Into The Woods

Into The Woods

by: Robert Rumery

It was just another day in the state of Maine. The birds were chirping and it was a nice warm day. The sky had a light blue tint and white fluffy clouds floated by on that azure backdrop. A small town in Maine wasn't always the most fun place to be, especially for a young boy, there wasn't much to do. Adam Jacobson was a 12 year old boy with light brown hair and dark blue eyes. He was wearing a

pair of light denim jean overalls and a light blue shirt and was currently sitting on a sewer grate. He looked down at the stream that was coming out of the grate and then picked up a flat rock and skipped it a crossed the small stream. His mother thought it would be a great idea for him to go visit his grandparents.

He didn't really want to be here and would much rather be back home, in his room, playing video games. Of course they had to bring him all the way out to the country. What was worse? He was here with his two teenage sisters who were only interested in boys. He was starting to think that he was the only sane one in this family. He heard a rustling in the woods just a few feet away from him. He turned his head slightly to look towards where he thought the sound was. It was probably just some kind of an animal and there was no need to worry. He pushed himself up off of the sewer grate and slipped a pair of red sandals onto his feet.

He took the iPod out of his pocket, pushed the white ear-buds into his ears, turned on the device and started to walk back to his grandmother's house. There had been stories about monsters in the woods. Just stories. Probably just some story that a kid at school made up to scare people. He didn't believe in stuff like that. A few cars zoomed by him. He didn't hear them since he was stuck in his own little world listening to his music as he continued to walk down the road. He pushed his hands into the sides of his overalls.

Maybe something exciting would happen today. He doubted it and he sighed softly. He walked up the driveway and saw his mother's sedan still parked there. He wondered if there were any other kids his age out here. Probably not. Besides, this wasn't the city; if there were other kids out here they probably wouldn't want to do the same things he wanted to do. City and country kids were different, they were both kids but they liked to do very different things. His stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he had not eaten anything all morning.

He put his hands on his complaining stomach to feel the rumble. The fact that the growling was getting louder meant that he should eat something soon. The only good thing about coming out to the country like this was his grandmother's cooking. He loved it. Her skill as a chef always made his stomach happy. A brief smile crept over his face. He walked down the short walk-way that leads to his grandmother's house. It was a small house and it had a red brick chimney that he enjoyed watching the grey smoke roll out of. If he remembered correctly, his grandmother burned wood for heat and to cook with as well.

Wood Stoves, he thought that’s what they were called. He walked up the worn and crumbling steps

to the house and pushed the screen door open, walking into the house. When he entered, he could smell freshly baked cookies. "Oh, coming to grandmas is so awesome." He loved the smell of freshly baked cookies and the aroma clued him in to the fact that they were chocolate chip cookies. He looked around for a minute or two. The house was silent. Where was everyone? He shrugged softly and walked from the living-room and into the kitchen.

He walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up, looking inside for something substantial to eat. There was not much food in there. Well, food that he liked anyway. He spotted a loaf of white bread, a

package of lunch meat, and a few pieces of cheese. "That's it!" He'd make a sandwich. He could do that no problem, and no cooking involved. He took the loaf of bread, the lunch meat, and two pieces of cheese and laid them out on the counter in front of him and then made himself a sandwich. When he was done making it he put everything back into the fridge and cleaned up. He took the sandwich in both hands and started to munch on it happily.

“Weird that no one is here.” Adam said to himself, he shrugged and walked out into the living-room and sat down on the old brown couch that was there. He continued to munch on his sandwich as he looked around for something to do. There was television here but it didn't have cable and reception was very shitty where they were. He would have to go outside to find something to do. Maybe he could find some kids to go play with; he'd have to venture away from the house a bit to do that. He thought he had seen a few trails out where he was exploring before, maybe he could walk them. They couldn't lead to any place dangerous. This was the country after all. There was no dangerous place out in the country, right?

He thought that was a rather good idea and smiled then finished his sandwich. He pushed himself up off the couch and walked back over towards the door. He pulled the screen door open and walked back outside. His mountain bike had to be around here somewhere. When he had come in, he hadn't noticed that one of the cars was missing. Maybe they had left when he had come in. "Weird." he thought: I should've heard them leave." Didn't matter. He had been in his own world ever since he had come to his grandma's house. He walked out to the backyard where there was a small brown shed. He walked over and opened it up. He grabbed his brown, black, and silver colored mountain bike. He took the bike by its handle bars and walked it out to the drive-way.

