Ghosts? In These Woods?

by CaeAbyss

Summary:

"Tommy’s friends had the great idea of wandering around the woods to try and catch some ghosts. Were any of his friends with him? No, of course not. The ghosts were “more active when you’re alone”, so only one person could go in if they wanted to catch anything. And since Tommy was the bravest, he should be the one to do it."

~~~~~~~~
Tommy gets dragged into going in the supposedly haunted woods to try to catch some ghosts and doesn't quite find what he expected.

Chapter 1

The woods were cold and dark. The nearly full moon did little to illuminate the ground, tangled branches and the few remaining leaves blocking most of it. Tommy didn’t know why he agreed to do this. The woods were supposedly haunted and most active at night on the full moon or around Halloween. This year those two things happened to line up perfectly.

Tommy’s friends had the great idea of wandering around the woods to try and catch some ghosts. Were any of his friends with him? No, of course not. The ghosts were “more active when you’re alone”, so only one person could go in if they wanted to catch anything. And since Tommy was the bravest, he should be the one to do it.

Not that they were wrong! Of course they weren’t. Tommy was the biggest and bravest man ever, but did it have to be him . It was their idea. Didn’t they want to be the ones to do it? Obviously, he didn’t say that. They might think he’s a coward or something, which he wasn’t.

So here he was, in the middle of the maybe haunted woods at midnight with a slowly dying gopro and no cell reception. He hadn’t even seen anything remotely ghost-like or spooky, unless you counted the crows he’d seen flying around. And, to make it worse, he’d gotten turned around at some point and didn’t know where he came in from.

He wasn’t lost! No no no. He would never get lost. The great Tommy Innit would never be defeated by some trees. He’d just misplaced the exit. Yeah, he wasn’t lost.

A crow cawed loudly as it took off, causing leaves and twigs to fall onto Tommy. Starling at the sudden noise, he glanced up trying to see anything, but the crow had already flown off. He grumbled angrily, but continued on his way.

His current plan was to just walk in one direction and eventually he’d reach the edge of the woods, so long as he didn’t make any turns. Sure, he didn’t know how big the woods were, they could be a giant forest for all he knew, but they couldn’t be that big. 

His foot snagged on a root and he wenting crashing face first to the forest floor. “Fuck.” He pushed himself up, spitting a leaf out of his mouth. He could have sworn the root hadn’t been there, but it was dark enough that it could have easily blended into the shadows. His hands were scrapped and he could feel blood beginning to slowly drip down his chin from where he hit it on a root. He brushed dirt and decaying leaves off his jeans, wincing slightly as dirt got into his scrapes.

The gopro lay on the ground little ways away from when he dropped it as he fell. Tommy grabbed it and brushed dirt off the lens. He couldn’t see anything wrong with it, but the light had stopped blinking. No matter how many times he banged it or pressed the on button, nothing happened. “Great. Fucking fantastic.” Not only was he stuck in the middle of the woods, but he couldn’t even do what he’d come in here for.

“It generally works better if you don’t drop it,” a voice behind him said.

“Fuck you,” Tommy said as he spun around, glancing around for the person. He couldn’t see much beyond the shadowed tree trunks.

“That’s a rude way to greet someone you’ve just met,” the man said as he stepped out from the shadow of a tree. It was still too dark to really see much, but he looked tall and lanky. “What’s a kid like you doing this deep in the woods late at night?”

“None of your business! And I’m not a kid,” Tommy snapped as he glared at him. He’d turned sixteen months ago and was most definitely not a kid. He was a big man. “What are you doing here?”

The man chuckled. “Oh, you know, making sure nobody’s lost in the woods, especially around this time.”

“I’m not lost!”

“Of course not. You know, if you keep going that way, you’ll get out of the woods in a few days. That’s if the bears don’t get you first.”

Tommy gaped at him. “There aren’t any bears here.”

“Not that you’ve seen,” the man said before turning around. “Come on, I’ll show you how to get out of the woods.”

“Why should I go anywhere with you?”

