Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

No Apologies Necessary

“Mother-fuckin’ nature hike!” Neal grunts as he stomps his boot against the dirt trail. “Man, I need a drink!”

Mackenzie rolls her eyes. “You need to go back to rehab, not get a drink!”

“Oh, come off it, Kenzie. I was talking about fucking water, not a bottle of Irish bloody whisky!” Neal spits out as he slaps a mosquito feasting on his arm.

“Guys, can we please just focus? This forest is already creepy as fuck, without you two turning it into an intervention!” Simon hisses, flicking his eyes around the labyrinth of towering trees and tangled vines.

A gust of wind hurtles past them, bringing with it a drastic drop in temperature. The trio pull their jackets closed tighter, while the very trees seem to whisper to each other, their voices a gnarled mesh of groans and shrieks.

“S-S-Seriously, what’s up with this place?” Mackenzie mutters. “It’s like nature’s haunted house, but out in nature.”

“A haunted house, but out in nature? Did you seriously just say that?” Simon chuckles loudly, casting a playful glance back at Mackenzie. She pokes out her tongue and pulls a silly face in return.

“Real mature,” he says, shaking his head.

Neal waves his hand dismissively. “You guys need to grow up and grow some balls.”

“And you need to stop using that phrase. It’s sexist, and I don’t have balls!” Mackenzie scoffs.

“I know, hence the ‘grow some balls’ line,” Neal says with an obnoxious roar of laughter.

“Bet if I did grow some, they’d be a lot bigger than your little peanuts,” she snaps back.

Neal smiles broadly, licking his lips as he chuckles softly to himself. But before he can reply, another sudden gust of wind blows through the forest, carrying an unidentifiable stench with it. It smells like rotting flesh. “Aw, hell, what’s that stink?!”

Simon points to something up ahead. “I-I-I-I think it’s coming from up there,” he stammers, pointing towards a mutilated animal carcass dangling from a branch. Its insides are spread across the ground below.

Neal’s eyes widen, and he feels his stomach lurch. “Oh my god! T-T-T-That’s fucked up!”

Mackenzie is too horrified to speak, but Simon spits out what they are all thinking. “L-Let’s get the FUCK out of here! I don’t think any of us want to cross paths with whatever did that.”

Without further discussion, the three friends start running back through the forest, their feet pounding against the earth, while their hearts beat furiously in their chests. The wind picks up again, whispering unnerving secrets only the trees can understand, and they begin to feel like an invisible force is chasing them.

Neal casts a fevered glance over his shoulder, and as he does, he trips on a protruding root and falls flat on his face. His nose crashes against the soil with a gut-wrenching crunch.

“Fuck! Neal!” Mackenzie screams as Neal uneasily gets up onto all fours, letting out a weary groan.

Simon rushes over to Neal and grabs him by the arm, pulling him to his knees. But he recoils as he comes face to face with the bloody mess that is Neal’s face. Suddenly, Neal is ripped from Simon’s grasp and dragged backwards by an invisible force, his body leaving a disturbing trail in the mud.

Mackenzie screams a few feet away, tears streaming down her face. “What the fuck is happening? What’s got him?”

Simon stares with wide, terrified eyes as Neal is thrust into the air and pulled towards the gaping maw of a monstrous, invisible creature. It looks like a tornado of pure evil, its insides a swirling abyss of darkness and teeth. His lips tremble as Neal is torn apart before him, parts of him disappearing while the earth before him is bathed in his blood. It’s then that Mackenzie’s cries turn into screams of her own agony, and Simon realises there is more than one invisible creature hunting them.