I was always told not to go anywhere near the woods.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRrq4hpgUiR
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnglAhF4LYv
Living in a remotely small town, I wasn't sure which they warned me against specifically, because we were surrounded mostly by the woods. But I figured out later that they meant never going into the woods, period.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqpizFWkGrY
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpVNgC7STZ
When I asked why, my folks told me that if I did, the monsters would catch me and I’d never be able to see my loved ones again. According to them, there was a legend that lurked in the woods with claws so sharp, it could cut something that was made of titanium and with its figure so huge, it could make one drop dead in an instant. I thought they were just exaggerating because there was no way something like that existed, not in the 21st century.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUuLMVxARjE
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKjfLywSvp
Back then, I didn’t know what kind of monsters or legend they were referring to but I listened nonetheless because I was four, and any four year old would be afraid of anything that had to do with the word ‘monster’.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCYVlFSAbP
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE7EW4vRZmz
I had a good childhood, of course, one that made me feel secured and loved like there was nothing for me to be afraid of and I felt content. However, there was always this unfathomable feeling that bugged me to look back wherever I go, like a prey that had to be on alert constantly in fear of being attacked. It felt like no matter what I did or where I go, I could never hide from anything, like someone was watching my every movement intently from a distance. 784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1NOtppyRhJ
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDfeecdy5Fw
But that was just it, because I always knew that I was somewhat different growing up – in a sense, I felt like I didn't belonged anywhere.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoM1HsgkIv
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSLeBRijCXG
It wasn’t until the 10th grade that I found out about me being adopted. My foster parents had me sat down and explained to me that a woman who lived a few houses down from ours came to their doorstep one evening and politely asked them to babysit me for a while because she had to leave for work right away. They didn’t suspect anything because she was dressed in an office attire and so my parents assumed that she was a clerk or something. They thought they would just help a neighbour in need – being the good Samaritans they were.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjydTEUrLUb
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP0A2r40UAm
However, the woman never came to get me back.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDlvo1E5yQc
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRuTJQ5MGg
Worried turned to skeptical and that was when my parents thought that something was amiss. They went down to the house aforementioned and were confound with what they had discovered. The house turned out to be an old abandoned ruin with broken shutters and tattered curtains. The surroundings wasn’t any better either with dead leaves and twigs scattered around it. They felt unsettled and had left quickly shortly after that.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv324E8j7MH
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY0rUGNuCzp
According to them, the woman had long, black glossy hair and light brown eyes – so light, it almost looked like gold, both which I seemed to have taken after. 784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhcjwQhnlrN
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2p5fUnLrV7
After asking around if they had seen her, and one that lived supposedly in the abandoned house, many had been puzzled and denied, saying that the house had been abandoned since the 1940s and no one had lived there since nor tried to take over. My parents didn’t know any of this because they had just recently moved in. They had gone as far to track down her whereabouts around the town and hoped to find any clue that might linked to that mysterious woman but it was to no avail. The woman had apparently vanished like she had never existed.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡin84yDYcWs
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNDnpemWBg
She did however, mentioned something strange, according to them before she left and the more I thought about it, the more bizarre this all seemed.
‘Beware of the woods.’784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfQQd00y0fp
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWCzWLzMae
After knowing all this, my curiosity grew as I had too many questions that began from who I was and where exactly did I come from. I knew I was different and the fact that I was adopted with no knowing information or whereabouts from where I come from just fueled my curiosity further. The woman just might be my biological parent and one that could link me to my actual roots. Furthermore, what did she meant by those words? I had to know.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKNx8w7vAQI
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxhBFmTJ0C
It was one dusty evening that I decided to sort this all out – I just had to. My parents were about to leave for work and I had informed them that I was going out for a walk. Despite all the warnings that I was told and against my good judgment, I set out for the woods and stood in front of a vast land where it was surrounded with nothing but dead trees and dry twigs. My heart was full of anticipation and fear, and for a second I felt iffy about doing this. I kept asking myself, was this worth it?784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJJVIwBujEL
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMhsAIXTaNV
I had two loving parents who loved me and I couldn’t have asked for anyone better but somehow, knowing that the woman who left me 16 years ago could be the key to who I was, propelled me to do this. Thus, with a set of determination, I took a step towards the eerie woods and made my journey to find the truth.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Dfa1olUnf
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡluTSFWNHh6
I didn’t know how long I was walking, but I knew the sun had set by now and I was sure the moon was out too, yet I couldn’t find any light from anywhere. My surroundings were pitch dark, saved for my torch light and with each step I took, my heart was thudding with silent apprehension as I felt completely helpless. The air around me grew thicker with an unexpected fog that started to appear as I ventured deeper into this endless abyss of dead trees, filled with an ominous aura. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind and I tried to discern them from wondering if my parents were okay or if they were worried about me, to wishing how I didn’t have the curiosity to do something as insane as this. I started to realize then why they had warned me against this; it was terrifying.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuGL90Kpus8
