Asher Banning still mourns his mother after three years. When his friend, Caden, decides to get their group of friends together for Christmas as a way to help Asher not feel lonely for the holidays, things quickly turn upside down.
MATURE: for expl...
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After snapping a few photos of the sunrise over the snow-covered mountains with my phone, we agreed it was time to leave. We jogged our way back on the other path that would lead us behind the house.
We didn't speak throughout the run. The twigs cracking beneath our feet were the only noises distinguished between the both of us.
About ten, maybe fifteen minutes into the journey, I stopped, noticing a gap in the trees on my left. The trees crowded together. There was something, like an object, devoured by the bushes.
Nick, who was ahead of me, stopped and turned around. He must've noticed that I stopped running. "What are you doing?" he said between breaths, walking closer to me.
"Doesn't that look like a cabin or . . . something?" I ignored his question, pointing to the hidden object.
"I don't know. Could be a UFO?" He laughed.
I slapped his arm with the back of my hand. "Really?"
He shrugged. "Maybe the aliens are the ones killing everyone? They've finally come to take over the world."
I began walking toward the clutter of trees, shaking my head. "Whatever. I'm gonna find out what it is." I started walking toward the mysterious object.
"Okay?" He followed. "What do you think is there?"
"I don't know. Could be something, could be nothing. It's weird that it's in the middle of the forest and I don't know about it."
"It's not like you're the Lorax, you know, the guardian of the forest?"
I shrugged. "Maybe? It could be some kind of room—if it is one, at least—that my dad used when he wrote, but . . ."
"You don't know?"
I nodded.
"Don't you know anything anymore?"
I chuckled. "No, not really." It wasn't because I didn't want to know, but because I didn't have any other way to know. No one told me these things, and I certainly didn't go snooping my nose around in everyone's business. So, of course, my knowledge was at ground zero. But shouldn't I start doing that now, considering I'm trying to act as a detective?
His snort brought me back into reality as we made our way through the unknown trail.
"I kind of stopped caring after my mother died, so forgive me and my ignorant ways."
When we approached, a cabin came into view. Branches, bushes, and pine trees tucked it away in the woods. Letting the broken-down house vanish from the rest of the forest.
It wasn't a massive house, though. It could've been mistaken as a treehouse of sorts.
I took out my phone, snapping a couple photos of the shack, wishing I brought along my journal to take notes. My cell phone would have to do as a notepad.
