Watch the Woods

Prompt: As a fire watch, far from civilization, your only form of socialization is your colleague, who works in a watchtower a few miles away. One late night you get a call from your colleague. He is whispering. You hear him say “Don't let it see you,” then there is only static.

_____

“Jake? Jake, come in.”

Nothing.

“Come on, man, this isn’t funny. Halloween is in like three months.”

Still, the radio transmits nothing but static.

“Fine. Play your stupid prank. I’ll be here, doing my job.”

I let the radio fall on its lanyard against my chest and roll my eyes. Stupid Jake. Maybe if I were a fifteen-year-old, I’d be creeped out by what Jake said, but I’m a full-grown man. Being a fire watch is already long periods of boredom punctuated by shots of adrenaline; there’s no need to add ghost stories into the mix.

Even as I tell myself this, though, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. A breeze rustles the dry forest below, the sound strangely sounding like…bones knocking together. Then the wind dies again.

I shake myself. Am I seriously letting Jake’s prank get to me?

But then a chill runs up my spine. The wind died, but the sound of bones –

Is getting closer.

I grab my binoculars and scan the forest below, trying to keep my hands from shaking. Could Jake have abandoned his post just to prank me? No – his tower is miles away, and he just flashed a signal at me less than thirty minutes ago. There’s no way he’d get here that fast.

I catch sight of movement in the trees below and my pulse pounds in my ears, but then the wind starts up again and I lose it, whatever it is.

Nothing. It’s nothing. It can’t be something.

But that sound continues, dry bones clattering against one another, coming to me clearly on the wind.

A flash of white in the trees, gleaming against the moonlight.

I lose my grip on the binoculars as fear drops like a stone into my stomach. There’s something out there.

Don’t let it see you.

I fall to my knees, barely able to move my shaking limbs. Crawling under the desk beneath the window seems to take hours as my chattering teeth echo in my head. I have to get away, have to hide, have to disappear.

And the sound comes closer, closer, as I pull my knees up to my chest and clench every muscle. Don’t move, don’t make a sound.

SLAM.

Something hits the roof of the tower so hard it makes the windows rattle. I bite my lip so hard it bleeds, trying not to let even the smallest whimper escape from my mouth. The sound of bones is so close now, and as a shadow moves across the window opposite me, I clap a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. What grotesque thing –

The thing stops moving, the shape that must be its head cocking to the side. Can it hear my heart beating? It seems deafening. Droplets of sweat crawl down my forehead as the creature climbs across the balcony, that persistent sound of bones accompanying every movement. It has so many legs, why does it have so many legs? After what feels like an eternity, it slips over the edge and disappears.

I wait an hour, two. The chattering of dry bones starts up again every time the wind blows, and I’m never sure if it’s just the forest or if that thing is back. Not until sunrise do I climb out from under the desk and chance looking out at the woods below. Everything looks normal. No sign of the thing. I pick up the radio and call Jake.

“Jake, are you there?”

Nothing.

“Jake?”

Silence.

Then the sound of bones.