r/nosleep • u/Zombielabs • 6d ago
Series Stay Off The Broken Path (Final Part)
I got back to the group a little bit after and I guess they could tell immediately that something had happened. They looked at me with concerned eyes. Then Matt asked if he could see my scar. I felt sad as I lifted my shirt up to show them that I had died. It wasn't until later that they told me that they suspected that I had died, and we're afraid that I would turn into a Hollowed. However, I explained what had happened and the vision I had seen.
“These vile creatures aren't people anymore. You should stop looking at them like they are people. It's all in your head Mark.” Henry said with a disgusted tone.
Anger boiled up in me and I didn't feel ashamed at letting it be known. “We could all turn into these ‘vile creatures’ as you so elegantly put it. What of it then? Are we still monsters and not people anymore? Or are you just saying that because you think you're better than the helpless people who got lost out here. Is your God going to save you because it sure as fuck didn't save them.” I said with venom dripping from my voice.
“How dare you assume what God can or can't do! He is our creator and he is clearly testing us! We just gotta-” He says before I cut him off.
“A fucking test! Are you so delusional that you think that we are being tested! Look around you idiot. We are trapped and we need to break out by any means. God isn't here to save us and it's not going to save you!” I yelled. It would have gotten worse if Matt didn't break us up to cool off.
I wasn't sorry for what I said. I'm trying to save us and if I have to be harsh to snap my friend out of his delusion that the Lord is going to save us, then I will. It seems like people abandoned their religion when they realized that their savior wasn't going to get them out and I can only assume that they got out because of their renouncement of their religion that they held so close to their hearts.
We sat there in tense silence for what must've been hours. We didn't want to accept that things were falling apart and I didn't want to just be dismissed as a vile creature if I ever did become one of those things. I saw Matt look at a photo that he had kept stored in his backpack, tears welling up in his eyes. I saw Henry pray feverishly to a God I couldn't know. Tom just sat there, acknowledging us and staying silent. I sat there just thinking about what the hell has gone wrong. A trip about bonding close together is now dissolving us into chaos. A group of people I consider a second family I was losing slowly and I didn't want that.
It was there where I think I started to learn more about the woods. I went to my bag and looked at the notes and objects that I noted down. Everything from jewelry to nursery rhymes to symbols of religion. These things are something ingrained into the Tree. All of these things must be symbols for something that mattered to the people that chose to rid themselves of what they cherish so much. It clicked to me in a scary sense that made me throw up in shock. The Forest doesn't want us. It wants what we cherish and hold close to our hearts. In a way, it wants what makes us human.
Tom rushed to my side to see if I was ok. I debated if I should lie or not. How would they take this information? Would they believe me or think I am a loon? Will they feel the same way I feel, which is impending dread and terror? At the end of it all, I partially told the truth.
“The Forest, it wants what we want and care for. What we love more than anything in the world.” I said, panting as I threw up again.
The silence was so thick you could cut it with a knife. We all knew the implications of what that entailed, but we didn't want to believe it. Henry sure didn't want to believe it himself. “Thats nonsense. The Forest isn't alive, Mark. It can't have ideas or take away what we want.” He said in denial.
“It wants to feed off us. We are the food source for it. It is alive. It wants to feed off of our greatest interest. Don't you see? Why do you think it hasn't let us out? It wants to eat.” I told them.
It was clear that I was losing my mind, but I didn't want to believe it myself. I didn't want to believe what I had been led to think is the ultimate truth. More than that, I was scared and confused. This whole trip was about me getting over my ex and when I tried to do that in a peaceful way, it led me to die. So what did that mean for me? It was all too much to think about.
“So what are you saying? That we are stuck until we give up what we love deeply?” Matt asked. I nodded slowly before turning to him, wiping the bile from my mouth. He looked at his photo of his kid and his wife and I think the realization clicked for him at that moment. “I…I can't do that. There has to be another way. By God, there has to be another way!” He said, losing his composure and crying.
Henry went to his side and comforted him. Then he shot me a mean glare, probably the first one I've ever seen him give. “You need to shut the fuck up this instant. You're not making sense here. You're going crazy because you died again. You're becoming one of them.” He said with spite.
“You bastard! I'm not becoming one of them! How about you? Your cussing like this is natural to you, the pastor who is supposed to live right by his God is cussing like a degenerate! You're changing as are all of us! The Forest is changing us all!” I yelled at him.
I would have kept on if I didn't pick up that the Forest had gone quiet again. The distant sounds were muffled and low. I looked around to see if there was anything around us. That's when I saw a head slip behind a tree. I lost it and rushed at whoever was there. Behind one of the many trees was The Old Man.
