If you’re reading this, I’m hiding in the woods, and I need your help.
Alright, so I know if I just jumped right into what I need to say, you’d think I was crazy, and just click off. My phone battery’s mostly full, so I have time to type out an explanation. Time…yeah. I have plenty of that. Hopefully, this goes through and gets seen by someone, anyone, who can help me. I guess I should start from the beginning. This may be the last anyone ever hears from me for some time. So I come from a broken home life. Originally, we were totally nuclear, until our lives went nuclear. Mom and Dad had a messy divorce, and my mom, getting full custody, took me and my younger brother from nowhere Illinois, to Ireland. She said something about wanting to get away from a toxic environment. I don’t know. All I do know is that at 14 years old, I was in a new house, in a new country, with a new culture, just trying to get my bearings. Luckily enough, if there’s one thing my and my brother loved, it was exploring. There’s plenty of forested hills out in Ireland, and with no predators like bears or wolves, my mom was okay with us going out to explore the local creek. I think she was dealing with a lot at the time. It gave her peace of mind to sit in that silent house, not having to deal with two uprooted kids. So, me and my brother James would go out and spend hours in the woods- playing pretend, making ‘maps’, climbing trees, and when it’d grow dark, we would make our way back home, planning out the next day’s adventure. That first summer, before school started for us, was one of those memories that you look back at as an adult when you realize how good you had it. Unfortunately, those were the last memories I have like that from my childhood. I didn’t have a hard time making friends in school, but it still felt awkward, being the new kid, with a weird accent. James was having a harder time. He was… an imaginative kid. Maybe a little too imaginative, which probably weirded out some of his peers. When I would go with my friends to hang out after school, James would join me, our mother insisting I take him along. I had no problems with it- my relationship with James was good, and we generally weren’t at each other’s throats like most siblings would be. I think it’s because we both realized that besides mom, we really only had each other after the move. My friends would always be hesitant when I wanted to go hang out in the woods. Come to think of it, looking back, we’d rarely encounter any kids while we played in the forest, at most maybe a few hikers, but that’s it. It makes sense to me now, but at the time, I couldn’t understand why. It took a lot of prying before one of my friends while we were playing Nintendo, in a hushed tone, gave their reasoning on why they avoid the woods. “The Fae King, dude. S’bad news.” Sean hissed, like saying those words were enough to trigger a calamity. I remember looking at him stupefied. “The Faking? Faking what?” I asked. He just rolled his eyes. “Nah, dude. Not faking. Fae. King.” Sean spaced it out. “Like, faeries and stuff.” He mumbled. “Faeries? Dude, get real. Just be honest and say you saw a body in there once or something.” “Shut up. I’m serious. People get lost in the woods. My mom knew a person who tried to find the Fae King when she was little. She said the words, and walked into the forest, and never came out.” “Words?” I raised my eyebrow at him. He nodded. “Yeah, yeah. You go to a spot in the woods, say a few words, and that should be it.” He didn’t look like he wanted to go into anymore detail then that. “Why the hell would anyone do that?” “Why do people play the Bloody Mary game, dude? I don’t know!” I shrugged, realizing in that context, I guess it made sense-it’s a thing young kids do to scare each other, when there’s not much else around to do. “It’s not just idiots who try to call him in, either. Sometimes, people say he appears to anyone who gets lost in the woods. It’s either take a chance with the Fae King, or die in the woods. So yeah. The woods suck.” He turned his attention back to the game, showing he was done with this conversation. That night, sharing what I learned with James was my biggest mistake. James was a big fan of cryptids- Mothman, Nessie, Braxie, all of them. To learn that there’s a cryptid he’s never heard of, basically right in his backyard? He had a million questions- “What does he look like? What does he do? What are the words?” Me not being able to answer any of those questions didn’t quell his newfound curiosity- it just encouraged him to find them on his own. The next couple of weeks, he would come to me with his findings, interspersed randomly. “Sarah