Monster

Part 2

The cold air left goosebumps on Ethan's arm. He sat on a rock, between a forest and the school playground. He ignored the other children, roughly playing and giggling amongst each other. A group of teachers sat by a picnic bench at the other end of the playground, their own island of serenity.

Ethan reached in his pocket and pulled out a small, neatly folded piece of paper.

You are great, you are strong, and you are smart. You can do anything you set your mind to. Have a good day at school Ethan! Love, Mommy.

His small hands clutched onto the note as if it could directly force the confidence into him. A small blue ball broke Ethan's concentration as it bumped against his foot. A group of boys called out to him. One of the boys ran over to him to retrieve the ball.

"Here," Ethan said as he held out the ball to the boy.

The boy smiled sweetly and asked, "Want to come play with us?"

Ethan awkwardly nodded and followed the boy to his friends.

"I'm, Gus." The boy said to Ethan. He pointed at his friends and said, "He's Marcus and he's Sam."

"I'm, Ethan."

Gus tossed Marcus the ball and took two steps back. Marcus tossed the ball to Sam, then took two steps back. That's what they were doing. They were trying to see how far back they could go tossing the ball around without letting it hit the floor. Ethan barely caught the ball when Sam threw it to him.

They continued tossing the ball around, then taking a few steps back. Sam cocked his arm back, and threw the ball to Ethan with all of his might. Ethan stumbled over himself trying to catch it. The ball rolled away from him, down a small hill, and into the forest. The ball was barely visible, the darkness of the forest seems to have consumed it.

"You didn't catch it," Sam sounded annoyed, "you gotta go get it now."

"What?" Ethan tensed up.

"C'mon, Ethan," Gus rolled his eyes.

Ethan turned to the forest fearfully as the boys laughed. "Okay," his legs shook as he stood back up.

He took a step towards the forest, then another one. The boys watched him as he slowly progressed down the hill. Ethan put his hand in his pocket. His mother's note brushed against his fingers. "I can do anything I set my mind to," he quietly recited to himself.

Shadows of leaf patterns scattered across the uncut grass. The tree's twisted tree branches reached out to Ethan like arms. His heartbeat accelerated. He hesitated, staring into the darkness, but forced himself to move forward.

Ethan's face lit up when he noticed the ball sitting there by a patch of weeds. He hurried over to it, but the ball rolled away from him. Ethan took another step forward, but the ball moves further away from him. It rolled further and further into the darkness until he lost sight of it again.

"Ethan... Ethan..." A gurgling, raspy voice whispered to him.

He knew that voice.

Ethan began to panic, he had to get out of there, but the trees started to close in on him like a cage. His breaths became short, shallow staccatos. All the air in his lungs seemed to escape him completely.

"Ethan..."

A series of loud cracks echoed through the trees. Ethan's face to turned pale. From behind one of the trees, an emaciated arm contorted as it extended toward him. Long, grimy fingers were wrapped around the ball.

Ethan trembled, his eyes slowly shifted from the ball to that beady red eye. Ethan screamed and turned around, running as fast as his legs could carry him. Urine seeped through his pants and ran down his legs as he hysterically ran through the forest.

A crack of sunlight lit his path back to the playground. Alarmed by his cries, the teachers hurried over to him.

...

Andrea gripped the wheel as she drove down long, narrow backroads. Ethan sat buckled into a booster seat, now wearing clean clothes in the back of the car. An untouched ice cream cone dripped down his hand as he stared absentmindedly out the window.

"There are no such thing as monsters, Ethan. You have to stop this." Andrea sighed.

She pulled the car into the long driveway of an old styled house. The house appeared vacant, with paint peeling off of the walls, and some of the floorboards slightly loose. Looking at it from the outside, there seemed to be three levels to the house.

Andrea got out of the car, and helped Ethan out of his seat. She held his hand and lead him toward the porch. Ethan didn't speak a word. He just stared at the glowing red eye watching him from the attic window.