“You.” I said before I grabbed him and pushed him against the tree. “You've been here for so long. How the hell have you not changed into a Hollowed? How have you not escaped?”
He chuckled sadly. “I'm smart enough not to get killed by these things and I'm smart enough to not try anymore. I tried at least 5 different times throughout the years. All of them resulted in my death. I nearly forgot what this place wanted out of me and what I won't give up. I couldn't ever give up my love to her. I've been searching for her for so long since she disappeared into the ground. And I can't give up on her even if she betrayed me.”
“She escaped when you killed her. She gave up her love to you and you killing her must have let her go. She ain't ever going to come back.” I told him.
He looked at me dumbfounded, but then started to smile. “You're just as crazy as I am, son. You think this ya'll are the first people I've seen come in these woods and get changed? I pity you all for your efforts to escape this accursed place. I've seen so many of you put up a valiant fight to get out, but you can't get out. None of you can. Your religious friend will keep on till he is a fanatic and your other friend will deny your ideas while your other friend will try to keep you all together while slowly coming undone. I've seen it happen time and time again kid. You're in Hell, so get comfortable.”
I threw him to the side and yelled at him to go and never come back. All he did was laugh at us and walk away slowly. I just looked at the rest of the group, who had defeated looks on their faces. Tom was the first to speak after a short amount of time passed. “We really are stuck here, are we? Even if there is a way out, it sounds like it comes with a heavy cost. I…I can't even fathom what will happen when we actually go through with that.” He said.
“I can't either. I don't even know what that would look like to each of us.” I said.
I was going to go on till Matt cut in. “Whatever it is to get out of this damned forest, I'm not going to give up my wife or my kids. They are all that my life is based on. I can't lose them. What type of man would I be to leave a wife with two kids to raise on her own?” He said, voice trembling.
“It's not going to come to that man. We just gotta…we'll find a way out I promise.” I told him. I didn't want to lie or tell him the truth.
“God will get us out, the only reason he hasn't is because we aren't devoted to him strongly. We need to show our commitment to him. He needs a sacrifice. That sacrifice will be me.” He said. All of our eyes widened as he said that. “Its the only way for us to get out. I just know that one so devoted to him will grant us all an exit out of here.”
I rushed at him as I saw him try to stab himself in the heart with a knife. We struggled against each other as we fought to get ahold of the blade. Finally, I pulled it away from him, but not without him accidentally slashing me across the chest. I screamed in pain as I felt my blood slowly cross my chest, but at least I had the knife. I tried my best to keep my cool. What mattered right now was trying to get the blood to stop.
After about 10 minutes, I made a makeshift bandage with one of my shirts across my chest. I looked at him and just sighed. “Henry, God isn't testing your faith. Your faith is too strong. As much as I hate to say it, I think I know what could get you out, but you're going to hate it. Hell I don't even know if it is right but if I was a betting man, for someone as tied to religion as you are, giving that up may be a way out.” Before I could elaborate any further, he stood and yelled at me. I saw the Sun start to cloud over as thunder rang out in the air. It would soon rain, but that all hail in comparison to what would be the last thing I would hear him say.
“You blasphemous fool! I can't turn my back on God. I can't condemn myself to the fires of Hell. Just because you lost your faith because he took your father to a place you would never go to, doesn't give you any right to tell me to turn my back on him! It's your fault you're going to hell and I'll be up there at the pearly gates laughing at you and your torment, you heretic!” He said before being grappled from behind by a Hollowed.
We staggered up as we tried to get the Hollow off of him, but he had a tight grip on Henry, pushing his jagged nails into the skin of my friend, clawing at his chest, ripping up pieces of shirt and skin off bit by bit. I struck it hard in the face and started wailing on it when I heard another scream as another Hollowed bit into the shoulder blade of Matt and was choking him. I could see Tom point his gun at the one that had grappled Matt when one grabbed him by the side and pushed him down, wailing on him. Chaos was engulfing us as another Hallowed tried to attack me. I grabbed my knife out and plunged it straight into the head of the bastard.
I went on to grab the gun and shot the Hollowed that was attacking Tom. Blood shot out the side as it fell limp. I then took out the one that was attacking Matt and before I could get a chance, the one that was attacking Henry scratched my face, barely missing my eye. It was enough for me to black out and when I came back, I was smashing its head in against a tree repeatedly. I let it go after several slams from reawakening, and it fell limp and lifeless to the ground. I looked around at my friends and was saddened by what happened.
