A Voice From The Trees

 It was stupid of me to be excited for that trip, I guess. Derek had invited me out to his cabin for the weekend for some camping - if you could call it that. Fishing, hunting - we were planning on watching the game on Sunday, too. I packed a couple of CDs to listen to on the way there - it was five hours away, but then again, you wouldn’t pitch a tent in the middle of a city, right?

 I was able to watch the sunset as I drove. I’ve seen my fair share of sunsets on the road, but this one looked nicer than usual, painting the trees below it. Real novelist vocab, I know, but that’s what it looked like. Night didn’t settle in until I reached the trees, and the pines were dense enough to block out any light that was there in the first place. I had my high beams turned on, and they still seemed dim.

 After driving for an hour or two along a road so bumpy it made corrugated sheet metal feel like polished marble, I saw the hand-painted sign for his house, and turned onto the equally long and bumpy driveway.

 All I could see - which wasn’t much - was road, trees, and the occasional chubby raccoon sitting on the forest floor, prowling for whatever food they could get their hands on. Sometimes I’d see a faint outline further into the woods, stock still. I paid no mind - it was probably just a deer.

 It wasn’t - but, well, I didn’t know that.

 I drove on.

 After a while, a log cabin came into view, smoke drifting lazily from the chimney. I recognized it instantly as Derek’s. The lights were on, but nobody seemed to be home. But his Jeep was parked in the driveway too, so he had to be here somewhere.

 I parked the car, before opening the door and sliding feet first onto the late autumn leaves, which crunched under my sneakers. I wanted to move my bags inside (and hopefully get some dinner too), but I thought it’d be best to at least say hi to Derek first instead of just barging in. I pulled the hood up on my jacket and walked to the cabin.

 The door was unlocked, and creaked as I opened it. The TV was off, and the gun which he normally kept over the mantel was missing.

 This would strike most people as odd, but I know Derek, and he absolutely loved to hunt late at night. Sure, it was pretty dumb - he never used a stand, either, so he had bears and pumas to contend with - but he was reckless like that.

 So, naturally, I figured that he was in the woods, shooting at any animal he happened to see. I grabbed my own gun, a flashlight, and a visibility vest to keep from getting shot myself, and started down the hunting trail he always used. Normally, the woods would be filled with noise after nightfall - crickets, cicadas, and pretty much anything that was awake at the time. But the cold had come kinda early that year, so things were quiet. I heard the trees in the wind and my own breath. It was peaceful, if a little eerie.

 The trail was about as bright and sunny as the bottom of the ocean (even with the flashlight), and more than once or twice, I tripped over a root that seemed to be all but invisible.

 After around ten minutes or so, I started to hear it. A voice. No matter how far I walked, it didn’t grow louder or softer. I couldn’t hear it too well, but something about it unnerved me.

 Then the pitch changed, and my heart sank into my gut.

 It was Derek. He was screaming.

 I broke into a sprint, arms pumping and feet stumbling over themselves. I did my best to call out mid-stride. “I’m coming! Hold on!” What if a bear had gotten to him?

 I eventually made it into a small clearing. I heard his screaming get louder, more frantic. “Jackson! Jackson, help me-”

 I turned, more than a little disoriented. Where was he? I walked unsteadily towards the treeline.

 There are certain times in a person’s life when they know exactly what they have to do, even if it doesn’t seem to make any sense in the slightest. Bit by bit, I tilted my head up, staring into the trees. I aimed my flashlight - and drew in a sharp gasp.

 Sitting in the bare branches above me was a mass of mangled, disjointed fleshy limbs, like a spider with skin. The legs – or arms – of the thing ended in long, pale hands, wrapped almost gently around surrounding boughs, holding it aloft. Its numerous eyes were a pure milky white, and blood dripped red from its toothy, buglike mouth, landing with soft splats on the dead leaves below.

 I froze, a deer in headlights. I wasn’t sure if the thing could actually see me or not. I wondered if it was blind - and a sudden rustle from behind it confirmed this. Its head snapped around, facing the source of the noise - an unlucky deer, no doubt. It faced me again for a moment - then turned and clambered away.

 Now, as I watched whatever this was, I had been slowly and cautiously backing away, like you do when you see a snake. As soon as I saw it disappear entirely, I dropped my gun (a pretty dumb idea, but it’s kind of hard to think in those circumstances) and made a mad dash back to the cabin and my car.

 I ran with reckless abandon, stumbling into trees and over roots, my jacket catching on branches - or were they arms? Only one thing was on my mind - getting out of there as fast as possible. Every twig that snapped or leaf that rustled in the wind sent chills up my spine, filling me with blind, inescapable panic.

 Every step I took, I had the unshakable feeling that the thing was behind me. And when I saw the lights of the cabin, I ran faster, grabbing my keys from my pocket with shaking hands and unlocking the car with a small honk. I flung the door open, got in, and immediately locked all the doors (and the trunk too, just in case). I turned on the car and sat there for a moment. That wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. I had to have been seeing things.

 Then the thing slammed down on top of Derek’s Jeep, letting out a raging scream. I might’ve screamed a little as well as I peeled out of there, foot pushing the gas pedal nearly to the floor.

 I didn’t let myself relax until I reached the highway, already on my way to the police station.

 They found him eventually, lying at the bottom of a ravine.

 His voice box was missing.