at school says he looks like a man, with red hair.” “Hey, Tim? Mike says he plays games.” Whatever James was able to learn from classmates, much to their reluctance to talk to him, and adults willing to talk about it, there was one thing no one would tell him. The words. No one would crack on what the words were, and it was eating at him. Whenever I would hang out with my friends, and James would tag along, he would get annoying- pestering them about the words, since they were technically ground zero of where I learned about the Fae King. My friends- Sean, Liam, Brianna, normally tolerated James, but with this new obsession of his, I could tell they were getting annoyed with him. “C’mon, guys, please? What’s the words? Are they bad words? Is that why you won’t tell?” James was especially whiny that day. We tried our best to ignore James, focusing on the screen of the arcade cabinet, at the local arcade. To call it an arcade was generous- It didn’t have much inside, but neither did our town, so you make due. “Sean, why’d you have to blab about some stupid fairy tale to Tim?” Brianna punched Sean’s shoulder, causing him to flinch. “Because the nutter always wants to hang out in the woods!” Sean rubbed where Brianna hit him. “So you don’t believe it, Brianna?” I have to admit, with James’ insistence, I was becoming more interested myself. There was a pause, before her response. “’Course not.” Her eyes flicked to me for a moment, before back to the screen. “Just a legend to stop kids from hurting themselves in the woods.” James saw his opportunity. “So then just tell me the words, and I’ll stop pestering!” Before Brianna could retort, she was cut off by Liam. “Brianna, just tell him the damn words already, so he can shut up about it.” “Fine.” She huffed. She walked off for a moment, returning with a napkin, words scribbled on it. James was ready to snatch it out of her hand. “Slow down.” She held the napkin up higher then he could reach. “Listen to me- you don’t say these words out loud. Not here, not in the words, not anywhere. You got it?” She doesn’t just look to James. She also looked to me, as if knowing I was going to need to intervene and stop James from making a dumb decision. “Even though I don’t believe it, people act weird when this guy’s brought up. Don’t be a pain.” She lowered the Napkin down, and James grabbed it. I leaned over his shoulder, to read the words myself: “By lonesome stump,in forest clear, The King of Fae is there to stay. Tap three times, he will appear, The King of Fae will come to play.” James wouldn’t look away from the paper. His eyes scanned the lines, reading them over and over, as if afraid they would disappear off the paper if he looked away. My friends seemed pleased, James no longer being a nuisance, and so we returned our focus to making sure we had enough quarters to make it to the end of the game. Soon enough, it was time to head home. James finally spoke up as we walked back to the house. “I know where he is.” His voice came out gently, almost like I had imagined it. “What?” “The Fae King. I know where he is. The rhyme. We’ve been there before.” I thought back to the rhyme on the note scribbled in his hand, his fist clenching tightly on the napkin. A stump, alone, in a clearing in the forest. I had remembered- we did come across that in the forest near our house- it’s a strange enough sight to stick out. “You really think that’s where the rhyme is talking about?” I raised an eyebrow at James. He nodded fervently. “Maybe we could-” I cut him off. “Nope, slow down there, Chief. You got your words. You promised to not be annoying about it anymore. You’re not going there.” I made sure there was a finality in my words, to deter him. He had seemed to drop it. Over the next week or so, James seemed to have returned to his normal self. I should have realized it was ridiculous for him to drop something he was obsessing over so quickly, but I was just a teenager at the time. I woke up that Saturday morning to see our window open, and my brother nowhere in sight. I left the house as fast as I could. If I hurry, I thought, I could get to him before he could reach that clearing. I wasn’t fast enough. He was already there, sitting on the stump. “James! Are you crazy?!” I screamed at him, entering the clearing. “What’s wrong with you? You could’ve gotten hurt out here, coming out yourself!” James just shook his head. “I’m fine! ‘Sides, I knew you would have said no if I asked you to come out here.” “Because it’s stupid, James! Mom doesn’t even know we’re out here. Come on, let’s go back.” “By lonesome stump,in forest clear…” As he spoke, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. “James, cut