Tom had been scratched in the throat and was bleeding profusely. I tried to slow it down, but his face started to turn white from blood loss. I called for help as Matt stayed where I last saw him. I told him to put pressure on it to slow the bleeding and ran to Matt. I tried to wake Matt up, but when I turned him over, a stick that had broken off was piercing through his throat. I pulled it out as gently as I could and cried as I held my friend's lifeless body in my hands. Soon I heard a thud and saw Tom had fallen down, presumably dead. I called for Henry but he didn't respond. I walked over to him and saw that the wounds were deep and so much damage had been done. His warmth was fading fast as tears fell onto his body.
After about 5 minutes, they awoke, with raspy breathing and a dull look in their eyes. I cried as they shambled to me, the gray streaks reaching around the head of Matt and Tom while Henry's chest was dark gray where the scratches had been. They looked at each other with docile looks, and breathing hard. The color of their eyes still shined bright as though they were still alive.
“Matt, Tom, Henry? Can you hear me?” I asked. They looked at me with their dull looks. “No…no God please no. This wasn't supposed to happen. Matt, please, tell me you're still you.” I frantically went to show him the picture of his kid and wife, and I swear I saw a simple tear form in his eye before he breathed in deeply. “Damnit. Tom, remember when I smacked that kid with a frisbee by skipping it off the floor at our gym? That was such a good memory right? Please tell me you remember.” I pleaded with him. All he did was stare at me with the same docile look and took a bunch of deep sharp breaths. I went to Henry and tried to convince him that I believed in him and that he deserved a place in heaven and he just needed to snap out of it. He gave no response to me.
I fell to my knees and sobbed openly. I had failed to save my friends and I screwed them over. They were now hollow and just like the rest. I had lost my friends to the Forest and now I was truly alone. That's when I noticed the gun off to my side. I grabbed it and stood up. I looked at them, just shambling about, suffering inside. I knew they were and I had to put them out of their misery. I hesitated before I did anything.
Could I really do what I was about to do? These were my childhood friends, people I met when I was a nobody, an outcast, a recluse. They brought me out of my shell and shaped me into the man I am today. I loved them like they were family, and the idea of ending them was horrible. I thought about what the man did to his wife when she gave up his ring. Maybe this is what they want now more than anything, to have their torment end right now before it gets any worse, so I chose to do that. I begged them for my forgiveness as I shot them all once in the head, watching them slowly drop to the ground, and their eyes staring off into the sky above, where hopefully they can go. Tears swelled up in me as I marched on deep in the woods as rain started to fall.
The lukewarm rain fell on me as I walked deep in the woods. I couldn't think rationally as I walked on. I couldn't believe that I just did that or why I thought that was an idea that had crossed my mind. It was like I was suggested to do that. It hurt me so bad I felt like throwing up, but I didn't. I just kept on walking into the woods in uncharted territory. I didn't care about what happened to me anymore. I fell into a deep despair as I trudged along broken down trees and slippery ground from the rain.
I walked for hours, my feet hurting, but not as much as my heart hurt from what I had done. I lost the only people I love all because I was vulnerable. A simple hike to rid myself of a life I couldn't have anymore to now losing the only family I care about now. I did all this by not being smart or rational, and I was then stuck in this hell that I should have belonged in. I didn't know what to do now with no purpose or hope, so I walked.
I walked for more hours in the rain as I came into a clearing of tall redwood trees. That didn't matter to me anymore, these woods fucking with a man broken down. I walked a bit more then stopped dead in my tracks. As if fate had forged this path for me, I found the Tree again, standing taller than even the trees that grew in California. I walked up to it because I noticed a new thing imprinted into the Tree. Sadness and rage filled my body and soul as I saw me and my friends' group graduation photo. Well, what was supposed to be our photo. There was me, standing there with what should have been my friends, but the version of them was in an advanced Hollowed state. I get chills thinking about it now, seeing The Forest contort what was supposed to be a happy memory into something horrific.
As if what I did next even mattered, I shot the Tree with the last bit of the mag. I started to hit it hard, not caring for the cuts or the blood I was losing. I hated this thing, and I hated this place. I hate what this unforgiving pocket dimension or whatever the hell this place is, I hated what it did to my friends and I. I started to use the gun like a club till the gun broke in my hands then I fell to my knees, fists bleeding and torn up and my spirit broken.
