by Tobias Wade
I grabbed the pillow and swallowed. At the very least I could confuse the intruder and escape into the forest. If it was too dark for me to see that meant it was too dark for them to see as well.
I braced myself. Three. Two. O—
“Jesus, you scared me!” It was Lacey.
“That’s my line! What the hell are you doing?”
“I had to pee.”
“Did you have to pull the zip to the tent like a serial killer?”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Too late, I’m awake! Fuck me. I thought I was about to lose my liver.”
“Your liver? What?” Lacey got into her sleeping bag and fluffed up her pillow.
“Never mind. Well, now that I’m awake I’m gonna go pee too.”
“Have fun!”
I made my way out into the darkness. Crickets chirped and the trickle of water over rocks continued unabated. It was both unnerving and soothing at the same time.
I finished my business and as I turned to return to the tent I froze. I wasn’t alone. This wasn’t Lacey trying to sneak her way back into the tent without waking me. There was someone standing in the trees, just a few meters away. It was too dark to see anything but a vague outline, but there was no mistaking it. There was a person, right there. I could pick up a rock and hit them with it. Did they see me? I couldn’t tell which direction the person was facing. They were just standing there, like a statue.
I stood still, waiting to see if the figure would make a move. I was sure it could hear the beating of my heart in my chest. Why wasn’t it moving?
There was a cry in the distance. We both turned towards the sound, and then the figure looked at me, its eyes glinting in the darkness before it took off running. I scrambled for the tent and yanked the zipper down as hard as I could, forcing it as it got stuck several times.
“What are you doing?” Lacey asked, rubbing her eyes. I put a shaky finger to my lips and crawled into my sleeping bag. We waited, listening. There was another cry, fainter this time, and then silence. The thing was gone.
“There was someone out there,” I whispered, unable to hide the fear in my voice. Lacey sat up.
“What do you mean, someone out there? Who?”
I shook my head. “There was a cry… a scream… something… and then they took off.”
I left out the part about the eyes. No need to worry her or make her think I was insane. I was a city boy, she would put it down to my unfamiliarity with the woods and not take me seriously. Camping virgin or not, the thing I saw… it wasn’t human.
Morning came without a wink of sleep and Lacey went off to check her instruments.
“Don’t you want some breakfast?” I called out.
“I’ll eat later!”
The forest felt cold. Unwelcoming. Like eyes were watching me from every corner. I stood up, thinking to join Lacey as she did her rounds, but then it dawned on me that I had no idea where she was. I was setting up camp when she put out her stuff.
I was alone.
I made my way over to the trees where I saw the figure the night before. There were footprints in the mud, leading in the same direction the figure ran off. I didn’t imagine it. I followed them for a few meters before they disappeared. It wasn’t that the mud ended, the footprints just… stopped.
I needed to think of an excuse before Lacey got back so we could get out of here. She could call me a chicken all she wanted, at least I would be a living chicken. But as the morning went on, there was no sign of her. I tried my hand at fishing, but all it brought was frustration and even more time to think. I tried to set up booby traps around the camp, but I was no boy scout. I didn’t know the first thing about setting up a snare. Mud squelched under my feet and twigs snapped. How on earth did someone get so close to our camp without us hearing them? I couldn’t take two steps without alerting half the forest.
Several hours passed with no sign of Lacey. I bit my nails and wore a path in the grass beside our tent. Our phones were off and unable to receive reception out here, regardless. I knew the way back to the car, but that was it. If I went looking for Lacey, chances were I’d get lost myself and be in even more trouble. But then a scream drew me from my thoughts.
“Lacey?”
I took off running. Getting lost didn’t matter if Lacey ended up dead or injured instead. I pushed my way through the trees, branches scraping at my arms and face. There was another scream, to my left. I turned, sliding in the mud before picking up speed again. The thing I saw outside the tent, it had her. It was all I could think. I slipped and fell several times, covering myself in mud, and then I heard a third scream, this time to my right.
It was playing with me. I fell to my knees, exhausted. I had no idea where I was, no idea how to get back, no idea where Lacey was or even if she was okay. It had lured me out here, away from the camp, and now it could do as it pleased with Lacey. It was all I could think of, rational or otherwise. Lacey. I had to save Lacey.
I stood up and ran in the direction I came from. At least, the direction I thought I came from. Panic was settling in and the forest looked the same no matter how far I ran. I could have been running in circles for all I knew. Maybe I was.
My heart jumped into my throat. Footprints. I found footprints. If I followed them back I could reach the campsite. I didn’t miss a beat as I leapt over rocks and branches. It would have been beautiful if I wasn’t scared shitless. Then something moved in front of me, and I was on my back in the mud.
“Lacey?”
She looked at me, confused.
“What are you doing?”
I extracted myself from the muck and grabbed her by the shoulders. “That’s my line! Are you okay? I heard screams!”
Her brow furrowed.
“I didn’t hear anything. Are you sure you’re okay?”
My head pounded. My chest ached. My brain was clouded with fear and confusion.
