The Haunted Traveler Vol. 2 Issue 1

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hate this place, I hate my entire life.” She turned and ran
outside, back through the woods, back to that place where
nothing grew, back to that place surrounded by bent, gnarled
Halloween trees. She plopped down on the cold, damp, dead
leaves that covered the ground and cried. How was she ever
going to survive living in a place like this, she wondered.
She couldn’t wait to turn 16 so she could drop out of school
and quit having to pretend she cared about anyone else. She
thought about running away. Even living on the streets of
the city had to be better than barely existing out here in the
middle of nowhere.
She looked up from her reverie. She thought she’d
heard voices agreeing with her, “Yessss” whispering through
the leaves.
She got up and studied the trees. For probably the
hundredth time she touched the thick, rough, grayish bark
that always seemed to have patterns in the ridges. Some
even looked like faces, faces with mouths opened in frozen
screams. Suddenly the wind howled through the clearing
causing the leaves to violently swirl around her like she was
in the middle of a mini tornado. The bark grew hot to her
fingers as the wind chilled her all the way through.
Pulling at her feet which suddenly seemed rooted to
the ground, she broke free and ran back home. Without a
word, she locked herself in her bedroom.
A few days later, she started to walk home from
school when several of the girls from her class followed her.
“Hey Megan,” the one called Bethany called. “Wait up, we
want to talk to you.”
Megan kept walking. She could hear the girls behind
her calling and giggling. Then she heard their pounding footsteps
as they ran to catch up. They walked along side her,
seemingly unaware that she was totally ignoring them.
“So, Megan.” Bethany said. “We see you walking
through here every day. Don’t you know these woods are