The Forest

The Forest
By: Michael Dragonish
Protagonist: Sam
Point of view: Sam, Third Person Limited


*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Everyday at 6 in the morning Sam hears that same sound. Everyday at 6 in the morning he just yawns and says to himself “Rather tired than slow”. Sam is an average height boy, with brown messy hair and brown eyes. Sam is 11 years old and is constantly getting in trouble. He isn’t one of those kids that get it fights and drinks beer and has a tattoo and everything, He just didn’t like people telling him what to do. Sam lives in a small town named Cerrenberry. Cerrenberry is a small, old town in the middle of nowhere. The town is one of those towns where everyone knows each other since there are only 200 people living in it. It is so small that everyone walks everywhere and no one owns a car. Everyone in Cerrenbury is nice and sweet and it seems every time someone rude or offensive moves here they just leave overnight, It looks like its been around for hundreds of years and that’s because it has. The only way out of the town (since there’s no cars) is to take the train, which passes right by the town.

Sam took out his running shoes from underneath his bed. Still holding them he slumped downstairs. Everyday for the 3 years he’s lived here Sam has gone for a daily run down to the forest and back. He stood by his parent’s room and peeked inside to see if they were there. Sam grabbed a Banana from the kitchen table and exited the house into the backyard. Sam’s house was very old and very small. It had white peeling paint all over it and rotting wood everywhere else. Sam’s back yard was about the size of a football field, with his neighbor’s fence on both sides, and a few trees separating his yard from the train tracks, and dead grass. All of his neighbors have a fence separating the train tracks from their yard. Sam didn’t want that. He removed the back fence when he was 8 because he wanted to see the train go by. He took off from the porch. His best time to reach the end of his yard from his back porch was 18.74 seconds, but who’s counting. When he reached the train tracks he took a right and followed them for a good 3 miles. At the end of his 3 miles, he reached the beginning of the forest.

He didn’t go in of course. The forest was a dangerous place. The forest seemed to be thousands of trees surrounding the train tracks. The forest seemed harmless, but you could go into there and never come back. Sam, breathing heavily, sat down on a stump and just stared at the edge of the forest. The furthest he could see was a few yards into the forest and then pitch black. He recalled the days that there wasn’t that powerful force between those trees, that dooming sense that someone inside there doesn’t want you to leave once you enter. When he was little he would always walk down here with his parents, back when they cared. They always felt that dooming feeling, they were always aware of that overhanging doom, but we still carried on into the forest. I’ve heard from many of the neighbors of disappearances of their cat’s a-. Suddenly, Sam heard a twig crack. He instantly snapped his head in the direction the sound came from. He backed up until he was a good 15 feet away from the edge of the forest. A figure was emerging from the forest, a figure that had known of his presence ever since he approached the very first trees of the forest. Sam felt he should run, he felt he should cry out for help, but he stayed still on the spot. He had been living here for 9 years now and never had anything come out of the forest before, not even a sound.

Slowly and steadily, approached a boy. The boy looked like any 7 year old except he was wearing overalls with blue and white vertical stripes that looked like he has been living in for his whole life and he was covered in dirt. The boy was average height, had blonde hair, and had deep blue eyes that seemed to look right into Sam. Sam still unsure about the boy said, “Can I help you?” The boy did not answer but instead just stared, his head cocked to the side, his eyes were full of curiosity but at the same time looked dazed as though he wasn’t sure what he was seeing. And at the same rate he appeared, he backed up into the darkness of the forest. Sam not sure what to think of this turned around and ran back home as fast as his feet could carry him.

All that day Sam wondered how the boy. He couldn’t concentrate on his schoolwork. He couldn’t concentrate on anything. As he sat on his bed he unsteadily looked out the window. It was pitch black outside and the crickets were chirping, and his back porch light illuminated just to the end of his yard. In the distance, Sam heard a dog howl at the moon. Just as Sam returned his eyes back to his schoolwork he noticed something approach from the trees at the end of his yard. He also noticed that once the figure had emerged from the shadows, the crickets became silent, almost as though they were holding their breath. Sam slowly turned his head. Once his gaze met the end of his yard, the figure was gone. Sam closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. It was all in his imagination. That boy was part of his imagination just trying to scare him. Sam closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day Sam did not see the boy at the forest in the morning. He didn’t know if he was relieved or upset. He did not know what to think of the boy. At school all he could think about was the boy. Who was he? What did he want? And why was he in the forest? “Sam?” asked a voice. Sam’s head bolted upward. His teacher, Mrs. Roden towered above him as Sam sat in his desk. His mind had wandered too far. He was in trouble now. Slowly, but surely, Sam’s eyes wandered up to meet Mrs. Roden’s. She was not a nice lady. She was one of those teachers that constantly scolded, ridiculed, and sneered at his students. And all of that negative energy was directed at him. After a stern lecture, he slumped back in his seat. All the kids were laughing at him. In all directions Sam was being pointed and laughed at. He pointed his head towards the window, anywhere but in the classroom. He almost jumped out of his seat. There, in the middle of all the kindergarteners laughing and playing on all the toys outside, sat the boy. He was sitting on a swing, absolutely still, staring at Sam. He looked so out of place, with all the kids screaming and running around him and him, as still as anything could be. Sam couldn’t take it anymore. He jumped out of his seat and sprinted toward the door. All the students thought it was because of them so they just laughed harder. Sam didn’t care. He needed to get to the security of his home. It only took him a few minutes because of the size of the town. He scrawled onto his front steps and headed for the closet. Inside he snatched a flashlight and another jacket. He instantly headed for the back door and kicked it open.