Note: This is the third installment of a ghost story. It’s not meant to be read by itself. If you’d care to start at the beginning, click here.
The woods is never completely empty. Even when you think you’re alone, you’re not; there’s always something watching. It might even be a predator; there’s coyotes and foxes out there, and every now and then someone spots a lynx. Even if not, there’s the birds and deer, rabbits and squirrels, and a teeming host of insects that you’ll never see — because they stay alive by hiding.
But whatever it is that’s watching, sometimes you can feel the eyes resting on you, tracking, measuring, making plans in which you’re either prospective dinner or diner. The old-timers say sometimes it’s not animals; it’s something called the spirit of the woods, maybe even the trees, old and patient and waiting for you to finally go away and let them grow in peace. But whatever it is, it’s always watching.
It was watching now.
This trip had seemed like a no-brainer in class. Most everyone had chosen to do a research project in the library, either transcribing hours of old reel-to-reel tapes or tracking down someone else’s transcription and trying to find a story in it. Dry and tedious; he was falling asleep just thinking about it.
But this sounded exciting! Ghost hunters at midnight, and never mind that there was no such thing. A bunch of kooks, sure, but they’d be sitting around telling ghost stories in a graveyard of all places. And best of all, he’d only need to write one page! (more…)
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