The Voices in the Woods

I hid behind the tall birch tree, not wanting to be noticed by the voices on the other side. Heavy rain fell on my shoulders, and instead of looking for my lost dog I decided to eavesdrop on a conversation between two people I didn’t know. 

“Herald, the bishop moves straight up and down, what are you talking about?”

“No… that’s what a rook does, have you really played chess before?”

“Of course, I have! Now let me move my bishop.” 

“John… the game doesn’t work that way. You can’t move the bishop up and down the boar-”

“Ok and? What genius orders me to move a certain piece a certain way?”

“That’s just how chess works…”

            A piece of hail landed right next to me. It was starting to sleet. I started walking back towards my home, forgetting about my lost dog, but my foot slipped, and I fell backwards, right in the middle of the two strangers. Embarrassed and flustered I looked around, but to my surprise I didn’t see anyone. The voices also vanished, though I could hear someone breathing in the distance. I was scared to the bone. I hastily got up and called out with a quivering voice “hello,” but no one responded. I started backing away and soon started running. I ran all the way back home and didn’t stop even for a trice.  When I reached my front doorstep, to my pleasant surprise, my dog was right there, wagging his tail.

            I didn’t sleep well that night. As I tossed and turned, the scene from the woods kept replaying on my mind. I swore to myself I would never wander in the woods again, though the next day I broke my promise. 

            After school when my friend, Maria, and I walked home I decided to tell her what had happened. I didn’t tell my parents, for they would just chuckle and talk about how wild my imagination was, and then give me lectures on how I shouldn’t have gone out in the woods in the first place. Maria believed what I had said and asked if she could go out into the woods to witness the voices I had heard. I hesitated at first, not wanting to go back there but the curiosity from the last evening hadn’t dwindled yet. So, I took a deep breath and agreed to go again.

            I remembered the path to the place where I heard the two men talking. And as soon as we reached, sure enough, I heard the same voices ricocheting in the wild woods. They were playing chess again, this time arguing about how the pawn works. I was behind the same tall birch tree with Maria behind another one.

            “Do you hear them?” I whispered to Maria, but when I looked at her face I froze. 

            “I don’t hear anything…” Maria replied. 

            “Y-you don’t? They’re right now arguing about chess. You don’t hear that?” I replied, my voice shaking. 

            “I- I don’t…” She said, looking terrified. Suddenly, we both started running back home. She couldn’t hear the voices I had heard. But why? Why couldn’t she hear them? 

            That night, at around three in the morning when I was sure my parents were asleep, I opened my computer. I started researching about the voices I heard in the forest, but nothing came up. After an hour of searching, I stumbled upon a website titled ‘Hearing Voices in the Forest About Two People Playing Chess’. The post had only six views, which made me scared to open it. Though I wanted answers on why only I could hear the voices in the forest and not others. I was just about to click the link but started dozing off and soon slept on my desk. When I woke up in the morning, the link and website vanished like a whiff in the air.

            The next day, when I came home from school, I tried to forget about everything that happened in the woods. I had a science and math test tomorrow and had homework on every subject. I came home and was home-alone like every day. I popped a bagel in my toaster. I started with math first, consuming a few bites of my cream-cheese bagel in between.  

            Though, every now and then while doing homework I kept brooding, thinking about the incident, but I forced myself to snap out of such precarious thoughts. I knew I couldn’t afford to get distracted with all the homework and studying I had to do, but even so, the thought kept distracting me. It was like urging me to go back in the woods once more, to get all unanswered questions. I did quite well to keep the temptation to go back to the woods at bay, for I still had hours of work right in front of me. 

            I finished my schoolwork by midnight. Once the work was done my mind was completely crowded with the last night's thoughts, refusing to escape. I skeptically opened my laptop and I searched again the website I had found the night before. When I heard the garage opening, I quickly shut my laptop, I turned my lights off, and hopped into bed. I was thankful to myself for brushing my teeth earlier, and without realizing how tired I was I soon started falling asleep.    

            At school the next day, I decided I would return to the woods one more time. I was probably over exaggerating about the voices, but whenever I thought about the episode, it gave shivers up my spine. Today, we luckily had only math homework. As soon as I finished it, I ran back to the woods.

            I don’t know how, but the place where I heard the voices was crystal clear on my mind, I didn’t even miss one turn. In less than 5 minutes, I was back behind the tall birch tree, and I heard the voices again. Though, this time I saw a girl about my age next to me behind another tall birch tree.

            The conversation stayed the same, arguing about the chess pieces, though I kept staring at the other girl. She didn’t notice me and kept trying to hear the voices just like how I did the first day. After a minute, I walked over and introduced myself.

            “Hi. I’m Elizabeth,” I said. The girl looked at me and smiled. 

            “Hello. My name is Amy.”

I pause for a second. I was too scared to bring up the voices, but it would be awkward to just not say anything. So, I took a deep breath and muttered, “do you hear the voices as well?”

            Amy looked at me for a second and nodded. “Those two men are my grandpa and my great grandpa,” she replied. 

            I froze. Her great grandpa?

            “How do you know?” I replied curious, not wanting to seem rude.

“Because I’m a saint, just like them,” she smiled. I was scared to death and her smile topped it off. I tried, but I couldn’t seem to calm down. 

            “Are you ok?” she responded confused. Suddenly, I felt dizzy, and I slowly fell to the ground… 

            The next day there were three people arguing about chess instead of two.