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdLjnXsxNMx
Suddenly, the air around me grew still – it was as if the clock had stopped ticking.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg7kwybGzcI
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoxJl4qoE30
My apprehension worsened because I didn’t know what was going to happen next, with the woods being as frightening as it was. Was it going to be a giant creature lunging towards me or some ghastly critter – I couldn’t think of any as my mind went into a turbulence of scary images.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWCTYzbbtwY
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEoQRx87D7n
But then, I heard it. The sound was so low, like it was in a distance that I had to strain my ear just to make sure I wasn’t imagining it….. 784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIMrao8ISU3
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTW94KQQGTL
I wasn’t, because what I heard was a distinctive sound of a moan.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3BdP1uRtHo
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWem64fXU3
And because of the countless scary movies that I had watched when I was a kid, I was smart enough to know that whatever sound that was – a moan, definitely – it could not be anything good, especially not in a place as eerie as this dead wood could be, because one: whoever or whatever it was couldn’t be a human as this fogged woodland served as a death trap for anyone and two: it had to be something that I wouldn’t like at all.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUa4f9YxVPv
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡahsLLkazpM
My instinct immediately kicked in as my feet propelled me to run faster and faster from whatever the creature was, hoping that I would see the light at the end of this never ending wood-maze, and someone with an advance weapon to just shoot whatever that was chasing me.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXSWukFgtnk
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJwAuKKrSHl
The sound grew louder and louder, but what had me more petrified was the sudden change of sound, from a faint moaning to several low guttural growls – they came from different kind of directions! The one thing that ran on my mind was the fact that whatever had me targeted were not one but more and I thought that was the end of my life.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqDV6CCRFjF
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMyEgjqyqUQ
I was wishing and praying and hoping that I would get out of this damned place alive and hoped that these creatures will stop hunting me when I heard a snide remark that definitely belonged to a man followed by several maniacal laughter.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmpneEHp1k
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXlU7jb7xNG
“You can run but you can’t hide!”784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIEi590rAV8
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAWIOFG6iK
All thoughts left my mind except for one thing; I screamed.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUnY9Df33JA
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWqATWwDJBj
The next thing I knew, I was thrown to the ground with a thud, rolling onto the dirty, dead leaves with a heavy weight on my back.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIx9Myz6OcP
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHBVSpz84TB
I heard it - a he, most probably – breathed down heavily as he whispered to my ear, “Got you.”784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpREDLXlfr
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQumgO8V8nx
I quickly pushed myself away and tried to grab my torch light that had been tossed out of my grasp when I fell but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I turned to face him, crawling back with my two bare hands as I looked into the faces of my assailant.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmIGrcaKIu
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX819jnvo9E
There were four of them, one stood beside another in a pack stance as they loomed over me. Their physiques were completely different than that of a human, although they looked like one, from what I could discern from their shadowy figure, with the exceptions of their limbs which were inadequately disproportioned, their heads tilted in a mocking way as their eyes gleamed – or rather, glowed – crimson red.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl9hfJ2vo79
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLLvzIhLydc
They were completely abnormal, and I was transfixed by their monstrous and gruesome visage that I didn’t realize they were walking towards me. I was completely catatonic.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2mXKusGgjT
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy02heFLx9F
The creature-man who mocked and assaulted me, which I assumed was the leader came forward to a stop in front of me and brought his face closer with a wide eye and crazy grin to my blanched, stricken one.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzIY3euKUI
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdChVUtvd82
“Welcome home, Princess.”784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7bDZG8c4le
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxI99BaeyaP
My mind went blurry with haphazard memories floating back, from when I was little with my parents to a mirage of the black haired woman as she smiled at me. Her gold eyes were full of warmth but as she spoke, her expression grew solemn. ‘Beware of the woods.’ Her voice echoed to me.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1J4CqpC8Wg
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmB27NAE2j6
My consciousness started to leave but as I gazed up into the pitch black sky, a sudden form of cloud started to create a crevasse, and revealed a bright full moon. The creatures before me suddenly started to morph with a grimace as bones were heard cracking, one after another as they turned into werewolves. My mouth was left open as I screamed until my throat hurt but there were no sounds to be heard.784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEw6izfbs6S
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6G6wkyYgW3
It was too late now, and I was wrong for thinking that monsters like these were unreal, especially in this 21st century. Oh, how I wished I hadn’t gone into the woods…784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWbmuvOOve5
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTeBxzsR98N
The werewolves howled and as my vision started to fade, there was one thought that ran through my mind:784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqmU7fiXiN
784Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVt4wRNgmvf
‘I guess this was what the woman and my folks tried to warned me against.'