it out! Enough!” I moved forward to close the distance. “The King of Fae is there to stay.” He didn’t waver. “Knock it off! I’m warning you!” I yelled. He didn’t flinch. “Tap three times, he will appear…” Knock. Knock. Knock. His fist tapped the stump he was sitting on. There was a rustle in the leaves that stopped me in my tracks. “James-” “The King of Fae will come to play.” He said those final words making direct eye contact with me. I remember both of us holding our breaths, waiting for a leprechaun to pop out of the bushes. Seconds pass. Nothing. I exhaled, closing the distance and grabbing my brother roughly by the hand. “Idiot. See? You got all worked up for nothing.” I pulled him from that stump, with a death grip around his wrist. “Home. Now.” Tears welled up at the corners of his eyes. “I-I’m sorry Tim. I just…” I turned to stare daggers at him. “Just what, huh? Wanted to get whisked away into the forest? To leave mom worried sick?!” “N-no… I just thought…” He sniffled. “I just thought… that If I met the Fae King, and played with him, I would have a cool story to tell people, and they’d… want to talk to me.” His voice was so little, dwarfed by the silence of the trees around us. I sheathed my eye daggers, loosening my grip. “Yeah, well… maybe we can build a fort or something soon. That’d probably be a cool thing to invite people to, right?” I felt like a jerk. James only nodded. It was around this time that our conversation had died down. During this lull was when I noticed something wrong. The silence of the trees. It was morning. The forest should be a myriad of chirps, and whistles. It was dead silent. The only sound was the wind in the trees, and the occasional snap of a branch. I quickened my pace through the forest. There should have been a path that lead right out of the woods- The clearing. We were back at the clearing. It was impossible. We didn’t turn once. We’ve been in these woods dozens of times, there’s no way we could have gotten mixed up. I thought at the time that maybe I was so focused on scolding James, then comforting him, that I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going. The puzzled look on James’ face, however, told me he was just as surprised as I was. We pushed forward, both of us now focused on making sure we got out of the woods. Then we heard it- a singular bird cry. The noise made my blood run cold. It was very clearly not a bird- but someone TRYING to sound like a bird. Coo-Coo. James’ eyes grew wide, looking up at me. “Tim?” He squeaked. “Move.” We broke into a jog, moving fast enough without getting caught on a root, or thick underbrush. No matter how far we moved, though, the ‘bird call’ kept equidistant from us, always behind us. Coo-Coo. Coo-Coo. We moved faster. I could hear James sobbing as we ran, but I didn’t want to turn my head. I was afraid to look anywhere but straight ahead. I didn’t want to know if I could see what was making the noise. Coo-Coo. Was that one closer? Coo-Coo. I was sure of it, it’s getting closer. Whatever it is, it was moving in. Ahead of us, the trees grew more sparse. We were almost there. Coo-Coo. My lungs were on fire, my legs scraped up from the branches. I pushed myself into the clearing, where- There was a stump. We were back to the clearing. This time, we weren’t alone. On the stump, stood a well dressed man, with bright red hair. “Coo-Coo.” His chuckle fluttered through the air like a maple leaf. “Hello to you, boys. You called?” He waited for an answer. “Well? Step up, then. Let’s have us a chat.” The man on the stump beckoned us closer. He was wearing a fine vest and tailored pants, the color of the leaves around us, and it seemed to shimmer faintly of gold etchings when the sun caught him just right. “Sir-” I felt my body trembling. “Tut-tut. Yer Highness will do you just fine.” His smile was clearly trying to be disarming, but it only further made me nauseous, as if I was looking at the corpse of a loved one. James spoke up, stammering. “Your Highness? The Fae King?” He stepped closer. The man beamed, motioning towards himself. “In the flesh. You must be James.” His eyes swept to me. “And you must be Tim. A delight to meet you both. Now, I don’t often get much people willing to play with me. Foreign folk too? This really is a treat.” It took me too long to realize both me and James were walking forward as we listened to him talk. Too late did I snap out of it, standing in front of the stump. Delicately, the man stepped off the stump, between us both. “Now then… surely you’re here to play, right? I do love a good game.” He placed a hand on each of our shoulders. “Actually- your