Marco Polo

“Marco!”

“Polo!” Tracy yelled.  She thought that sounded like Mark. Just like before, she waited a few moments but there was no reply. Her friends were getting farther away and somehow not able to hear her.

It was getting dark fast in the forest. To make matters worse, she wasn’t even sure if she was still on the path anymore. The multicolored leaves had made it hard to see it hours ago when the sun was overhead.  They were supposed to meet up not far from where she was.

“Come on guys. I wasn’t that long.” Tracy yelled. She pulled out her phone and saw she still had no bars. “Shit,” She muttered. The two things she hated about camping was the lack of restrooms and cell coverage.

“Marco!” A very distant woman’s voice faded quickly in the forest.    

That sounded like Cathy. Why were they going the wrong way? Tracy wondered. Thinking quickly, she yelled again, “Polo!”. As she waited, she watched the last glimmer of light fade through the treetops as the sun set. She now knew she screwed if she didn’t find the others soon.

“Marco!” A distant voice replied from behind her.

Tracy spun around to hoping to see who was there. “Nick is that you?”

“Marco!” The voice replied, this time from her left.  

Tracy turned and looked again for whoever was there.  Feeling more than a bit worried and hoping this was a joke. “This isn’t funny anymore guys.” She barely said aloud.

Coming from all around her and louder, the voice replied again, “Marco!”

Tracy spun around in a circle looking in every direction at once. She could barely see anything beyond thirty feet, even in the light of the full moon. The shadows cast from the trees seemed to have a life of their own. Suddenly there was a snap of a branch to her right. Tracy felt the hairs on her neck rise as a shiver ran down her back. She ran in terror. She didn’t care that she was certainly going deeper into the woods. She just needed to get away.

In her terror induced panic, Tracy was hit by several tree branches that cut into her cloths and flesh. She didn’t feel any pain until she tripped on something and fell. As she got up on her knees, quickly looked around. Just ahead of her was a clearing that was illuminated by the moonlight. She decided to make a head there and to try and get her bearings.    

As she stood up and made her way into the clearing her phone rang startling her. Tracy quickly reached into her jacket pocket and fumbled with her phone before being able to answer it. “Hello? You have to help me. Hello?”

“Marco!” the voice hissed back through the phone.

Tracy quickly threw the phone across the clearing. As it landed, sparks erupted from it. She backed up a few paces before backing into a tree. As she tried to calm down and think on what do to, it suddenly dawned on her that there were no trees in the clearing. Shaking uncontrollably, she slowly turned to look behind her.    

Tracy screamed and kicked as two massive clawed hands grabbed her and lifted her up off the ground. Just before her screaming stopped, she barely heard it say, “Marco.”    

557 words.

Originally had two other ideas that were similar centering around a more ghostly encounter but they involved into this instead.  Inspiration? My imagination and all the horror films and tv shows I’ve seen, both good and bad.