Under the autumn leaf lies only...

(TW: Horror)Autumn had a certain gloomy glory today, the sky dark, but leaves riotous with colours. It was only the first dying off, so things still looked colourful and magical.

Give it a few weeks and I was sure the rot and browned leaves would leech all the magnificence right out.

I sighed, burying my face even deeper into the scarf, until my nose was warmed by the wool.

Everything seemed extra beautiful today, but I suspected that was more due to the lack of midterms, instead of the whole world getting a glow up.

I spotted a pile of leaves. The kind children cartoonishly leap into, sending leaves flying into the air. Like the aftermath of an explosion, I mused, never able to keep my morbid little observations away.

The very top of the leafy pile had an unusually red leaf and I stared at it, feeling my face twist with intrigue.

The temptation to do silly, artsy things was too high. I mean, that's why I left my phone at home. This was a time to connect with nature-no that thought's too much even for me.

Anyways, I stooped down to grab it, this remarkably red and prim leaf.

The leaf was interesting compared to the other normally orange and faded red leaves, but once in my hand it quickly lost its charm.

I tossed it aside, and then noticed it.

The place right under the leaf was the wrong colour.

Carefully, reluctant to disrupt this near perfect mound of leaves, I got closer.

There was no mistaking it. Forget wrong colour, it was literal darkness.

Like there was a void under the leaves. Frowning, I gently used a gloved hand to brush off more leaves...

"Oh, shit." I breathed, lurching back.

For the first time, my brain stopped its whirring.

I know I wanted inner peace, but I'm pretty sure what I just saw qualifies as "trauma that will mess you up for the rest of your miserable life".

I needed to see it again. Maybe I was hallucinating?

With a shaky breath, and on even shakier knees I approached it again. And stared, down into the pit, where the body was.

This was clearly one of those traps, waiting for something to unwittingly stumble into them.

But, I swallowed thickly, usually, those are meant for animals, not human beings.

The worst part, I realized with a sick feeling, was that the broken body had clearly been mauled. Oh, that was just terrible.

Automatically I reached for a phone and then swore loudly.

"You goddamn idiot!" I hissed to myself, because of course, for once in my stupid life I went on a hike, and of course, I left my phone.

This is what pretending you wanna achieve Nirvana, instead of just admitting you don't want to read any of your prof's emails, will get you.

I rubbed viciously at my forehead, my once cosy scarf ridiculously hot now.

I peeked in again, literally unable to stop myself.

That was all it took, and suddenly I was retching, vomiting against a tree.

The sickening feeling in my stomach doubled. And in between heaves and agonised gasps, my mind's eye spotted it.

The shiny knife near the body.

Trembling, my mind filled in the blanks, each finding a vicious, lethal conclusion.

There is a manmade trap designed to entrap and brutally injure living things. It was horrifically concealed under an inviting, normal pile of leaves. Someone fell. Someone else, maybe the trap maker, found them and cut them to pieces.

They did not call 911.

They then returned all the leaves back into the pile, and carefully topped it off with an eye-catching red leaf.

This person likely expected another person to fall into this trap. This person could be watching you right now.

With that thought, I froze, the taste of vomit acrid on my tongue.

I felt eyes on me, like the crawling of a million insects and I shuddered.

I've been screaming, puking, swearing and making all sorts of non-silent noises. Nobody will find me, because I don't have a phone.

And because my brain truly, truly enjoys torturing me:

And since you didn't call 911 the second you found the body, the killer probably knows you don't have a phone.

There wasn't anything I could feel but cold, unadulterated horror. I was pleading, terrified and unable to get a single clear breath.

Slowly, I turned from the tree, my mind conjuring up all manner of horrors for when I turned around.

My eyes probed the sinisterly empty and desolate forest quickly, not even really seeing anything.

Until he stood up, leaves gently cascading off. My heart pounded wildly in my chest as I stared at the man in the carved wooden bear mask.

I screamed, and ran.

The branches smacked my face as I thrashed my way through the trees, stumbling, sprinting.

I didn't dare turn around, even though I couldn't hear anything behind me over my own sounds.

It was loud, every rustle in front of me, the rhythmic, frenzied crunching of leaves.

My heartbeat walloping my chest.

With a wrecked cry I realized I needed to get back to where I started, not get lost further in these unknown woods.

So despite the imploring of my terror, I turned in the widest circle possible, racing back in the direction I came from.

I couldn't see him at all, dressed in his plain brown clothing, and that smoothly carved bear mask.

My lungs forced me to stop, hurting with a forest fire ache.

I jerked forward, sucking in desperate mouthfuls of air.

The leaves behind me rustled, and I screamed, catching just a glimpse of the bear-thing approaching me.

I ran blind, tripping as I fought to escape the thing chasing me. I tasted leaves in my mouth.

Then...

For a second, all I felt was weightlessness.

The fall made pain shoot up my leg.

A cut off, wrangled scream burst out of me, and I sobbed with the pain.

The bear-thing looked down, unemotionally, unchanging from above its trap.

"Please!" I begged. "I won't tell anyone, I swear, I-"

It moved away, out of sight and I continued my rambling, pain rocketing through my damaged leg.

I heard a dull, muffled scraping and then dirt hit my face.

"What? No, no, stop!" I shouted. "Help!"

More dirt rained down, faster now.

It fell in sheets, like rain, and I struggled to avoid it.

The destroyed corpse next to me was disappearing moment by moment, and I screamed until my throat was raw.

"Please-" I clawed at the sides of the cage, simply shaking loose more soil to join the rising level of it.

I couldn't climb it, I couldn't flee.

Eventually, I waited soundlessly, eyes stretched wide, and the dirt climbed up to my throat, taking the place of my scarf.