THE EVIL FOREST

EPISODE 3

His heart was throbbing between his chest, he took the sword and the knife, slowly he put them back into my backpack and made sure his skin coat was well tied. He slowly entered in a certain area, stayed in the corner as he felt the need to go back to Matendechere. He was thrown forward, so he was glad that he had at least held tight to the walls.

He grabbed all of his things and peeked out the open door of the place. He needed to stretch his legs desperately, but he didn’t want to encounter the bull. All he saw were some spirits of some looking men coming from far, they were meandering in between the trees, staggering here and there.

Abednego's horrible adventures and meeting that old woman Matendechere, made him learn much more about spirits in the unseen world of evil forest. He hid under a place where there was total shadow, he slowly, made his way there without making any noise. He positioned himself in a place where he could take a clear view of this kind of creatures. One of them was biting something, Abednego couldn't make up what it could have been.

As they almost near, not far away from where he was, he could see vividly. The one eating something was having blood on the mouth. In the hand it was holding a hand of what looked like a hand of a little child. Abednego was really frightened. He looked behind to check if something or if anything was watching him, there was nothing, when he looked back the spirits were nowhere to be seen, they have vanished.

He hopped off and breathed in the air. Thunder rumbled overhead, and dark clouds obscured the velvety, dark blue sky. Fat raindrops hit the top of his head, startling him. He didn’t feel comfortable walking in the rain in a place he didn’t know. Back in the same house he found.

The rain was so heavy, it has started raining so heavily, thunderstorms could be heard, followed by lightning. There was really a heavy downpour, him alone in the deserted room. He propped his backpack in the corner. He was worried about not being able to get any water. Maybe he could hold the jug outside of the house and catch water that way, risky as it was. For the time being, he felt fine. He was relaxed, warm, and he felt safe, somehow disturbed. He snarled up in a corner and waited patiently. Feeling dizzy, he opted to sleep.

Despite his long sleep just a few minutes before, he had the urge to doze off again. The rain was falling heavily at this point, hitting the top of the of the house and the tree,branches outside like little torpedoes. The thunder would boom at random intervals, making him jump out of his skin every time it did so. He hadn’t seen any lightning yet though. As if his recent connection with nature had grown to be psychic, a burst of white light due lightening illuminated the place he was. That’s when he saw it.

There was someone in the opposite corner from him. He had roughly been able to make out a body with a face. No, no, there couldn’t be someone in here with me. He had only been out of the that house for a few seconds to tap some water, and he hadn’t left it. He would have seen someone get in the house, or felt their presence near. If someone had gotten in, they had to have been fast. And quiet.

"Had I hallucinated? I… didn’t feel like I had," he pondered.

The rain pelted the top of the house with a frightening intensity, and the wind howled. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see that he hadn’t just imagined something. A dark shape was huddled in the corner.

He could see its head shaking as if it were having a seizure. He heard gurgling noises coming from it as its body quaked. It made this sound for a while – until it started laughing. It was a breathy laugh, the laugh of someone who was trying to conceal a joke. The laughter gradually became louder, morphing into a cackle, with the choked gurgles coming up in intervals.

Abednego felt like his bones had separated from his muscles. He was paralyzed as he watched the thing heave up and down, and his throat had run dry. His mind raced as he tried to figure out what he could do. If he jumped out of this house, he would die for wasn't aware of what could befall him.

He was scared to even move, fearing that this thing would attack him. The person in the corner stopped laughing. It inched its head forward, as if it were trying to look at him. One arm extended in front of it, bones cracking as it did. A long, skeletal hand splayed on the floor in front of it.

The thing’s shoulders were hunched like it was about to pounce. His fight or flight response kicked in, and he shoved his arm behind him to grab the sword out of his skin bag. He managed to pull it out and point it at the thing that loomed just a few feet away. Shoving the sword, tightly fixing his eyes on it.

He shook even as his fingers were shoving the sword, panting like a panther. However, the figure never moved away. Instead, it c****d its head as if it were amused by his action. In his hurry to grab the sword, the flashlight from the lightening flashed. The calabash had fallen out of his backpack. He saw it out of the corner of his eye.

