The Forest of Corpses pt. 1

I was standing before the famous forest and couldn't describe the feelings that arose in me. Those trees are truly majestic. Giant trees and so many, that it is impossible at some places to see the sky through the tree canopy. The anticipation I felt about entering and exploring was huge. I love adventure and mystical things. I have travelled to countless of such places over the time. But not one could compare to this forest. I am standing before the infamous Aokigahara forest. This trip was planned for months. The first struggle was to find friends, who were willing to go on such a crazy trip with me. In the end I found two other people to travel with me and now we are finally at our destination ready to head in.

After about five hours of hiking we set up our tents somewhere 5 kilometres off road. Of course this was illegal, but every one of us was crazy enough to take the risk for the chance of experience this particular forest at night. The plan we had was to get some rest in our tents till it gets dark. After we would go for a walk till midnight. We even prepared flashlights and a compass in advance.

Around 9 o'clock I got up and out of my tent to look for the other two. What irritated me was that I couldn't find them in their tents or anywhere near where we made camp. Looking at the sky it was pretty dark already so I figured that they must have gone on without me. Maybe I fell asleep and they couldn't wake me up or something like that. The sun hasn't fully set jet so I got a flashlight and started to look for them in the near vicinity. It was optimistic to think I would find them. We didn't try to get to know the area beforehand so they couldn't have gone too far. A bit unhappy I started my search and circled around our tents in a spiral.

As I walked it got darker and an ominous feeling hung in the air. I shouted for my fellow travellers. Although nobody answered I still thought somebody was listening. It gave me chills that I loved about such places. On my third lap I found a corpse of a young relatively handsome Japanese teenager who hung himself. Although I knew this would most likely happen i still got the creeps. In the black and white shadowy light of my flashlight he looked dead and alive at the same time. I prayed for his soul to not rot in hell and continued my journey. After around five to seven circles I estimated my current location to be around 1 kilometre away from our tents. At this point it would be useless to look any further, so I turned around with the intention of going back. As I kept walking north, where I guessed the tents I kept wondering if I really did go in circles. Usually my sense of direction was pretty good but this time it was of no help. The landscape around me had an aura of unfamiliarity. I couldn't have remembered every detail, but this was a feeling like I have never been here before. Suddenly the wind started howling. It almost sounded like human cries. As I walked further it got darker and darker till it got so dark that not even my light could spend enough to see properly. It dint feel like a natural darkness. Slowly I felt a bit lost and fear began to show. I couldn't tell how long this stalemate of rationality and fear lasted but after I found the second dead body fear took over. It was a woman of middle age lying on the ground with a stabbing wound on her back. This was totally different from the expected suicide victims. You can't stab yourself in the back. My intuition or maybe my fear told me I was getting watched. The woman was long dead. So long actually that she showed clear signs of decay. And still something was telling me it was the murderer who was watching me. The next moment I had to laugh at my own thoughts. Look at me assuming it was murder. Maybe she was just eccentric in the way she killed herself. And even if it was murder the woman was dead for at least some years now so how could the person who did it watch me? Totally absurd.

I continued my way ahead holding the last string of rational thinking tight. I couldn't tell how long I walked in that unfriendly environment. But over time the cries I heard got louder and the frequency of which I came in contact witch corpses increased. I was about 90% sure most of them where no suicide victims. Some were new with fresh blood some were so old u couldn't tell they were human at all. The most disgusting ones where young woman who wore supposedly sexy clothes. But everything else was overshadowed by the fact that they were dissected and some had organs taken out. I realized myself how I lost myself in a fear that was akin to a trip on drugs but I couldn't help it anymore.