• The bus came to a halt, causing me to wake from a dreamless sleep. “Greensville” the intercom buzzed noisily. “Shoot,” I mutter to myself while gathering my luggage. I walk down the empty aisle and get off the bus stepping into the rain. I wave to the driver and the driver and he departed, leaving me alone in the rain.

    Greensville was the last stop for me, a small town in the middle of the countryside. It was also a place where I had lived before. My older friend Joey moved here a year ago. He had turned eighteen and immediately left to travel here. He said that I should come to get a change of scenery and relive old memories.

    Now here I am in the cold, pouring rain feeling stupid. Joey said that he would pick me up, but of course he is not here. Idiotic fool probably forgot I was coming. Luckily, he told me the address of his place. I pick up my luggage and head into the town.
    I arrive into the rural area an hour after I left the bus stop. I check the wet piece of paper that has Joey’s address written on it. “800b Eastwood Street,” I mutter to myself irritably. I found Eastwood, which was a winding road with a cream houses on each side of the road. I went down it till I saw Joey’s beat-up red Beetle. I checked the address. “800b,” I confirm. I rap the door three times. Silence. I rap it again three more times. Some more silence. I ring the doorbell only to find out its broken. I take out my phone and dial Joey’s cell phone number.

    After a few rings he answers, “Hello, Joey speaking,” with a formal tone. Liar, he probably thinks its a woman calling.

    “Hey Joey it’s me,” I reply restraining my bitterness.

    “Steven!” Joey exclaimed, “Where you at?” I sigh. So he did forget.

    “I’m at your front door. In the rain. By your broken excuse for a car,” I tell him, letting my bitterness ooze into my voice.

    Obviously oblivious to my bitterness, Joey replies, “Really? I thought you were coming tomorrow, hold up I’m coming.”

    “Good, I’m freezing out here hurry,” I reply frustration fading. I then brace myself listening for the click of the lock. The lock clicks and I swing. Joey never saw it coming.

    * * * * * * * *

    I change while Joe tended to his now bloody nose. I throw my wet clothes in a pile. I feel warmer now in my dry shirt, jacket, and pants. I go to the bathroom and open the medicine cabinet. I feel bad about slugging Joey in the face. “Not that bad though,” I say mischievously, as I pick up a black bottle labeled ‘Peroxide.’


    * * * * * * * *


    I come downstairs holding a soaked white cloth. Joey is washing the blood gushing from the wound on his nose. He glares at me, his nose looking better from just a few minutes ago. I just shrug at him. He will probably be a little less carefree from now on. I grab an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and bite into it.

    The faucet from the sink turns off and Joey stumbles to the table and sits down on a dusty wooden chair causing a cloud of dust to erupt from it. We cough on the dust till it travels and settles down onto a pile in the corner. I look around and find more piles like it.

    The house is probably filled with these piles. Joey has not changed at all from when we were younger. His room was just like this house, piles everywhere. You can ask him to find an object, photo, or anything and he would walk to a pile and pluck it from the pile. Joey’s ‘unique’ talents still amaze me. I glance outside and see that the rain has stopped. I look to Joey who seem to have forgiven and forgotten me about his fractured nose. I head to the door and open it. “I’m going to take a walk, see you in a little while,” I tell him. I take the white cloth and toss it to him. He catches it and examines it with curiosity. “Rub your nose with that so that it will disinfect it,” I tell him

    “Will it hurt,” Joey asks nervously.

    “No, not at all,” I assure him. I leave and closed the door behind me.

    When I reach the end of the driveway and I hear a roar, “Son of a -.” Sadly, I was gone before the fourth word was uttered, but I have a feeling of what it was though.


    * * * * * * * *

    “I think I will let Joey cool down for a bit,” I thought to myself, “He seems pretty stressed lately.” I stifle a laugh. Joey cannot be stressed out, it is against his wild, happy nature. I look around and notice I have stumbled into a park. If I remember correctly this was called Elm Park. There was a playground I used to play at here. Now children laugh, run,and enjoy themselves. Childhood memories flood back to me.
    I run around the trees and hide. A blond girl follows me and finds me laying on my back in the grass. She lays opposite of me and gazes up into the leaves with the sunlight shining through. When I had left we cried at our separation. We wrote to each other for a while but the letters had stopped. I had forgotten about her till now.
    Something grabs my leg, and reality falls down onto me. I look down to see a little blond girl with a frilly, white dress. She looks up to me and smiles innocently. I smile back to her. She looks about six to seven years old. I bend down to look her in the eye and I ask her as sweetly as I can, “Hello, what’s your name?” She stares at me with curious eyes in a way I feel intimidated. Then she smiles and all the intimidation vanishes.

    “My name is Annie,”she says happily twirling as she does.

    “Hi Annie, shouldn't you be going back to your mom and dad?” I ask her, noticing no adult around here.