He don’t know why, but he felt he had to see what was crouched in front of him. It was prepared to kill this person, but he guess the human side of him had to fully recognize it before a sword penetrated through its head. He grabbed the sword tightly and shove swiftly at the thing. This was an action that he will regret for as long as he lives.

Pale, translucent skin stretched across its skull, and greasy, stringy brown hair hung off of it in patches. One of its eyes was a pale corpse-colored blue, its pupil merely a quivering pinprick. The opposite eyelid was plastered into a deformed crevice, revealing the cavernous insides where an eye had once made its home. It growled through a clenched mouth, revealing jagged yellow and black teeth, some of them looking like they had been sharpened down to a point. Its body was grimy and severely emaciated, the outlines of bones looking like they had been carved into its flesh. Red, raised scars covered this thing from its arms to it skeletal face.

It appeared to be covered in oily brown rags, one small, wrinkled breast exposed. This was the woman in his dream. This was the demon living invisibly among the drifter, the death goddess willing his destruction. Tears welled in Abednego's eyes as he heaved and growled. When the light hit her face, she let out a shrill, high-pitched wail.

Before he could shove and strike, she lunged at him, pinning him into the corner of the house. Her long, jagged fingernails ripped into his face as inhuman screams emanated from her mouth. Abednego fought her, kicking and flailing, trying to push her off of himself.

She was stronger than he thought. She was able to wrestle him to the ground, her long fingers grasping around his neck. Her face was millimeters from Abednego. Her one eye, the hue of decomposition, bored a hole into his. Her sour breath felt hot on Abednego's face, and her cracked lips spread into a wide leer. In a low, gravelly voice, she spoke to him.

“Eeeeeat you… send you to hell… make my house with your bones,” she screamed.

She sunk her teeth into his shoulder, making him yelp in pain. He thrashed as she dug deeper into his shoulder. The sword was to his right. Abednego tried reaching for it while his other hand pulled her hair, trying to rend her off of him. He was able to slip his middle finger around the trigger sword and bash her across the head with the sword.

It shocked her enough that he was able to throw her off. He lifted the sword up, with mighty power he swung it up on her head, but it missed her, sailing out of the open door of the house into the darkness. She threw herself at Abednego's legs, still screaming, and brought him to the ground. He hit her across the shoulders and upper back with the sword and kicked her off again. She was too fast for him. If he was going to have a chance at life, he had to make a decision. He looked out the door of the house and saw pool of water from the rain in the distance. He lunged out of the house into the storm. So horrible for Abednego, very astonishing.

The side of his body had hit the ground in that struggle. He ran as fast as he could, rolled down a hill, rain pelting him mercilessly. He only stopped rolling when his body hit the bottom of a ravine. His ears stung from the howl of the wind. He clambered up the hill, trying to get to the tree line. A more piercing howl rang through the night. Abednego looked back to see the woman running on all fours down the hill, shrieking with anger. He used all the strength that he could to run. Blood spilled from Abednego's shoulder, and the sword felt like a heavy weight attached to his hand.

She was gaining on him, and Abednego knew that his fate would be even bloodier than it would have been in the house. She wanted revenge. This propelled Abednego up the remainder of this obstacle. He ran across a short distance and flung himself into the woods, never stopping to look back. His legs caught across some rough thorn bushes, and he had to push limbs out of the way of his face. He could still hear her howls in the distance, but Abednego pressed onward in the dark. He could see nothing and felt like he was moving through jelly.

Abednego finally came to a more open part of the woods. He had to stop due to sheer exhaustion, even though he didn’t feel safe. The only sound he could hear now was the light sound of rain hitting dead leaves and crickets chirping. Most of the rain was caught in the canopy above, forming a roof over Abednego's head. He was thankful for this slight reprieve. He didn’t want to look at his shoulder, but he felt he had no choice. It was covered in red, blood covering it completely and running in rivulets down his chest.

He started crying. He was going to die out here, he would bleed to death, and there would be no escape. That woman would find him, finish him off, and eat his dead body. She would use his bones to make a house, whatever that meant. Abednego was at the mercy of an insane person and far from any civilization he knew of. As he became resolved to his fate, he listened to the rain. He remembered the mountain and the trees and the wind through his hair. He didn’t want to die. Not yet. That’s when he realized the crickets had stopped chirping. Something was moving through the brush somewhere in the distance.

