Encounter

                The blades of green grass squelch underneath my old boots as I flee through the familiar woods. The maple trees that once looked bright and lively with the sun shining down on them now look dark and gloomy with the cold rain splattering against their dark brown bark and dark green leaves.
                A cold wind passes through the woods, shoving a thick strand of my drenched hair into my face. I push my chestnut brown hair away from my face, but another cold wind pushes it back into my face. I tuck the bothersome strand behind my ear.
                I continue to run. The rain pours onto my face. I begin to wish my house was in the opposite direction, so that I wouldn’t have had to have the cold rain splatter against my face.
                Why is my house so far away? God, I wish I had an umbrella, I bitterly think, angry that the sky had decided to rain today. I wouldn’t be so angry about the weather if I had an umbrella with me. Stupid weather people with their stupid weather predictions. It was supposed to be sunny!
                “Enough!” a deep voice suddenly bellows, their voice echoing throughout the woods. I nearly jump out of my skin at the sudden loud noise.
                I stop running and curiously look around the woods to see who shouted so loudly. Were they talking to me? I wonder as I peer around the empty woods. When I see no one nearby, I assume that whoever was yelling wasn’t directing their angry at me.
                I take a step forward, ready to sprint through the woods again to get to my house and get out of this brutal weather, when the same voice shouts, “Are you kidding me? Stop!” Their voice isn’t as loud or as deep as before, but the sudden noise still makes my heart jump out of my chest.
                I frantically look around the woods with my heart racing in fear. Who said that? Was it a… ghost?
                Fear crawls through my veins. Without waiting another second, I run towards my house as fast as I can. I don’t want to be like the secondary character in a horror movie that’s killed by a ghost.
                “What are you doing?” the same voice asks angrily. Their voice makes me shiver in fear.
                Is the ghost chasing me? What do I do? I think in a panic, tears welling in my eyes. I’m scared. I don’t want the ghost to find me and hurt me.
                I suddenly see a boy standing a few feet away from me through the heavy rain. Relief falls over me. At least I’m not the only person in the woods who’s being hunted by a ghost. With his company, the ghost might leave me alone.
                I finally reach the boy, but instead of introducing himself, he roughly knocks me to the ground. The ground squelches underneath my body and I know that my skinny jeans are now ruined by mud.
                Anger rises in my stomach. My clothes are ruined now. I look up at the boy, ready to yell at him, when he suddenly starts angrily shouting, “I told you to stop! Why did you keep doing that?”
                I stare at the boy, completely confused. He’s saying the same things that the deep voice said, but his voice isn’t deep at all. It’s rather high-pitched for a boy.
        He has messy, black hair that looks like it hasn’t seen a comb in days and dark, brown eyes that almost look black. His skin is tan and without blemishes. He looks nothing like the ghost I had imagined. It can't be him who yelled at me when I was alone before.
                “Wh-What?” I stutter, confusion still casted over me. Is he the same person who yelled at me before? Their voices sound nothing alike though. It couldn’t have been him, right?
                “Why do you keep making me repeat myself? I told you that that’s enough! Stop already!” he yells, sounding more whiney than angry.
                Realization dawns on me. “You were the guy yelling at me.” There is no ghost. I was just being yelled out by a cranky kid.
                Relief falls over me. I never knew that realizing how dumb I was to believe there was a ghost could be so relieving. At least I know that there’s no ghost now.
                “Who else could it have been?” he asks grumpily.
                “So, you’re not a ghost…” The words slip out of my mouth before I can stop myself. My cheeks burn with embarrassment. How could I say something so stupid? Of course he’s not a ghost! I’m so stupid for thinking that in the first place.
                Please tell me he didn’t hear that. Please, please, please, I think. I’ve already done enough embarrassing things in my life. I don’t need to do any more embarrassing things.
                He stares at me in disbelief. “Wait… What? You thought I was a ghost?” He looks at me as if I’m a stupid. Well, if he does think I’m stupid then he isn’t wrong.
                “No,” I quickly say, hoping to recover from my embarrassment.
                He looks as if he wants to criticize me, but he sighs instead. I can tell he doesn’t care enough to have me elaborate on my stupid thought which I’m thankful for. I don’t need him to know why I thought he was a ghost.
                “Uh, anyways,” he awkwardly says, “Just stop doing that, okay? The plants don’t like it.”
                Confusion sweeps over me again. I raise an eyebrow, not knowing what to say. “Stop doing what?”
                “Stepping on the plants!”
                My eyes trail to the grass drowning in water from the rain before I look at him again in confusion. My mind can’t wrap around the reason why he’s so angry. He can’t actually be angry that I stepped on a few pieces of grass, can he? People step on grass all the time. I don’t understand why he’s so upset about it. That’s something too trivial to yell at someone about.
        “The plants?” I question, still confused as to why he’s so angry over something so insignificant.
                He clenches his fists in frustration. “Yes.”
                “I have to stop stepping on the plants… Why?”
                “Because you’re hurting them!” His anger is sincere. He is actually mad about me stepping on grass.
        I try not to laugh, but a smile still plays on my lips. I feel bad for wanting to laugh at him, but the thought of someone being so upset over something so trivial is funny. His overreaction to it is what makes it hilarious.
                His dark brown eyes flare with anger when he sees my struggle to choke back my laughter. “You think this is funny?” he bellows, his voice filled with venom. His high-pitched voice has returned to the deep voice I heard when I thought I was alone.
                His intense fury quickly wipes away the smile from my face and twists my stomach into a knot. I’ve seen a lot of people become angry before, but this guy is the angriest person I’ve ever seen.
                “So, you think that’s funny? Let’s see if you think this is funny!” he roars, his deep voice echoing throughout the forest.
                The ground trembles beneath me like an earthquake. Thick, brown tree roots suddenly break through the surface of the ground. The tree roots seem to be getting thicker and thicker as they continue to rise from the ground.
                What the hell is happening here?
                I quickly jump to my feet. I can feel danger all around me. I don’t have to think about what’s happening and how it’s happening. I have to get out of here quickly. I don’t know what will happen to me if I stay here any longer.
                I try to run past the boy, but one of the tree roots suddenly wraps around my waist and pulls me into the air. My feet dangle in the air, far from the ground where they’re supposed to be.
                I look down at the ground that’s far away from me. My heart pounds against my chest in terror. I feel as if I could fall at any second. I want to get down. I don’t want to be suspended in the air. It’s too terrifying to not have my feet on solid ground.
                “How do you like this? Are you having fun now?” he shouts, glaring at me with hatred.
                I want to tell him to put me down, but a lump forms in my throat, restricting me from saying anything. I’m too scared and bewildered to answer him.
                How is this happening? How did he do this? I think, my thoughts in a scrambled mess, Oh, God, why did I have to have a fear of heights?
                The tree root suddenly releases me.
                I fall.

Author's Note

I know it is a bit wordy and that it isn't the best part to the story, but I do believe that I improved when writing the other chapters to this story. :)