River Junction

As I walked down the winding road, headed to River Junction, a cloud directly above me formed into a face and followed my every move. Not that I'm afraid of clouds or anything . . but the face . .that face, just made me feel a bit uneasy. Like the face of a wind god . . with no cheeks. Observing me. Why ?
Almost walked off the road looking at it. Getting my bearings back, I moved over to the center of the road and quickly peeked up. It was gone. Gone.

Bushes and trees alongside the road now began to bend to and fro, but I could not detect any increase in the wind velocity. Leaves and branches formed more faces. Many faces. And they all watched me as I continued on. Not that I'm afraid of bushes and trees or anything . . but the faces they made . . stern and angry-looking . .and bending and moving . . began to weird me out.

Late afternoon and I was out walking to River Junction. The sun, now behind me, cast shadows all around me, and especially ahead of me. Shadows of disproportionate sizes and shapes. Elongated . . and stick-like. Not that I'm afraid of mere shadows or anything . .but these shadows seemed darker than normal . . .and I noticed that I could not account for all of them. I tried stopping, but only one shadow stopped with me. The others continued on down the road a ways . .then took off into the woods, disappearing.

I was getting close enough now to River Junction that I could hear the roaring water. Also heard what sounded like screams. All kinds of screams. Men, women, children . . .all screaming their lungs out. And they weren't happy screams neither. Blood-curdling screams they were. Made the hair on the back of my neck rise. And then, as I got a little nearer . . . nothing. Absolute silence. Eerie. Not that I'm afraid of screaming or anything . .but
when the screaming abruptly ends and there's nothing but silence . . well . .I get uncomfortable. I stopped and listened again . . .again nothing. Not a sound at all.

Never made it this close to River Junction before. Oh, I always started out confident enough . .just too many faces along the way. Tired faces, sad faces, scared faces, and the horrible ghost-like faces.

Walked a little closer. Something reached out and touched me. Something I couldn't quite see. Scared the hell right out of me. I started running as fast as I could . . .past the touch spot, past the shadows, past the faces.

Past the sign that said "You are now leaving River Junction Fun-House. A "natural" experience." "Watch your step."