There's too many things I regret. Things I replay in my mind like records, endlessly playing a scratchy tune. My time is no limited resource. I don't have anywhere left to be. I wipe sweat beads off my forehead, although the woods are cold. My water bottle is almost empty, small sips are key. I regret forgetting it all. The memories that i can't recall, the people and places i probably visited daily. Minds are made for this! I'm meant to remember who I am, or who I was before I came here. Why am I shutting down?

My biggest regret was leaving. Leaving a place I don't even remember. Maybe a place warm, and better lit. Was I camping? Did I live up north in these woods? Maybe I come from Somewhere comforting, the opposite of these bleak woods. Worse than bleak, or anything but, if I'm being quite plain. This place is loud with silence and deep rhythm that my ears aren't designed to hear.

My flashlight glows dimly in the dark. Dark, that absence of light that feels brighter than any sun I've seen. The forest groans at my presence, almost beckoning me to turn off my dimly lit light and lie down. Let the forest claim me. The flashlight blinks on and off, hopefully not morse code for “ i need new batteries “.

 I'm not even sure what it is I'm hoping for anymore. Be it a wish, or a miracle, or even a better flashlight, I just can't seem to remember.

It sounds like the trees are breaking down around me, although I see no signs of debris. The cold air dances around the even colder silence, in the eeriest of ways. My mind has found its way into silence by canceling out the neverending sound of crunching and crumbling leaves under my feet. My leather boots, boots I can't picture in my mind anymore. I'm in a trance it seems, a trance in which all I can do is walk forward and scan the woods with my bloodshot eyes. It's a mystery to me how I'm still moving. How my organs are still functioning. The woods take deeper breaths than I do, My breaths are shallow, like life has been snuffed out of me. My eyes are starting to play tricks. I'm so desperate for other signs of life, I'm seeing shadows casted from people who don't exist. Next time they speculate hell, tell them I've found it.

All I can do is try to keep my mind moving, Keep it thinking. I think of My children. I don't even remember my children. I don't even recall if I ever had children. Or a partner, or a dog or cat or anything of that sort. Being in these woods is making me forget, it's taking everything from me, like it wants me to be nothing but a hollow husk. I've forgotten my own name, my age, my job, and most importantly my family. A family I'm not even sure exists for me outside this hell. A future with them I can't see or hear anymore.

During my own thoughts, I realize I've stopped walking. This is new. This is… bad. My flashlight flickers as I spin around and gaze into the darkness, hugging me like a blanket. The only sound is my heartbeat. Fast, but tired. I find myself confused. I can't remember which way I had been walking. These woods all look the same, in every wretched direction. I didn't know I could become any more lost. I'm directionless, with no person attached to my flesh and bones anymore. These leaves have drained the soul out of my body they've—---

My self pity comes to an abrupt stop. The sound of my thoughts had been so loud, I had forgotten these woods were meant to be silent.

A low, humming sound takes over the darkness. A sound I hadn't heard before. A note, a deep note that ricochets off your bones. An orchestra, or jazz band of eerie sounds began to fill the cold air. Loud stomps echo through the forest. Nothing that exists could be that big. Nothing could be big enough to shake the trees with its steps.

A sharp, staggering clicking sound joins the ensemble. A sound almost like bones breaking, or bending. A tree branch? Maybe an owl ripping apart its latest catch.

I hear the band getting louder, more snapping and breaking, causing an almost unbearable pressure in my temples. Something is dripping. Something is… loosening.

Something is moving around me. First, relief that someone could be looking to save me, washes over my body. Then fear, when I realize that nobody even knows where I am. Let alone who I am. The steps get closer as I realize how large the thing is. It's too dark to make out, but it looks tall enough that it could reach the tops of the trees.

Cold shivers run down my back like cold water. Something is not right. It's standing right behind me. I can hear its clicking vibrate all through me. I can hear it breathing. I twist my head around slowly to find nothing except more darkness. My hands are frozen, shaking in place as I try to hold my flashlight still. The flashlight flickers, like it shares my fear. I shut my eyes as tightly as they can possibly close.

Then a thud. Something large fell from a tree right in front of me, That was no small thud. Another thud, then another, and another until I'm surrounded 

by human-sized rain drops falling out of the trees. It's impossible, although I suppose anything is possible in a place as off putting as this.

I hesitate. The “ rain drops “ fall so aggressively, all at the same time creating a low roar all around. The forest floor vibrates and shakes like an earthquake. The drops come down, one after another. The highest pitch possible, like a dog whistle, comes up from the ground as if it was singing. It's so loud, my eardrums throb at the pain.

The forest feels alive, Until I am disturbingly corrected. 

It's deader than it's ever been, more dead than dead can get. The smell of dead-ness engulfs my nostrils. Like rot, or decay.

The source is all around me. I wasn't meant to be here. I'm not supposed to see this, I feel as if I've stepped into the forest's sinister private engagement and I need to leave immediately, but It already knows I'm here.

I don't want to know.

I never want to find out.

I have to open my eyes.

Human instinct takes hold of me and I open my eyes.

 Bodies.

 Human bodies. Littered, discarded, gutted, destroyed all over the now bloody forest floor. My mind swirls. Did they fall from the trees? Out of that thing? their organs spill out like spaghetti, knocked off the stove. Their skin, a horrible looking green-ish brown. Their faces are barely recognizable as people, but they all display the same petrified expression, as if the last thing they saw before death was unbearably horrific.

My mouth is dry, and my knees begin to buckle. My stomach churns at the sight of them. Their jaws rip away from their craniums, femurs split in half, I can't help but vomit.

Its hand reaches down, like a hand of god from the heavens. Although, this couldn't be further from any kind of heaven I'd want to imagine. My heart skips ten beats. Its black, long fingered hands wrap around me like a snake squeezing its doomed victim. I should have died right then. It stunk of death, a stench I knew that if I lived, I'd never wash out of my nostrils. 

Seemingly out of nowhere, it all came back to me. I know who I am. I was on a work trip. My team and I were searching for missing persons who disappeared a week prior. We headed up north a day ago, I got separated from the group because I had thought I had a lead. Unfortunately I seem to have been correct… I remember my wife, and my two beautiful children. My mother is in hospice, my father not far behind her. For God's sake, I had a bagel for breakfast! Why the hell couldn't I remember? What does it want from me? My life? Now that it's given it all back to me?

Then I heard it. The voice behind the mess.

it spoke to me, a voice incomparable to anything i've ever heard, rumbling like nothing else could:

“ Would you like to join our band? “