They both yelled to me in altered voices. It couldn’t have been them, it was playing with me again.

I sprinted up the path and I didn’t hear or see a single thing after what happened back there with the so called Joe and Kevin. I was only 6 and I had never experienced anything like this before, not even in my worst nightmare. I made it back to both of the house! I made it back to the house! The dead silence changed back to the sound of insects and critters moving around in the woods. Everything was back to normal. I go to the back porch and I see Kevin and Joe! They looked normal! They were both sitting there, waiting for me.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Joe asked in a concerned tone.

“We almost woke up mom and dad to have them call the police so we could find you.” Kevin said.

“I saw some serious shit tonight. I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again after what happened. When you guys disappeared, I saw, heard, and felt things that I can’t explain.” I didn’t realize I was still crying after everything that I experienced that night.

“What happened back there?” Joe asked.

I told them everything that happened to me. With every detail I told them, they grew more and more pale and shaky. I started to feel better as I told my best friends about the spectral beings that terrified me in the woods.

“I saw something too.” Kevin said.

“S-so did I.” Joe struggled to get the words out.

“Really? What did you guys see?”

To be continued…