Night Stroll through the Woods

It was October the first, 1993. A rather cold evening for October. I was out back in my small shed doing some chores, chopping firewood to keep myself warm. My shed is close to the edge of the forest, giving me easy access to firewood.

Just before my axe split the firewood, some weird howling noises were coming out of the forest. It must be some wolves, I said to myself, they’re usually active during the evening. And I continued doing my chores for the evening.

But for some reason I kept on thinking about this howling noise I heard. I mean, the sound was a little off, more human-like with hints of a metallic sound. Thinking about it gave me goosebumps and a sudden urge to check it out, just to make sure it wasn’t a human in need of my help.

I grabbed my flashlight from the shelf in my shed and remembered that my trusty old flashlight died on me just a few days ago. Luckily, I had a VHS recorder which had a built-in flashlight. So armed with a VHS recorder I went into the forest.

It was late, dark and cold. The mist slowly started to cover the ground and I couldn’t look further than 9 meters. The small sticks and leaves under my foot were making cracking noises. I was focused, waiting for the noise to appear again.

There it was again, the noise! It was behind me. I turned around as fast as I could, barely holding my balance.
On a tree, that was behind me, was fresh paint. The paint was slowly dripping down the tree.
An arrow was painted on it, guiding my eyes towards the direction the arrow was pointing to…

I guess I got the Halloween vibes a little early this year.
But this is my first creepy render – Night Stroll through the Woods.