48. It s Back

It was a deer. That, in and of itself, wouldn’t have been odd, but the deer was staring right at Betsy, almost as if it knew her. Its eyes were intelligent, more intelligent than any deer Betsy had ever seen. She watched in awe as it moved, not in the usual cautious way of wildlife, but with an almost deliberate, confident saunter.

“What the…” Betsy said in a hushed tone, her voice trailing off in disbelief. The encounter felt surreal, like something out of a dream. The deer took one final look at her, its gaze unwavering, before turning on its heel and walking back into the forest.

49. Be Careful

It was that incident that was on Betsy’s mind when, a few days later, Allen asked her if he could explore the woods with his friends. Allen had always been a well-behaved kid, prone to attitude here and there, but, for the most part, responsible.

Some maternal instinct flickered in Betsy as she looked at her son. Logic, or what she thought was logic, won out. “Okay,” she said, “But don’t go too far. And be careful.” And she hoped he would follow her advice.

50. One Night

It didn’t take long before Betsy regretted her decision. Allen and his friends, Tim and Rob, went into the woods almost every day after that. At first, all was well. But, then, Allen began to become withdrawn.

Tim and Rob quit hanging out with him, and he spent hours in the woods alone every day. Betsy chalked it up to being a teenager at first, but then… One night changed that.

51. Allen

She can’t know, Allen thought. I can’t tell her. When he and his friends had first gone into the woods, everything was fun. They’d found cool rocks, built a tree fort, and read comic books out there. Until one day, Allen went in alone, and he saw something he didn’t even think was possible.

A dog with the head of a rabbit. And, not only that, but it had spoken to him. It told him things, showed him things, made him realize what was hiding behind the thin fabric of reality. And it blew his bubble of what he thought reality was.

52. What It’s Up To

Allen thought no one would believe him, and he couldn’t stay away. Allen had already seen what it got up to in the woods over the centuries with its bizarre companions—a colossal, monstrous bird so immense it blocked out the sun, a deer with reptilian eyes, and more.

Some of what it did in the woods was playful, involving tricks on unsuspecting people and running amok, eliciting laughter. As the creature beckoned, Allen’s curiosity and fear drew him deeper into a world of inexplicable phenomena and malevolent forces, with no turning back from the dark secrets concealed within the woods.

53. Help

He’d told Tim and Rob to get lost weeks ago, and it was just him and the creature now. It wouldn’t tell him its name, so Allen settled on “it.” It needed a favor one crisp morning in October.

It had showed him an old squash carving, like something from Halloween in the 1800s. The two had taken turns wearing the squash as a mask and chasing each other around. But, then, his pal got serious. The rabbit-dog had a friend, and the friend needed help.