The gust of wind blew making a howling sound – it was strange and he got a sort of chill. “That was strange." he thought. He hopped up on his bike and started to pedal. As the bike started to move, he soon forgot about the wind. He rode his bike about a mile down the road and came to what looked like an abandoned, torn up, old train track bed. He looked down and saw fresh tire marks that looked like they could be from a mountain bike just like his.

“Hey!” A voice called from behind him. “Huh?” Adam asked as he turned his head to look behind him. He saw two kids behind him. They looked about his age. He saw a girl with sandy brown hair and light blue eyes. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, flip flops, and a black and purple camouflage shirt. The other kid was a boy with dark hair, camouflage colored pants, a black tank-top and a pair of black and silver sneakers. “I'm Grace.” The girl said, pointing to herself with her thumb and smiled softly “His name is Jacob.” She continued and pointed at the boy. Adam noticed that there were two bikes ditched in the bushes. “Come on, what's your name?” Grace asked. “Adam.” He said, his eyes locked on the girl and a small smile formed on his face. “Okay, Adam. You have to ditch your bike in the bushes or the older kids will steal 'em!” Grace said and she smiled at Adam sweetly.

He nodded and did what he was told. He got off his bike, walked it over to where Jacob and Grace were standing and pushed it into the bush. It couldn't be seen from the road and probably wouldn't be seen by anyone that was walking the train tracks either. After Adam stashed the bike, he turned to face Grace and Jacob. The three of them meeting like this was weird. It was almost as if they were supposed to meet in this way. "Just kids, we shouldn't be thinking like this. What are we gonna do?" Adam wondered as he looked at Grace and then looked away for a moment.

“So what are we doing?” Jacob asked. “My dear Jacob.” Grace said as she looped her arm around Jacob's shoulder and smiled softly. “You see that, Jake?” she pointed directly in front of them. There was a giant spooky trail, it looked dark and like some place they shouldn't really go. Did Grace care? Oh hell no, she liked adventure. She liked to be scared, and it was even better without her grandparents or parents around. With them gone, she could feed her need for adventure and thrills! “Yeah.” Jacob said and nodded. “We’re gonna go in there!” Grace said in an enthusiastic voice. “I heard that trail is haunted.” Jacob said. “Silly, Jake.” Grace said and she smacked Jacob's cheek softly “That's exactly why I wanna go!” She gave a nice big smile.

"A haunted trail? That might be kinda fun and exciting." Adam thought to himself. He was so in. He noticed that Grace was sort of like the leader and it looked as if Jacob wasn't really sure what was happening. A slight smirk came over Adam's face and he pushed his hands into the pockets of his overalls. He looked at both of them. He shrugged softly, and continued to study them. They seemed

kinda alright for country folk. So they were gonna go see if this trail was haunted or not. If his grandmother or mother was around they would probably try and stop him. They didn't know how to have fun anyways.

“So I take it you're the leader, huh?” Adam asked as he looked at Grace. “Leader? No, just someone who gets me into trouble.” Jacob said as he chuckled softly. “Jakey, not 'Trouble', I get you into 'Adventure!'” Grace said. She turned to look at Adam. “You in?” She asked. “Yeah, sure.” Adam said and he shrugged his shoulders softly.

“Alright!” Grace said enthusiastically. “I'm going to regret this.” Jacob said and shook his head from side-to-side. There was no going back now, especially with how Grace was. Him and Grace lived down the road from each other their whole lives and had been friends since preschool. They were almost teenagers now and he liked how things were. He hoped they stayed like this until they were grown ups. Jacob heard something – it sounded like a dog howling or something. It was normal for this part of Maine, it was nothing but country land out here. "Probably someone's stupid mutt got stuck in a bear trap or something. It can't be anything other then that."

