Halloween may be over, but that doesn’t mean we should stop reading and writing creepy fiction! Here’s a piece of horror flash fiction about a child screaming in the woods and a scary encounter. It’s about 630 words and has an estimated reading time of 2 and half minutes. Let me know what you think!
The wooded area behind my house always creeped me out. It was a desolate wood, as they’d call it, and my home was pretty isolated. My neighbors were about half a mile away.
I never ventured into the woods much, especially at night. I know that it extended pretty far back. If you went down the main trail, you’d eventually stumble into a suburban subdivision on the other side.
So, as I sat on my back porch one lonely night, you better believe I felt frightened when I heard what sounded like a small child screaming in the woods. I tried to ignore it for a while, but I simply couldn’t.
The child’s cries echoed in the dark night. It was cloudy, and the moon was hiding that night. Over the sounds of the crickets and cicadas, I heard the screams and moans of the small child. At least that’s what I thought it was.
Though I was scared, I’m not a coward. And I wanted to help the child. I thought about calling the police, but eventually, I decided to venture into the woods to do what I could. So, I grabbed a flashlight and headed back there.
I pushed through some thickets and bushes; there was a semblance of a trail, but not much. The woods were wild and unkempt.
The child’s cries continued unabated. It sounded like a little girl, and as I drew closer, it sounded like she was weeping. Even with my flashlight, I could hardly see where I was going. A few times, I nearly walked right into a tree.
The closer I got, the more disturbing the cries were. It became like a guttural scream as the child yelled, “HELP! HELP!” repeatedly.
“I’m coming! Hold tight – I’m coming!” I yelled out.
I wished the moon was out to provide some light – it was so terribly dark. It was also a hot summer night and, as I ventured deeper into the wood, I was covered in sweat and dirt from brushing through the thickets.
“HELP! HELP!” the child screamed, then cried.
Finally, it seemed I was almost there. The cries grew louder, and I scanned the flashlight around the perimeter of my vision.
Then, I saw her: a little girl in rags for clothing, just standing there in the wood, tears streaming down her face. She looked so ragged and scared.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Thank you, mister. I’m lost.”
“Where are your parents?”
The little girl then smiled a very devilish grin.
“I don’t have any.”
“What … What do you mean?”
It was then that I saw the child was holding a butcher knife behind her back. She smiled again and laughed. “My parents are long gone, mister.”
I instinctively stepped back, making sure to hold the light on her.
“What’s your name? Please, put the knife down.”
“Why, mister? Are you afraid?”
“Yes … I am. Very afraid.”
The child approached me slowly, holding the knife out. I kept backing up until I hit something solid that made me stop. Then I felt someone breathing on my neck. Whoever it was, it was a huge person. I felt two hands cover my mouth. I tried to scream, but the sound was muffled.
“Nighty-night, mister,” the child said.
As the man behind me gripped me and didn’t let me go, the little girl came closer with the knife. Then, she began singing a little nursery rhyme in her sweet but tremendously evil voice.
“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word. Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird ….”
I felt the cold, sharp steel on my neck. And the last sounds I heard were the nursery rhyme, repeated over and over again, in the dark and sinister wood.
The End
(Photo by Eric Muhr on Unsplash)
This is insanely scary! HAHA! Well done. 🙂
Thanks, Terveen!