My Scary Story

I was walking home from school when it was getting dark and I wanted to take a short-cut through the forest to get home a bit quicker. Mom had always told me not to go there, but today I had to do it because I had heard on the news about this huge snowstorm that was about to blow over our little town. I stuck my hands deeper into my gloves and hurried down the way, as the snowflakes started coming down from the sky.

The trees around me creaked and a lonely owl made a sound from a pine not far from me. I looked at it as it reached out its wings and lifted. With a hoot it disappeared behind the tree-tops, and I pulled my jacket even tighter against my body. My feet were really cold now and I tried to warm them up by moving my toes.

Then I turned my eyes towards the way again and it was then I saw her. My eyes blinked and I did not open them again, afraid of what I would see if I did. When I could not hold them together any longer, she had moved and was even closer. I tried to scream but it was like I had become mute or something. No sound came over my lips and I could not move either. It felt like my feet had gotten stuck on the ground and I could only watch her getting closer and closer.

She looked like nothing I had seen before. My heart was pounding really fast and again I tried to scream for help, like it would matter. Slowly, slowly she moved closer and closer to me. It was something between crawling and dragging herself forward what made her move. Again, I tried to run but my legs did not respond. In comparison to my clothes, she was wearing an old, moth eaten robe, a long dirty skirt and her face was covered by a dark slouch-hat. I could not see it but I could feel my heart freeze when she turned her face up so I could see it. Her feet were not covered at all and I could see yellow nails that needed to be cut weeks ago and that looked like claws. As I looked into her eyes, I felt like I was about to faint and finally I could scream. I screamt and screamt and screamt. Louder and louder but nobody heard me.

Suddenly, someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me away. I continued screaming when someone put his or her hand over my mouth. The person turned me around and I looked into my fathers blue eyes. I had never been happier to see him.

"What are you screaming about?", he asked with a curious voice as he hold me in his arms.
"I, I, I ...", I stuttered back.
"It is that old lady over there", I said with tears streaming down my face.
I turned around and was just going to point at her to let my dad know who I was talking about when I noticed to my surprise that the woman was gone.
"Do you mean this old, but large tree-root over her", my dad asked, trying not to laugh.
"I, I, I...", I stuttered again.
I looked around me, but I could not see anything but that old tree-root and in the middle of all I started to laugh. What, but laugh, could I do in a situation like this?  
"Come on you silly. Lets go home and eat now. Mom is waiting for you".
I grabbed my father's hand and I knew that nothing could happen to me when I held my hand in his. I turned my head around one last time and the tree-root was gone. A cold shiver walked down my back and I got goosebumps all over my body...