The Wild Wood (Dion)

The park lay before him. It was dense, full of trees closely packed together in a suffocating clump. In the morning, it was an energetic, light-drenched, place where people from all walks of life enjoyed, but by night, everything was cold, dead and silent. Even the playground seemed like a monstrous body slumped over.

"Well, the park's the same place in the morning and the night!" He muttered as loud as he dared. " Just... with fewer people... and light...a-and..."

He stopped in his tracks, heart jackhammering against his ribs. In the faint light of a tall, lone lamp post, a long faded shadow grew longer and longer. And it was not his.

A hard knot of doubt started to form at the base of his throat, already beginning to choke him, but just as the doubt began to transform into fear, the shadow vanished. Without a trace.

Suddenly, the whole place emitted a sense of silent hostility. The light suddenly harsh, the shadows curved and sharp. Even the blanket of velvety night sky above was a void of cold darkness.

A creeping panic slowly consumed him, like icy water trickling down his back...

Just then, he happened to stroll straight into a brightly lit path of lamp posts, and he almost let his fears disappear.

Then the first of the shadows crept into view.

Silent, slow, but getting faster, long human-like shapes filling the lighted path, criss-crossing, all dark, all large, all coming from multiple sources.

 The panic, fear and doubt spiralled into a scream that shredded his vocal chords. His legs carried him through the path, through trees that scratched his skin, and dark rolling patches of uneven dirt and grass.

Through dazed mind and fear-filled thoughts, he wished he never walked through the accursed park.