He Wasn't My Friend
Short Story : He Wasn't My Friend.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ( Horror Story)
By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri . All Copyright Reserved 2018
That description stuck in my mind. I couldn't even think about the suffering the man had gone through. The worst came when my brother's friend, who was telling the story, claimed that his father, who had told him the same story, had seen the man's spirit. He was wandering through the forest, completely filled with rage and resentment after that horrible death he suffered at the hands of those villagers.
Everyone in the group seemed to be very interested in the story. I, on the other hand, was terrified. What if the man in the story was still living in the woods? What if he attacked us? But my worries didn't seem to matter to the others, who continued talking about the man in the story for a while longer before we went to sleep.
I tried to relax and sleep, but I couldn't stop thinking about the story they had told. Every time I closed my eyes, I couldn't stop the images of that burned man from coming to my mind, so it took me a long time to fall asleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up because I heard a strange noise outside my tent. I thought it was the man from the horror story they had told.
I tried to ignore the sounds and focus on breathing deeply, but they were getting louder and more persistent. I started to feel my tent shaking slightly and I couldn't help but feel a chill running through my body. I tried to reassure myself, telling myself that they were just nocturnal animals moving through the forest. But I couldn't ignore the feeling that something was wrong.
It was then that the tent began to shake more forcefully, as if something was pushing it from the outside. I heard loud laughter and a voice telling me to get out of the tent, but I was too scared to move. Suddenly, the tent was flung open and a dark figure leaned over me.
I screamed as loud as I could, trying to scare whoever that person was, but the figure just stood there, staring at me with empty, lifeless eyes. I couldn't see its face clearly, but I could feel its loud, ragged breathing.
Suddenly, the figure disappeared and everything went silent. I lay there, huddled in my sleeping bag, shaking with fear. I didn't know what to do or who to ask for help. I felt completely alone and vulnerable in the middle of that dark, unfamiliar forest.
That's when I heard the laughter of my older brother and his friends outside the store. I realized that it had all been a cruel joke. I was relieved that it was all a joke, but I also felt angry and betrayed. My older brother had never done something like that to me, so realizing that he had changed so dramatically when he was with his friends was too much for me to handle.
After they noticed that I had caught on to their joke and that I really seemed to be very upset, they all went back to their own tent and fell asleep right away. But I couldn't sleep. I was still in shock over what had happened. I felt betrayed by my older brother and his friends. I couldn't believe that they were capable of doing something like that to me.
About two hours passed when, as I lay in my sleeping bag, I started to hear the sounds of the night. The rustling of leaves, the sound of an owl, and the buzzing of insects. But this time, I couldn’t ignore them. Each sound made me more nervous and made me tremble in fear. I couldn’t help but think about the horror story I had been told earlier and the man who was supposedly lurking in the woods.
Finally, I realized that I had to do something to calm myself down. So I got out of the tent and sat outside in the darkness. I looked up at the stars and tried to focus on their brightness. Being outside gave me some peace of mind, since if I saw the man, I would have a better chance of escaping if I was outside rather than trapped in my tent. I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself down, but the fear kept rising inside me.
Suddenly, I heard a sound that made me jump. It was a heavy, dull thud, like the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. I didn't know what it was, but I was sure it wasn't something normal. I stood up and walked towards where the sound was coming from. I walked in the darkness, trying to see something, but everything was too dark.
Then, I felt something moving behind me. I turned around, but there was nothing there. I realized that my heart was racing and I was shaking with fear. I couldn't bear the thought of something or someone behind me in the dark.
I gathered my courage and, with my legs shaking, looked back in the direction of the sound. But I saw nothing. Only darkness and silence. I called out to my brother, but got no response. I thought that perhaps they had moved away to avoid being caught in their prank, but something inside me told me that something was not right.
Afraid, I decided that the best thing to do would be to go back to my tent and try to sleep. Even though I was tired, I couldn't sleep. Fear had me completely paralyzed. I thought about getting up and going to find my brother and his friends, but the fear of the unknown kept me immobile.
So there I sat, in my tent, staring into the darkness. That's when I started hearing strange sounds, like something was moving outside my tent. I tried to ignore them, but they kept getting louder, to the point where I felt like my tent was starting to move.
I was terrified, I didn't know what to do. I tried to scream so my brother and his friends could hear me, but my vocal cords seemed to be paralyzed by fear. The sound outside my tent was getting louder and louder, as if something was trying to get in.
Finally, I gathered my courage and opened the door of my tent, prepared to face whatever was out there. But what I saw took my breath away completely. The figure of a tall, thin man was standing right in front of me. He seemed to be floating in the air, not touching the ground.
I couldn't move, I was completely petrified. The man stared at me and suddenly started laughing. A macabre, heart-wrenching laugh that made me tremble from head to toe. I tried to close the door of my tent, but it seemed to be stuck. I started pulling on the zipper with all my might while trying to remember every sacred prayer I had ever learned in my short life. I finally managed to get the zipper to move, climbed inside, and zipped it shut behind me. I knelt in the center of the tent and began to pray with all my might, hoping that the laughter would stop and that it was all just a nightmare.