    “No, not till my mom calls me in for dinner,” She said gazing to the ground. Then she looks at me with big eyes and asks, “Would you like to hear a song?”
    I look at her and nod, “Sure, I would love too,” I answer.

    She beams and closes her eyes. She starts to sing soothingly, “When the sky turns dark, the hunt will start. When there is nowhere to roam, you are no longer alone. When the full moon turns blood red, you shall soon be dead.” She finishes and looks at me. I stand there transfixed. The song is chillingly scary. Not something a kid should sing. She sees my face and grins. “Bye Steven,” she says and hurries away.

    “Wait!” I shout, “Annie!” She disappears into a crowd of kids leaving me speechless in the park.


    * * * * * * * *

    I walk through Joey’s front door, dusk disappearing behind me as I close the door. Joey is watching his shows on his bulky television. I wrestle the remote from his hands and turn the T.V. off.
    He glares at me with hateful eyes, then he relaxes. His nose had stopped bleeding and the peroxide had disinfected it very well. I sit in the chair next to him. Joey watches me patiently, awaiting the reason why I had separated him from his shows. I should give it to him. “Joey...have you seen anything or heard anything unusual around here?” He ponders this.

    “No, can’t say that I have,” he replies after a minute, “Why what did you hear?” I repeat the song Annie had sung to me. Joey listens intently till I finish.

    He then goes to a pile next to the television and pulls out a newspaper. Wow. He comes back and hands me the paper. On the headline It says that a girl had left her house and supposedly went into Elm Park’s forest which stretches through the rural area.

    Joey gives a little cough. I look up from the paper. Joey gives me a concerned look and heads to the back window. He motions for me to follow him. I get up and follow him. He looks out the window and points outside. I looked and saw that the forest borders the backyard.
    “This is just a section of the forest in which she was lost,” Joey tells me, sadness in his voice, “That song you had sung echoed through the forest according to local residents.” He looks at me with teary eyes. “What had that little girl done to deserve that?” he asks. Then he heads upstairs to bed.
    I stand there for a few minutes thinking this over. I look at the paper in my hand and see a picture of a blond girl with a white dress. I gasp, for the little girl was Annie!


    * * * * * * * *


    I am flowing through the memories again. The blond girl and I are leaning against a old willow tree in the forest. The willow is secluded in the middle of the forest and shows the bright blue up above. Our parents know about the willow and allow us to play there and only there. The girl was dozing off leaning on my shoulder. I remain motionless so that she would not wake.

    I hear her ask in a quiet voice, “Will you remember me?” I looked at her my eyebrows raised.

    “Of course,” I tell her, “You are my friend, and I will protect you, know matter what.”

    She smiles satisfied. “Thank you Steven,” she sings softly.

    The image fades and I see that I’m in Elm Park. It is nightfall and a storm blows. The playground swings creaking as the wind blows them. Everything is moving wildly around me, the tree’s leaves rustle quickly, and some branches snap under the wind’s pressure. The wind knocks me down on my stomach. I try to get up but something keeps me down. A flash of white catches my eye and I quickly glance to it.

    It was a figure in a white, frilly dress. Annie. Her dress fluttering in the wind. I struggle to get up. “This is it,” I say through gritted teeth, “This is the night where she disappeared.” Annie walks past me mesmerized by the forest, no, by something in the forest. I use the last of my strength to break whatever force was holding me down. Suddenly the weight was lifted from.

    I jump up and look towards the forest. Annie stands there looking back at me. She smiles sadly and whispers something, “Remember.” Then the darkness of the forest engulfed her and the images disappears.

    The willow appears. It used to be so lively, but now it had a dark feel to it. The grass had turned black and died. The willow had turned white and looked like a ghost. I venture closer to it, only to be thrown back by an unknown force. The world collapses around me.


    * * * * * * * *


    I wake up, sweat clinging to me. I go to the guest bathroom and wash my face. I look into the mirror. My face looks troubled, these dreams probably contribute to its condition. The dreams were connected somehow. Was Annie related to the girl from my past?

    Something scratches my window. I hurry to the window only to find a thin scratch in the glass and there was nothing there that could have caused it. Something catches my eye. I look at the edge of the forest to find Annie standing there looking at me. She then darts into the forest. I quickly throw on some clothes and put on my jacket. I go quietly downstairs heading to the kitchen for Joey’s lighter and lantern. I light it and put the lighter in my back pocket. I head out the back door.

    I tear through the forest calling Annie’s name. Going through a forest like this just shows that I’m just trying to find a needle in a haystack. Something clicks in my head and I stop. Memories of my dream come back to me. That is it. That is why the dreams are coming to me and only me. I turn towards Elm Park and start to run.


    * * * * * * * *


    I arrive at the last place in my dream. The willow tree. It appears pale in the sea of black grass. Leaning against it was Annie. She had her arms crossed with a mischievous smile on her face. “Took you long enough,” she said, her voice suddenly deeper and unnatural.

