The boy with a green mask

 It was a warm day in the small town of Miroslavas, and three high school classmates, Dovilė, Irena, and Algirdas, decided to skip Geography class to smoke weed in the forest. They had heard rumours that a boy with a green mask haunts the forest, but they didn't believe them. 

As the teenagers walked deeper into the forest, they saw an old woman weeping next to two trees which were recently cut down. All of a sudden, she stopped crying, turned her head towards the youngsters, looked at them with piercing green cold eyes and shouted, - They took two of mine. I will take two of yours!

"Don’t look at her… the hag lost her marbles," Algirdas said.

"Let’s just ignore her… We need to find a place ASAP. Cheerleading practice will start in a couple of hours" Irena reminded Dovilė.

Soon they found a sunny clearing and put their bags on the floor. Their school's basketball star took the weed and started to smoke. He shared it with cheerleaders.

"I cannot believe that our teacher forced us to have an exam today."

"It’s a crime to do exams on such a beautiful day… The school year is almost over."

"I cannot believe that you both convinced me to skip the exam. Our parents will kill us."

"That’s the problem of tomorrow. Today we smoke!!! Ha ha ha..."

As they talked and laughed, they noticed that the forest had become eerily quiet. They shrugged it off, thinking it was just their imaginations.

Suddenly, they heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. Students froze. They didn't know if it was an animal or something else. As they waited in silence, they saw a figure emerge from the bushes. It was a boy with a green mask holding a sharp big knife in his right arm.

Three friends were terrified. They didn't know what to do. The mysterious boy started to walk towards them. As he got closer, students could see that his eyes were glowing green. Friends wanted to run, but they were too scared to move. The monster reminding a human continued to walk towards them, his eyes fixed on the teens. Suddenly, he lunged at them, and the girls started to scream, Algirdas grabbed a stick and punched the boy’s head. The mask broke into many pieces and the monster turned into tree branches.

"What was that? Did it really happen?" Irena asked her two shocked friends.

They looked at each other in confusion. Did they just see a monster or imagine that those branches on the floor were a monster? They took their things and walked as fast as they could back to the school.

When students got back, they told their classmates what had happened, but no one believed them. Their friends just laughed. The teenagers tried to forget about it, but they couldn't shake the feeling that it was not over yet.

A few days later, Irena disappeared. People searched for her, but the cheerleader was nowhere to be found. Irena’s parents reported her missing to the police, but authorities couldn't find any leads. They believed that she just ran away from home and soon was going to come back. It was not the first time she did it.

A week later, Algirdas and Dovilė met after school. Algirdas smiled and said – Looking beautiful as always.

The cheerleader smiled back. She came close to her boyfriend and kissed him.

"I really would love to see a movie. Let’s go to the cinema today."

"But it’s very late. We won’t make it on time."

"We can use a shortcut through the forest. It should save us enough time to see a good film."

"Don’t you remember what happened the last time we were there?"

"We got high on weed and saw weird delusion… Is the captain of our basketball team afraid of some hallucinations? Ha ha ha..."

"No, I’m not. Let’s go through the forest."

As the couple were walking through the dark forest they heard a voice calling out to them. Teenagers turned around and saw an attractive woman wearing a short dress made of wolf skin, standing a few feet away from them. Her cold green eyes were staring at teenagers. Irena was standing next to this celestial being. Youngsters recognised the cheerleader from her favourite dotted mini-skirt. Their missing friend was wearing a green mask and had a huge knife in her right arm.

The basketball team captain was frozen with fear. He just stood there with his brown eyes wide open.

"The monster from the forest came to kill us" terrified Algirdas mumbled to his emotionless girlfriend.

"Why did you cheat on me? You are a sleazy cheating bastard."

"What? I didn’t cheat on you."

"Don’t lie to me. The lady of the forest told me everything in the dream."

"Do you believe this pagan demon over me?"

"Irena confessed. Before I-"

"You told everyone that she had found a boyfriend in Alytus, - Algirdas interrupted his girlfriend - and she had run away with him..."

Dovilė looked into her boyfriend's brown eyes and smiled. Suddenly, she pushed the captain of a basketball team into the arms of Goddess Medeina. She ran as fast as she could… until she couldn’t hear her screaming former boyfriend anymore.

A few weeks later, Algirdas’ desperate cries still haunt her dreams. During the full Moon, the cheerleader sometimes sees through the window her two missing friends in the dark forest. They both wear green masks and silently stare at her room. Probably, they plan their revenge but Dovilė is safe as long as she won’t enter the forest.