Doses of Horror

The Recess Offering

The loud sound of the bell rang throughout the halls and classrooms of the elementary school. Miles' drawing was interrupted by the ringing. He threw down the orange crayon he was holding in his left hand and quickly stood up. His friend Luke, who sat next to him, was already headed to the door to go to the playground.

"Luke! Wait for me!" Miles started to run toward his friend.

"Miles, no running inside please!" His teacher reminded him of the classroom rules.

Miles slowed to a walk, "Sorry, Mrs. Harris!"

Grabbing his jacket from the cubby, he made his way outside. He eventually found Luke and they started collecting rocks to make a little castle. Halfway through, three 1st graders marched up to them.

"What are you 'babies' doing?" The kid standing in the middle crossed his arms as he teased the boys.

"Making a castle," Luke made no eye contact with the boy and continued stacking his rocks.

"Well, it looks stupid!" The kid walked closer and kicked down their unfinished castle.

The boy standing to the right of the bully laughed, "Kindergarteners are so dumb!"

They giggled and laughed as they ran away to search for their next victims. Miles plopped down onto the ground, with a crunch from the colorful leaves, upset. Luke looked at him sympathetically and offered him a cool rock he had found while building the castle. Miles took it gracefully and examined it before putting it into his coat pocket to save it.

After 20 minutes, the bell rang again. Miles and Luke slid down the pole attached to the playground and Luke started running back to class. Miles was about to follow when he took a moment to look over his shoulder at a lone tree in the corner of the fenced in area. He looked back at his friend who was running away and made his way to the tree.

Miles reached the tree and sat on his knees at an opening in the roots that looked down into a dark tunnel. He grabbed the rock from his pocket and held it in his palm out towards the opening. A hand with long fingers made of wood and roots, slowly made its way to Miles' open hand. It gently grabbed the rock with its index finger and thumb and pulled back into the opening, slowly disappearing into the darkness.

Later, when he was home from school. He sat down at the dinner table with his parents eating Mac & Cheese with chicken nuggets and green beans on the side. As he was eating, his parents were talking to each other about their day and eventually reached the topic of the news.

"I still can't believe so many kids have gone missing this year. It's already November and the police still don't know anything," His mom shook her head as she took a sip of water.

Miles' dad nodded his head in agreement, "I know, it's ridiculous. We need to start picking up Miles ourselves instead of waiting for him at the bus stop. I still don't trust that damn bus driver!"

"Language," She pointed to Miles with the fork still in her hand. "But, you're right. I'll ask my manager about getting off earlier."

"Miles, eat your green beans please," His dad picked up a green bean with his fork and put it towards Miles' mouth.

~~~

The next day at school, Miles was drawing another picture and his teacher walked by to see what he was working on.

"What're you drawing, Miles?" Mrs. Harris knelt down next to his seat and pointed at the paper in front of him.

"My friend," Miles said still scribbling away.

"Is it Luke?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"No! My other friend. He lives in the tree," Miles switched crayons and continued coloring.

Mrs. Harris felt her heart rate increase but was determined to figure out what this thing that Miles was seeing is, "What's his name?"

"Atohi."

"That's a cool name! Where does he live?" Mrs. Harris replied enthused, trying to play off her nerves and concern.

Miles stopped to think about his answer, "The hole in the tree at the playground!"

His response shocked Mrs. Harris and she stood up. She finished making her rounds around the classroom before the bell for recess rang. All of the kids made their way out of the room to go outside and play. Once there was no kids left in the room, Mrs. Harris walked over to her computer and typed 'Atohi' in the search bar. Nothing about any creature showed up, so she clicked on images and nothing but trees crowded the screen. The results eased her nerves and she went on with the rest of her day.

Recess was over and Miles walked over to the tree and held out his drawing of his bully over the opening. The wooden creature reached its hand out once more and took the paper from his hand. After a few moments, a low rumble came from deep within the opening. Miles took a step back when he saw the hand come back out and plant itself on the ground outside of the opening. Its other hand came out and planted itself on the ground as well. The ground near the tree began to shake as sounds of creaking branches came from the opening. Slowly, more and more of the creature started to appear from the dark opening. Eventually, the creature made its way out and stood 30ft tall. Miles' head was bent all way way back to look up at the creature, and stared blankly.

The creature was extremely tall and made of branches and roots. Occasional leaves were sprouted throughout its body, giving it spots of color. Green moss also covered parts of it, making it look ancient and unusual. It had no face, just a group of three holes in the wood that made it look like it had deformed features. But, it's 'face' never moved. The creature bent down to look at Miles face to face and blew a soft, cold breeze into his face from the hole that looked like a mouth

Miles said solemnly, "I don't want to be bullied anymore, Atohi."

The creature looked at Miles for a moment longer before standing back up and taking long strides toward the school. With every step, the ground shook and clumps of dirt and grass went flying every time it lifted its foot. Miles watched Atohi from a distance. Atohi reached down and broke through the ceiling of the school and pulled its hand out holding the bully. Screams from the school filled the air all around them.

It held the kid in its hand and brought him up to it's 'face.' The creature squeezed the kid once and blood started to spill down its hand. The kid continued screaming, he survived the force of Atohi for a little longer before being thrown down into The creature's 'mouth.'

Atohi released air from its 'face' and the force of the air sounded similar to a roar. It made its way back to where Miles was standing and looked down at him for a moment before retreating back into the opening. When The creature stepped over Miles, blood from its hand dripped down onto him covering him in the red liquid.

Mrs. Harris came outside running toward Miles to make sure he was okay. When she reached him, she dropped onto the ground in front of him and rested her hands on his arms.

"Oh my god! Miles, are you okay?" She begged him to answer. "Miles, please answer me!"

Miles said nothing and stared at Mrs. Harris' face. Her eyes began to water as her concern grew. But, Miles still said nothing. Instead, his lips curled up into a smile.