"Sterlingrad Woods" by Don Anelli

Sterlingrad Woods

by Don Anelli

Little Jimmy would do anything to be like his older brother Bryan. Growing up in his shadow, his older brother was cooler, more experienced, had great taste in movies, music, and food, and they always played together when he was closer in age as kids. It was when Bryan became double-digits in age and started to pull away that hurt Jimmy the most, and the attempts at reconnecting like normal were not going as planned.

To Jimmy, that was why tonight had to be different. He knew it was a big chance to get in right with him again by following them into the woods and disrupting their plans. After overhearing what they were talking about on the phone earlier, this was the way it was going to be.

Setting his bike aside and heading off down the trail, he ventured into the Sterlingrad Woods, located on the far side of the town. It was eerily quiet normally, the town waiting for the funding to come through to resume work on the logging operation that was stalled over the summer, but now, this cool, crisp Autumn night, the silence should’ve sent chills down anyone’s spine.

Perhaps that was why Bryan and his friends were doing this. Spending the night in the haunted woods to prove how manly they were, a kind of right-of-passage he knew nothing about yet but would in due time, but now was the time to get back to how our relationship should’ve been.

Walking through the woods, straining to see what’s ahead of him, nothing but the crunch of gravel under his feet, it feels like the twisted branches are coming out of the ground straight for him.

Getting deeper into the woods, he stops for a break, worried that he hasn’t found any sign of Bryan or his friends. After catching his breath, he gets up to start going again when a cold chill spreads throughout the trail. Looking beside him, he spots a spectral outline of a young boy sitting on the spot, crying. He was definitely not there a second ago. Reaching out to check on him, the figure pops his head up suddenly and screams in Jimmy’s face with an unearthly, multi-toned demonic wail, urging him to join in.

Screaming in fear, Jimmy turns to run back to safety, back where he came, when he takes no further than one step before he sees two other, similar young boys stepping out of the treeline in tattered clothes, dressed in thorny veins, flowers growing from their joints, and thorns instead of traditional eyes.

They repeat the offer to join in, forcing Jimmy to scramble backwards, unaware of who’s behind him. He finds up, bumping into a giant, plant-like creature but standing in a humanoid stance. With a thick, muscular body of hardened wood, whip-like vines for arms, plants and flowers sprouting across its body, and an air of menace, there was no way this thing was friendly. Staring down at a frightened Jimmy with black pools of eyes burning with hatred, he was now sure this thing meant business.

Grabbed and pulled to his feet suddenly, Jimmy finds himself being held by Bryan and his friends, Jerry and Roger, who were now almost exactly like the rest of the kids around him as if they rolled around and became entangled in the debris from the woods itself. Telepathically, Bryan began speaking to Jimmy, telling him that he had to be like the rest of them. To do that, he had to kill himself so they could be together again as he could never go back to being normal again which was all due to the Laupa. He would bring them back together, he had to kill himself.

Resisting the threat, Jimmy tries to break free and falls to the ground with Jerry and Roger. The chaos causes him to get to his feet and run, right back up the trail trying to get out of the woods. He didn’t know what to do or how to handle the situation, but he had to get out of the woods as a start. Continually passing more ghostly kids along the way popping out trying to grab him or deliver more threats, Jimmy ignores them and tries to keep going.

Wait, was it the left trail or the right trail? Was there ever a fork in the path that he came in on? Which way was out? Scrambling for answers, he goes to the right and tries to run, again seeing those twisted, gnarled trees about to reach out and grab him. Nearly out of breath and his lungs killing him, Jimmy pushes himself to keep going which proves to be his lucky day. There, on the ground, the bicycle he rode here on!

Retreating back home and alerting his parents, they set out tirelessly to find Bryan and the other kids, to no avail. No trace has ever been found, as if they disappeared off the face of the planet, much like the other kids Jimmy saw that night. To this day, they are not the only ones to go missing in Sterlingrad Woods.