“Alright, let’s go!” Grace said, she bent over and grabbed a big stick. She picked up two others and tossed them to the boys so they had sticks too. They needed a way to defend themselves if they ran into anything. They were in the Maine woods after all. "We could run into anything, coyote's, wolves, a monster, even a crazy old guy by the name of Stephen who writes books about crazy creatures that

live in the Maine woods." She smiled softly at the thought and looked over at the newcomer. She had never seen him around here. She kinda thought that Adam looked like a city boy. She'd been to the city before. Didn't really like it, thought it was too noisy for her.

Grace walked in front of the two boys and they followed behind her. Jacob was standing next to Adam and he wondered where the new kid was from. He supposed that it didn't matter, another kid around these parts was just another kid. It meant a whole new person to pal around with and possibly play video games with. Jacob wondered if this new kid liked to play video games. He knew that Grace liked to cuz she always beat him. Jacob chuckled. Grace was such a brat.

Now it was time to turn to much more serious stuff – like how they were going to do this. How should they approach this? Most likely with caution, none of them wanted to die. They wanted to go on this grand adventure but wanted to come out the other side happy and unharmed. What puzzled them more, was wondering where their parents had gone. Adults don't just get up and vanish. Do they?

Only good thing about today was the weather. It was a perfect day for a hike. All of them wanted to do this and that meant they had to get moving. The first one to get moving was Grace, the self appointed leader of the bunch. Many of the people in town thought she was crazy and maybe she was. She liked adventure and the thrill she got from it. No one would ever let her do anything like this. She let herself do this, if she didn't do it now then what kind of stories would she have to share when she was old and gray? Truth be told, she had heard about the legend. That was what made her interested in doing this. She started to walk up the long, beaten path. Tree-branches were pushed to the side and twigs were snapped. It looked something big had been through there. "Probably just a bear, right? It couldn't have been one of those things..." Grace stopped and continued the thought "If this monster did exist – it probably wouldn't come out this far. Would it?" Grace shook her head from side-to-side to clear it. She looked behind her to see the two boys following close behind. They were a few feet away and it looked like the guys were talking to each other. It was good that they were getting along. For a minute she didn't think that Adam and Jacob would actually get along. That was crazy, huh? It didn't matter right now. The sound of a twig snapping made her jump slightly.

She looked down and noticed she had stepped on the twig she'd heard and she chuckled softly to herself. Why was she so jumpy? The sounds of birds chirping filled the area as she continued to hike the path. There wasn't much out of the ordinary, for the most part it seemed like a normal hiking trail. There was the sound of cars driving by on the road just a few minutes off the path. She continued to walk and

every few minutes she would swipe her stick at a buzzing fly or bee. It wasn't smart to piss off a bee. They could fuck you up pretty bad. She's been stung a few times and it wasn't fun. She was allergic to

the bee's venom and she would swell up just like a balloon. That wasn't good. She couldn't get stung, there wasn't a hospital for about 45 minutes. She realized it would be very bad if any of them got

injured.

“Is she always like this?” Adam asked Jacob.

“Yeah.” Jacob said, nodding his head.

“That's great.” Adam said, and he rolled his eyes.

Adam and Jacob seemed to get along for the most part. There was nothing they could see that would make them not get along. They walked behind Grace and every so often either one or the other of them would look up and glance at her back-side. They were crazy for following Grace into this. It was exciting and something neither of them would do normally. Guess they needed someone like Grace to make them do crazy, stupid shit. This was really stupid. Really, really stupid. "Guess you have to live and learn, right? If this didn't happen neither of them would have anything to talk about." Adam thought to

himself.

The air smelled rather sweet in the country and it was cloying today. The sound of birds chirping as well as the flies and bees buzzing filled the area. It was just a normal summer day. The sun had moved

from behind of a bunch of puffy white clouds and then out into the open. It started beating down on the boys and most likely it was beating down on Grace. It was okay for boys to sweat a lot but it wasn't much okay for girls, they didn't like to smell rank. To boys that stuff didn't really matter. Most boys had 'stink off' contests, they liked smelling stinky. It was like a badge of honor for them.