“You didn’t hear those screams just before? They were loud enough that I heard them from camp. I thought it was you!”
At that she smiled.
“Aww, you’re so sweet. But I was just checking my instruments. I didn’t hear anything at all.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “You’re probably just tired. You didn’t get much sleep last night after all.”
“Maybe.” A sleepless night wasn’t new to me, but it didn’t explain why I heard someone screaming when she didn’t.
“Come on, let’s go back to camp. I’ll whip up a lunch special of canned beans and filtered river water!”
I attempted a smile that never quite reached my lips and followed her back. The forest was quiet. Too quiet. My nerves refused to settle down.
We ate lunch in silence. My muddy clothes hung by the tent and all I could think was that I didn’t want to be out here any longer. Camping wasn’t for me. We were supposed to stay a few more days, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it through the next night.
“Lacey.”
“Yeah?” she asked, stuffing her face with beans like she’d never eaten a meal before in her life.
“I want to get out of here.”
“You wanna go for a walk or something?”
“No, out of here. Entirely. I want to go home.”
She snickered. “Now you’re just being silly. We just got here and I haven’t finished my recordings.”
I felt bad, but I couldn’t do it.
“Please.”
She looked at me. “You’re serious?”
“I am.”
She considered it and then sighed. “Is this about the screams?”
I shook my head. “It’s not just that. And I know you didn’t see them, but I saw someone last night. Right there, by the trees. I don’t like this place. It’s dangerous. Who’s to say that tonight they won’t return and murder us for real? I know you wanted to do some research, but that research isn’t going to be any good if we
’re both dead. I don’t like this place. I just don’t. I want to go home. Please.”
She finished her plate of beans and set it down on the log beside her.
“You owe me, you know. Big time.”
I couldn’t hide the smile from my face. “Anything at all! You name it!”
“Yeah, well, first I have to go and get all my gear, I suppose. One day’s worth of results is better than nothing. And you, sir, get to break the tent down and put everything away.”
“Not a problem, it’ll be done before you know it!” My spirits lifted. No doubt she’d give me shit the entire way home, but I could deal with that, because we would be alive and we would be safe. That was all that mattered.
I gathered up our gear in record time and was waiting when Lacey returned. We loaded up, I said an internal ‘fuck you, hope to never see you again!’ to the forest and we went on our way.
“Did you manage to get anything from your tests?” I tried to make conversation as we walked so I wouldn’t have to think about how creepy the forest was. The sun was setting and it would be dark soon. I hated winter. Early nights sucked.
“Not very much, no. But it’s fine. I can come out here some other time by myself.”
I scratched my nose and avoided looking at her. This was the right thing to do. I wasn’t imagining things. I wasn’t.
“I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to this trip.”
“Look, if you’re gonna mope the whole way home, just stop that shit right now. I agreed to go back with you, didn’t I?”
She did, yes.
“Now stop fussing over it.”
“Sorry…”
We walked in silence. The closer we got to the car the more the forest sprang to life. Birds sang, insects chirped, and various creatures scuttled around the forest floor. The sound of several large animals stomping through the brush caught my attention, but I couldn’t find them. As long as we didn’t get in their way, we would be fine. The sun disappeared behind the horizon, but the car was in sight. Just a few more meters and we’d—
“Josh!”
Lacey, a few steps ahead of me, stopped dead in her tracks. She turned to look at me in the gloom of dusk, her expression unreadable. Lacey’s voice called out my name. Only Lacey, standing in front of me, wasn’t the one who called it. It came from the trees to our right.
“What the fuck?”
“We need to go, now,” Lacey said. She didn’t wait for an answer and picked up the pace towards the car.
“Josh, wait!”
Something came running out of the trees. It was Lacey.
“What the fuck?”
Lacey, the original Lacey, turned around. There were two of them, looking right at me.
“What. The. Fuck?”
Lacey, the other Lacey, was disheveled and covered in mud. I took a step back as she ran towards me.
“Josh, it’s me!”
My eyes flickered back and forth between the two of them and my back pressed into a tree.
“I went out to pee last night and something grabbed me! That thing isn’t me!”
I didn’t know what to believe. Other than the mud and messy hair, they were the mirror image of each other.
“I don’t know what that thing is, but I can tell you that when I went out to pee last night I most certainly wasn’t grabbed.” The non-messy Lacey looked at me, her eyes wide. “And yes, I agree. We really should get out of here now.”
The messy Lacey turned and jumped before I could say a word. The two Laceys fell in the mud, scratching and punching and kicking. I ran over, grabbed the nearest one and pulled her off. There was a growl, deep in the forest. I swallowed. That wasn’t a deer. There was no time for this. It was getting darker and colder by the second.
I turned to the Lacey on my right. “What did I get for my fifth birthday?”
“A red matchbox car,” she said without hesitation. I turned to the Lacey on my left, pushing herself up out of the mud.
“What did I want but did not get for my birthday last year?”
