In the Woods

You met him at a party, and you went out with him a few times, but none of your friends knew him. However, trust had already been established, and rarely were your instincts wrong, so when he invited you to drive up into the mountains with him one Saturday, you agreed to go. But then he turned onto an unpaved road, and he fell silent. You asked him what was wrong a couple of times, but he wouldn’t answer. He wouldn’t even look at you. You began to feel uneasy. You thought about asking him to let you out, but you were in the middle of nowhere, and it had been twenty minutes since you had seen another car.

You told yourself to stay calm, but you couldn’t help but think about those people, those ordinary, unsuspecting people like yourself who had been led to remote locations by charming, handsome psychopaths. You feared you were about to be murdered.

He suddenly stopped the car, and you were terrified. You were ready to fight for your life and run like hell if you managed to get out of his SUV. He finally turned to you. He looked desperate, and you noticed that he was starting to sweat a little despite it being a chilly, wet day.

He said, “I’m sorry. I know you’ll probably think I’m a loser after this, and you probably won’t ever want to see me again, but I’ve got to… I have to go behind one of these trees and do what bears do in the woods.”

You sighed with relief and said, “Sure. Take your time.”

He dashed off in such a hurry that he left his door ajar.

Photographer and subject unknown
Fictional story by Gary Cottle