THE FOREST

Stravapol Krai, close to the border of Checchnya

   There was once a man who had been away fighting Chechens for Soviet Russia after joining the Russian Red Army for 4 years of service. Back before his tour of duty, he couldn’t recall ever seeing “no trespassing” signs, but when he came back, he saw at the forest entry and along the edge of the forest, sign after sign saying “NO ENTRY, KEEP OUT” nailed to the trees along the road. It was suppose to be public property, a place where he had fond memories of hunting with his father and friends. His family told him that there were 20 people in this village, 10 rookies sent in for training of felling trees, and the other 10 were veteran lumberjacks sent as their trainers, they ventured into the forest to acquire woods, and never came back.

       Usually, the wood gathering party tends to return late, as they work until sunset. However, 4 hours after sundown the wood gathering party still hadn’t come back. two hour later, it was officially midnight and still there was no sign of the timber team returning, something was wrong. Then, there were horrible screams and blood curdling yells throughout the night with indistinguishable voices coming through the darkness. The townsfolk wondered if the wood gathering party in the forest had met with disaster, or something else.

The village’s old guard tower, fortunately, had its voice recorder functioning.  This is what was picked up on that machine:

“OH MY GOD Petrovich!!!!!!!-----”

“OHHHHH NOOOOO!!!!!------

“OH MY GOD NOOOOO!!!!!” “PLEASE DONT KILL MEE NOOOO!!!!!!-------”

(crashing trees)

“AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! NOOOOO!!!!! STOP!!!!!!! OHMMYGGGGGGODDDD!!!!!!!!!!---------”

“HOLY CRAP STOPPPP!!!!!! NOOOO!!!!-----”

(loud womp)

“STOP!!!!!!--------”

“OHHHHMMYYYGOODDDDDD STOOOOPPP!!!!!!!! NOOOO!!!!!!-----”

     After that, about an hour before dawn, everything went silent. With no more blood curdling yells, the villagers where pretty certain that the woodcutters were dead. Calls for help were sent and 1000 Soviet paratroopers quickly dropped from 4 planes into the village to establish defensive fortifications. The authorities believed that a Chechen assault may soon be coming and nothing would stopping them from a night assault even if they were compromised already.

     The paratroopers went into the forest at the break of dawn and found nothing, not a single piece of the bodies. Strange, the day before those 20 people were still alive. Now their bodies were nowhere to be found. Some people wondered if the wild animals ate them, but surely no animal can have an appetite to eat 20 people’s bodies in one night. So, the police continued their investigation that day and still no progress was made and night was approaching.

     The search was called off, knowing they made no progress and the clock was ticking to get clues and perhaps rescuing them. That night, people started hearing the same wretched, tortured voices  again. The villagers really started to become agitated and terror stricken.

       They even started spreading rumors that there is a ghost in the forest. That the ghost would only come out at night. A suggestion was made that a daring search should be carried out at night to try to catch the ghost and even rescue the 20, most likely dead, villagers...if they are still alive. So, that night the village conducted a search mission in the forest again, along the paratroopers. Well, at LAST the clue they got was a creepy voice in the forest saying “LEEEAVVVVVE ORRRRRR DIIIIIIE”.

        Of course the villagers couldn’t take the risk of losing lives again so they retreated. From that moment on the forest was on lockdown and no one was allowed into THE FOREST. After that the screams and yelling stopped. Somehow it convinced even more villagers to believe a rumor that the ghost wont kill them if they dont bother it, which by bothering is entering THE FOREST.

     Legend has it that the village is built right next to a ghost house, a place where ghosts live and the reason why the 20 people went missing was because they were destroying the house. The best way to prevent any more dying is to just stay away from the forest and stop bothering the ghosts.