But the laughter didn't stop. In fact, they seemed to be getting closer to my tent now. I could hear the footsteps getting closer to my tent. I was completely petrified. I didn't know what to do. Should I scream for help? Should I try to get out of my tent and run as far away as possible?
Then the laughter stopped. Everything was silent. I couldn't hear anything except my own heart pounding in my chest. I looked around, trying to find some sign of what was happening outside my tent. But I saw nothing. Just darkness.
Suddenly, a strong wind shook my tent. I thought it was going to fall apart. But then, the wind stopped and everything was quiet again. I tried to calm myself by telling myself that it was just the wind and that my paranoia was making my brain create things that weren't there.
However, just as I was beginning to believe my own words, a very strong gust began to shake my tent even more violently. In the midst of my panic, I saw that my tent was blown away, leaving me exposed. It was then that I screamed for my older brother and his friends, but received no response.
Still lying on the ground, I could see a dark figure at the edge of the woods. It looked like a man, but I couldn't make out his features due to the deep darkness of the forest. His gaze was piercing, and just feeling it made me shudder. I began to scream and cry, calling for help, but no one answered. The figure slowly approached, with an evil laugh that chilled my blood.
As he came closer, I could make out something in his hand. It was a knife that looked like it was covered in blood. I was terrified and didn't know what to do. My brothers and their friends didn't seem to hear me or feel what was happening. I got up and ran as fast as I could, not caring about going deeper into the woods. All I wanted was to get away from that man.
I ran as fast as I could, feeling the figure getting closer to me. I reached the river and jumped in, not caring about clothes or shoes. I felt the cold water enveloping my body, taking my breath away. But I didn't stop there, I started walking along the river, keeping my eyes back to make sure the figure wasn't following me.
After an indefinite amount of time running, I reached my camp again. But what I saw there paralyzed me. My brother and his friends' tent was torn apart, and everything inside was scattered on the ground. Worst of all, there was no sign of my brother or his friends. I called out their names, but only the echo of the forest answered.
I started walking through the woods, desperate to find someone who could help me. But the more I walked, the more I realized I was completely alone. I felt trapped in an endless nightmare, not knowing what to do or who to ask for help. Fear and uncertainty took hold of me, and I began to cry uncontrollably.
It was then that I heard an evil laugh that seemed to come from everywhere at once. I realized that I was surrounded by something I could neither see nor understand. I felt as if the forest itself was mocking me, and a feeling of complete helplessness came over me.
I realized I had to do something to get out of there. I couldn't let fear completely paralyze me. So I started walking in the opposite direction of the laughter, looking for any trail that might lead me to my brother and his friends. But the further I walked, the more lost I felt.
Suddenly, I felt a strong tug on my arm. I turned around and saw my older brother, his face contorted with fear. He pulled me with all his might, and we started running back to our camp. Along the way, he told me that he had seen something horrible in the woods, something he couldn't explain with words. He told me that he had to get us out of there before it was too late.
I continued running through the forest with my brother, trying to escape from that terrifying figure that was chasing us. After a while, we found another one of our friends, who was shaking and had his hands covered in blood. Next to him, was the lifeless body of another one of our friends. We looked at each other, full of fear and despair. We knew that we had to get out of there as soon as possible, before we ended up dead.
Together, we helped our friend up and continued running through the forest, with my heart beating a thousand miles an hour, and my mind filled with horrible images and thoughts. During the whole journey, my brother's friend kept repeating over and over the words "he wasn't my friend, he wasn't my friend, I swear he wasn't my friend," his voice was so heartbreaking and he tried at all costs to convince us of something that, unfortunately, we couldn't understand at that moment.
After hours of running through the forest, we finally managed to find our way back to camp. To no one's surprise, it was completely destroyed. It was as if a ferocious beast had rampaged through the area trying to find us, but luckily for us, we weren't there.
We had no idea how we would leave that place because, even though we had arrived on foot, the shock of the events that had happened that night was still too fresh, not to mention that my brother's friend was still in that state of psychosis, unable to stop repeating the same words over and over again.
We finally decided that we had no choice but to walk, which fortunately worked out. We managed to get out of the forest alive and find help for my brother's friend, who was immediately hospitalized. And so, our parents found out about our escape into the forest, although to be honest, that was the last thing my brother and I cared about at the time.
We learned not long after that my brother's friend had stabbed another of his friends. However, he claimed that at the time of the attack, he had not seen his friend; instead, he saw a hideous, burned man who was laughing and approaching him menacingly with a knife, laughing in a sinister manner. In his fear, he pulled out the knife he always carried with him to defend himself, but as he stabbed the burned man, he realized that it was his best friend.
My brother and I believed his version of the story and he bragged to everyone that his friend was not a murderer. Plus, we had also had a close encounter with the horrible, burned man in the woods, but no one believed us. My brother's friend never recovered, he was admitted to a mental hospital a few months later and never came out.
My brother and I were completely exonerated, as the body of my brother's friend showed no signs of having been attacked by more than one person, so we were quickly ruled out as suspects. I still remember that night with horrible nightmares that I'm sure will haunt me for the rest of my life
Copyright © 2018 Prabir Rai Chaudhuri
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