A surge of adrenaline burst through him, and he took off in the opposite direction. He ran and ran and ran, hearing her howl as she tried to find Abednego. He kept running until he saw coloured lights ahead of him. It was the exact house Matendechere told him he will get food for the ogrism, on the other side of the forest. He started laughing when he saw it, thanking whatever force was in charge of the world for bringing it to him. He pushed the doors open. An old looking frail woman was behind the closet. Abednego smiled and collapsed.

Abednego woke up in pain. He was propped up in a booth, with a woman staring at him. He jumped when he saw her.

“Ssh,” she said. “You shouldn’t move.”

Abednego looked down at his shoulder. It was covered in gauze, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore.

“I-I need to get healing herbs,” Abednego said.

She looked at him sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, boy, It’s pouring out there. Healing herbs cannot be harvested when it raining. The herbs won't have any effect. I don’t want to risk either of us. I stopped the bleeding. You’re holding up just fine.”

Abednego looked at her blankly.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

Abednego was silent for a while and swiftly reminded himself of his terrifying encounter with the thing that stalked him like an animal.

“I don’t want talk about it,” he finally said.

The old looking woman nodded. She brought him something to eat. She introduced herself as Maimuna, She started telling him about herself. At any other time, this would kind have annoyed him, but anything that could take his mind off of the recent hours was welcome.

Maimuna had had a fairly hard life. Her stories weren’t uplifting, but they felt more horrendous, more frightening compared to what he had just faced. She talked about how she and her siblings, a brother and a sister, had been terrible harassed by Imboko, how Imboko clobbered their parents and now they are living in hiding. They weathered psychological, and physical a***e. She mentioned one home where a male pedophile called Okuyoyo had locked her and her sister in the closet while he bit up the parents cutting their fingers.

“My life was hell as a child. But, it did get better,” she said.

“I have a pretty good life now in this evil forest.

I communicate with the dead spirits all the time and there's an assurance that all shall be fine. That someday someone will avenge for them. Now, I can’t complain, I am waiting for that person who will avenge for us and those that Imboko killed,” she shrugged.

“What about your siblings?” Abednego asked.

She hung her head. Maimuna didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but she finally spoke.

“My sister couldn’t take it anymore. He committed suicide a few years later. My brother tried to get the ogrism tail. The ogrism is the only weapon that can avenge for the spirits and totally kill the king. As we speak right now, we understand that he couldn't make it, the ogrism captured him; though he wasn't eaten but will stay there for the rest of his life serving the ogrism. The witch woman Matendechere said that they made him their wife, till now, I have never heard of him. All I am left with is to wait for that person who will come, get the ogrism tail and avenge for the entire land."

Abednego looked at her.

“So, your brother is in the captivity, being detained by the ogrism?”

“You could say that.”

“What do you mean?”

She gave a small as she looked at the gauze on Abednego chest.

“I guess it would make more sense for me to explain further. The king, being brutal, got of my father, sodomized him and gauged his eyes out and bit his nose off.”

Abednego stared at her in silence, but she continued.

“They were going to lock her up, my mother, but a shrink determined that she wasn’t in sound mind and started backing like a dog. So, they sent her to the looney bin. She was only trying to protect herself and us."

" Now that you are here, you and I would go visit her. She talked about getting revenge on everyone who had hurt us. When he sodomized my dad and bit his nose off, he said that he liked the taste of the blood. So he has a guardian spirit protecting him, now the restless spirits are waiting for the one and the only one who will raise, avenge for them and the innocent souls that were burned to death. Or are you the one?" She asked Abednego.

"One more time," she said.

"Since the time my mom was put in that lonely bin, she told me that she was going to eat all of the people that had hurt us. She said that if she ate them and s**t them out, that would be sending them to hell. God wouldn’t take them, because they were s**t. Those people drove her insane. But she’s still smart. She escaped. I still see her sometimes.”

I was trembling. Maimuna looked up at Abednego the same way that a lion looks at a gazelle. She zeroed in on his shoulder.

“You met her tonight, didn’t you?” She smiled with all the evil in the world, her pale blue eyes lighting up at Abednego's terror.

