The Face of death

THE FACE OF DEATH

If someone told me death wasn’t an empty bottomless pit for souls, but a person…. I would have argued with my whole essence.

A step down from the car was all it took to change my life forever. A trip that I had reluctantly agreed to. A trip that I had convinced my group wasn’t even necessary. And now, thinking back to it all, I wonder why I didn’t stop it, why I wasn’t convincing enough and why I let myself get swayed so easily into a situation that would forever leave me with the image of death carved on my soul.

I tried so hard to to keep my breathing even as I walked a few paces behind them; Martha-the quiet skinny brunette with long legs, Jude-the Asian dork with just a hint of musty smell surrounding him and Ally-with her sarcastic expressions and just about enough excitement in her demeanor to cover for everyone.

We had been friends for years and it was no surprise at all that we had ended up together in the same group for our science project, which they had decided was going to be about the Ikturah, a plant on the verge of extinction, with its very last survival area being the Hikok forest located a thousand miles from campus.

I didn’t have a problem with our choice of plant specie, but the moment we had gotten here and out of the car I knew it was a bad idea. I knew something was wrong, however I couldn’t place my finger on what it was.

As we walked deeper, following Jude’s lead as he navigated the map, the crunching of the grass under our shoes broke the graveyard silence of the forest, a silence so deep that I could hear the unevenness of everyone’s breathing, causing me to take extra effort in making mine even.

Everyone could definitely smell the uneasiness in the air.

Perhaps this should have been our warning, perhaps I should have paid attention to my blaring sixth sense, instead of shoving it aside with each step I took.

Other than our feet, there was silence. The birds were non-existent as no bird songs filled the air, there were no cricket cries, not even the wind rustling the tree leaves dared to make a sound.

The silence crept on and weaved through the tall thick trees with their firmly planted brown roots and interlacing branches which spanned across the area, limiting our vision to just the small bubble of trees around us. The ground was covered with them too, and with carpet and carpets of grasses and brown leaves that had dropped from the trees.

The air was mist-filled, with almost visible water droplets and fog stretching for as far as we could see.

And it struck me.

The clear blue sky we had seen just as we stepped down from the car had suddenly turned grey, with a few streaks of red.

My eyes darted to the others just a few steps ahead, waiting for someone to acknowledge that the sky wasn’t smiling anymore.

From the sudden stop in movement, they knew. They could see.

‘We should head back,’ Ally’s frail voice broke the silence.

I could see the fear in her eyes as well as everyone else.

Without hesitation we had started back towards the direction we had come from.

My heart hammered in my chest, attempting to rip my rib cage open. I could feel the moisture gather in my palms even as I tried to dry them on my blue joggers over and over again.

The silence grew heavier as we tried to carve our way out of the thick forest.

But it drew us in.

First, the tree we had marked when he entered the forest was nowhere to be found,secondly the grasses had suddenly grown to our shoulder length with the trees ascending even higher than they previously were.

I parted my mouth and let out each exhale through my mouth, as that was all I could do to not panic.

There were murmurs of confusion from the group and a just a tiny line that separated us from full blown panic.

We had to think.

I had to think and think fast.

Were we just lost or had the forest really come alive….a loud very high pitched shriek shot through the atmosphere and we turned to find Martha elevated by a segment of interlaced branches, laced around her both arms and both legs and stretching her limbs beyond what was humanly possible.

“Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God”, I croaked as the branches stretched her limbs apart even more, and then more.

Her screams shot through my entire body, freezing my soles to the ground, as I watched in horror, the rain droplets of blood spraying in the air, dropping in unceasing downpours as her body had over stretched and exploded.

Her screams rang through the air even as she had suddenly exploded into rain drops of blood….or did those screams belong to Ally.

They did.

The hot tears blurred my vision before burning a path down my cheeks.

What in the world just happened to my friend?

Why were we here in the first place?

Why did we not choose a different plant specie that did not involve coming to this forest?

Were we all gonna die?

Question after question sprung up in my thoughts so quickly as a lump formed and enlarged in my throat by each question .

