She was tired of being scared by noises. A floating black entity moving through the trees was another matter. Brenna screamed; the figure turned and looked at her. It had a face that wasn’t quite human. For starters, it was too long. The thing’s jaw almost sat on its chest. Blunt teeth stuck out at odd angles, and it had a discernable nub of a nose. The worst part was its eyes. Blood red eyes with a wetness that made Brenna’s blood run cold. Her own wide eyes fixed on the empty space beneath the bottom of the being’s tatty deathly dark gown. Whatever it was, it was hovering in the air.
She clutched her box and ran, passing the pentagram engraved tree, and didn’t stop running until she ran out of breath a couple minutes later. She stole a quick look behind her and saw nothing except still trees.
She turned back and found herself face to face with the horrible thing. It narrowed its red eyes as it sized up her green ones. Brenna’s breath came in short rapid gasps. The thing moved closer to her face and its mouth opened wider, giving her a good view of its foul stubs of teeth.
“Leave now.” The entity’s decaying voice was raspy and sounded as though something had been sawing at its throat with sandpaper. With one wobbly step at a time, Brenna moved away from the creature. It kept its horrible eyes on her as it floated high into the air and vanished.
Still gripping the box tightly, Brenna willed her legs to move, one at a time, stumbling her way to her car. She all but dove into the car dumped her things on the passenger seat, started up the engine and got the hell out of there. A cloud of dust from her wheels obscured the view in her rearview mirror.
She looked ahead and slammed on her brakes. Her car was almost touching the exit gate.
“Shit!” She sighed. Reluctantly, she pushed her door open and stepped out, tensing her hands into fists. “What is going on here? If somebody could tell me what is going on that would be great!” Brenna shouted, not expecting an answer, but she wouldn’t be surprised if she got one after everything else that had happened. Suddenly the gates opened. “Well that’s a start…” she mumbled as she walked stiffly back to her car.
Brenna couldn’t help but think the floating nightmare reminded her of somebody. There was something horribly familiar about it. This thought stayed with her as she drove into the empty parking lot of the Oakwood motel.
She checked over her shoulder and she stomped up the creaky steps to her room and unlocked the door. She checked that she was alone in the room before slamming the door shut. She walked into the small bathroom and showered. Her stomach growled the whole time. How could she even be hungry after what she saw today? Well, a girl has to eat, hasn’t she? Creepy floating monstrosities or not. She planned to go to a busy restaurant in town so she could be around some ordinary people.
After changing into a lacy black dress and heels, she took her oversized handbag and rummaged for her phone. She had to call Maggie before she did anything else. “Come on, where are you?” She searched for a good few minutes in her bag and in the hotel room until relenting to the idea she must have dropped it in the woods. “Damn it!”
She’d have to use Clark’s phone. She headed down to the office and knocked on the door before entering.
“Hello?” Brenna called out.
“Coming, Brenna!” Clark emerged from the back room holding a newspaper, probably the same one he was reading last night. “Well, aren’t you all dressed up like a fancy peach pie!”
She couldn’t hold back a blush. “Oh, thank you.”
“You look pale as milk though, something wrong?”
“I’m okay, weird day that’s all.” Brenna thought that was the understatement of the century.
“Oh, you’ve been in that haunted forest?”
“You could say that.”
“Saw something didn’t ya?”
“I saw something, heard something and oh it doesn’t matter.” Brenna looked down at the floor and bit her lip.
“Brenna, it feels dark in there am I right?”
“Yes. Very, very dark.”
“It’s not usually like that. Your grandmother used to take me for walks in there,” he said with a hint of a smile.
“Really?” Brenna lightened up; she didn’t know anybody else who knew Annwyn Ravenwood.
“We actually dated a while back. She talked about you