Abednego remained silent. She laughed. Her voice dropped down to a whisper.

“She wants to send everyone to hell. I really do admire that in her. Sometimes, she’ll bring me something – an arm or a leg. I’ll cook it up for her. She’ll pull the meat apart like a dog. She takes the bones back with her. I followed her once. She sticks them in the ground around her. It’s like she builds a wall around herself.”

“You’re insane,” Abednego choked out.

“Maybe I could find her. I’m sure she’s looking for you. We could eat you together.”

Maimuna stares wide-eyed at Abednego as he goes by. He doesn't understand why.

When he gets inside or outside her place, he ties a tunic at his upper arm and smack my veins so he can see them and be rest that he is still alive. Finally he sees the mountains, h sees the trees, he feels the breeze and he feels alive. When the thunder booms and the wind howls, she’s there.

She sunk her teeth into his shoulder, making him yelp in pain. He thrashed as she dug deeper into his shoulder. The sword was to his right. Abednego tried reaching for it while his other hand pulled her hair, trying to rend her off of him. He was able to slip his middle finger around the trigger sword and bash her across the head with the sword.

It shocked her enough that he was able to throw her off. He lifted the sword up, with mighty power he swung it up on her head, but it missed her, sailing out of the open door of the house into the darkness. She threw herself at Abednego's legs, still screaming, and brought him to the ground.

He hit her across the shoulders and upper back with the sword and kicked her off again. She was too fast for him. If he was going to have a chance at life, he had to make a decision. He looked out the door of the house and saw pool of water from the rain in the distance. He lunged out of the house into the storm. So horrible for Abednego, very astonishing.

The side of his body had hit the ground in that struggle. He ran as fast as he could, rolled down a hill, rain pelting him mercilessly. He only stopped rolling when his body hit the bottom of a ravine. His ears stung from the howl of the wind. He clambered up the hill, trying to get to the tree line. A more piercing howl rang through the night.

Abednego looked back to see the woman running on all fours down the hill, shrieking with anger. He used all the strength that he could to run. Blood spilled from Abednego's shoulder, and the sword felt like a heavy weight attached to his hand. She was gaining on him, and Abednego knew that his fate would be even bloodier than it would have been in the house. She wanted revenge.

This propelled Abednego up the remainder of this obstacle. He ran across a short distance and flung himself into the woods, never stopping to look back. His legs caught across some rough thorn bushes, and he had to push limbs out of the way of his face. He could still hear her howls in the distance, but Abednego pressed onward in the dark. He could see nothing and felt like he was moving through jelly.

Abednego finally came to a more open part of the woods. He had to stop due to sheer exhaustion, even though he didn’t feel safe. The only sound he could hear now was the light sound of rain hitting dead leaves and crickets chirping. Most of the rain was caught in the canopy above, forming a roof over Abednego's head. He was thankful for this slight reprieve. He didn’t want to look at his shoulder, but he felt he had no choice. It was covered in red, blood covering it completely and running in rivulets down his chest.

He started crying. He was going to die out here, he would bleed to death, and there would be no escape. That woman would find him, finish him off, and eat his dead body. She would use his bones to make a house, whatever that meant. Abednego was at the mercy of an insane person and far from any civilization he knew of. As he became resolved to his fate, he listened to the rain.

He remembered the mountain and the trees and the wind through his hair. He didn’t want to die. Not yet. That’s when he realized the crickets had stopped chirping. Something was moving through the brush somewhere in the distance.

A surge of adrenaline burst through him, and he took off in the opposite direction. He ran and ran and ran, hearing her howl as she tried to find Abednego. He kept running until he saw coloured lights ahead of him. It was the exact house Matendechere told him he will get food for the ogrism, on the other side of the forest.

He started laughing when he saw it, thanking whatever force was in charge of the world for bringing it to him. He pushed the doors open. An old looking frail woman was behind the closet. Abednego smiled and collapsed.

Abednego woke up in pain. He was propped up in a booth, with a woman staring at him. He jumped when he saw her.

“Ssh,” she said. “You shouldn’t move.”

Abednego looked down at his shoulder. It was covered in gauze, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore.

“I-I need to get healing herbs,” Abednego said.

