Death's Touch

When We Were Young

    It all started when I was just 9 year old. I was in the middle of a forest close to a park. The wind would blow through my hair, and through the trees. The shadows casted on the ground. All covered in darkness with spots of light, shifting as the wind blows through the leaves. Each leaf slowly drifted to the ground. The sound of various creatures in the forest. This was my safe place.

Now you might ask what is a little kid doing in the middle of a forest without any adult supervision. I'll tell you, beetles, I loved beetles so much that I had a pet named Kento, my hercules beetle. He was always with me in the forest. Another reason why I don't go to the park is because the other kids never liked me.

To be honest I don't know why the other kids don't like me, I've heard they said that it was because I am crazy and see things, but never understood what they meant by that. They called me names like Osamu Taiji, the crazy jungle boy or beast boy Taiji. Well they got something right, I'm not crazy, but I don't mind being a jungle boy or a beast boy.

While I was out catching bugs with Kento I heard a dog barking aggressively and chasing someone. I stopped looking for bugs and rushed towards the noise to check out what was going on. A savage wild dog charging, ready to bite a girl, who was curled up next to a tree. She had a dirty yellow dress on, leaves in her hair. I felt scared at the time, but instinctively rushed in and whipped out my insect net, standing between the dog and the girl. The dog stops and growls at me.

"Run!" I shouted to the girl, not looking away from the beast.

"Wh-who are you?" Asked the girl.

"I said run!" I shouted again, watching for the dog's next move.

She gets up and starts to run. The dog tries to go after her, but I smacked it with my net. It turns towards me and bites my net and rips it up, before running after the girl. The girl turns and stops as she notices the dog was after her and screams. I ran after the dog as fast as I could, but the dog was going to get to her before me. Just then I felt like time slowed down and the despair that I couldn't make it in time, but then I felt a spark inside me, a fire of wanting to save her. I jumped forward, punching the dogs behind. My eyes were closed and I didn't feel anything touching my hand, but the next thing I knew when I opened my eyes, the dog was gone. The dog was gone and I was standing on top of some ashes. I turned and looked at the girl, she was shaking with fear and with her hands over her face.

"Hey, it's okay now, the dog is gone" I said to her, walking toward her with my hand extended out, "What's your name?"

"Is it really gone?" She said moving one hand away from her face at a time.

"Yeah," I replied as she grabbed my hand.

"Thanks," she said, I helped her get up.

"My name is Ilya, Ilya Tsushina," she finally said.

After I saved her, she wouldn't leave me alone. Kept saying how she was bullied and ran into my forest. She got lost and was chased by the dog. I just let her talk while I zoned out.

After listening to her talk for awhile, I showed her the way out of the forest and to the park. Her parents rushed over to get her as soon as they saw her. They gave me a look as they walked away. Not even grownups like me, what could possibly be wrong with me? Is my skin too pale? Or my hair is too messy? Am I not clean enough? Whatever, I am happy the way I am and I wasn't going to let their opinions change anything about it.

It was fun having someone around once in a while, but most kids that come into the forest are bad kids. They just want to kill some bugs or plants. I can't have any of that going on in my forest. I loved every living thing, but humans. Humans are gross, they discuss me and make me sick to the stomach just being around them, but for some reason some very odd reason I was happy I met that girl.

I walked back into the forest without a care in the world. I stayed in the forest until I had to go home, but I had the feeling of wanting to see her again. Coincidentally enough, she would keep coming back.