Adam wondered what he was doing "Why am I here? Do I really want to do this?" It seemed like he was having second thoughts. To be honest, he wondered for a second if he'd even had first thoughts. He chuckled to himself softly and then he heard a rustling in the bushes that they were walking past. His eyes scanned the area for a moment. A slight smile lit on his face when he saw it wasn't much, just two deer munching on some leaves and berries. It was almost peaceful and serene. Not something that he would've ever gotten in the city. Instead of enjoying the nature around him, he had other thoughts racing through his head. He wondered why Jacob followed Grace so closely. He shrugged as he realized it didn't matter to him and he continued to walk along the path. He wondered if the tales that he had heard in town were really true. They were probably just stories made up to scare kids.

Jacob was thinking the very same thing Adam was. "Were the stories that were spread around the town really true? If so, what would this monster really be like?" Jacob looked down as he wondered and nearly tripped over a sharp pointy rock sticking out of the ground. He walked around the rock. He'd sworn that he has seen that rock before. "Oh yeah, the swimming hole." he thought to himself.

This wasn't their first trip up here. They have been up here several times before to go swimming. There should be a lake coming up pretty soon. They still had to walk a little ways before they would find it though. That was their swimming hole, he and Grace would escape to it every so often. Mostly when they were in trouble and wanted to get away from their parents.

It has seemed that they'd been here a lot more times lately than ever before. It seemed like their parents had been coming down especially hard on them. He didn't know why. Did they just want to bring them down? Probably. Jacob didn't like all the rules at his house. That’s why he escaped every moment he could. He didn't like it at his house one bit. Truth be told – no one liked it at their houses. That’s why he and Grace always hung out. He could always make her laugh and she always brought him out on some grand adventure.

What she called adventure was usually some kind of stupid idea that she had. It would always get him in trouble, but that did not matter to him. He was with her and most times that was enough to make him really happy. He had no idea why it made him happy. He lifted his head as he heard something in the distance. It almost sounded like a growl or a howl. "A wolf or coyote's call? Nah, that couldn't be it. It was still light out and they all came out at night." He gulped softly. Maybe it was one of those monsters that he had heard about. He shook his head from side-to-side. "No, that was insane! There were no such things as monsters!" He wasn't a little kid anymore. He didn't believe in monsters, spirits or ghosts. He was a man, and he had to act like one. He swiped his stick at a fly that had buzzed by him. He missed, of course. Oh well, there was always another fly to smash with his mighty stick!

He chuckled and laughed to himself. He really was a doofus. He started to smell water. They had to be close to the watering hole. They had to have been walking for about 45 minutes. It usually took that long to walk to the watering hole, if he remembered right. There was a small dock at the watering hole that had been built by somebody a long time ago. It was rotting away and very dangerous to walk on. It made all sorts of creaking noises. Grace almost fell through it one summer when they were younger. Jacob laughed when he thought of the stupid things they did when they were young.

Now that he's thought about it, he wondered "How did the dock come to be at the watering hole? Did someone live out in the woods? There is a lot of vegetation out here, and tons of furry animals. Someone could live off this land. They would just have to be a hunter and know how to farm and gather. Maybe there were some old Indians that lived back here. That would be cool. If there was an Indian back here. Would he try to kill them or befriend them?" He really hoped it would be friendly. His mind was going at a hundred miles a minute.

“You're strange, Jacob.” Adam said. “Shut up, Adam.” Jacob said with a playful smile on his face. They had been walking for a long time now. "Are we anywhere near our destination?" Jake looked around to get his bearings "No, we have a long ways to go still." They were getting a little tired. Jacob thought "Maybe we should stop and rest for a few minutes. No, Grace would not want that and knowing her we won't rest until we reach where we're going." A lot of sounds in the woods. The sounds of croaking frogs, and birds tweeting in the trees warred with the sounds of caws came from the sky. Ravens and crows were circling above them. Maybe something was dead nearby. Most likely a dead moose or deer. It was Maine, after all. There were a lot of deer and moose in Maine. Probably some hunter or poacher's kill. Didn't matter. The ravens and crows were gonna have a feast on something's flesh.

