Off the Path part 5

"You guys can come out now, there's no way I 'm falling for it."

Tiffany pushed herself to her feet and started to walk towards the rustling sound. She heard a light giggle as she got near the edge of the trees. She peered into the gloom and saw a flash of red move quickly through the deeper gloom.

"I am so not scared you guys. This is lame." She called as a wolf howled in the distance.

"It's a bad idea, I'm telling you."

"It's no big deal, I don't know what the big freak out is with everyone and those woods. They're just a bunch of trees and squirrels." She pulled the gray sweatshirt over her head and pulled her mousy brown ponytail out of the collar. She was going to have to cut out the last of the black now that it had faded so far. She pulled on a pair of warm wool socks and started to stuff her feet in her boots.

"It's not the woods. It's what's in them. No one goes in the woods after the mountain hides the sun. Bad things happen in there. Ever since that Shaman gave his curse those woods have been dangerous." Amanda's eyes pleaded with her as she slumped dejectedly on Tiffany's bed.

"Oh please, it's just an old myth that people have blown out of proportion. So some guy laid down a curse when he was pissed about dying. Big whoop. Nothing to get spooked about."

"But the curse came true!"

"What are you talking about? A curse can't come true."

"Everyone thought that when they buried that Indian, but then a few months later the judge's pretty young wife went walking in the woods after shadowfall wearing her favorite red cloak." Amanda sat up straighter and started to gesture expressively while she talked. "No one noticed anything out of place when she returned, except that she appeared to have returned happier and with a lighter attitude when she had be a very solemn girl before entering the woods. After a couple days,though, some townsfolk found her wandering out of the big old mansion the judge had built for her covered in blood and screaming about 'the wolf'." Making air quotes with her fingers, Amanda's voice dropped to a whisper as she finished her tale. "When they went inside they found everyone hacked up with a cleaver. Everyone from the judge to the little scullery maid that was only eight years old."

Tiffany shook her head. "Just because some rich chick loses it and kills some people doesn't mean there's a curse, it just means that some one was silly enough to let the crazy woman near the knives."

"Eleven people. She killed eleven people without even one of them able to fight back or run. And she wasn't crazy until she went in those woods. She wasn't the only one either. There was a school teacher transferred in from the city about 30 years ago. He didn't believe in the curse and went into the woods after dusk to gather some plants he said were really rare. When he came out he wouldn't stop giggling. The Doctor at the time gave him some medication and suggested he get some rest. Two days later they found him sitting in the middle of his classroom with a rifle shooting out the window at the kids on the playground. If the Sheriff hadn't shot him on the spot who knows how many kids he would have killed. I'm telling you don't go in there today it's dangerous."

"I get that you believe this nonsense Amanda, you were raised here." Tiffany shook her head, trying to dispel the chill that had begun to creep in as Amanda had continued talking. "But no curse is going to keep me from showing Millie Hawks and everyone else that they can't mess with me or Sarah. If this is what it takes then so be it." She relented a little bit because Amanda looked so concerned and it was nice to have a friend to be concerned about her. " I'll be careful I won't go off the path, I swear."

( That's it for now)