It's been years since the day I encountered that wicked "thing". I don't know what it was or how I could describe it. It was probably a spirit that succumbed to the corrupt nature of these woods.

***

Ten years ago, I was nothing but a childish fool. My mother told me not to go into the vile woods without her but I was so curious back then. Curious to see what was beyond my cherished abode. So, I planned to sneak out while my mother slept in her comfy little bed.

One night, my mother directly lay on her bed without a word of goodnight to me. She must have been really tired. I snuck out of my room and to the living room I ran. As I stood before the big oak door, fear and curiosity crept into my mind. I opened the door carefully and a gust of wind rushed inside the house. An ominous wind. It felt as if it was talking to me. 

"Go back... before it's too... LATE!!"

With that, I was knocked off my feet, but I remained persistent. It kept uttering and uttering the same words, until all I heard were echoes, and no more.

I grabbed my slippers and walked towards the forsaken trees of old. As I was drawing nearer, the branches of the trees began moving. I only thought it was the wind, but alas, I was wrong. Very wrong.

Almost going into the woods, the branches lashed out and grabbed me the torso, arms, and legs. I struggled to break free. It was impossible. It was inevitable.

A sharp pain then sliced through my head and everything went black.

Minutes or hours later, I found myself stuck in a spiderweb of branches, facing a light. Not a precious, calm light. A dark, evil, and corrupted one.

It suddenly revealed itself to me. The two faces of the spirit that laid in the woods. The evil within it. 

I stared into those eyes and I saw my sins, my death, and everything bad that was about to happen to me and the world. I couldn't bear the torment, the torture, and the pain of seeing those visions. 

"It's useless," it said.

I was lucky that day. The holy light of dawn, which could pierce through the dark layers of leaves, severed the several branches holding me captive. The spirit exclaimed its hate for this holy light and with that, the last of the branches broke off and I was set free. 

I tried running back to my home but when I got there, it was deserted. Empty, desolate, bare, and abandoned. 

The hours I spent in the forest, turned into years, but I never aged. With hate and revenge occupying my mind, I gathered my mom's sword, which was still in the house, and ran back into the forest. I called out to the spirit, day and night, but it never came.

I will forever roam these woods, until that evil is banished from this land.