Grace looked up towards the sky and saw the ravens and crows circling something. She knew that meant something was dead. She hoped that she didn't come across whatever had died. She really hated the way rotting flesh smelled. Especially flesh that had been lying around for a while. Birds probably had already pecked at some of the body and maggots were probably crawling all over it. Yuck, she shivered. She hated the way they looked spread out all over a carcass. Just wriggling all over and eating it. They had to eat, right? But it was so disgusting. She shivered again. She couldn't think about that. The

monster, that’s what she wanted to think about. What did it look like? Was it really a monster? So many things to think about while she walked. She kicked a few pebbles that were on the ground and they danced across the dirt and bounced off a large rock disappearing into the grass. What was this thing going to look like? It would probably look pretty hideous and horrendous. She couldn't wait! She wondered how the boys were doing. She turned back to look at both of them. They weren't talking anymore, just walking. That was okay. This was fun in the beginning, but it was getting boring. She wiped the sweat off her brow. It was getting really hot out.

They were almost near their destination. There were a bunch of hills in front of them and they would have to climb over them to get to the watering hole. This would be the first time Adam had been

there. They were all looking pretty sweaty and they were probably all exhausted from walking so much. They were at a clearing in the woods and there were a few stumps where trees had once stood. They could rest there for a moment. Grace, Jacob, and Adam walked over to a huge stump and plopped down on it and they all sighed with great relief. Their feet were starting to hurt. That wasn't any good, sore feet was a bad thing this far out and would make walking rather difficult.

There was a shift in the air. It wasn't a feeling that none of them had ever felt before. It was a strange sensation. Each of them felt a wave of sadness and despair come over them. What was with this place? Grace and Jacob had never felt this before. Maybe there was something causing this feeling in all of them. It was an odd and not a very nice feeling. It felt like a spirit was trying to tell them something. Maybe somebody, or something, had died nearby. Stuff like that did happen. Maybe they had encountered a wandering spirit that was trying to talk through people that were still alive.

That is, if you believed such things like that. Grace felt warm and wanted to strip off her shirt. She couldn't because she was around boys so instead she rolled the sleeves up as far as they would go. She might have been wearing a short sleeved shirt but she was roasting. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand and looked over towards Jacob who was sitting close to her. Grace smiled sweetly at Jacob. He was so nice to her, he always did stuff that she liked to do. It was so cute. She did put him into danger a lot though, but she knew he liked it.

“How's everyone holding up?” Grace asked as she looked at Jacob and Adam. “Fine.” The boys had answered together. “Place is weird though.” Adam said, he noticed the feeling that came over all of them before. “I don't like the way it feels.” he added as he looked over at the two of them. “I agree.” Jacob said. “No turning back now though.” Grace said. “I know.” Adam and Jacob said in unison.

There was a great sense of adventure about this whole thing. It was something that most people wouldn't do. Normal people would not be there sitting on a stump and discussing stuff like this. Grey clouds begin to roll in over the sky and began to get darker as they neared. What was going to happen? Was it going to rain or was something else going to happen? There wasn't always an explanation for

stuff that occurred in these woods. The sound of woodland creatures was still prominent. They all kinda wondered what the dark feeling was that they had felt moments before. Could it just be their minds or was it something more sinister?

They rested for about a half an hour, talking and joking. Then all three of them were on their feet again, sticks in their hands, ready for action. They ventured over many hills to finally reach the watering hole. Their swimming spot was at a clearing that had not seen much action lately. The razor grass was very long and sharp. Any person who was wearing shorts was going to get cut for sure. They pushed through the grass and approached the lake. There was a bridge going to the other side of the lake and to the right of it there was the old rotted out dock. It was in worse condition then it had been the last time Grace and Jacob were here. They all ran down towards the lake. They went down a steep hill to get to the shoreline of the lake. They were happy for a moment that they had made it here. They all kind of

wondered what was beyond the lake. Grace and Jacob had never gone to the other side of the lake before. They just came here to play on the shoreline. Adam and Jacob stood behind of Grace.

“So here we are, huh?” Adam asked. “Yeah.” Grace said as she nodded her head slightly.

“Now what?” Jacob asked. “I don't know.” Grace shrugged her shoulders softly. “We could explore more.” she added, a sly smirk coming over her face. “You always could go exploring...” Jacob said, he rolled his eyes and pushed his hands his pockets. Grace knelt down, her knees dug into the sand and she turned to look at Jacob and she watched him sit down next to her. A small smile crept over her face. For some reason she was happy with him. Kind of a strange feeling. She laid back on the sand her hands propping her up as she looked up towards the sky. There wasn't anything they couldn't do. She really did wonder what was beyond those hills. That was going to bother her until they all got up and explored over there. Couldn't be much, probably just another section of the woods. Nope, probably wasn't much there at all.

