Eerie Encounters : " I encountered a cult inside the woods"

About the protagonist

  Kaley, a 25-year-old woman is the protagonist of this story. She is an orphan who lost her parents even before she began to understand the world. Bought up by a Nun in an orphanage, she used to be a hardcore Christian who aspired to become a Nun but eventually with her growing up, her devotion reduced and her ambitions changed. When she finally turned 18, she bid farewell to the Nun who raised her into a fully grown woman and moved out of the orphanage.

Backstory

 Kaley graduated with the aid of scholarships and during her time in grad school, she developed an interest in trekking which eventually became her hobby. As a result, she got acquainted with many other trekkers some of whom with time, became her friends. One day while she was boozing with her friends, one of them spoke about the terrifying experience she had while trekking in the nearby woods. Kaley immediately ridiculed her which sparked a serious conversation between them.

 The conversation between the half-sober women slowly turned into an argument and her friend challenged her to spend a night alone in the woods to which Kaley readily agreed. Once the influence of alcohol was reduced, her friend pleaded with Kaley to not go into the woods alone but she just wouldn’t listen. That weekend, Kaley packed all the needed stuff and set out into the woods early in the evening.

Story

 A few moments after entering the forest, the clear sky above her started to fill with black clouds and a blanket of mist engulfed the forest. This, in turn, offered an extremely beautiful sight which intrigued Kaley’s innate nature-loving self. Lost in its beauty, Kaley kept moving deeper and deeper into it and with time passing like a cheetah on a hunt, the sun had already begun to set.

 Kaley decided to camp on the banks of a river that flowed inside that forest. She lit a campfire, and in the serene forest atmosphere, she feasted on the food she bought with her. As she sat looking into the burning flame, the experiences her friend reported started to flash in her noisy mind. So, what exactly did her friend tell her the other day? “At around 1 am when I went away from the camping site to go to the loo, I felt someone’s breath on my neck. I am hella sure I was the only one there. I was creeped out and slowly slipped out of the place. While I was walking back, I saw people dressed in black doing some kind of ritual near the river. As I stood there looking at what they were doing, one of them turned towards me. With a blood-smeared face, she started slowly walking toward me with a malicious grin on her face. Scared to death, I ran back to the campsite. Thankfully, that weirdo did not follow me”, is what she told her.

 Although a sceptic, she started to feel disturbed as the words of her friend echoed in her mind. Unfortunately, she couldn’t even return back as the forest had a multitude of bears and going back alone would be deadly. Hoping that the night ends soon she curled up inside her tent and dozed off in no time. Later that night, she was woken up by the sound of twigs breaking near her tent. At first thought, Kaley thought that a bear was loitering around the campsite but as the light from a lantern entered her tent, she was sure that it was not a bear but a human being. She picked up a knife in her hand and anticipated in terror.

 As she sat anxiously looking at the opening of a tent, a pair of hands choked her from behind and injected something into her through the tent cloth. The grip of those hands loosened as Kaley slowly faded. When she woke up, she found herself near something that looked like an altar all tied up. As she pondered around in a half-conscious state to know her whereabouts, she saw the friend who challenged her, stare at her reciting something. She heard loud chants which she couldn’t understand clearly. The chants eventually stopped and the people around her slowly started to walk away. Kaley shouted asking her friend to untie her but she slowly walked towards her and whispered, “Don’t worry you will be a vessel to the master himself” and walked away.

 As she lay down helplessly, she heard those people walk back toward her. They drugged her with some substance, after which she felt like she had no control over her body. She started dancing to the beat they played continuously and went into a hypnotised state. They tied her up again, undressed her and started to smear human blood all over her. They started to draw patterns over her body with knives and placed her on that altar. Kaley, closed her eyes in horror thinking that she was going to meet her demise but, she was wrong. After chanting what appeared to her as gibberish, they untied her and walked away.

 Kaley lay there naked, with blood smeared all over trying to understand what had just happened. But, why did they not kill her?