It had been at least a year since the accident in the woods - not that Michael hadn’t thought about it every day since it happened. He felt that it was his fault. Maybe it was. But if he was to blame, so were Steven and Louis – they had been there too. And maybe it was Steven’s fault for being so pushy, or making up the dare in the first place. But the whole thing started when Michael chose “dare,” – at least that was how he saw it.

“Truth or dare, Michael?” Steven asked. Michael grinned. He’d been picking “dare” every time it had been his turn – he didn’t care about being told to prank-call their other friends or kiss the dog. He loved torturing Steve with the fact that he was the first out of any of them to go to the movies with girl – by himself – and that he hadn’t said anything to his friends about what it had been like.
“Dare,” Michael said, laughing. Steven rolled his eyes.
“Fine, Mike. We’re going to end this. I dare you to sit on the Bloody Stump out in the woods for half an hour. Alone. After sun down.”
Mike made a face. “Steve, come on – that’s dangerous, we don’t know who’s out in the woods at night man-“
Steve, all of 13 years old and only half a year older than Mike, stood up and folded his hands into his armpits and flapped his elbows like a chicken. “You saying you’re scared, Mike? You saying you want to quit the game and be a loser…?”
“Shut up, Steve, I’m not scared, I just don’t want to run into a pervert or something-“
Louis spoke up. “-He’s right Steve, I saw something on the news the other day about some missing kids-“
“When? What channel?” Steve asked fiercely, sitting back down, still grinning.
“…Well… I don’t remember, but I saw it. It’s serious stuff, man.”
“Na, you guys are just scared. Punks.”
James, who had backed out of the game by his second turn (“I dare you to go outside and moon the first car that passes!” Louis had demanded) and was sitting next to the couch with a handheld game looked up. “I’ll do it.”
“You can’t take his turn,” Steve said authoritatively. “Besides, you quit the game already.”
James shrugged. “Yeah, okay.” He turned back to his game. Steve paused, staring at James. His grin slowly got wider.
“Actually, no – James, you can take this one.”
“What?”
“You just said you’d do it because you knew you wouldn’t have to. You go sit on the stump! We’ll stand at the edge of the woods and time you.”
James shrugged again, focused on his game. “Whatever, let me save my game.”
Louis turned to Mike. “What’s up with this stump…?” He’d moved into the area only three months before, and hadn’t heard this particular local urban legend. Steve jumped up and switched off the light. James already had had a light on his game and didn’t say anything, but Steve grabbed a flashlight from the drawer in the end table on his end of the couch and held it under his face
“You look like an idiot,” Mike laughed.
“Shut up, man, I’m going to tell him about the stump.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, so back in the 70’s a bunch of teenage wannabe witch goth kids got all hopped up on airplane glue or something and kidnapped a neighborhood boy and took him out in the woods and sacrificed him on this big stump in a clearing.” He took a deep breath and paused dramatically..”…But they actually managed to summon something, and it still haunts the woods looking for more blood.”
Mike rolled his eyes and grabbed the flashlight, and shined it in Steven’s face. Steve laughed and shoved him. “Okay, listen. That’s the story the older brothers and sisters and the high school kids will tell you, sure. But my dad says that the stump was around when he was a kid, so whatever happened didn’t happen in the 70’s. The story he told me was a little more like the murderer guy from the Blair Witch-“
“-That movie sucked!” Steve interrupted.
“-Whatever. But the story my dad told me happened back in like the 40’s or something. When all of this area used to be woods. There were like 4 houses out here, with nothing a but a dirt road from here to town, and there was this guy who lived by himself with his wife and kids. His wife disappeared real mysteriously – he said she left him and left the kids behind. A year later, all three of his children disappeared – he said they ran off in the woods to play and didn’t come back. Then the next year someone’s dogs disappeared. Then another kid. So the people from town rallied up and went out to his property to call him out – by that time it was getting pretty obvious where people and animals must be going. But when they got out there, it looked like someone else had already gotten to him. He was on his back on a big old stump next to his house, all cut up and bled to death. But he was smiling.”
Steve scoffed. “Yeah, sure. Your dad made that up.”
Mike shook his head. “Nope, his dad told him about it – he was a kid when it happened.”
“If we looked, would there be newspaper articles about it in the library archives or something?”
Mike shrugged, and Steve grew quiet. “Well whatever. Either way, it’s a haunted stump and people died there.”
Louis suddenly gave a nervous laugh and shut up again, sitting quietly in the dark.
James’s game beeped then it was quiet. “I’m finished,” he said quietly. “Let’s go.”