Jacob knew what Grace was thinking. She wanted to go on another grand adventure. Weren't they here to find out if there was really some monster in these woods? That is why she dragged them out here after all. Maybe Grace had totally forgotten about that, it didn't matter. They were here together and after a few minutes of watching the wave’s crash on the shoreline. Jacob got up and helped Grace up from the ground and in a moment they were on their way with Adam trailing behind. They could be out as long as they wanted. They had no adults to bring them down or tell them they were doing something stupid. This was going to be a day to remember. A grand day.

They all walked back up the hill and over to the bridge that spanned over to the other side of the water. The bridge was made of rope and wooden planks. It looked like it was man made. All three of them walked slowly across. It would sway from side-to-side as the wind blew. It was scary. It was a huge drop if any of them fell off. If they fell it would hurt, and they'd still have to swim to shore. After a few minutes of walking. They made it across. This side of the woods seemed darker. A lot darker. "More shade is that why it looks darker? Odd, maybe." Grace thought to herself.

They had to press on, either way. There was a dark feeling coming from this side of the woods. Like there was something beyond these trees that should never be seen. Didn't matter, they had to press on.

Grace lead them on no matter how bad this felt. It was worth it, she just knew it would be. Grace walked on the path that was in front of them. There were spots of red on the ground. What could it be? Something that spilled on the ground, maybe juice, or paint? She shrugged her shoulders and continued to walk on the trail. Of course the boys followed close behind her. She knew that neither of them were gonna let her out of their sights. Kinda sweet if you thought about it. She pushed some branches out of her face, they snapped back and almost hit her on the rebound. The boys had to push through the

branches as well. It was dark, you could barely see any light. The sun wasn't out any more and it was really shaded. A few critters were making some noises. The three of them jumped. There was talk about a hunting camp being up this way somewhere. Maybe that’s where this path led. A few minutes later they found a clearing with a little bit of light shining down on them. "The sun is out again." Grace thought. Maybe they would have a little light to show them where they were going. Then the trail shifted into three different paths. One right, one left, and one going straight. "There are three of us and maybe we should split up? No, that would be rather stupid. That is how people died, we should all stay together." She decided.

They ventured deeper into the woods and that’s when they came to what looked like a hunting camp. There were tents set up everywhere and there were weapons lying on the ground. Rifles, assorted fire arms, knives, and ammunition. It was strange and they knew it was strange. “Who would leave this stuff lying around?” Grace thought. That dark feeling had returned, and all three of them knew they were

in for something. They knew they didn't want to be near this place even though this is what they ventured out here for. They wanted a story they could tell people if they got out of here alive, and it looked like they were going to get it.

All three of them looked ahead. They wondered what they would find if they ventured on deeper. They would probably come face-to-face with a monster. "That is what we were looking for right?" Adam worried. They all looked somewhat scared and in disbelief that they had came this far in their travels and they felt a need to press on. Coming this far and turning back wasn't an option. Especially for someone like Grace. Jacob knew if they turned back now they wouldn't hear the end of it from Grace.

“Got a bad feelin' Gracie.” Jacob said. “Me too.” Adam said. “Can't turn back now, boys!” Grace forced a brave smile. They continued to press on through the hunting camp. There were puddles of red liquid all over. It was staining the ground that was a mix of brown dirt and burnt grass. It looked like there had been something serious happening here in the last few days. What could the puddles of red liquid be? Blood? Adam and Jacob passed a few of the puddles of liquid and looked down at it. They both stuck their fingers into the puddles of the liquid. They sniffed it. Yup, it was blood and it was fresh. Could it be puddles of deer or bear blood? If so they had nothing to worry about, right?

They continued to have this foreboding feeling. There was something sinister in the woods, they knew it. They heard a roar off in the distance. Something that sounded like it was about forty feet tall screeching in the distance, something evil. Yes, that had to be it. This had to be the thing they had been searching for all this time. From a distance it looked it could be a giant bear or something. They couldn't really see it all that clearly but it looked like it was coming towards them. Swinging its arms madly and cutting down the trees that stood in its way.