“You’re welcome to stay here and wander around until you either get out or die,” he replied, already walking off deeper into the woods.

“You’re a wrongun,” Tommy shouted, running to catch up. The man glanced behind him, smiling slightly when he saw Tommy had caught up. “Who are you?”

The man hummed as he took a moment to think. “You can call me Wilbur.”

“Wilbur. That’s a weird name,” Tommy said as he walked next to him. He didn’t recognise where they were, but he’d been wandering about in the dark for a while so that wasn’t too surprising.

“Oh, really? What’s your name, then? I doubt it’s much better.”

“I’m Tommy. Clearly much better.”

“Tommy,” Wilbur said, humming slightly as if thinking. “I don’t know. I think Wilbur is better.”

“No it isn’t. You’re delu-sion-al,” Tommy said before walking into a tree. “Fuck!”

Wilbur cackled as Tommy stumbled back and glared at the tree. “You might want to look where you’re going.”

“Fuck you. It jumped out at me,” he grumbled.

“Trees don’t move.”

“Yes they do! How do you know, huh? You’ve just not seen them move,” Tommy argued.

Wilbur shook his head. “Come on. If you want to get out anytime soon, we need to keep moving.”

Tommy grumbled, but hurried after him. He’d already been in the woods longer than he’d like, the wet patches on his jeans from where he’d fallen were uncomfortable, and his scrapes were starting to sting. He glanced up at Wilbur as they walked. Despite how tall Tommy already was, Wilbur was somehow taller.

From what little Tommy knew about him, Wilbur was a strange fellow. Right off the bat, he was a bit weird for lurking in the woods late at night, even if he was supposedly looking for “lost people”. In the few splotches of light that managed to get through the maze of branches, he looked pale. Although it could have just been the poor lighting and the black shadows surrounding them. 

He also kept glancing around at every noise or rustle. When a crow flew overhead, Wilbur sped up, glancing even more nervously at the shadows around them.

“Wilbur, are you scared of birds?” Tommy asked the third time it happened.

“What?” he said, startling at the sudden question.

“Are you scared of birds? I won’t tell anyone.”

“No! I’m not scared of… why would you think that?” Wilbur spluttered, pausing briefly , but quickly returning to his original pace.

“You looked pretty scared by that crow earlier,” Tommy said in a sing-songy voice. Messing with Wilbur was fun.

“I’m not scared of the crows. I’m more worried about what follows them,”Wilbur said as he glanced behind them, speeding up again.

“What do you mean? What follows them?” Tommy asked, speeding up as well. “Wilbur! What’s going on?”

“Don’t worry about it, just keep moving. We should be…” Wilbur stopped as he looked over at Tommy. He stared like he was actually seeing Tommy for the first time.

“Wilbur?”

“How long have you been bleeding?”

“Since I tripped earlier. Why are you acting so serious?” Tommy asked, confused as Wilbur frantically searched through his pockets. He wiped at the blood on his chin. It had mostly dried, but the scrape was still somewhat bleeding. It hadn’t been that bad of a fall.

“Here,” Wilbur shoved a cloth into Tommy’s hands. “We need to hurry up if we want to get out of the woods.”

He stared confused at the cloth, but used it to wipe up some of the dried blood. “I thought we were already doing that.”

They practically ran through the woods. Tommy was too busy trying not to run into any trees or trip over roots to ask any more questions, no matter how much he wanted to. He didn’t know how long they’d been running for when they finally reached the edge of the woods. In the distance, he could see some dim streetlights.

“There you go, edge of the woods,” Wilbur said, giving Tommy a light shove.

“Thanks, man. I still think you’re a wrongun,” Tommy said, brushing off dirt he hadn’t been able to see before. Wilbur plucked some leaves and twigs out of Tommy’s hair, flicking them off to the side.

“Sure, just don’t go wandering in here at night again,” Wilbur replied, sounding concerned. Tommy glanced up. Now that they were out of the woods and branches weren’t blocking most of the light, it was a lot brighter and he could see Wilbur better. His skin was pale and looked sickly. The moonlight probably wasn’t doing him any favors.