Highness, meeting you was such an honor, but our mom might be worried sick about us…” My mind was a mess, trying to figure out what to say to the man that smelled like fresh rain,with a hint of decayed fruit. The Fae King simply shook his head. “Nonsense, Tim. You both made it all the way out here to my home. You even knocked upon my door.” He took his arms off of us, and tapped on the stump. “The least I could do is entertain my guests. Now, any preference of game?” I knew this was a trick of some sort. Faeries are known for their love to fool, and mess with humans in cosmic ways. I had to think of a game that we could have an advantage, something that could give us a chance to get out of here. “Hide and Seek.” James piped up. My heart dropped. I wish I could’ve talked to him about what his plan was. I wish I knew what he was thinking. The Fae King smiled warmly at James. “Top choice, James! One of my favorites. And since you suggested it, I insist that you be the first to hide.” He snapped his fingers. James was gone. He was there one moment, and the next, gone. “James!” I cried out! “Easy there, sport.” The Fae King cooed, his words like honey. There was a faint buzz to his words as well, like a swarm of bees. “James is fine. He’s simply hiding. You, my friend, are seeking. That’s how the game works.” He sat on the stump. My panic was setting in, my heart racing. “Fret not, there will be no time limit to your game. Take as much time as you need to find him. I am also a fair man. I will give you a clue.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve dropped my ring- where could it be? The same place that James is- you’ll see! So find the ring, and yell: ‘He’s here!’ And your little brother shall reappear!” “Your ring?” I shouted, looking around at the floor wildly. “What ring? What do you-” He was gone too. I was alone. I tried to calm myself down. This isn’t so bad. I can do this. I find a ring, call out “He’s here!”, and then the game is over. The man was well dressed, his ring has got to be ornate, and stand out somewhere. I immediately took to searching, scouring the forest floor for a glint, something sparkling. Seconds, turned to minutes, turned to hours. At least, I think it was hours. The sun was locked overhead. I was hungry, but not starving. I was tired, but not exhausted. I began working on autopilot, analyzing every grass blade, leaf, and flower I could find, desperate to find this ring. My memory gets fuzzy at this point. My mother told me it was two days before they found me in the woods. I was dirty, my eyes sunken in, and I just kept muttering “Where’s the ring… He’s here…” over and over again. When I came to in a hospital bed, it was a barrage of questions- from my mother, from the doctor, from the police. I tried to answer their questions. What was I supposed to say? That a faerie hid my brother by a ring? My mother was torn apart. It was rare to see her smile from that point on. It was about a week that the town conducted community sweeps through the forest, before they called it off. The funeral was the worst part. Not many people attended, and those that did, would just stare at me. Maybe they thought I killed him. Maybe they actually knew what we really did out there, and that was worse. Maybe James was still in the woods somewhere- in the place where food and sleep don’t seem to matter much. I checked every moment I could. The words didn’t work anymore. I tried every time I was in those woods to call the Fae King back. Nothing. I’ll never forget the conversation I had with my mother after weeks of searching. She was waiting for me at the dinner table. “You’ve got to stop.” She stared at her own hands, unable to bring her face to look at me. “I’m not hurting anybody. He’s still out there.” I brushed off her warning. “Tim-” “He’s still. Out. There. I know it, Mom. If I could just-” She stood up, slamming her fists on the table. “ENOUGH, TIM. ENOUGH.” Her body shook, in mournful sobs. “I know you two were just playing out there. I don’t blame you.” She lied. “But please… I’ve already lost one of my boys. I’m losing my other one. You’ve got to stop.” I remember sitting down with her, and just hugging her as she sobbed. I cried too. The next week, I had started therapy. I had plenty of time to do so-it wasn’t like I was hanging out with my friends anymore. I was very quickly ostracized after the disappearance of my brother. I would see my friends across the school, and they would just shake their heads and walk away. Their eyes said it all: “You didn’t listen.” It took years of work with my therapist to rationalize that some terrible, yet normal event happened in those woods, and