“Shhhh” Jude hushed and pulled Ally as she sobbed deeply into his shirt. “We need to stay quiet “ he muttered and proceeded to dial 911 on his phone. The signal was out.

This had to be a dream. This had to be some form of nightmare from all the horror movies I’d ever seen.

I wiped Martha’s blood from my face in my attempt to wipe my tears away. The blood had mixed with my tear streaked face and it burned my skin so bad.

Without a moment of hesitation, I trudged ahead, desperately searching for a route that led out of this nightmare.

The sudden whooshing sound of the trees echoed across, causing goosebumps to break out through my skin. I could hear the plummeting sounds of my heart just as much as I could hear the unevenness of my breathing. My blood boiled with adrenaline and without thinking twice I broke into a sprint, with Ally and Jude following just behind me. We pushed forward as much as we could, gathering momentum, the prickles of the sharp ends of the branches cutting into our skins, the wind flapping at our faces, with only the primitive thought of survival blaring in our minds.

Something gripped my arm,So strong, so powerful and it was my turn to let out the most ear piercing shriek. I couldn’t see what had gripped my arm. I couldn’t bring myself to turn around or stop in my tracks. I pulled my arm as forcefully as I could, slapping at whatever had tried to hold me down. I didn’t stop slapping over and over again until my arm was free and I leapt off, springing into a sprint again, with every joint in my body aching but not stopping as I propelled myself further.

The tears didn’t stop, they continued down my cheeks in much faster streaks, blurring my already blurred vision.

They were behind me, my friends, running just as fast as I was, until they weren’t.

At first I didn’t notice, as my mind was blaring with the effects of blasted adrenaline and my ears ringing with rustling sounds of the leaves flapping on my face. And then the sounds of Jude and Ally’s breathing close behind me had ceased.

The trumps of their steps had stopped. And I stopped in my tracks.

Slowly, I turned to confirm my worst fears-that I was all alone in this dark jungle, trapped and with no knowledge on how to leave.

I darted my eyes around for any trace of them

“Ally? Jude?” I whispered, more of a plea really at this point.

I tried again, louder this time, “Ally? Jude?”

I was screaming their names at that point, grasping at the thin threads of hope that was rapidly disappearing.

I knew they were gone.

I knew they were dead.

I wanted to die too. I wanted it to be all over.

Whooshing sounds filled the atmosphere, starting as barely a whisper and then getting louder and louder and louder until it was all I could hear.

I placed my palms over my ears so tightly in my attempt to muffle the sounds, yet they rang louder and louder.

There were whispers hidden between the whooshing.

I couldn’t make out the whispers until I heard my name, followed by a blasting thunder sound echoing from the heavens.

The thunder blast shook the trees, shook the ground. I was tired of running, I didn’t know where I was running to. I was afraid.

Beads of sweat had gathered on forehead, gliding down my face and mixing up with the dried tear streaks as I tried to catch my breath, panting.

My mind had gone numb with fear, my heart was tired of drumming. My calloused palms had remained clenched, trapping even more moisture inside it. My throat had dried up, I couldn’t scream anymore.

Again, I wanted to die.

My skin had been bruised badly by the pines and sharp branches, with blood stains all over me.

I sank slowly to the floor with my eyes darted towards the sky, waiting to be consumed by whatever had consumed my friends.

I felt it before I saw it. The icy cold hand of destruction circle around my throat, digging even deeper.

I filled my senses with the smell of the earth just below me, the thick brown soil from which the entire forest had bloomed from.

I couldn’t breathe. The icy palms had embedded its nails deep in my neck, letting down a pool of blood trickling down to my shoulders . It had cut through the cartilage of my trachea, stopping my breathing instantly.

I didn’t struggle despite the intense discomfort, The raging hypoxic signals sent to my brain.

I didn’t fight it.

I dared to open my eyes.

To meet with it.

And I did. I slid my bloodshot eyelids open gradually and was met with equally red dark eyes.

Icy cold eyes. Much more icy than the hand gripping my neck.

I watched the eyes of death as it engulfed me.

Who knew death was a person?

This time around, I shut my eyes and let the emptiness consume me wholly.