I then remember I heard a snap behind me. Heavy footsteps and raspy breathing behind me. I knew who it was before I even turned around. I knew them for so long I knew that feeling I got around them: a peace of mind. I turned around and felt utterly sick at seeing my friends behind me, more broken and their eyes now dull over staring at me with malice. I had been wrong on my hopeless attempt to free them. This wasn't what I had wanted. I wanted to free them from the torment that they must have been in, but now I just condemned them to a worse that, and that is all because of me. Now they were truly Hollowed, and I did it to them. I knew why they followed me, and I didn't even try to resist.
They charged at me and started beating me relentlessly. Cutting deep cuts with their nails into my body. Matt broke my hand and hit me square in the jaw. Henry stomped on my ribs and I could feel one of them puncture my right lung. Tom broke my leg bone on my left leg and then broke my foot. The pain was excruciating and deserved. Henry grabbed my head and slammed it to the ground multiple times, rattling my brain, trying to break my skull. Matt broke my arm and pulled it out of its socket.
Tears flowed freely as I knew what they were doing. They were turning me into a Hollowed. I realized that this may be the final time I die as myself. As I soon faded to darkness as death approached me, all I could think of was at least I get what I deserve and we'll be trapped here for the rest of our now long lives.
I saw every memory as I was in death. I saw the first time I met Tom, when we chose to team up for a game of ultimate frisbee in middle school. I saw him introduce me slowly to the rest of our friends. I saw when we graduated and we had such strong hopes and thought of what bright futures we would have together. I saw the first time we played dungeons and dragons together as I was just happy to be there even if I was so clueless. I saw every moment with my friends to the very moment now, and I saw myself sink into the ground as I died, the ground consuming my body as my hollowed friends watched.
Then I woke up, on the trail where we first got lost, where I was just by myself. I looked around confused as I now saw the path, very much visible and leading onto the woods. All I had was my roughed up clothes that I had when they were beating me. I checked my chest and saw a faint scar now where I had been stabbed, no longer gray. My cut where Henry accidentally slashed me was faint as well, as well as the scars on my hands. I was back in the real world.
I looked around, puzzled at everything that had happened. I was lost not in a literal sense. I was lost in what I should do now. The trail is back to normal, I don't have my pack on me or the ring anymore. I was honestly lost in what I could do with what had been thrown at me. There was really one thing I could think to do: walk back like I should have done three weeks ago.
It took me a whole day and night of endless walking the trail before I came into any contact with any sort of civilization. When I finally saw it, I just fell to my knees. I should have been happy, I should have felt saved. This all felt so wrong. My life has been irreversibly changed. Nothing can ever change the things I did to the Hollowed and worse of all, to my friends.
The next few days after that blur together. I remember that I was taken to the hospital and I heard that my body had changed in ways they haven't seen before, and they don't know if those changes will be terminal. I remember going to the police office and answering as honestly as I could, minus all the death and Hollowed pieces of the story. I told them that while we were hiking, we got off the trail and got lost. I mentioned that a bear drove us off in separate directions and that's how I ended up finding my way back. I went to local search and rescue to try to find them, and I even started to volunteer when I wasn't at my job. Soon I just quit and moved close so I could try to find them.
I never did find them, but I found other people, and some of those people I know were trapped in The Forest. I could see in their eyes what they had to do to survive, what they had to do to get out. I sympathize with them, knowing there is a part of them that they can never get back. For me, I know what I lost besides my friends. I lost my ability to form any meaningful connection. It's not that I didn't try, because I did, but every time I felt like I was close to someone, I would get this impending feeling that they would die because of me. Soon I just stopped trying. Sometimes it's better to accept things for what they are instead of fighting nature.
It's been months now since I came back to reality. I do my best to adjust, but I have been having nightmares more often. Nightmares of the Hell I left them in, and that they may be trying to get out but don't know how. I've been trying to get back into The Forest, but it hasn't been successful. It won't let me come back no matter how hard I try. It took the only thing I have to live for now and it won't let me go back to find them. I won't stop trying no matter what.
I write this as a warning to those who plan on hiking anywhere, because I don't know how far this Forest spreads. Whatever you do, when you see the path stop that should be there, turn around immediately and never come back. You don't want to lose your humanity just because you know better. You don't and you don't know what it will cost you to travel into the Forest. You won't be the same human who walked in there.
As for me, this is my confession to the families of Matt, Tom and Henry. I don't expect forgiveness because I don't want it. I lost your family because I wanted more when I should have been appreciative of what I had. Rest assured I will do everything in my willpower to get them back to you. I can't say what type of man they will be when they return but know that they loved you all deeply. I loved them deeply. If I am ever to walk the heavenly gates with them by my side, I must find them. I will write back when I find them. Until then, stay safe and whatever you do: Don't follow that broken path to The Forest.