She looked at him sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, boy, It’s pouring out there. Healing herbs cannot be harvested when it raining. The herbs won't have any effect. I don’t want to risk either of us. I stopped the bleeding. You’re holding up just fine.”

Abednego looked at her blankly.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

Abednego was silent for a while and swiftly reminded himself of his terrifying encounter with the thing that stalked him like an animal.

“I don’t want talk about it,” he finally said.

The old looking woman nodded. She brought him something to eat. She introduced herself as Maimuna, She started telling him about herself. At any other time, this would kind have annoyed him, but anything that could take his mind off of the recent hours was welcome.

Maimuna had had a fairly hard life. Her stories weren’t uplifting, but they felt more horrendous, more frightening compared to what he had just faced. She talked about how she and her siblings, a brother and a sister, had been terrible harassed by Imboko, how Imboko clobbered their parents and now they are living in hiding. They weathered psychological, and physical a***e. She mentioned one home where a male pedophile called Okuyoyo had locked her and her sister in the closet while he bit up the parents cutting their fingers.

“My life was hell as a child. But, it did get better,” she said.

“I have a pretty good life now in this evil forest. I communicate with the dead spirits all the time and there's an assurance that all shall be fine. That someday someone will avenge for them. Now, I can’t complain, I am waiting for that person who will avenge for us and those that Imboko killed,” she shrugged.

“What about your siblings?” Abednego asked.

She hung her head. Maimuna didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but she finally spoke.

“My sister couldn’t take it anymore. He committed suicide a few years later. My brother tried to get the ogrism tail. The ogrism is the only weapon that can avenge for the spirits and totally kill the king. As we speak right now, we understand that he couldn't make it, the ogrism captured him; though he wasn't eaten but will stay there for the rest of his life serving the ogrism. The witch woman Matendechere said that they made him their wife, till now, I have never heard of him. All I am left with is to wait for that person who will come, get the ogrism tail and avenge for the entire land."

Abednego looked at her.

“So, your brother is in the captivity, being detained by the ogrism?”

“You could say that.”

“What do you mean?”

She gave a small as she looked at the gauze on Abednego chest.

“I guess it would make more sense for me to explain further. The king, being brutal, got of my father, sodomized him and gauged his eyes out and bit his nose off.”

Abednego stared at her in silence, but she continued.

“They were going to lock her up, my mother, but a shrink determined that she wasn’t in sound mind and started backing like a dog. So, they sent her to the looney bin. She was only trying to protect herself and us."

" Now that you are here, you and I would go visit her. She talked about getting revenge on everyone who had hurt us. When he sodomized my dad and bit his nose off, he said that he liked the taste of the blood. So he has a guardian spirit protecting him, now the restless spirits are waiting for the one and the only one who will raise, avenge for them and the innocent souls that were burned to death. Or are you the one?" She asked Abednego.

"One more time," she said.

"Since the time my mom was put in that lonely bin, she told me that she was going to eat all of the people that had hurt us. She said that if she ate them and s**t them out, that would be sending them to hell. God wouldn’t take them, because they were s**t. Those people drove her insane. But she’s still smart. She escaped. I still see her sometimes.”

I was trembling. Maimuna looked up at Abednego the same way that a lion looks at a gazelle. She zeroed in on his shoulder.

“You met her tonight, didn’t you?” She smiled with all the evil in the world, her pale blue eyes lighting up at Abednego's terror.

Abednego remained silent. She laughed. Her voice dropped down to a whisper.

“She wants to send everyone to hell. I really do admire that in her. Sometimes, she’ll bring me something – an arm or a leg. I’ll cook it up for her. She’ll pull the meat apart like a dog. She takes the bones back with her. I followed her once. She sticks them in the ground around her. It’s like she builds a wall around herself.”

“You’re insane,” Abednego choked out.

“Maybe I could find her. I’m sure she’s looking for you. We could eat you together.”

Maimuna stares wide-eyed at Abednego as he goes by. He doesn't understand why.

When he gets inside or outside her place, he ties a tunic at his upper arm and smack my veins so he can see them and be rest that he is still alive. Finally he sees the mountains, h sees the trees, he feels the breeze and he feels alive. When the thunder booms and the wind howls, she’s there.