Down in the Forest

Chapter 1

Liam was never the most outgoing person. 16 years old, tall, slim, with short blond hair, and blue eyes like his mother's. He was an only child who lived alone with his mother in a small house that was nearly two miles away from any other homes. He hardly ever left the house considering there wasn't much to do in his small town in Maryland. At school, he hardly ever spoke up in class, he mainly kept to himself, and just did what he had to do to survive high school.

One cloudy Friday morning, Liam was making his way to school on his bus full of loud and ignorant juniors and seniors. The whole bus erupted with sound as it began to thunder and lightning outside as it pulled up to the school right as the first bell rang. Whilst making his way to his first class, Liam noticed that it had suddenly become gloomy and dark outside. The thunder began getting louder and the lightning had become more sporadic.

 Walking into his art class, he spotted his best friend, Jason, sitting at a table alone at the back of the class. He was wearing a grey sweatshirt and black jeans. His dark brown, almost black hair was a mess and his blue eyes were peering over the top of his black glasses focusing on one of his drawings he had been working on for an art project. Since Liam wasn't very outgoing and was shy, he never had many friends. Jason was nearly the opposite. He was always talking to a new person and was constantly making new friends and always looking for things to do. He was an extrovert, Liam was an introvert, but they both had their talents. Liam was a writer, who was regularly finding things to write about nearly every day.

Jason and Liam had been best friends for over 10 years now. They were constantly around each other, especially with them having nearly all their classes together. The two had been outsiders and felt as though they were better off with it being just them.

"Liam! I was wondering when you would show up," said Jason with a small smile. "Yeah I'm sorry, I got a little distracted by the lightning outside," Liam replied before looking down at his shoes. "Wanna see this new drawing I've been working on?" Jason asked, "I've been sort of keeping it to myself for a while, but I really wanted to show it to someone." Liam glanced at Jason and replied, "I'd love to see it." Jason was an incredible artist, he was extremely self-conscious of his art, but he didn't realize how amazing he was at it. Jason excitedly looked into his binder to find the drawing. He quickly pulled out a piece of normal printer paper with a sketched out, half shaded drawing of a dark forest with tall, eerie looking trees, and a large boulder on the right. Truthfully, it was hauntingly beautiful. The whole thing was phenomenal. "Jason, this is probably the most remarkable thing you've done so far. I'm actually really impressed." Jason looked at Liam with a big smile on his face; this was the happiest Liam has ever seen his best friend. "Really? You think so? I was in the forest at the edge of town, and I saw this smaller area that was the less crowded with trees than the others. I pulled out a piece of paper to sketch it out. I just added the shading and everything else by memory. Also, when I was there, I kept hearing all these noises, like, not human or animal noises. It was like a screech or a roar, but I don't know. I got a little freaked out so I got out of there as fast as I could". 

Looking back at his friend with a confused look, Liam stated "Maybe it was just an animal, you never know-" "Exactly we'll never know until we go back out there again and try and figure out what it was." Jason interrupted. "Who decided we were gonna go out there?" Liam asked, puzzled. "I did, just now, and you're going with me after school. You need to get out of the house for once man, go explore, do something."

"I just don't really think it's a good idea, plus we have a really big test in Algebra we need to study for." Jason sighs "Please Liam, just this once?" Liam rolled his eyes and hesitantly says "Fine, we can go, as long as we're back before 9 considering that's when my mom gets home."

"Yes! Meet me in the courtyard after 7th period. See you later!" Jason said as he walked out the door of their art class as the bell rang signaling the end of the class. Liam stood there for a moment still shocked that he even agreed to venture out with Jason to this mysterious forest he'd never been to just to find something that was most likely just an animal. He then jogged out of class to quickly get to his next class. This is gonna be a long day.