The Portal in the Forest Read Free Page B

been locked in the
bathroom, and nobody had found her until it was too late.
    My date insisted we leave when the commotion
started, and I agreed wholeheartedly. On the way out, I heard a
very odd cry: " She's gone - her body's gone! " - but I wasn't
sure what to make of it.
    On the walk home, I apologized profusely, but
she just seemed scared. Two blocks down, we saw a group of people
huddled around another body.
    It was then that I felt something chill and
sharp move by me - but I turned, and saw nothing. I had the
inexplicable sense that I was very close to something large and
menacing, but the night-darkened street seemed normal, save for the
worried people calling emergency services.
    Another few blocks down, my date and I stood
under a streetlight and waited for the bus.
    We decided to keep moving when a homeless man
on the other side of the road seemed to fall rather roughly. Blood
splattered up as if he'd… but it didn't make sense… why were all
these people having terrible accidents?
    Just after we kept walking, I looked back,
and - for a split second - I thought I saw something moving toward
us. It was a mere blink against the streetlight we'd just
abandoned, and it was gone almost immediately, but I quietly
insisted we walk a little faster.
    Four police cars surged past us, lights afire
and sirens blazing. In the rotating red and blue, I thought I could
make out a weird blur behind us on the sidewalk, but my eyes just
couldn't make sense of it.
     
    ***
     
    I looked up from the book. The boy I'd talked
to earlier had followed me. "You shouldn't be here."
    " You're here," he replied, standing by
the door and peering out into the storm.
    I shrugged. As long as he didn't come further
in, he wouldn't risk running into the rotting bodies dotting the
restaurant. How far behind me had he been? Did he know about
them?
    I looked down to find that the story had
skipped part of the narrative. There was a small gap where I'd
stopped reading, and no text in between. Odd… but, then again, this
wasn't just a book, and these weren't just written words…
     
    ***
     
    She slammed the door behind us just as
something bashed angrily on the other side. She couldn't help but
scream hysterically. "What the hell is going on?"
    I had no answer for her.
    I helped her force the door shut, and I
locked it with a relieved sigh. "I have no idea, but we can hole up
here until… until the police do something." The door to my
apartment was solid and sturdy, containing a heavy sheet of metal
as a form of security most campus houses shared. I had no windows
on the first floor; instead, stairs went straight up to my
apartment on the second floor. Never was I more thankful for my
cramped brick-and-metal entryway.
    Dashing upstairs and closing and locking the
door to the stairwell, we took refuge in my bedroom and turned on
my small television.
    Static. There was only static.
    Our cellphones didn't work, either, and the
Internet was out…
    It was then we really started to think we
were screwed.
    Deciding to turn off the lights so as to
avoid drawing attention to our location, we sat and peered out the
windows into the night.
    Clouds covered the moon. Trees swayed in
chilly autumn winds. Nothing living seemed to move…
    "There!" she whispered, pointing down the
street.
    I saw nothing.
    "It was under the streetlight for just a
second…" she said, trembling as she clung to my arm.
    I had to confess, despite the terrible things
happening, part of me was still happy… "Wait, I saw something under
a streetlight, too. And when the cops passed, and the lights -"
    The lights. Something had brushed past me in
the dark, and something had pounded on our door just as we'd gotten
inside… but I had no porch light.
    Intently, I stared at the closest streetlight
until it happened.
    Something horrible and twisted shambled past,
visible only under the strongest part of the streetlight's glow. It
was gone almost as soon as I realized I was really