As the moon shines above you in the dark night sky, you feel very sorry for yourself as you walk down the twisting dirt path in the small field surrounded by trees.
How had the date gone so badly? You and Denise had been going out for six months. You two had a lot in common: you and her liked the same movies, books, songs, bands, and hobbies. You had even had sex a few times. All that came crashing down tonight, when you had taken her to Maison Rouge, the swanky French restaurant on the edge of your campus. She had worn a dress her mother had given her, that HER mother had given HER, and so on. It was her most prized possession. And, of course, you had to go and slip, spilling soup all over the dress and completely ruining it. No detergent in the world could get out those stains.
She had changed into some sweats and a sweatshirt in the car. She was the one who drove tonight, so you had to sit there in oppressive silence for half an hour as you took the shortcut through the woods surrounding your town back to campus. You noticed she gripped the steering wheel tighter and tighter and looked angrier and angrier as the drive went on. Then, in the middle of a particularly thick part of the forest, she had just stopped the car. "Get out." She whispered in a quiet voice. "What?" you had said, confused. "Denise, what are you talking abo....." "GET OUT! YOU CAN WALK BACK TO CAMPUS! NEVER COME BACK, FOR ALL I CARE!" she screamed. Trembling, you had opened the door and stepped out. She picked up your wallet, jacket, and phone, and had thrown them out. She watched you scoop your things up. Then she slammed the door and sped off into the dark woods, leaving you alone.
To tell the truth, you hadn't known if she was going the right way. The paths in these woods twisted together and ranged from as wide and clear as a road to completely obliterated and unwalkable from abundance of leaves, sticks, and bushes from years of unuse. Every few years, some hiker went missing in the woods. Gulping to yourself, you remember that most of them were never found. A few years ago, a hiker had found the body of one that had disappeared fifteen years before in a large clearing deep in the woods, rotted to a skeleton, with a few scraps of old cloth, and the remains of a backpack.
So yes, following an unsure path in the middle of large woods at 11:30 at night is kind of nerve-wracking. Denise sped off twenty minutes ago, and you had just picked a path branching off the one that she had dropped you off on. For all you know, she could be as lost as you are now.
You're passing under a barren patch of woods when you hear the snap of a twig somewhere off the your left. The trees where you heard the sound are dead, so the moonlight feebly casts it's glow around the gnarled, twisted husks of the trees. You quickly turn to the left and squint your eyes. A wind has picked up suddenly, making the dead beaches rattle against each other like old boards, producing an eerie sound. The healthy trees continue about a quarter of a mile away, and you think you see a dark shape in the trees. Granted, it's the middle of the night and the moonlight isn't very bright, but you could've sworn you saw something moving in the shadows way down there. "Hello?" you call out. Your call echoes away in the woods until it dies, and you can hear it no more.
Feeling more full of dread than ever, you start to briskly walk down the path you're on. As you walk, your eyes snap to the trees where you might have seen a figure, but see no one now. Or do you? You could swear that, if you looked closely, you could see some dark shape walking in between the trees, adjusting it's speed to your speed, getting closer... and closer... and....
It's too much to handle. Heart pounding like a drum, you quickly sprint down another path perpendicular to the one you're on to avoid the thing in the trees... or lack thereof. You swat sticks, leaves, and bushes away as you run down the path. The moon high above follows you in the star-studded sky. Suddenly, you burst onto a clearing... and almost yell out in shock at what you see.