There's Nothing There

What's lurking in the woods?

"Mommy, there is a monster in the woods! I swear it!", Ethan pleaded to his mother for the last time tonight. Eliza sighed. She was slightly frustrated. Ethan tells her about the "monster in the woods" every single night, relentlessly. She was tired of hearing about this young child's imaginary boogy-man. "Ethan, I know you're scared of the dark honey and I know you hate living here in the country, but you've got to understand! There is nothing out there but the trees and the deer! You have got to go to bed now!" She took Ethan by the hand and lead him up the stairs of their two story home in the Montage woods. It was built solid like a rock and had stood there for many years, so naturally it creaked. Eliza often wondered if it was a good idea to bring Ethan out this far into the country, into an old abandoned creaky house.

When they got to Ethan's room, it was lit up by only his nightstand lamp. A small thing it was, a powerful light it seemed to beam. Eliza remembered her husband giving this lamp to Ethan. Telling him "Don't you worry Ethan, with this lamp on, no monsters will ever be able to hurt you!". Those were the days when Jason was alive. God how she missed him. Ethan had left Eliza's hand and jumped into his full-size bed. Rather large for a 6 year old, but he slept soundly in it, and to Eliza, that was good enough! She proceeded to kiss him on the forehead and tucked him in, went over to the window and pulled the blinds up so the full moon could add to his ambient lighting. Ethan's window also had a good view of the woods in the back of their house. The woods that he feared something terrible lived in. Eliza squinted and stared at the line of woods that met the dead grass in her backyard. She saw nothing. As she was beginning to turn away from the window she saw a shadow move out of the corner of her eye from the woods.

Playing off the shadow like nothing had happened, Eliza turned slowly back to the window to try and glimpse the shadow. Nothing. Sighing, she left the room, bid her son another goodnight, and went downstairs. "What the heck was that?", she wondered to herself aloud. She made her way to the living room and sat down on the old worn in sofa. It was plaid and had barely any cushion left to it. Eliza looked around the old room, noticing small things about it as she got lost deep in thought. She noticed how the fireplace in front of her looked as though it had never been cleaned of ashes in it's lifetime. Also, how most of the corners, up by the ceiling, had small spider webs hanging from them. She was thankful they were small, she hated spiders of abnormal size. She remembered one time when her husband had killed a spider for her. She was cleaning and had come across this spider with abnormal shape and size, she had screamed for Jason and he came in with an old flip flop and a determined gaze. He had always been her knight in shining armor. He was always there for her, except now. He was dead.

A scream came from upstairs. Ethan had never screamed like that before! Eliza pulled herself up from the couch and sprinted up the stairs. When she had managed to get to his room, Ethan was sitting straight up in his mammoth of a bed, staring. The look on his face is what concerned Eliza the most. She sat on the bed next to him and pulled him towards her. "It's ok now honey, nothing can get you in here", she stroked his hair as she whispered in his ear. She felt him shutter lightly and he responded, "But it was staring at me, it was right there mommy...", he trailed off. That was all she needed to hear. She was going to prove to him that nothing was there! She decided that tomorrow evening, she would take him out into the woods. Just her, holding his hand, and a flashlight.

Author's Note

I had more ideas for this but I figure I would make a part 2 if this one got enough reads and reviews. I know there are probably spelling and grammatical errors but I only write for fun, so enjoy.