Shadows in the Woods

The forest was an abyss of black and blue. It would have seemed silent to anyone who felt at ease here, but not to someone who didn’t know where they were, or where to go. Someone like me. I could hear every quiet chirp of the crickets and the wind whispering softly as it passed through the leaves of the trees surrounding me. I could not tell what kinds of trees they were. They would have towered over any person and their wide trunks spread beneath the ground to thick roots. I could not see the roots, for very little moonlight shone where I was. They were probably oaks like we had at home, where my mother still lived, and where I didn’t. I was lost, with not a clue of where I was or how I would find my way home, or to where I was supposed to be.

Beyond the valley of what I believed to be oak trees, I could see smaller and less daunting trees. My body was tired and my knees felt as if they would buckle at any moment, but I felt determined to find a more comfortable resting place than amongst these grand beings. My feet padded gently against the cold ground as I moved closer to my desired bed of shrubs. I was getting close to the slight hill when I thought I saw a shadowy figure move behind a nearby tree. I had originally thought the silhouette was of a tree, but I was smart enough to know trees couldn’t walk and I would have remembered seeing a tree move like that shadow did. That meant that whatever or whoever that was, it had been watching me for a long while.

My breath was frozen in my throat and I dared not to breathe for a few more seconds until everything seemed still. I breathed again, and the sudden rush of cold air sent a shudder down my back. I didn’t dare take my eyes off where the figure had been. I must have stood there for minutes, like an idiot, before I convinced myself that there was no shadow, no person watching me. People had better things to do than to lurk in a wood on a bitter night like this. I was exhausted, anyway. I had just imagined it. It was no more than a shadow. No more than some darkness, and I was not afraid of the dark.

And yet, all I wanted was to feel the warm embrace of my mother again.