Mannequin Forest | Creepypasta/Horror Fiction

[Music] Today's story is Manic and Forest by Glimara from the Creepypasta, Fandomwicky. So, there have been reports of missing people in my hometown. The trend of people disappearing tend to be in high school or college, usually with little warning. We're talking about people that seem to have just vanished from their beds or work. Like, there was this one story of this kid. I think he was like 17. And he was walking from his first period class to second period and he was just gone. Like, he just walked out the doors. I guess you have kids that skip school, but you'd think they would at least show up at their homes eventually, right? Well, turns out this kid wasn't into any bad stuff. Usually, laid low. But he did his homework and he showed up at school when he needed to. His parents were devastated. Instead, it was a kidnapping and now they're suing the school for not properly keeping track of its kids. Some rumors circulating through the town say that they're running away to join some weird new age cult thing, but you'd think if dozens of kids just left, you'd eventually see them, right? Like, maybe all gathered around in some giant steel compound, somewhere in the area or some shit? Other rumors were going around that there was some guy kidnapping them and taking them to some abandoned house and keeping them in some basement. I mean, not like any of these rumors matter. It doesn't exactly solve the missing kid's problem. And clearly, the police were doing a shit job at finding them. Sucks for the parents though. Having someone ripped away from you like that and having absolutely no idea where they left to. The schools were having severe checks to be sure that kids aren't disappearing. Like we're talking security guards monitoring the halls and guarding every single exit and having a check-in sheet at every class. Of course, the colleges didn't seem to be doing a whole lot because their students are adults and you can't exactly enforce lockdown rules there. But the security on campus was busier than usual. Luckily, I'm not some kid in high school, so I wasn't affected by the curfew in town. It really made walking around the more busier locations, much quieter at night. There's this lake with a trail around it that's usually super busy during the day. And at night is when you see a ton of kids hanging out and leaving trash everywhere or ruining the peaceful vibe of the place. This was probably the third or fourth time I've walked the entire pathway around the lake during this time. And I much prefer it without the kids everywhere. The lake is about two miles outside from the town itself. And right near the lake is a major river. And the pathway goes right near it with some grass and plants between the river and pathway. Well, I was walking the path as usual and normally I'm listening to music to drown out any noise from cars or people. But I realized it was super quiet that day. I pocketed my earbuds to listen to the silence, which around here is super rare. I took the opportunity to look around and appreciate the atmosphere and nature of the park. But while I was walking, I saw this weird concrete slab sticking out of the ground on the other side of the river that I've never noticed before. It was most likely some plumbing thing. But it seemed weird that it just sort of popped up overnight. On the hill, I could see this weird blurry figure. Not sure what it was. It could have been another concrete slab sticking straight up. I was walking on the trail looking at this weird concrete slab and figuring when suddenly I slipped a little bit on something on the ground. Looking down, I noticed that it's a welcome mat with four paw prints and wipe your paws here written on it. I thought it weird seeing some random piece of trash like this in the middle of the pathway. But then I noticed that there was another mat nearby. Underneath an opening of trees near the river. It looked like it was placed like whoever put it there wanted me to walk towards it. If that makes sense, I walked to the mat. This time it was a bath mat that was kind of shaggy and red. Looking up, I noticed another mat on the other side of the river. This part of the river wasn't deep at all. It was really shallow with the deepest part maybe going up to my knee. This was during May and it was pretty nice out. And I was wearing shorts so waiting into the water wasn't going to be anything too difficult for me. My curiosity was peaked and I didn't figure there'd be any harm looking at it. This mat was an outdoor welcome mat but more generic and black. A couple of yards in front of it going more into the wooded area. There was another welcome mat and then another one beyond that and then one beyond that. I followed the makeshift pathway, ducking underneath low hanging branches and avoiding any weeds. I wasn't too worried about running into any homeless guys or druggies or anything like that. Despite the issues in town, there hasn't been any reports of crazy assholes causing issues. So I figured the worst thing I'd find would be a bunch of teenagers gathering trash for some weird clubhouse shit. There was more garbage piled up the further I went into the trees. Cardboard, pop cans, even some old power ranger toys and Lego bricks dug into the mud. There were some even hanging from the trees with yarn and string tying the garbage to the branches. It reminded me of those makeshift alarms you see in zombie movies where they tie beer cans to string close together so they make noise when you run into them. I tried to avoid making any noise as best as I could and walked around the trash. Eventually I found myself in an open area surrounded by trees. Just a plain grassy circle about half the size of a football field. Unlike the woods I just got out of, there was no more trash to be seen. The only thing I saw was a welcome mat at my feet that said, "Welcome home." The mat was really a piece of cardboard with random letters taken from cereal boxes or magazine clippings or something. Honestly, I was pretty underwhelmed. I expected some huge tree house or playground or something after following that junk trail. I looked around the open grass hoping to see something that made my trip feel worthwhile. