Chapter 47: What Kind of Sourcery Is This

Everyone walked in a tight group, every step bringing us closer to the edge of the forest.

Dr. Richards stopped just before the tip of his foot entered.

"Let's go over this one more time. Stay with someone at all times. If you get lost, do not panic. Scream if you see something, scream if you hear something, and scream if you get lost. If no one comes within five minutes of you staying in place, head northeast and don't stop. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone's heads bobbed up and down, murmurs of "yes" came out from the crowd of students. I gave my own firm head nod as I made eye contact with Dr. Richards.

Lily gave my arm a small squeeze, a subtle reassurance that we would do this together, again. But this time I wouldn't be leaving until that thing was dead and Finley was back where he belonged.

The group crossed the boundary of the forest. Just like the first time I entered, it was cold, wet, and dark, everything opposite of the campsite.

Twigs and leaves crushed under the feet of everyone walking. Suddenly a tree in front of us started falling towards our group.

"Holy shit! Move!" Dr. Richards screamed.

As the tree fell, half of the group went one way while the other half went another. I looked around, but nothing could have made this tree fall and it was no coincidence that it fell towards us.

More trees started falling, forming a line down the forest as far as I could see.

"Are you guys okay over there? Can you climb over the trunk?" Dr. Richards was still screaming.

"I don't think the trunk is that large Dr. Richards!" I yelled back.

I walked up to the trunk and was about to climb over when I hit something. It was like there was a wall in front of me, but there was nothing there. I hit my fists against whatever was blocking us from going over. A could see a ripple every time I hit it, like it truly was an invisible wall.

Dr. Richards walked up and tried to come over, but his head went right into the wall.

"What kind of fucking sourcery is this shit?" He kept banging on the wall.

It was odd that I could hear him clearly, but I couldn't touch the other side.

As we kept looking for a way around the wall, a shadow came out from the trees behind the students on Dr. Richards side.

"Turn around Dr. Richards." My face fell flat. I was hoping that whatever was behind them wouldn't notice my warning.

"What?"

"Turn the fuck around. Slowly. There's something over there." I grit my teeth together. This situation was far from ideal.

"Evangeline, you need to do the same. I don't know what the fuck is going on here, but this is way more than what I was expecting. This is not normal."

My eyes kept bouncing between the shadow and Dr. Richards. This was so different from when I entered the forest. I couldn't understand why it would want to separate us or what purpose doing so served.

"Listen, nothing like this happened when I came in the first time. The wall has to end somewhere or have a weak point. Maybe if we don't acknowledge the shadow, it won't come near us. Just turn around slowly and take everyone further into the woods. We still have no idea where that thing is or Finley."

With a small nod, Dr. Richards turned around and walked back toward the students. They started their trek further into the woods, following the fallen trees. The shadow followed their movements, dipping behind trees, stalking them every step they took.

I turned to my own group. I tilted my head upwards toward Dr. Richards and his group, most everyone getting the memo. I was too scared to say anything, too scared to make any sudden movements in case that shadow had it out for us.

Every few steps I would glance over toward the trees. I could see the shadow duck behind one every now and then, not coming too close but not staying too far to watch our movements.

"Are you okay Evangeline?" I hear Lily's voice come from beside me.

"Yes." Talking too much would distract me from watching this thing.

No one else on my side knew it was there. I was scared to say anything because even though everyone was in agreement about coming in, they still had their doubts about what was in here. If anyone freaked out, it would cause a bigger issue than it just watching us.

As we continued walking, a faint metallic smell caught my nose. I looked down at the ground. Leaves were stained dark red. I bent down and grazed over a few of the leaves and looked at my fingers. There was no denying this was blood. I shuddered at the thought of the blood being Finley's.

"Holy shit, is that blood? Are you bleeding? Whose blood is that?" A frantic girl was screaming over my shoulder.

I was about to tell her to shut up when I felt a chill run down my spine. I searched around for the shadow behind the trees but couldn't find it anywhere.

"Evangeline...what- what is that?"

I looked up to find the shadow now in front of us. Except it wasn't a shadow, it was a woman, covered in dirt and leaves. Everything inside of me was screaming to run, but I couldn't.

Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head, her limbs twisted oddly and her mouth hung open slightly. Her clothes were barely hanging onto her body, and her hair looked matted to her head. Over across the barrier, the other group was way ahead of us. Their shadow still lurked in the distance, while we must've pissed ours off by stopping.

Suddenly the woman started mumbling.

"You...you...should...not..."

My eyebrows furrowed together. What the fuck was she going on about? I was about to say something when she started to suddenly contort.

All of her bones started to snap and pop. Everyone started screaming as she got down on all fours and started running at us.

"Fucking run! Run the way we were going, not backwards!" I screamed at everyone.

We all scrambled to get away from the woman on all fours. Everyone was in full panic mode as they ran for their lives.

I could hear it still behind us, the crunch of the leaves as it ran and low grunting noises it made as it followed us.

Just as we were passing the other group on the other side of the tree wall, the same woman appeared on their side. My eyes widened as I saw their own woman contort and drop to all fours.

Now everyone was screaming and running further into the forest. Fear plastered across every face.

As we continued deep into the forest, with the contorted ladies following close behind, the smell of blood became more pungent.

A terrifying scream rung out, dropping several students to their knees, clutching their ears.

The woman behind us stopped, contorting back to her regular form and walking away from us.

"You've made it! So glad we could have a reunion!"

I looked around for the voice I immediately recognized.

A woman stood a few hundred feet away from us with someone right behind her.

My mouth dropped.

"Fucking Susan?"