#ALastRequest hashtag - Bluesky

@dyre.bsky.social

10 months ago

A mile or two off, perhaps three for the stuttering light of a setting sun and curving road, those woods demanded to be seen, to be known. Stark white they sprouted from a mountainside, a beacon in the verdant greens surrounding them; as bared teeth primed to devour the dreary shadows of approaching night. 'Dead wood' conjures images of blackened bark and bare branches yet those woods were alive with color. One color. Appearing as curved and swollen birch trees too wide to be real, each pale strip of visible bark was stained in vibrant reds from leaf to grass. Darren knew the season didn't matter. Dead woods were red all year round. Named not for their deathly pallor but a distinct lack of life inside them. Animals rarely passed the tree line. Not birds, nor squirrels, not even the moose common in the area dared set hoof inside those woods. While inside, inside he was promised utter quiet. Suffocating silence. Missing even the insectsong so common in lush forests. “Nothing breathes in those woods,” he reminded himself, taking too deep a breath. “But I will,” he resolved, eyes latched to the eerie glow of them, the haze of warmth they sang of, as he hit the gas and left the hotel’s comforting neon in his rearview mirror. Breathe he did. Fuller and faster as he reached the turnoff and pulled down a jagged line of darker dirt that may have been a road once, spraying ruddy mud as he kept speed. There were no spots fit to park, nothing but blue grass tinted black by the growing shadows or the mud. He didn’t know. Didn’t care. Not until his car stalled in thicker muck, wheels spinning useless, did Darren even bother to slow down. Leaving the car open, watching trees too bright for the dim, he failed even to shut his car off before sloshing through more and more of that muck.

I'm writing. I must. There are only so many days to submit it. Have a page, just for fun.
#alastrequest #horror