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything interesting. Add just some rocks here or there and some weeds and dark green trees around the area. Funny, I didn't remember there being so many trees near town. I knew we had woods but not really a forest or anything. Usually there were small patches of trees grouped up near plains and corn fields. This place looked huge though and the trees were tall and maybe a little darker than usual. And thinking back, I couldn't remember how long I was walking on that junk trail. Maybe five minutes or was it more? I wasn't really sure. I couldn't really think about it. All I wanted to do was go home of the sudden. I didn't want to walk any more than I already had. Luckily, I remembered the area that I entered from. There was a little opening between the trees in an area and the welcome mat made a good landmark. I jogged towards the exit. Don't go. I darted around and looked behind me seeing nothing. It must have been the wind or something. Then my ears started ringing. Loud. It sounded like cicadas but more concentrated in this area. Like they all flew to this clearing in the woods and sang just for me. Coughing my ears, I looked up and I couldn't see shit. Nothing flying or buzzing. Although in the trees on the other side of the clearing there was something that looked like concrete. Then I saw another concrete figure. Then another. And another. They sort of came from the trees around me. They didn't walk out. They just showed up. Like I turned around to leave and then I looked back and there they were. They looked like a series of statues or mannequins. Like they looked like people. Two arms, two legs, a body and a head but they were too smooth. Blurry maybe? I can't remember. Thinking back, I sort of stared at the woods. I assumed it was more garbage that I somehow missed. Yeah, that's it. I just missed some garbage. I just noticed it now. How stupid of me. Oh well. That's what I said to myself. Maybe to comprehend what happened perhaps. No clue. The ringing still continued and it was beginning to give me a headache. I turned it back around to finally leave. Don't go. This time it sounded like a choir of people said it. Not a. cheerful choir or a choir made of multiple people. It sounded like one monotone person was talking, but dozens of times. My ears rang again, but more intensely. My ears felt hot, and I couldn't force myself to take my hands for my ears. Every time I tried to turn to go, the buzzing returned louder, and every time I turned toward the clearing, the ringing died down. I turned around once more facing the clearing. This time, however, it wasn't empty. There were dozens of those figures standing around the area. Some of them were facing each other, some were sitting, and some were staring at the exit. At me. Now that they were closer, I could see that they had very blurry faces. Like, if you saw someone's face behind a shower curtain, their bodies still looked hard, but not like concrete. It looked like something else, but I can't think of it. I turned around to run, and I noticed the concrete figures all began vibrating violently in place. I didn't give a shit about the ringing anymore. I tore the earbuds from my pocket and stuffed them into my ears, hoping they would function as some shitty earplugs. I spun around and was bombarded with ringing that turned into immense buzzing, ducked below the trees, and followed the junk trail the way I came. I didn't give a shit what was behind me. I never looked back. I ran on the awkward trail. I kicked away discarded pop bottles, toys, and even a small trike. I swatted the hanging string from the trees. I slipped a bit on one of the welcome mats and smacked my head into a low-hanging branch. I slipped onto my back. It hurt like a bitch. I looked behind me, and the only thing I could see was a bunch of garbage and then one concrete figure with its arms up. It looked small. By. It's all I heard. I got myself up and continued out the pathway out of the woods across the river and then back to my car, and then I went home. Apparently the curfew was lifted. There haven't been any reports of missing people in months now. Unfortunately the kids that have been missing haven't returned and the parents are still devastated. It really sucks for those parents, you know? Recently I went back to the park. It's quiet still, but not because of any curfew. It's just cold out now, and there aren't a lot of people out this time of year. I looked over the pathway across the river at the concrete slab and figure that was previously there. They're gone now. All the welcome mats seem to be gone too. But that's probably because someone cleared them up. I'm not sure what happened, but I think I'm going to avoid forests for a while. So, that my friends was Manic and Forest by Glimara from the creepypasta wiki. A fun little story about a forest and I. Instead of stairways in the middle of forest, you get Manicans and welcome mats. Creepy as heck in my opinion. Loved it though. Loved it. Loved the visual that it painted in my mind of these creepy blurred, smooth Manicans of concrete that just exist in this little forest clearing. And I. You know, okay, whenever I play horror games, I play a lot of weird horror games, right? And sometimes most of the time, those horror games are like, liminal space kind of things. And it's something I really enjoy. For some reason, whenever I end up in a level that has Manicans all over the place, which typically happens in liminal horror style games, it scares me in the core, right? It's like a fighter flight thing happens and I want to fly. Anyway, if you enjoyed the story and you're on the YouTube side, please do it that like button. If you're on the Spotify side, please consider leaving a review for the podcast or a comment down below. Both of them actually both YouTube and Spotify. Leave a comment down below with your thoughts. I would appreciate that. On YouTube, subscribe to the channel. Leave a comment like Spotify, rate the podcast if you want to. Of course. If you have a story you want to send in as theravendreams.com is the best place to do it. Go to that website as well. You can find where the podcast is hosted. Other things, social media links, stuff like that. All those, the discord servers also down there. If you go to the website, I did fix the invite apparently it was in valid. I didn't know that until the day. So yeah, that's about it. I ain't got much to talk about here. I'm just going to say I love y'all. Hope you have a great day. Hope to see you again here soon. Until then, please remember you are loved, valid, and important and you are the best that you can be. Don't forget it. Until next time, much love and sleep well. [Music]