In the Woods | Teen Ink

In the Woods

September 7, 2023
By Anonymous

It was a freezing and windy night when Clara found herself shooting through an immense humid forest, bruising her bare feet, crushing lifeless herbs with every step, frustrated for not being able to stop running, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” She screamed to herself.

Then she stopped, there was complete silence for a minute.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” Clara shouted.

“What do you want?” she whispered as her voice cracked. 

Cascades of water came out of her eyes full of sadness, anger, and confusion. Crying her heart  out, Clara fell on her knees. Shaking for the icy-cold temperature, trying to not freeze to death.  Clara curled up in  fetal position, then she fell asleep for minutes, hours, or days? Only she knows.

It was raining cats and dogs when Clara woke up in the morning. She adores the rain, this was  good news to her. If she only knew what was about to happen, never in her life she would’ve gotten out of bed.

Excited, she made her bed, took a shower, and had breakfast. Dancing and bouncing through the  living room, Clara celebrated the rain, the unique smell of wet soil, the cloudy sky, and the calm  atmosphere. Quickly, she ran to the basement, enthusiastically to begin with her ritual; every  rainy day she would decorate her room with candles that were stored in a big box under a table,  in the basement, she would grab some snacks, light the candles and watch movies all day long. 

As she was pulling the big box under the table, she fell dizzy.

“Oh wow wow wow” said to herself.

Clara took a second to breath and continued picking her favorite candles.

One step, another step, she was going upstairs, one more step, suddenly everything turned black  and she woke up in the hospital. When she finally realized what happened, “AHHHHHHHH” she screamed. A doctor rushed to her room.

“Is everything alright?” the doctor asked.

“Why do I feel like this?” Clara asked.

Turns out that the impacts affected some nerves in Clara’s brain, and she knew something was wrong with her.  

“Don’t worry Clara, everything is okay” 

“TELL ME NOW”

“Alright alright, I need you to stay calm”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“You hit your head really hard, the impact caused some damage to your brain”

“Ohh” Clara said “Am I going to be okay?”

“I can’t answer that question, we’ll have to see how you react over the time, for now I’ll send you to a mental hospital”

“Alright,” Clara said.

That was the last time Clara pronounced a word. When she got to the hospital, all that Clara  would do was sleep and sleep. There's a rumor that she would often adultared her medicines, that’s why she never got out of there.

People started questioning what happened to Clara, nurses would tell what they know, still many would say that their stories were apocryphal. 

Nurses would say that Clara woke up screaming, but no one knows why, Clara wouldn’t tell anyone, she was a prisoner of her mind.

Clara was running endlessly every single time, getting herself trapped in her mind was her way of dealing with reality. She refuse to suffer in the real world, so she would go to sleep and get into a loop created by her mind that would torture her every single time. Clara had no idea how she was able to do it, how to get out of it, or what to do once she was there. All that she knew is that suffering in her dreams was more tolerable than suffering in real life. As usual she went to sleep, but this time she was determined to stay there forever. Inevitably, Clara was running, from what? Her reality. Crying her eyes out, breathless, with shaky legs, she stopped and looked around. 

“I want to stay here, please let me” Clara said with a shaky voice.

Clara knew she was the one controlling her mind, she knew she had the power to stay. Waiting for an answer she stood there, in the woods illuminated by the precious full moon. Out of nowhere she saw a bright light, her instinct told her to run towards it, and she did. When she reached it, the forest disappeared, she felt at peace, there was no more pain, just peace. 

Nurses running everywhere, panicking for what they were seeing. Clara didn’t answer, they had lost her. Many say that she died of sadness, others say that she killed herself, but no one knows what really happened. Doctors and science and find an answer to this tragic event. However, would Clara be able to explain it?


The author's comments:

We were writing short stories in class, and I wanted to write about mystery.


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