Twigs, leaves and dirt crunched under the booted feet of 6 military soldiers, the Autumn dying out to winter started to chill them. The sweat still poured from their helmets, carrying the equipment on poorly trained men left a toll on them. Besides the winter chill of the forest and the scuffling of boots, animals and the soldiers breaths heavy with sleep and frustration it still left them uneasy, empty forests made anyone uncomfortable in these times, an all out world war, underhanded tactics to win, Germany was the least safe place to be right now and forests are a hunting ground for stray soldiers and supplies. The task made the sergeant worried his men might not make it out alive, or sane, a tingling feeling of being followed made rabbits into bears in the eyes of his.

“Sergeant..?” the man closest to the sergeant  mumbled as loud as he could the cold air wrapping itself around his words in mid-air
“Private” the sergeant replied, loudly to reassure himself that he was breathing correctly
“Something feels wrong here Sergeant” The other 4 beginning to talk amongst themselves, murmuring and whispering, the still shadows of the forest never replied
“Yeah son, we're not alone here”  he mumbled looking up into the tree's something catching his eye, gone in an instant “Did..Anyone happen to see that?”
“See what sir!” the first private to speak growled, All sights aimed at the tree's, the soldiers stood in confusion “There is uh... nothing there sir..”.
The sergeant looked through the sight of his rifle, his breath fogging up his view of the tree's swearing to the king of gods he could see what looked like Slim, splitting legs, arms intertwined with tree branches, a formal wear sit and a pale slate for a head. Blinking and the tree's returned, the moon blinked into life again.

The sergeants boot's growing heavy, his knee's buckling like lead on cotton his heart heavier still, beyond his fear of seeing a featureless slate of pure emptiness, the bitter, freezing, cold his mind went through every time he caught a glance at his predator. His heart and guts ready to chase it, his mind and bones screaming no. The voices behind him, he knew were his team, he knew they were saying he was mad, his neck forcing him not to look. The snapping and bursting of the leaves and twigs distracting him from finding where it went, this forest seemed to go on forever.
“Sergeant...Sir” he said, the sergeants neck craned round to see the private talking again
“Sir your acting strange...sir” The sergeant glared at the soldier before checking again seeing nothing he spoke
“We need to leave Now..or look for what ever is here”
“Sir there is nothing here sir” The sergeant turned around immediately after hearing this, seeing the pure horrific face of an unforeseeable escape behind a tree, higher than any man or machine he pulled the bolt of his rifle holding his breath in, squeezing the trigger like as hard as forcing the last breath out of a man's neck the bullet broke the air, the crack of the gunfire throwing the birds into hysterics and blotting out the sky, the huge...Ghost was gone by time the smoke cleared. The sergeant contemplated every possible thing that happened, he killed it, scared it..or angered it.

“Sir! What is it?!” the only other private said his words shaking in his throat, the men formed a back to back circle
“Nothing, give me the radio.” He barked at the medic carrying the case on his back
“Roger” he said, dropping to his knee's passing the phone, the sergeant gripped the phone hearing nothing but static and a quiet high pitched screaming noise, he threw the phone to the forest floor. Praying to god, whatever was there, was now dead or gone at the very least.

A white noise buzzing through their heads, thinking it was the unexpected gun shot, their vision beginning to blur, the sergeant breaking his code and turning to where he thought his men stood
“Are you with me?!” eye sight turning pale grey camouflaging the ground, sky and the tree's, stumbling forward he heard the faint sound of the corporal Thomson breaking the silence of confused scuffling noises with large cracks, the sergeant ran face first into the solid wood of a tree that may have stood for a year or five thousand, it felt harder than steal, he gripped his forehead, only feeling the blood from his nose, his cheeks felt numb, he couldn't feel his fingers wiping furiously at his face, the endless blood, his eyesight leaving him forgotten, his hearing buzzing quietly, like tinnitus in a silent room, ever quieter. The sergeant screaming for help, the little feeling in his tongue felt only vomit or blood, he lowered his hand from his nose to violated mouth, no feeling was left his tongue hanging limply out of his mouth. His mind trying to piece where he was, the only image was of a heightened sense, as if he was nailed to a tree, watching his brothers, his underlings, his family tear each other apart in a frightened frenzy, trying one last time in a last ditch effort to call his friend, the man who pushed him up through the ranks, to try and change how this war was dealt with the corporal, he screamed his name, belting it out only to feel what felt like an organ being thrown up from the depths of his body.