The Road That No-One Took

Despite the suburban, friendly environment that St. David’s school inhabited, there was always a smudge on this picture-perfect location. Metres away from the school gates lay a long stretch of concrete, surrounded and shadowed by trees, banishing any light from the path. No feet, neither that of school children nor adults, had touched the ground of this narrow road for years, not since the incident.

Five years ago, a 16 year old student from the school had ventured down this stretch of land, looking for a shortcut home and for a safe-haven to smoke Cannabis. His body was found the next day, by a younger innocent student of the school when curiosity guided him down this alley. The body had been nailed to a tree, via the hands and feet of the boy, in the shape of a crucifix. There were multiple cuts up and across his body, shaping a cross, leaving a patch of blood-soaked grass at his feet. Still to this day the police have not found a killer and the whereabouts of the young boy are unknown. It is rumoured that the pathway sacrifices sinners for the lives of obedient Christians, due to the drug-taking boy dying and the younger boy leaving un-harmed. As Good Friday loomed nearer, a teenage group of atheists, consisting of two boys and two girls, decide to test their courage and camp on the grassy patch on the corner of the pathway. As the night grows older, as it does the teenagers consume more alcohol. Apart from a few weird noises and the discovery of the first 666 pages of the Bible pinned under one of the pegs on their tent, which they later used to create a fire, the night had not produced anything out of the ordinary. As three of the four drift off to sleep, Darren, the eldest at 18, wanders off to go for a piss. He hears twigs snapping and other odd noises, but just puts it down to nature. As he un-does his trousers he turns around in response to a noise directly behind him. He turns round to find trees staring back at him, as he rotates again to face his front, within touching distance of him are five characters dressed as Nun’s, all with cuts and blood covering their faces and all wielding sharp, blood-stained crucifixes. The screams let out from Darren awake the rest of the group. The screaming and vanishing of Darren startled the friends into a realisation that they were fighting for their lives. Lightning had struck trees near the entrance, barricading the way out. The three must fight for their lives as the pathway attempts to make them pay the fatal price for their sins.