Short Story Collection

Story number 1: Nightmare

"Alright Mr. Watson just start from the beginning" said the man staring at me with his suspicious-looking glare through his thin rimmed glasses

Reclining back in the chair, I thought back to that terrible moment and said, "Uh... a-alright. It was April, I think. I decided to have a sleepover at my friend, Johnny's, place. Once I got there we watched movies 'till about 1:30 am, then, we got into conspiracy theories. A big theory in our town was this weird tree thing that steals bad children and rips them apart, I always thought it was real, but Johnny, my old friend, thought otherwise.

"It's just a thing parents tell us to scare us into being good, like Santa!'

"For one Santa isn't scary, and second off the tree thing is real!" I protested

"Oh, a home invader isn't scary, and if you think it is so real why don't you try and find it!"

"Maybe I will!"

"Fine!" he screamed

"FINE! So I grabbed a flashlight, a small bag of snacks in case I got hungry, a camera, and went towards the door, but right before I stepped out I heard Johnny mumble something under his breath."

"What was that you little tart?" I said

"I said I wish that monster will rip you apart"

"I ignored him, too, because I felt as if I didn't need that kind of negativity in my life. So I left and went into the woods. I was there for about 45 minutes among the pitch-black forest full of tall dark trees when I started having doubts about the tree monster, I said to myself, Ugh why would I think that such a stupid thing could ever possibly be real, god! I'm stupid! Then, out of the shadows this 14 ft nimble tree-thing just casually started crawling towards me exorcist-style, so, the smart thing to do was run. Right? Well instead of running I just sat there, being stupid. Luckily my common sense (or what little I have) hit me before it could reach me, but there was no time to turn around and run so I let myself fall to the ground, hoping that would save my life, it crawled over me but it didn't touch me because of how long its limbs were. Then and there I decided to get a picture of it, I heard the camera take the shot, but I wasn't able to look at it then. After it crawled over me instead of grabbing me and killing me it realized its mistake and turned right back around, but tripped in the process of doing so. That gave me just enough time to get up and run. As I got up and started running I heard an unholy shriek like no other, that only motivated me to run faster, I was a good 20 ft from it when I heard it start running. Its footsteps were loud and somehow angry, fear washed over me and I ran as fast as I could. I was at my limits but the thing wasn't, it somehow kept on getting faster, I could feel the gap between us getting smaller and smaller. All it had to do was get close enough to grab me, and considering how long it's arms are the only thing it had it do was get about 5 ft apart from me. I knew it was getting close to me because it took a couple of swipes at me. One hit me and scratched me on the back leaving three long, deep, bloody marks, I screamed in agony, but my will to live exceeded my pain and fear, so, I kept running. I was sure I was gonna die there until I saw a bright light, at the time I thought it was a street light, so, I ran towards it. I thought that if I got close enough to someone, to society, that they would help me. I was getting close to freedom, but, at the same time the monster was getting close to me. As I ran I could see the street light getting bigger, brighter. The ball of white was almost blinding...something was wrong...street lights aren't supposed to be that close to the ground, or that bright. I soon ran into the white light in attempt to get away from the thing, I passed out, and woke up in a hospital bed surrounded by my Mom, Johnny, and his Mom. Once my eyes were fully opened I heard my Mom say something like"

"Billy! Oh thank god you're alive!"

"Sorry that I chased you out like that, dude"

"Wha-what happened?" I asked

"Well, awhile after our fight I heard a really loud scream. My Mom and I went to check it out and we found you in the woods all bloody and scratched up with some of your bones broken and most of your joints dislocated!"

"Johnny!"

"What? It's true!"

As Johnny's mom started scolding him for supposedly giving me too much information my mom started yelling at me for my stupid decisions that day"

"What were you thinking?! Going into the woods alone like that?! And who in the right mind would terrorize a little boy like that?!"

"Th-the tree monster..."

"Oh god he's delusional" my mother groaned

"What? No i'm not! Its real!"

"We already talked about this Billy! There is no tree monster!" Johnny exclaimed

"Yes there is! I even got a picture of it! Let me show you!"

"I showed them all the picture of the monster I took, or what little I got of it. The picture looked like a small tree and a chunk of wood above it with a firefly on it, however I knew that was the monster's arm and part of its face, but, it was hard to tell.

"Billy..."

"No! NO! That's what the monster looks like! I'm telling you! Just please hear me out!"

I could hear my heart monitor start beeping faster as I got angered at my mom for not believing me. That's when this tall lady walked in... I'm guessing it was the nurse, she said"

"I'm sorry but visitation time is over, your gonna have to see him tomorrow"

"What? No! He just got up! please ma'am just a few more minutes...please." My mother begged

"I'm sorry, but rules are rules. You can see him tomorrow."

My mother looked at me grimly and said:

"Well, i guess i'll see you tomorrow...goodbye, Bill"

"After everyone had said their goodbyes to me and left the nurse looked at me like I had survived death, though,In a way, I did survive death"

"Kid..." she said darkly

"yes ma'am?"

"Don't you ever, and I mean EVER, go pokin around those parts of the woods again!"

"Why?" I asked

"WHY?! Because that thing almost killed you! That's why-you were lucky to get out of there alive!"

"I didn't say anything I just nodded my head solemnly"

"Good...I hope that's the end of that. Word of advice... don't go meddling with things you know nothing about."

"After that I got almost daily visits from Johnny and my family, Johnny was the only one to ask about the photo. It was a couple of months before I completely healed up. I still have a slight limp but i'm hoping that will heal soon. Even though I never went into the woods again after that I still lie awake at night wondering about the monster-thing...Does it still want to kill me? Does it remember me?"

"Excuse me, Mr Watson, your therapy session is over"

"Oh, alright, thanks again Dr Adams."

"Will I be seeing you next week?"

"Yeah, sure"

"Good, just remember to take your medication and remember there is no such thing as the tree monster, alright?"

"Yeah...alright"