The Woman in the Woods

Marked for Review

This story has been marked for review for the following reason(s):

Very cliché story with a ton of tropes. Title capitalisation (In -> in), seems to originate on nosleep, unclear if author posted here or if someone else has posted + changed the ending

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We were driving down some lonely country road last summer. And by we, I mean myself and three of my guy friends. What we were doing at the time was looking for a party which was being held at Robert's - our driver - girlfriend's place. Needless to say, we were all looking forward to getting flat out drunk and hooking up with some cute ass chicks.

At some point, Robert took a sharp turn onto a road he said was a shortcut. Which almost made sense but this 'shortcut' took far longer than it should have. Within an hour we were in some heavily forested area none of us were familiar with.

When I brought it up to Robert, he growled at me. Evidently, he knew we were lost as well.

"Dude," one of my other friends, Roger, said from the backseat, "how do you not know the way to your girlfriend's house?"

Robert smacked the steering wheel hard enough to honk the horn. "Fuck off," he snarled, "I do know the way, I'm just-"

Now Fred spoke up. "Lost?"

"Yes!" Robert snapped, turning to face Fred, taking his eyes off the road. I was about to call him out on this when I saw something in the headlights, slowly crossing to the other side.

It was a woman in a white dress. Just... walking, arms at her sides. Her face was completely obscured by long, dark hair which shifted lazily in time with her steps.

And she was right in our path.

"Robert, look out!"

He instantly turned around as the others noticed the woman. We quickly began panicking, cursing and screaming as we got closer, seemingly about to be the culprits behind a manslaughter. Robert slammed on the brakes and swerved past her onto the side of the road. We almost crashed into a massive tree head on, stopping but a few inches from it. In that time, everyone shut up as the reality of our situation dawned on us.

"Dude, what the hell was that?" I snapped.

"It was some crazy ass chick, Charlie," Roger snapped back, "hell did it look like to you?"

"What's she doing out here?!"

"Fuck if I know!" Robert snarled, "Now my car's probably scratched! Hell, maybe I've got a flat tire-"

"Guys,” Fred said nervously. "Where did she go?"

The three of us simultaneously gave him curious glances before looking back to the road, where we had just seen her moments before.

It was just as Fred said. She was gone.

"How'd she get off the road that fast?" I murmured.

"Obviously she ran like hell when we almost ran her over," Roger snarked.

"I didn’t see her run," Fred said quickly, "I was watching her the whole time. She didn’t run at all."

"How'd you lose sight of her?" Roger asked.

"Well, I just saw the tree out of the corner of my eye coming right at us so-"

"Man, this is batshit," Robert said. "Utterly batshit."

When I heard 'batshit' I suddenly had an idea. "Maybe she’s crazy?"

"Christ, I don't care if she's crazy or not. If this car has one scratch-"

"Robert, maybe we should at least get out and look for her?"

Everything got quiet when I said that.

"You know how horror movies work, right?" Fred asked.

"This isn't a horror movie, this is real life," I replied.

"Exactly what someone would say in a horror movie before they get torn to shreds."

That made me chuckle, but it did nothing to ease my nerves.

"If this was a horror movie, we all know I'm gonna die first," Robert grumbled.

"We should still at least take one look around, just in case. She might be lost and scared. Maybe she’s a missing person."

"Fine," Robert said as he unlocked the door, "but if any of us end up mutilated, I will sue you in particular, Charlie."

We walked back to the spot where that woman had been and looked around. This was a gravel road, and strangely enough, I couldn't see any footsteps. That should have been a tip off, but I didn't pay it any attention. None of us did.

Next, we checked along the road, looking through the trees. Nothing.

"Should we go into the woods?" I asked.

"Oh fuck no," Roger said instantly, "no, no, no!"

"What?"

"Charlie, you've seen what happens when people split up and go off by themselves into the woods. Within the next month, they'll have found our bodies scattered all over the place!"

"Then they'll make some cheap ass movie," Robert grumbled as he peered into the darkness, "and I guarantee you, I will die first. Black peeps always die first."

Roger and I both chuckled, causing him to glare at us. "Hey Fred," I said, turning to him, "see anything?"

Fred was just staring off into space, eyes glassed over and blank. Curious, I was about to follow his gaze when his hand suddenly shot up and grabbed me. "Get back to the car, guys," he hissed, "now! Hurry up and go!"

"What?" Robert said, looking back to the woods. “What’d you see?”

"Robert, don’t look! Just fucking run!" I struggled to keep my footing as he practically dragging me back to the car. Roger and Robert briefly exchanged a glance before racing after us while Fred threw open the door and tossed me inside.

"Fred, Jesus, what the hell man?" He didn't say anything as he sat down next to me. He just looked straight ahead, tapping his foot against the floor anxiously. Robert and Roger were inside within a few moments, Robert starting the car immediately. As he pulled back, I kept sneaking glances back to the woods, searching. But there wasn’t anything.

"Fred, what the hell is wrong with you, man?" Roger said angrily.

Fred turned to Roger, about to say something, when Robert slammed on the brakes for a second time.

"Motherfucker," he whispered. The rest of us turned from him to look out the windshield.

Standing right in front of us, dead center of the road, was the exact same woman. She had her back to us, just standing there, completely still.

Then, ever so slowly, she began to turn around.

Robert put the car into reserve as we all began to scream and babble like children. Making a sharp U turn, Robert drove straight back down the road the way we came. All the while, I was keeping on my eyes on the woman, watching as she turned to reveal her face.

Or rather, her complete lack of one.

None of us said anything as we drove out of those woods. My heart was going to burst out of my chest. We weren't interested in the party anymore either. Somehow, we had all come to the agreement it would be best to go home.

Finally, I broke the silence. "Fred," I said softly, "what did you see?"

“Was it the woman?” Robert asked quietly.

Fred’s face was pale as he took in a deep breath. What he said next will haunt me for the rest of my life.

"No," he said softly, "she wasn't."

"What did you see?" Roger asked him.

"Things," Fred stammered, "things in the woods."

"What things?" I said, but he refused to say anything else.

When we got back to town, I decided to make some inquiries about of a woman had gone missing lately. Particularly a woman in a white dress with black hair.

Sadly, my search was fruitless, but I did learn an interesting fact.

Apparently, the woods we found, the location of which I can’t recall, had some legends about people seeing things. Things in the woods. They never gave an exact description of them, but what struck me was the lack of anything on the faceless woman. There were no reported sightings in the entire history of the woods, no one matching her unique appearance had ever gone missing or traveled there. It seemed we were the first ones to see her.

So what was she doing there?