I’d heard about it first from Gloria Chen. She heard it from her friend, who heard it from Gloria James, who heard it from her cousin, who heard it from his boyfriend, who had overheard his uncle telling his dad. Gloria Chen had told me during biology, while she was slicing open the underside of a sickly looking frog.
“They found a bunch of dead crows out in that field behind the old church,” she said, as her blue-gloved hand poked nonchalantly at the shiny, jelly-like eye of the frog. “Apparently they were in, like, a perfect circle or something. And it smelled horrible.”
I grimaced involuntarily - not so much at the idea of a circle of stinky dead birds as at the fact that Gloria Chen was somehow chewing gum and squishing a deceased amphibian’s ovaries between her fingers at the same time. When the teacher had told us we’d be cutting up dead animals, I gladly relinquished all dissection duties to Gloria Chen, and she had seemed pretty happy to take over.
“I heard Gloria James thinks it was witchcraft or something,” she continued. I was starting to feel sick. “I think it’s just a Halloween prank. My boyfriend and I were gonna go check it out on Friday night.”
I took out my notebook and tried to write some notes down instead of looking at the frog. The smell was making me nauseous. Gloria Chen paused, then looked over at me, a grin on her face and the scalpel in her hand.
“You’re not doing anything Friday, are you? You don’t seem like you’d be busy,” she said mischievously. “Wanna help me scare him?”
I stared back at her, trying to hide the confusion on my face and failing. Gloria Chen and I had only been lab partners for a couple of weeks. I didn’t know her well enough to be pranking her boyfriend with her or hanging out with them on a weekend. Besides, I would be third-wheeling. But somehow, against my better judgement, I found myself nodding and saying, “Sure! I’d love to!”
And that’s how I ended up here, in the middle of the woods behind the little old church next to the Waffle House, at 9pm, wearing a stuffy old gorilla mask. Gloria Chen’s plan was simple: she’d drop me off at the church, then get her boyfriend, pretend to be scared while they explore the clearing where the crows were found, and whenever they got close enough to me, I’d jump out and scare them. Then she’d pay me with waffles.
It’s already dark; the autumn sun sets a lot earlier than I had realized. The cold air cuts through the gaps of my knit turtleneck. There are goosebumps all along my arms. Through the trees, I can see the faint yellow light of the streetlamps by the church. I keep my eyes on those yellow lights, but I can feel the deep dark of the forest behind me. This had seemed like a good deal at first. If I wasn’t here, I’d be at home, alone, doing homework or watching stupid YouTube videos. Now, that’s exactly what I’d rather be doing.
Something rustles behind me. I don’t want to turn around. Suddenly, all I can think about is the crows, those stinky crows that might or might not be witchcraft or a prank or -
There’s a soft, quiet voice. I can barely hear it, but I know it’s there. It’s singing. My breaths are shallow. Every hair on the back of my neck stands straight up. I can hear it, but the harder I try to listen, the fainter it is.
I gather every single shred of courage I have and turn around as quickly as I can. The forest looks like it goes on forever. I can’t pinpoint the end of it. It’s all trees and shadow. Every logical bone in my body is screaming at me: “Get out! Just leave! Just go to the Waffle House! When has anything good happened to the characters in horror movies who go TOWARDS the danger?!”
But I take a step anyway. And then another, and another, and another. Soon I’m practically running, and not in the direction of the Waffle House. I pull the mask off, and the chilly air nips at my cheeks, warm from the efforts of running towards the creepy voice. It gets clearer as I go, and soon I can almost make out the words. I slow to a jog, then to a brisk walk, then I’m too out of breath to continue.
I come to a sudden stop when I realize I’m not facing away from the Waffle House. I can see the yellow street lamps beyond the trees again. The silhouette of the church is there, in front of me in the distance, as if I’d never turned around to begin with. At first, I write it off as simple confusion. I’m running towards a creepy singing voice in a dark forest alone; of course I got a little confused and turned around without realizing it.
I turn around again. I don’t know why I do. I don’t hear the voice anymore. I should be running back to the lights, back to the Waffle House, back to wherever the heck Gloria Chen and her stupid boyfriend are. But I’m not, I’m turning back around to the dark, scary forest.
But the thing is, after I turn around, I can still see the lights. I spin around, 360 degrees, and I still see the church and the street lamps. No matter which direction I face, the church and the streetlamps are always there on the edge of the woods.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I can see movement in the darkness. I can’t turn to face it, because when I turn, I’m still facing the church. So I stand completely still and try my hardest to see the movement.
Two red eyes are peering out of the darkness at me. They’re at least 7 feet off the ground. Whatever they belong to can’t be a dog or a deer. I listen closely to see if I can hear the singing again, but I can’t. In fact, I can’t hear anything at all. The forest has gone eerily silent.
This is not worth the waffles at all.
My heart is beating out of my chest. In the silence of the woods, the sound of my erratic heartbeat seems to echo. The eyes seem to move closer to me. My eyes are aching from straining them to the side for so long.
Why did I run after that voice? It’s easily the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I feel tears pricking at my eyes.
The red eyes inch closer. I can begin to make out who they belong to.
The thing is tall. Taller than I had originally guessed. It’s pale and thin. It looks like a person, but it’s wrong in places. Its legs are long and bony, and at the knee they bend backwards.
It’s smiling.
No amount of waffles will ever be worth this. A wave of fresh terror overcomes me.
The silence is broken by the sound of a car door slamming shut. My attention snaps towards the direction it came from, and I can see Gloria Chen’s car in the church parking lot.
I look back towards the thing, but it’s gone. I turn around, and all I see is the darkness of the forest. I set my sight on the church and the car and begin making my way back.
“Wait.”
I hear it like it’s been spoken right into my ear. Fear grips at my chest and I open my mouth to scream but nothing comes out. I start running.
I’m almost to the edge of the woods when I trip over something - a solid, black mass in the dirt. Burning pain shoots up my leg from my right ankle. I look down and for a moment I’m frozen again. It looks like a dead crow, cut open from the throat down to the tail. I scream.
I try to stand up and I’m still screaming. Then I feel hands pulling on my arms and I scream harder.
“Hey! Quit screaming!” says a male voice.
I look up at the voice. It’s Gloria Chen’s boyfriend, trying to help me up. Gloria Chen comes running, looking like she’s about to cry.
They help me up and get me back to the car.
“It was all his idea!” Gloria Chen says tearfully. “He thought it would be funny to prank someone but I thought it would be mean! I played along but I didn’t know it would scare you that bad!”
Gloria’s boyfriend looks guilty and annoyed at the same time. He turns to me in the backseat and says, “Sorry if you really got scared out there. I was just messing around.”
I’m still in shock. I nod to acknowledge his apology. Gloria sniffles.
“I’m breaking up with you after this,” she says to her boyfriend. “And you owe us both Waffle House.”
I look out the car window towards the trees. I’m breathing easier now, and the car is warm. I’m still scared, but knowing it was all a prank is reassuring.
“How did you do it?” I ask.
“Do what, the prank?” Gloria’s boyfriend asks. “The bird was dead already. I asked the biology teacher where she gets preserved animals for dissecting and got a pigeon. I didn’t kill anything if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What? But what about that scary creature thing? How did you make that?” I ask, feeling more okay as the moments pass. “How did you make its eyes glow like that? And did you leave a recording of someone singing out there or something? This must be a pretty expensive prank. It seems like you guys went all out on it.”
Gloria Chen and her boyfriend slowly turn towards me. With her red rimmed eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, Gloria Chen says, “What are you talking about? All we did was hide that dead bird.”