    “The dreams showed me the way. It also showed me the meaning to your song.” I gesture around at our surroundings. “The sky is dark and I’m surrounded by the trees unable to leave it seems.” The trees were swaying back and forth blocking the path. Before and I lost track of the way I came in from. “The song had led me here as well as my memories.” Annie smiles. She looks up and I follow her gaze. The moon was full and its light shone down on us. I look to Annie and saw her staring transfixed at the moon. I try to take a step towards her, but the unknown force of my dreams kept me back. The wind picks up and swirls around us. The the color of the moonlight changes. I look at the moon again, but this time it had bled crimson red. The light of the moon shines on the grass making it look like a sea of blood. Annie looks at me with a wild smile on her face, and she steps forward her arms outstretched towards me. I brace myself for what is to come, but it was not what I expect.

    She screams, wind howling with her. I cover my ears as the scream echoes through the forest. She is lifted up from the ground and suspended in the air. A gnarled hand appears out of her chest, it appears wooden yet full of life. An arm emerges, and then the head. I look into its face and saw deep marks etched into its wood-like skin. It looks old and had blazing red eyes. It slips out of Annie’s body, causing it to crumple to the ground, and stood before me. It is tall, slender, and gnarled, and its arms are like branches with twig-like fingers. Its body looked like bark, but it is very worn. The legs look like thin trunks of a tree, the roots as toes.

    It picks up Annie’s body and smirks at it, thrusting it aside as it did. I resist the urge to run to it. It then walks towards me, cocking its head as it examines me. It then lashes out at me with its twig fingers. I fly back bleeding from the blow. The creature sticks out a black tongue and licks my blood from its fingers.

    It looks at me and speaks in a raspy voice, “Welcome Back Steven. It has been a while since you have gazed at me.”

    I stood there confused. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen a creature like you before.”

    The creature smirks. “Of course, you and that girl spent a lot of time under my leaves,” it says, “You would run around and play with each other, letting me watch from inside my tree.” It motions towards the willow. “You used to have so much fun here. You even made a promise to that girl, yet you forgot about her.”

    I grit my teeth. So this creature was watching us the whole time. “I never forgot, I promised her that,” I shout at the tree demon, “I said I would protect her no matter what.

    The demon seemed amused. “Oh?” the demon asks, “Did you protect her from me? Did anyone tell you what happened after you left?”

    From the demon? “What are you talking about?” I ask the demon, “Did you make her stop writing? Did you hurt her?”

    The demon nods its head. “Yes,” it said, “After you left, I lured her to the forest and possessed her.” The demon smirks again, “The girl you knew cried at my tree, wanting to see you again, so I let her see you.” He points to Annie, “This is that same little girl you played with long ago. She looks the same age she was when I had possessed her. Look, even now she has reverted back to what she is.”

    I look over at Annie and see she had grown into a sixteen year old girl. Annie is the blond girl from my childhood. I can not believe it. I have to though, for I will keep my promise and protect her. I take out the lighter that I had taken from the house and I hold up the lantern. I run towards the demon and sprint for the very thing behind it. It looks at me bewildered, but it lashes out at me anyway. It misses and I slide underneath it. I get back up and run at the willow. The demon howls with rage and charges after me. I start the lighter and the lantern. I crank up the oil in the lantern and light it causing the flame to grow bigger. I then toss it onto the base of the willow. As the lantern hits the willow it bursts and starts to burn the tree along with the sea of grass. Then demon screams and tries to stop the flame, but cannot. I turn and see Annie on the ground with the flames surrounding her. I quickly head over and grab her, rushing through the forest with our childhood place behind us, burning to ash.


    * * * * * * * *


    The fire did not spread to the rest of the forest. I managed to get Annie back to Joey’s place. Joey was awake and questioned me about my whereabouts and why a girl was resting on the couch. I told him about what had happened and told him that Annie was an old childhood friend. He laughed and told me such a beautiful girl could have known me.

    I punched him.

    Annie was reunited with her parents, who had stayed here unable to leave since the accident. It was an emotional moment. Annie cried and hugged her parents as they cried and squeezed her, never to let go.

    There was no mention of the fire in town, but Annie and me were the only ones who knew about it and the Willow Demon. That encounter will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

    Now I stand in a field of ash, where the willow once stood. The wind blows the ash softly in circles. The image of the demon appears for a brief moment, then disappears into the air. A hand grabs my shoulder and I turn around. Annie stands behind me in the white dress she had worn when she was a child (somehow it grew when she did). She smiled at me and stands beside me.

    “Thank you,” she says and looks at me, “For keeping your promise.” She leans in and kisses me on the cheek. I put my hand on my cheek and smile her.
    “You’re welcome,” I tell her, “ I will keep it as long as I live.” She nods and leans on my shoulder as rain begins to fall, cleansing the place of our memories.