“I’ll  be careful,” Tommy grumbled, lightly smacking Wilbur’s hand away as he reached to grab more leaves from Tommy’s hair.

“Good, good,” Wilbur nodded. “Now go home. It’s not safe out at night.”

“Yeah. Bye, then, I guess,” Tommy said, waving awkwardly as he turned around and headed back toward town. He was ready to get home and sleep. Wilbur watched from the treeline as Tommy left, before disappearing into the woods. A crow flew from the tree it had been perching on.

Chapter 2

As far as Tommy was concerned, life hated him. It turns out that when he fell yesterday, not only did he break the gopro, but he also managed to delete all of the footage from that night. A feat in itself considering how hard it is to break gopros and the fact that there wasn’t a delete button.

Because of this, his friends were forcing him to go into the woods again . In their words, it was his problem, so he had to fix it. Which is what led him here, back in the woods with a new gopro and a flashlight. He was a little nervous about going back into the woods when Wilbur had warned him not to, but it wasn’t like he was going to run into any bears.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t get lost again, but with his luck, he’d need Wilbur to escort him out. The flashlight would help him see where he was going, but wouldn’t help him figure out where he’d been. All the trees still looked the same.

Tommy eventually stumbled on a small clearing. There were fewer trees and the branches were less dense, making it a bit brighter. A crow cawed loudly above him. He glanced up, being careful not to shine the light on the crow. He wouldn’t want someone to point a flashlight right in his face. “Hello there.” The crow just tilted its head. “Have you seen any ghosts around here?”

It cawed loudly once more before taking off. “Guess not,” he sighed before turning around to look at the area a bit more. He hadn’t been expecting a response.

He didn’t know what he was looking for. There wasn’t anything extra spooky about the woods. Sure, it was dark and cold and the trees seemed to move when you weren’t looking (they obviously weren’t; the shadows were just playing tricks), but that was any forest at night. This one wasn’t any special.

The spookiest thing he’d seen so far was Wilbur and that’s just because he was weird and made a habit of lurking in the woods in the middle of the night. There wasn’t anything supernatural about that.

Maybe it really was his job and he’d become nocturnal as a result. It’d explain why he was so pale. You can’t tan if you’re inside sleeping when the sun’s out. One of Tommy’s friends would probably say Wilbur was a vampire, but that was even more ridiculous than the idea that there were ghosts here.

“You lost, mate?”

Tommy spun around, flashlight swinging until its beam landed on a figure on the other side of the quasi clearing. This time it wasn’t Wilbur. The man was too short. He was also wearing a green robe and a bucket hat.

“I’m not lost,” Tommy replied cautiously.

The man hummed slightly. “Of course not. It’s a bit late to be wandering in the woods alone, though. It’s dangerous at night. You never know what you might run into.” He took a few steps closer as he spoke, watching Tommy intensely.

“What, like you? The only things I've run into are you and that Wilbur fellow. Well, him and trees,” Tommy replied, the last part coming out more as a mumble. “Do you work with him or something?”

The man froze, head tilting to the side. “You met Wilbur?”

“Yeah, I ran into him last night. He warned me about bears.”

“Oh, he did? And you came back anyway?” he asked, something shifting behind him. It could have just been the trees or another one of the crows that seemed to hang about the woods, so Tommy ignored it.

“Yeah, I’m looking for ghosts,” Tommy said, waving the gopro a little. His friends wouldn’t like the shaky footage, but it wasn’t like this part would be needed. The man watched the camera closely.

“You won’t find any ghosts here,” the man replied, walking closer to Tommy. “I’m called Philza. What’s your name?”

“Nice to meet you, Philza. I’m Tommy,” he said, vaguely registering that he probably shouldn’t be introducing himself to every random person he met.

“Tommy, it isn’t safe here. Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Philza responded. Reaching out a hand. He was now only a few feet away. The shadows seemed to get darker behind him. 