Steve led the way, with James, Mike and Louis in a hunched group behind him. Leaves and sticks cracked underfoot as they marched out into the woods with nothing but the single flashlight lighting their way. James had an extra for finding his way out on his own after the half hour was up stuck in his sweater. If Steve’s older brother hadn’t decided to go to the concert instead of staying home with them, they wouldn’t have been able to do this, but it looked like it was their lucky night. It was a new moon, and nearly pitch black in the wood, but they managed to find the stump. Nearly 4 feet in diameter, it made an impressive, natural, table-like surface. Steve shined the flash-light around. There were beer cans on the ground, and someone’s rain-matted jeans off to one side. The surrounding trees were spray-painted and etched with names and mottos, but the stump was pristine. The ground around it was smooth, the dirt blameless – but lifeless as well – and the actual stump seemingly untouched by vandals. Mike squinted into the dark.
“Shine it over there,” he said, pointing. Steve panned the light.
“What is it…? I don’t see anything.
Mike walked over towards the wide and dim end of the broad cone of light, and crouched down. “Guys, come look at this.”
There was a low ridge of large stones sticking barely half a foot from the soil, which seemed to continue in both direction for at least 20 feet, but turned a corner on one side. “What is it?” Steve repeated.
“It’s a foundation,” Louis said, and shivered. “That means there used to be a house right here.”
There was a moment of quiet, until Steve laughed. “This is just like the Blair Witch,” he said, then laughed again. “Let’s do this!” He shined the light on the stump. “Okay, James – go sit on the stump. We’ll time you. After a half hour is up, we’ll call out to you and come back and get you.”
Mike shook his head. “You’re crazy, man – I would have chickened out on this dare, I have to be honest. You’d have to pay me to do something like this.”
James shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t believe in ghosts and demons and stuff. I’m not scared.” He crossed to the stump, lifted himself backwards onto it until he was comfortably seated, and waved. “See you guys in a half hour.”

