Marlene was walking on a battered trail that wound through a long stretch of woods. Her tennis shoes had become light brown from the puddles on the path which held a muddy water that her feet sloshed through every so often. Sometimes she lost her balance from the slick mud. Her tennis shoes were from two years ago, so she didn’t care about the condition of them anymore. They used to glow of a white that made it seem as if she had bleached them every day. They had been permanently stained a murky brown from all of the hikes she had been on. Marlene had on a light blue runner’s jacket with a band which made it tighter at the waist. The sleeves had a baby pink stripe that fell right off the shoulder and the whole jacket shimmered in the sunlight. She was playing Escape by Rupert Holmes on her Walkman cassette player. She lightly sang along as she walked through the tall trees that covered the sky above her.
    She was stopped suddenly because she had seen something dash across the path. A flash of black reappeared and went back across the path the other way. She removed the headphones attached to the cassette player and looked around herself quickly searching for what she had seen. Marlene stood in place for a brief second then kept walking at a very hurried pace. Now she was constantly surveying the surrounding woods. Then two black figures appeared at the end of the trail as far as her sight would go. Marlene froze and stared at the figures with a blank face. Her breathing soared and she could hear her heart beat so loud in her ears. Once she came back from her gaze, she realized she had to run. Marlene switched her feet and sprinted the other way struggling to keep her balance in the slippery mud. As she was running, her left foot slid into a hole full of murky water and she landed on her stomach, letting her hands take most of the fall. She flipped herself so she could see what the figures were and was now laying on her back, chilled by the cold puddle of water.
She could recognize the black figures as they were now twin girls that stood before her. They looked about thirteen. Each was wearing a black and white thin-striped dress that cut off at the shoulder and was knee length. The twins wore bright white knee high socks that were surprisingly not dirty from the splashed mud. Each of them had on dark black converse with the laces untied, however, the laces remained a bright white. They wore masks that resemble bumble bees with long antennas. The masks were an old rusty yellow, and there were circles cut for their eyes so that they could see through them. Brown eyes peeked through the construction paper-looking material. Black circles that were painted on the mask outlined the small brown eyes that hid behind the mask. The twins were holding hands and Marlene noticed their ragged nails that looked like sharp teeth. Both of the girls picked up their left foot and took a step towards Marlene. Then their right foot left the ground and stepped forward. They looked from the ground as if she could reach out and touch them. They kept walking towards her until they began to fade away and their steps turned into a slight breeze from the wind. Marlene got up from the puddle and started walking back towards her house. She was forever horrified by what she had seen in the woods, however, she never told anyone. She always had the images of those girls on the trail in her head, the girls who were twins.