“A rainbow cake with buttercream frosting,” she said, flicking the mud off the front of her pants. Both were correct. The red matchbox car was the pride of my childhood and it still sat on my dresser at home. Only Lacey knew about the cake I wanted last year but, due to a mistake at the bakery, never got.
This was insane.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but I can’t be the only one who heard that growl just now.”
Lacey, both Laceys, looked at me. A second later it was on us. A featureless man, like something molded out of clay, ran for the other Lacey. Its eyes glinted in the darkness and it barreled into her at full speed, sending them tumbling to the ground. A scream barely had time to escape my lips before it was all over; the clay man ripped out her throat.
Lacey, the other one beside me, screamed. The yellow eyes turned towards her, then looked at me. A mistake was made. There weren’t supposed to be two Laceys. Something fucked up the process. The clay man grabbed my wrist and began to change before me. It grew taller, matching my height. The watch on my arm began to form on his. The bare chest morphed into my shirt and jacket. Its blank face… became mine.
Lacey screamed again. I pulled the creature away from her and we fell, hitting the ground hard. Mud clouded my vision. Mud. So much mud. It was on everything, working its way into every crease and crevice in my body. I extracted my limbs and swung for the thing with my face. It grunted and grabbed my hair, pulling me back down. It pinned me to the ground and as it adjusted to bear its full weight down on me I lifted my knee. I kicked with all my might, sending other-me tumbling to the ground. I grabbed Lacey’s hand and ran blindly for the car.
“Get back here!” the man yelled with my voice. I ran as fast as I could. No turning back. “Hey, don’t leave me here!”
I fumbled for the keys in my pocket. The car was just ahead. Lacey was dead. Was this my Lacey? There was no time to think about it. I pressed the button on the keys, relief flooding through me as I heard the familiar beep signifying the car was unlocked. I ran for the driver’s side while Lacey ran for the other. Our things could be replaced, but our lives could not.
I saw myself running for the car as I put the key in the ignition. Even more frightening than seeing another Lacey in front of me was seeing myself. It was a perfect copy; it even ran with heavy feet just like I did. The engine roared to life as the no-longer-clay version of myself jumped on the front of the car. Lacey had her head in her hands, crying. I threw the car into reverse and watched as I went flying into the parking lot. I sped off, visions of myself running like a crazed Terminator with a limp in the rear-view mirror burning into my mind.
Lacey said nothing as we drove the empty roads home. We both watched her, or at least another version of her, die before our very eyes. But which Lacey was it? Did she even know herself? And now there was another version of me running around somewhere out there too.
Both Laceys truly believed they were the original. It keeps me up at night sometimes, wondering. I’ve never seen anything to doubt that the Lacey sleeping beside me isn’t the one I first met when we were seventeen-year-old and stupid kids with too much time on our hands, but I had seen it in their eyes when they argued. They both believed they were the one and only “true” Lacey. They both had the same memories. The same features. The same scars. The same feelings and emotions.
Somewhere out there is another version of me. Did he return to the woods, lost and confused, or is he figuring out his next move? Waiting for the right moment to get rid of the imposter inhabiting his house, sleeping in his bed and making love to his girlfriend?
Sometimes I wonder though. In the quiet of the night when the world is asleep. Am I really me? If we both have the same memories, if we both believe ourselves to be the one and only true version, how do I know that I’m the original? Even if he does come to kill me and take my place, how will I ever k
now?
I won’t. And that’s the thing that worries me the most.
Forest of Dolls
“Oh my god, what is that?”
Kenny pointed to something in the distance. I squinted, trying to focus my eyes on the dark spot beyond the trees. He ran off before I could say anything.
“Hey!”
“Holy shit, check this out!”
I caught up with him, stepping around a rather large puddle of mud, and stopped in my tracks when I saw it.
“Oh, gross.”
It was a doll, burnt in several places and missing its eyes and legs. The empty eye sockets were filled with twigs.
“Who would do such a thing?”
Kenny was looking at something else though.
“Look, there are more!”
I followed him through the trees. So much for our peaceful camping trip.
“Jesus…” he muttered, stopping underneath a veritable forest of mutilated dolls. They hung from several trees, ropes around their necks like nooses. They were in various states of decay, missing legs, arms and faces. Again, twigs were stuffed into the holes and cracks.
“Ewwww gross!” A spider scurried out of the doll closest to my head. “I’ve seen enough, let’s get back to the others.”
“Worried they’ll be thinking we’re up to something lewd out here?” Kenny grinned. I rolled my eyes.
“You wish.” Something caught my attention out the corner of my eye. “What was that?”
“What was what?”
“That.” I pointed. “Something moved, over there.”
“It’s just the wind,” Kenny said, pulling a twig out of one of the dolls. “What the hell are these things, anyway? Oh, eww, what the fuck?”
Kenny dropped the stick and wiped his hands on his jeans. “That’s not okay.”
“What?” I asked.
“There was something wet on it.” He sniffed his fingers. “Blood?”
“We really should get back now,” I urged.
“I concur,” Kenny agreed.
We picked up the pace. A soft rain fell through the trees. It was not going to be a comfortable night.
