Fiction+Story-Alix+Q

The Red Path

By: Alix Quam

“Help Abby Help,” Laney screamed in a nervous tone as Dylan threatened to call the cops on her. “Stop screaming and just give up,” Dylan demanded. That was the day I realized that Dylan lived in the path behind my house.

One chilly March afternoon while everyone was doing his or her homework Laney and I decided to go on a stroll in the forest. As we were walking down the red path we saw two bright blue eyes following us. We just looked away but we could feel that they were still there. We then heard someone mumble,” Why do people keep coming back here.” After we heard that comment we sprinted into the forest. When we were out of breath and wheezing we realized that we were in some kind of hideout, so we decided to nickname it the pine tree hideout due to the way the dirt spot was formed and all the trees surrounding it. As we walked out of the pine tree hideout we saw the bright blue eyes and that person introduced her self saying,” Hi, I’m Dylan what’s your name,” and we screamed all the way back to my house. “Mom, Mom, Mom guess what we just saw,” I screamed “What,” my mom demanded.

“We just saw some lady named Dylan who was staring at us and whispered to why do people keep coming back here,” Laney explained Then my mom just walked away and went back to making a snack for my little brother. I made a deal with Laney that we would go back the next day but not look in the direction of Dylan’s house. The next day a five o’clock PM we walked into the pine tree hideout to make a plan to steal wood from Dylan’s tree house. When we were just about to steal the wood we overheard Dylan say “I’ll take Laney she has much more potential than Abby, but I hope they don’t figure out I’m allergic to pines.” After contemplating our plan once again we went back to Laney’s house to get some rest for the day ahead.

When we went back out onto the path I looked away for one second and Laney was being pulled away towards Dylan’s house. I searched every which way and I couldn’t find her but then I heard a muffled scream coming from near Dylan’s house. Then it started getting more clear and I realized it was Laney screaming” Help, Abby Help.” I think Dylan was trying to get her to be quiet because I heard” Stop screaming and just give up.” Dylan then walked out and I ran into the pine tree hideout and grabbed a stick catapult and some pines and ran out to face Dylan. As I walked out Dylan yelped at the sight of what I had in my hand. Before I could even throw the pine at her the key to her house had fallen out of her pocket so I picked them up and tried to remember all the things I had read about getting someone away from someone else safely. Right when I got to the chair Laney was tied to I stumbled to find a book on how to untie knots but then I remembered that I left it in the pine tree hideout. I told Laney to hold still and I’d be right back. As I was crossing the red path Dylan slowly started to get up so I sprinted even faster and finally got to the pine tree hideout and snatched up my book on how to untie knots. . When Dylan was trying to run to catch me she stepped on a cactus. I snickered we never went back on the path or in the pine tree hideout again. To this day I am still scared to walk on that path