The other three sat at the edge of the woods, Mike timing him on his watch. Steve kept snickering and suggesting that they either go back in and mess with James, or just walk back to his house and leave him. Mike and Louis – feeling uncomfortable after only 10 minutes had gone by – refused either option.
They didn’t even know why they were afraid any more. Something just didn’t feel right. 20 minutes passed, and Steve’s confident claims that James was going to come screaming through the woods with his pants filled grew quiet. Then half an hour was up. Steve shook his head. “Let’s give him 10 more minutes. He didn’t have a watch – he won’t know the difference, it probably feels like it’s been forever anyway.”
40 minutes went by, the woods dead silent.
“Guys, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of woods being quiet like this – you can always hear deer or something. I don’t like this.”
Steve, looking a little annoyed that James hadn’t chickened out, stood up. “Fine.” He cupped his hands around his mouth. “James! The time is up! We’re coming to get you!” They started back into the trees, and after what seemed a very short time, saw the moving light of James’s flashlight. Mike filled with relief, and felt Louis relax at the same moment besides him. James walked up, laughing.
“What took you guys so long? That was the most boring dare I’d even done.”
“Nothing happened?” Louis asked, as they turned to go back down the path.
“Nope,” James replied. “It was actually really quiet. Nothing happened. No animals, nothing. But there were $5 in those jeans we saw.” He fished it out of his pocket and laughed. “Actually… there was something. Nothing scary, just a bunch of fireflies or something – high up in one of the trees. It was weird because there were a bunch of them, but then they all stopped flashing and disappeared.” Steve stopped and they all stumbled to a halt behind him.
“What’s the deal?” Mike asked, annoyed.
“Guys, I think we walked off the path somehow,” he said, shining the light around.
“Come on, Steve – I did the stupid dare, quit trying to milk it-“
“I’m serious!” He said, starting to sound panicked. “Where’s the path?!”
They all looked around – he was right. The ground was flat, but they were between trees, and there were shrubs and saplings all around them.
“Okay, let’s just stay calm,” James said. “We couldn’t have gone far. And even if we did, if we keep walking in one direction, eventually we’re going to hit the edge of the woods – I mean, how big is this place? The middle school is like right on the edge of it on one side, and my neighborhood is on another.”
They all murmured nervous agreements, and started walking again.
There was an echoing crack somewhere in the trees, and they all jumped.
“It’s just a deer,” Mike said. He knew it had to be true, but the lack of light and the utter silence as the sound died away was forcing his imagination into overdrive.
“Guys,” Lou whispered. “Something about this isn’t right.”
“Shut up Louis,” Steve demanded in a harsh whisper. They walked, the only sound the crunch of debris under their shoes.
“We’ve been walking forever,” James finally said. Mike looked down at his watch – he pressed the button to light it up to see what time it was, but only got a flicker.
“Great, my watch is dying,” he murmured.
Steve groaned. “Guys, look, we made a complete circle.” He shined the flashlight on the Stump.
Louis laughed. “No, this is good! Now we can take the path out of here.”
They started for the path. Steve finally relaxed as well, and started reverting back to his usual self.
“Okay guys, I’ll admit I was getting a little nervous there. But you should have seen your face, Mike – you were ready to piss yourself. I think James was the only person to stay calm.” He turned to say something to James, then paused. “Where did James go…?”
They turned around and saw James walking back towards the stump with slow, measured steps, looking at something up in the trees. “Hey James, what are you doing…?” Steve called. James stopped at the stump, then climbed on top of it, and stood in the center, facing away from them, still looking up.
“James…?” Mike called.
“Guys, come see this!” He called back, his voice strangely sluggish, like he was half-asleep. “The fireflies are back… it’s…  really cool.”
Steve took a step forward, waving his arm. “Earth to James. Come on, man, my brother is supposed to be back around one – if we don’t beat him back to the house, he is going to beat the crap out of me for leaving the house this late at ni-“
A mass of black seemed to fall upon James from one of the trees, black studded with flashing dots of light like tiny stars. It enveloped him, making horrible sounds, then seemed to gain shape, or at least reveal its shape, as it shifted into a crouching position, the lights dwindling to pin-points, then solid black. It seemed to be a man.
“Who’s there?!” Mike shouted, panicking.
“James?!” Steve shouted, nearly screaming, his voice high and terrified. The thing turned to them, blazing yellow orbs the size of tennis balls where its eyes should have been, and they all screamed and ran down the path.
Stumbling, crying, beyond terror, they fled towards the edge of the woods and further, running all the way back to Steve’s house and collapsing once they were inside and the door locked. Louis collapsed against the wall, head between his knees, breathing in short, harsh gasps.
“What the hell was that?!” Steve repeated over and over. “What was that?! What the hell was that?!”
Michael said nothing.
When they all seemed to get past their initial shock, Steve said something quietly. Mike looked up, feeling dry and empty. Louis had started to cry, then stopped, but his face was still streaked with the tears he hadn’t wiped away, and his eyes were wide with terror.
“I said we can’t tell anyone what really happened,” Steve whispered. “We’ll say… we’ll say that we were playing truth-or-dare, right? And that James went out there all by himself even though we told him not to. And he didn’t come back and we figured he just walked home to mess with us, right? I mean, he only lives like four blocks over, right…? Right…?”
Louis slowly nodded. Unable to believe he was going along with this, Mike slowly nodded as well.
“Good – now we all go down stairs to the basement, turn on the TV, get in our sleeping bags and sleep. We’ll call his house in the morning and ask his parents if he got home, okay?” The other two nodded again.

It made the news when James was declared missing. After a month, the number of fliers with his picture on them started to die down, and James’s parents eventually moved out of town. Steve, Mike and Lou didn’t hang out again for a long while, and when they did, it was usually uncomfortably quiet.

But now, a year after it had happened, Michael, Steve and Louis, were all sitting in Mike’s backyard, watching the sun go down. If you peered hard enough, you could see the trees of the woods between the houses two streets over.
“What do you think really happened…?” Mike asked quietly.
“I already told you what I think,” Steve said sullenly. “Some freak was waiting for us in a tree and jumped down and got James.”
“But those eyes,” Lou murmured, and shuddered. They all did.
They sat out there until the sun went all the way down, and soon it was quiet except for the sounds of crickets and the occasional car going by on the other side of the house.
“I don’t think I can ever go back in there,” Mike said. “The woods I mean. We’ll be in high school in another year, and even after high school, even when I get married and get old, I’ll still be too afraid to go in those woods.”
It was a cloudy night, and the moon was hidden. It was pitch black except for the light shining from a back window of a house a street over, and a row of round yellow solar lights at the back of the house besides it.
Louis turned to the other two boys, but neither noticed – Steve and Mike were frozen, focused on two of the lawn lights which were either very slowly growing, or getting very slowly closer.
Louis whispered. “…Mike, didn’t your dad say this entire area used to be woods…?”
The lights crossed the far end of the property line and suddenly rose off the ground.

Michael screamed.