“I’m not scared of some bears that don’t exist,” Tommy deadpanned. He still didn’t believe Wilbur when he said that there were bears. He would have heard something about them sooner.

“There are things worse than bears. Come with me and I’ll keep you… safe,”Philza said.

“I doubt it’s that dangerous. There are crows still hanging around,” he replied, gesturing at the crows hanging around them. “They wouldn’t be here if it were that dangerous.”

Philza smiled, tilting his head to the side. “Crows are very smart, but what’s dangerous for you, isn’t always dangerous for them. Now, come on, mate. It’s late. Let’s get you home.”

Tommy considered it for a moment. He didn’t really want to be there and Philza didn’t want him here. It was late and he doubted he’d find any ghosts even if he stayed in the woods all night. Besides, he could get another hour or so of footage walking back.

“I know how to get out of the woods. I don’t need any help, thanks.”

“Of course you can. But why don’t we go together so we can keep eachother safe.”

“Fine, but only so you don’t trip over a root and die,” Tommy relented. He spun around, heading in  hopefully the direction he came from. Philza smiled widely and followed slightly behind him. There was a quiet rustling, but Tomy assumed it was just Philza’s robe brushing past the leaves on the ground.

“What is your and Wilbur’s job anyway?”

“We keep the woods safe, protecting it from intruders and keeping visitors who don’t mean the woods… safe from its inhabitants,” Philza replied after thinking for a moment.

Tommy didn’t like how he kept pausing before he said “safe”. It didn’t give him a lot of confidence. “What’s so important about these woods?” he asked, temporarily putting that thought to the side.

“We’ve been living here for hundreds of years.”

“What do you mean? Has it been passed down in your family or something? Wait. Does that mean you and Wilbur are related?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“That’s weird,” Tommy replied, screwing up his face. He could sort of see how they were related. They had similar mannerisms, concerns, and a habit of sneaking up on people in the middle of the night.

“How come you all live in the woods if it’s so dangerous?”

“We live in harmony with the woods. They know not to harm us, “ Philza said. One of the crows flew down and perched on his shoulder. It pecked at his hat.

“Right, and the bears know that?”

Philza laughed, startling the crow. “We know how to avoid disturbing bears.”

Tommy nodded, still a bit skeptical. Stranger danger and all that. It was a bit weird that their family had lived here for so long and yet not been noticed by anyone. People would’ve surely talked about the weirdos in the woods.

The rest of their walk was spent with Tommy asking Philza a ton of questions and him answering with vague, slightly repetitive responses. Tommy was in the middle of asking him how old Philza was- he had to be old for Wilbur, an adult, to be his son- when he stumbled out of the woods. Tommy glanced around confused. He could have sworn that the woods went on for a while longer.

“Here you are, mate,” Philza said from behind Tommy. He was still standing in the woods, albeit on the edge.

“See, I wasn’t lost. Knew exactly where I was,” Tommy replied, trying to hide his confusion. 

“Sure, mate. Now head home. It’s too late for you to be out and about.”

“I’m not a child! I can be out as late as I want,” Tommy scowled, in what was definitely a very mature way.

Philza smiled at his antics. “Of course. But even if you don’t think you need sleep, I should be heading back,” he reasoned.

“Yeah, yeah. For your job or whatever. Bye, Philza!” Tommy called as he left, heading back to the town.

A crow flew down and landed on Philza’s shoulder as he watched Tommy leave. He muttered something and a moment later the crow flew off. He smiled to himself, waiting for Tommy to disappear from view before he turned to walk deeper into the woods.

Notes:

I mildly forgot this existed. Sorry for the wait. I didn't plan how to end this, so I'm not sure exactly when the last chapter will be out. Hopefully next week since it's mostly written and all I have to do is finish the ending.

Notes:

I hope you enjoyed it! I had sudden inspiration for it cuz spooky season. There should be two more chapters which I have a rough idea for. I'll try and get them up as soon as I finish them.