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- Herausgeber: BookRix
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
Two young school boys in a small town in Oregon discovered a mysterious cave while exploring a haunted forest near their school. They learned that the cave contained ancient secrets, and something they never could have imagined.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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The thick fog rolled across the deserted streets of a small town in the far north of the Oregon coast. Hann's Cove had seen better days. When the mill shut down, a lot of people moved away, and no one came to take their place. The boarded up homes were a reminder of how bad things were now. Those that remained struggled to make a living logging or fishing. It was a hard life but for some there was no place they would rather be.
The playground at the only school in town was full of the laughter of young kids. They played on the slides and swings while the older kids invented other games to amuse themselves. One such group was standing at the far end of the playground, telling scary stories about the haunted forest that bordered the school grounds. The thick forest was always dark, and anyone who went in it never returned.
"Strange monsters live there!" Lacie said. "I've seen them. One time my dog ran into the forest and I had to go get her. I stood just inside the forest and called to her. I heard the monsters. My dog came running out, scared half to death. I tell you, there are monsters in there!"
Almost on cue, they heard a howl deep in the forest. "It's haunted!" Danny said.
"It's just a wolf!" Matt said.
"Oh yeah? I say it's a monster!" Danny said.
"There aren't any monsters in there!" Matt said, "They’re just stories."
"So you aren't afraid to go in there?" Sally asked.
The other kids looked at Matt, waiting for a reply.
"Of course not," he bravely said.
He was glad, however, when their teacher called them back to the classroom before the discussion went any further.
The next day, during recess, the kids were playing with Lacie's dog, Joejoe, which she had brought to school. Danny was trying to get the dog to fetch a stick, but the dog wasn't interested.
"He doesn't do that, you know," Lacie said, "He hates that game."
"Oh," Danny said and dropped the stick.
A loud howl from the forest got all their attention. Lacie's dog growled, then took off, running for the forest.
"JoeJoe! Stop! Come back! Don't go in there!" Lacie yelled.
JoeJoe ignored her and soon disappeared into the forest. Lacie ran after him but stopped at the entrance to the forest. She called to him but he didn't come back.
"Maybe he'll be back by the time school's out," Danny said.
The teacher called them back to class, and Lacie sat by the window so she would see him if he came back.
School ended and her dog had not come back.
She went home and told her parents what had happened. They went into the forest and looked all over for JoeJoe but couldn't find him. When it started to get dark they abandoned their search and took Lacie home.
"He'll come back on his own,” they told her.
She hoped they were right.
The next day at recess Lacie walked over to Matt. "If you're not afraid to go in the forest, go and find my dog!"
Matt had hoped that they had forgotten about his boast of bravery but really wanted to impress Lacie.
"Tom and I will go look for him," he said.
That got a strange look from Tom, who was standing next to him.
Lacie looked at them suspiciously.
"I don't believe you," she said, "I want to watch you go in, so I know you aren't lying to me."
"Fine," Matt said, "Meet us here after school."
"OK," she said, and walked off.
"Why do I have to go with you?" Tom said, "You can go if you want, but I don't want to go in there!"
"We'll just go in a little way and wait for a while then come back out. Come on, Tom, it's Lacie! I couldn't say no! Don't make me do this by myself."
"OK, but we only stay in there for a few minutes," Tom said.
For Matt and Tom, the end of the school day came far too quickly. They walked out to the entrance of the forest and waited for Lacie.
Dark clouds filled the sky, making the forest seem pitch black. Tom wished he had never agreed to this.
"This is stupid, you know," he said to Matt, "There are other ways to impress her. What if there really are monsters in there?"
"We won't go in far enough to find them," Matt said, "Just far enough to be out of sight. She won't stay there all night. As soon as she leaves, we'll leave."
Tom turned and saw Lacie and her friends walking towards them.
"Here she comes," he said, "and she's not alone."
Matt looked and saw the crowd of kids that were with her.
"Great, she brought the whole school with her! It doesn't matter. We stick with the plan."
"So you are really going to do this?" Lacie asked.
"I was afraid you were going to chicken out."
"We're here and we're going in," Matt said.
He pulled out his flashlight and turned to Tom. "Let's go," he said.
The crowd watched as the two boys walked away. They made their way through the bushes that bordered the forest and disappeared into the trees.
The boys stopped as soon as they were out of sight, and listened. The forest was dark and quiet. Matt turned to Tom and pointed to a big pine tree. Tom nodded and they walked to the tree and crawled under the branches.
They sat down with their backs against the tree.
"We have to make this look good,” Matt whispered, "Yell out for JoeJoe, and try to make your voice sound far off."
They took turns yelling out JoeJoe's name.
"Now we wait," Matt whispered, and pulled out a candy bar from his pack. He broke it in two and gave Tom the other half.
"Thanks,” Tom whispered.
They drank some water after finishing the candy bar.
"This isn't so bad," Matt said. "In a few minutes we'll sneak back and see if they have left."
"I'll bet Lacie's the last to go," Tom said, "I think she knew you were lying."
"I only half lied," Matt said. "We did go into the forest. We just didn't look for her dog. Besides, none of them dared come in here. That has to count for something."
"I don't know, Matt. Lacie really wants her dog back, and if you don't find it for her she's gonna be mad."
"It's a big forest. It could be anywhere. She can't blame me for not finding it. As long as I tried," Matt said.
"But you didn't really try," Tom said.
"She doesn't know that! I'm not going to go wandering through the forest looking for her stupid dog!"
"Me either, but I didn't promise her that I would," Tom said.
Matt sighed. "Let's go look and see if they're gone," he said.
They crawled out from under the tree. They stood up and brushed themselves off.
They froze as they heard a rustling sound coming from deeper in the forest. They didn't dare move. The sound came again. They didn't dare run or whatever it was would see them.
Matt crept around the tree until he could look in the direction of the sound.
He could see a soft light glowing. It didn't illuminate much, but he could see the shadow of something big moving through the trees. He turned to go, and bumped into Tom, who had followed him around the tree. He grabbed his mouth to keep from screaming. He pointed toward the light.
Tom's eyes nearly popped. They watched as the big shadow moved deeper into the forest. It was dragging something behind it!
Suddenly the light disappeared and the rustling noise stopped. They listened and waited.
"Let's get out of here!" Tom whispered.
Matt nodded and they quietly walked back towards the forest entrance. They ducked behind the bushes and crawled until they could see the school yard.
Thankfully nobody was there. They quickly left the forest.
"What was that thing?" Tom asked, when they were past the school yard.
"I don't know but it looked huge," Matt said, "Maybe it had killed somebody and was dragging it back to its den."
Matt laughed. "Monsters don't carry lights with them, Tom. I don't know what it was but it was smart enough to use a light."
"See you tomorrow," Tom said when they reached his street. He wanted to run the rest of the way home but managed to walk until he was out of Matt's sight.
Matt was intrigued by what they had seen. He returned home but couldn't get it out of his mind. He hardly slept that night.
By morning he had decided that he had to go into the forest and investigate.
He talked to Tom about it while they walked to school.
"We have to find out what that was, Tom."
Tom had also thought about it all night but was still not convinced it wasn't a monster.
"I don't know, Matt. You say it's not a monster but what if it's dangerous? I don't want to get near it."
"We'll go in the middle of the day on Saturday. The forest isn't as dark then. We'll be careful. We don't have to go that deep into the forest to see where it was," Matt said.
Tom reluctantly agreed.
