The woods should be quiet tonight if not for the screams coming from my sister and I. We’re both running full speed ahead, passing thick evergreens and dodging fallen logs, as we continue deeper into the forest.

“Who was that,” my sister, Carol, pants. She reached into her pocket and pulls out a small device. Her inhaler. Sprinting through these woods right now must be hell on her lungs. She takes two puffs and begins to breathe easier.

“I have no idea,” I reply. We take a turn around a small group of bushes and continue down a hill.

The sound of rushing water floats into my ears and I realize the river must be nearby. If we could get to the other side of the river before he catches up then we may be able to escape. There’s a ranger’s station over there and hopefully we could get some help.

A noise startles me from behind and I turn to see the man rushing down the path behind us. The same man who had attacked us in our campsite just moments ago. I turn my eyes forward and try to run faster.

“He’s back there,” I say. “We need to find the river and get across the bridge.”

Carol nods and doesn’t look back. She’s terrified and so am I. We didn’t think we knew this man but there had been something so familiar about his terrible grin. It was inhuman, almost as if someone had photoshopped a picture of his face and pulled the smile in a distorted V shape. He still wore that smile when I spied him a moment ago.

I finally spot the river. It’s just up ahead and over a small hill. The sound of the mans footsteps behind us are getting louder, a terrifying pounding that threatens to drive me crazy, but we have hope now. We just have to find the bridge.

Unfortunately, we don’t see it as we near the river’s bank. It must be farther upstream. Or was it downstream?

“Do you remember where the bridge is,” Carol asks. The panic is evident in her voice. I have to make a quick decision.

“I think it’s downstream, come on.”

We take a right and follow the river downstream. The trees begin thickening up ahead but we think we see some rogue moonlight pouring through the branches. There’s a clearing.

We burst through the trees and immediately skid to a halt.

“No, no, no,” Carol whispers, collapsing to her knees.

It turns out we’re not at the bridge. We’re standing on the edge of a large cliff staring down as the river tumbles over the edge. We went the wrong way.

We hear the man spring out of the wood right behind us, brandishing a large machete and wearing his awful smile.

“Wrong turn,” he says.

I won’t let him get us, I think to myself. Anything’s better than giving him this satisfaction. I turn to the cliff and look down. It’s a long drop but they seem to make these kinds of jumps in the movies all the time. Plus, the alternative was getting hacked into bits by a machete.

I look at my sister and pull her to her feet. “Do you trust me,” I ask. She nods and I smile to her. It’s all bravado but it seems to make her feel better.

“Screw you,” I say to the man, eliciting a satisfying frown from him.

I grab my sister’s hand and pull her towards the cliff edge with me. She nods slowly in my direction. Then we jump.