The Woods

A little boy and the danger of the woods.

The woods are always a danger. That is what Pete’s parents had told him all of his life. That is, the eight years he had lived so far. The woods began right behind Pete’s backyard. It had many trees that stretched for miles. Pete, being a child, listened to his parents, he never went too deep into the woods and he never stayed out at night. His parents had tried to keep him completely away from the woods once, but that had not ended well for them, so they let him play in them. One warm spring day with puffy white clouds lazily passing through the bright blue sky Pete was playing in his backyard. He wore a red shirt with khaki shorts that his mother had forced him to wear. He was sitting on the grass with his toy soldiers in a circle surrounding him. Out of nowhere a small light appeared flying around Pete’s soldiers. Pete watched the light zip around, when it got close to him he tried to grab the light with his small hands but missed. Then the light left him and flew into the woods. It stopped a little ways into the trees. Pete picked himself up and ran after the light. He chased the light not noticing the darkness grow all around him. His mind and his eyes were fixated on following the light, but for one moment he took a quick look around him and a twinge of fear crawled into his mind. After some more time following the light Pete broke through the dark woods into a bright green meadow. Pete stopped in his tracks and looked around in awe. He never knew a meadow like this beautiful one existed. For a moment Pete forgot about the light, but then it flew in front of him again. Pete smiled and chased the light around the meadow finally catching up to it as it stopped on top of a moss covered log.

Pete leaned forward to have a better look at the little bright flying ball. He leaned in close squinting his eyes to get a better look. When his nose was almost touching the bright light he could barely see what was in the ball. It was no ball at all, it was a small creature with wings. The creature looked almost like a miniature human, except for the fact that it had no pupils only dark holes as eyes and instead of hands there were long sharp claws that the creature crazily waved around. Pete blinked unable to keep his eyes open any long, and as he did he feared that he was imagining things, but there was the creature right in front of his nose. The creature stared at him, his almost transparent wings moving quickly behind him. Suddenly the small creature began to transform right in front of Pete’s eyes. The human looking creature was replaced by a disgusting monster. The claws grew longer than before and the human skin seemed to melting off the creature. Pete pulled away shocked by the hideous creature. The bright light turned red and it flew around Pete’s head. Pete tried to swat it away missing each time. As the light flew around him Pete began to notice that the light was growing larger. Then the small creature was standing in front of him his dripping skin falling on the green grass turning it black and shriveled. Pete screamed as he turned to run. The monster knew what he was thinking and had already reached out a long claw. It grabbed the back of Pete’s shirt and yanked him back. Pete screamed even louder, his scream full of terror. He pulled forcefully out if the monsters claw and ran into the darkness. He ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, pushing through the tree branches that seemed to be reaching towards him. He ran until his lungs began to burn and his legs to hurt and tears streamed down his face. Then Pete caught a glimpse of his backyard and his house farther away from him. He cried out in relief, pushing himself to run farther and faster while the sound of the monsters wings followed him. Pete ran and ran until he was a few feet from leaving the woods, but then the monster caught up. It’s long arms grabbed him just as he was about to step into his yard.

The monster pulled Pete into his long arms wrapping them around his small frame. Then it squeeze. Pete’s scream was silenced as he struggled to breath. Tears were falling down his face and he tried to push the arms away. He could see his house so close, and his mother moving around in the kitchen, as he struggled he wished his mother would turn and see him in danger, but she did not. The monster would not budge only squeezing harder until Pete had stopped struggling and he had lost consciousness, his eyes slowly closing his mother’s face the last thing he saw. The monster smiled, a smile so sickening that if anyone had been around they would never have been able to sleep again. The monster stretched out its wings, which like the monster had also grown in size, then it lifted off the ground. The monster flew up into the blue sky with Pete’s small body in its arms and disappeared behind a puffy white cloud.

When the sun set that night Pete’s mother had gone out into the yard and had yelled his name for minutes. As Pete’s mother did not hear her son’s voice echo through the woods she began to panic. She called her husband and they had gone into the woods to look for him, they spent five nights looking. There was no trace of Pete found. On the sixth night Pete’s father found a piece of Pete’s shirt hidden under black grass deep in the woods, deeper than they knew he had gone before. This gave the parents hope, but when Pete was not found even years later they gave up. No one knew if Pete had just ran away or died and no one would ever know. The woods are always a danger.

Reviews

[TwistedTwins]

What a thing to tell an 8 year old first of all! But it turns out his parents were right to warn him. They should have just told him straight up he would die if he went too far in there, but that is just my hindsight speaking lol. I enjoyed this little story for the most part. I do think you over-used Pete's name throughout the story. By the end I might as well have had Pete tattooed onto my body. But other than that it read a little like a Grimm Brother's story. Nothing wrong with a little horror/tragedy. -- C