that all of the Fae King stuff was just my way of disassociating. James must have fell, and hit his head on something. Fell from a tree. Ate something poisonous. I snapped, and created some other-worldly story to avoid the reality that sometimes bad things happen to innocent people. Sometimes, the game of life determines the losers, even when they don’t realize they’re playing. Once I was old enough to move out, I did so. I wanted to start a new life somewhere, anywhere else. Where I wouldn’t be looked at with an equal mix of pity and disgust. It was cowardly to leave my mother alone like that, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I moved back to the States. Worked odd jobs to make ends meet in a garbage apartment. Stayed indoors, mostly. Never hiked in the woods again. I lived a life no one would be envious of. Just after my thirty-second birthday, I got a notice that my mother had passed away. She had died peacefully in her home. Neighbors only new after days, because of the smell. I had to return home to bury my mother, next to the empty plot where a gravestone stood for my brother. I was a mess during the flight, the pit in my stomach growing as I got closer to what I ran away from. I don’t know if it was lucky, or unlucky, I guess, that I came across an interesting post as I was scrolling on my phone on the plane. Some photography post of a forest- tall trees, sunlight glittering through the leaves, and a circle of mushrooms on the ground. One of the comments iced my veins, lurched my stomach- “Woah, a Fairy Ring! So Cool!” A ring. There’s no way. I immediately looked it up. A group of mushrooms in a circle is known as a Fairy Ring. I tried to think back to what my therapist said- calm myself, recite my mantras. Just a normal accident. But a part of me that I thought died just rose from the grave. What if he’s still there? What if he’s been there the whole time, waiting for me? What if I can see him again? What if’s spewed from my brain, seeping into my core. By the landing of the flight, I was a frenzied mess of fresh grief, and new hope. I reached my childhood home, the stretch of woods behind it looming, not a tree out of place. For the last time, I went in. Pain seeped in my rib-cage when I found myself in the clearing again. A dull ache, like your anxiety is physically telling you that there’s nothing but bad memories here. Standing next to the stump, I dry heaved. Shakily, I said the words. “By lonesome stump,in forest clear, The King of Fae is there to stay. Tap three times, he will appear, The King of Fae will come to play.” The birdsong stopped. I was listening for it this time. The forest grew quiet. I knew he wasn’t going to appear. It didn’t matter. I knew where my brother was this time. My feet carried me through the underbrush, while my mind went a million different directions. It was some time later that I found it- in a dense part of the forest, under a large, gnarled oak tree, was a perfect Fairy Ring. I stepped into the mushroom circle, and rasped: “He’s Here.” A beat of silence. Slowly, the oak in front of me shuddered. A seam, the size of a small door, slowly etched it’s way through the bark- like an invisible force was carving it open. Once the seam connected to itself, the door swung open, and there, sitting with his knees to his chest, was my brother. Exactly like I last saw him all of those years ago. He hadn’t aged a day. I fell to my knees. “James! James, it’s me, Tim!” I couldn’t stop my body from shaking, the tears from flowing. He climbed out of the tree. “Tim? What happened?” He was clearly startled by my change in appearance. I had so much to tell him. How great it was to see him again. The vindication that I wasn’t crazy. The horror of all that he’s missed, what that would mean for him… I wish I had the time to tell him any of it. Our reunion was cut short by a man clapping just behind me. “Well well, when I said no time limit, I didn’t think you’d take this much time, Timmy, my lad.” I recognized that voice anywhere. It was the voice I convinced myself I never heard. “I found him, please, let us go!” I whipped my head around to the Fae King. He simply shook his head, his smile never faltering. “Oh come now, Tim. That’s hardly fair to your brother. It’s your turn to hide.” He snapped his fingers. I don’t know where I am now. Or how long it’s been. The walls around me are made of solid wood. If this message reaches anyone in the outside world, I beg you- if you see a lost young boy in the woods, looking for his brother, ask him what the riddle was. Help him. Help me. Credit: Derek Llovet Reddit X Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.