As it got closer, it looked like a giant bear but it had long, razor sharp claws like a badger. The most terrifying thing about the beast was its dark red eyes and razor sharp teeth. It was rampaging and it had started to snarl. It did not like to be bothered by anyone, especially by human kind.

All three of them looked at the monster that was tearing through the woods in shock. It was coming towards them. They didn't want to die! They needed to get the hell out of here and quick! As one they started to run back through the woods the way they came. They wanted to see the monster, however, they didn’t want to get eaten or slain by the monster. They ran through the hunting camp and the surrounding woods. They were all terrified. What kind of an adventure was this for them? They weren't going to die, they couldn't. This thing would certainly try to tear them apart!

They knew the monster was on their heels. They could almost feel it breathing down their necks. Jacob looked back to see that the creature was indeed running after them. This was a bad idea. How could Grace talk them into such a thing? Maybe one of them should have grabbed a weapon when they ran through the camp. Too late now. They were running for their lives.

This was going to be a great story to tell. They would tell it to the people back in town. Derby, Maine

had truth to its legend. Who knew? Now they just needed to get back to the town alive in order to tell everyone. They pushed their way through tree branches, bushes, and shrubs. They could hear the

rumbling of cars out on the road somewhere. It sounded so distant though, too distant to the terrified kids.

They wished they hadn't listened to Gracie about going into the woods. No use in thinking about that now. The Monster moved its arm in a slashing movement and a big burst of wind picked up a tree and knocked it over making a large crashing sound. It landed almost directly behind of the three kids. It made a small shock-wave in the ground and they all ran faster. They had to get out of this forest if

they wanted to stay alive.

They came to the man made suspension bridge that they had to cross to get over the lake and back near the road. They all ran across it as fast as they could with the beast right behind them. As they all got across safely. The Monster swiped its paw and cut the bridge causing it to fall down into the lake below. They watched it drop hopeful that maybe the water would keep the monster from getting to them.

They ran down the trail they knew would bring them back to the main road. They all continued to run until they couldn't run anymore. They found a secluded spot and after listening a moment and hearing

nothing, they sat to rest. Was this a smart move? Not really. Their lungs burned and their chests heaved trying to get air. The monster could still be running after them. It didn't matter, they could not run anymore. They needed to catch their breath. They knew if the monster caught up with them they would need to start running again. What a hellacious day it had been for them. What a story they had indeed. After a few moments of rest and not hearing the monster crashing through the brush, they pushed on. Knowing that they needed to get out of the woods before the monster could possibly catch up with them again. They ran quickly down the trail and after about a half an hour of running they made it to the opening. They all grabbed their bikes from the bushes, got on them, and rode them all the way down the road about a mile or so to Adam's Grandmother's house.

“We can rest in there.” Adam said and he ditched the bike in the grass on the left side of the driveway.

“Okay.” Jacob said. “I'm hungry.” Grace said, her belly growling loudly.

All three of them walked over to the house and up the porch steps. Adam was the first one in and he held the door open for Jacob and Grace. Adam's Grandmother and mother still weren't home and Adam was starting to worry about where they could be. His new friends went into the living room and sat down on the sofa. Adam went into the kitchen to make them all some ramen noodles. It wasn't too hard, it was the microwaveable kind. After a few minutes the food was done and he walked into the living-room with three bowls of noodles. He sat down next to Jacob and Grace and they took their meal gladly. They all looked at each other and contemplated what they had been through. They hoped they never had to go through anything like today again.

“Let's never talk about this to anyone.” Adam said.

“Agreed.” Jacob said.

“Yeah, but I don't think that thing is gone.” Grace said, she looked at both of them and sighed “Fine, tomorrow we will all just return to our normal lives like this never happened."

“Yup. I'm going back to Bangor tomorrow anyways.” Adam added.

With that all three of them ate their ramen noodles and did just what they promised. Adam’s mother and Grandmother returned from a day together in town with his sisters. The day after their adventure they returned to their normal lives but there were still thoughts in the back of their minds. What if this thing hadn't drowned in the lake? They kind of figured it had, but they never wanted to revisit it. Something like that doesn't just die. It would haunt them for the rest of their lives. But they all bonded during this experience and theirs was a bond that would last forever.

The End.