Time slowly ticked by on my watch. Every click of the second hand was echoed in the empty forest. I was lost there was no doubt about that. I started to panic. The trees around me started to take on a different form. Tall trees that looked like the ones in the Wizard of Oz, the trees that were attacking Dorothy on the yellow brick road were now trying to attack me, except they weren’t the same. I was definitely not on a yellow brick road and these trees were the trees of the forest by my house not any trees of Oz. So why were they taking on such humanly characters trying to attack me. The trees were spiraling upward swirling together in a blur, I was having a panic attack but I couldn’t stop it. Then I heard a shot gun. Suddenly the world stopped spinning it came in focus as I fixed my sight on one object alone. One single little branch on a tree. Then he came out of nowhere. He found me again. All of my running was for nothing. I was lost deep into a forest by my house and the man that was after me found me again. Once again the only thing I can do is to run.

I run, faster and faster the forest a blur again. Tripping over branches his footsteps following mine, suddenly I see out of the corner of my eye a glistening key, a long key with a ribbon on the end. The key has a ray of sun light around it accenting its presents. It is a skeleton key. Old, slightly rusted silver and the ribbon is tatter. I still hear him he is not in sight but I know he is there I stop, pick up the key and continue running.

My prayers are answered. It’s a house. Well a cottage actually, a single cottage in the middle of the forest. His footsteps aren’t as close now as they were before. He might not even be on the same path as me if I’m lucky. I’ll just hide out behind the cottage for a few minutes or at least until I can’t hear his feet coming after me anymore then I’ll break into the house because I don’t want him to hear me so I’ll wait until I think he should be gone incase breaking into the cottage makes a loud noise. The cottage is stone, it looks old, abandoned. There are chopped up logs in front of it and an axe as if someone was going to build a fire just before they died. The cottage has no porch, only a front door and a small window on the right side. There is some land cleared around the cottage I guess it makes it look not as random. I hid behind the back of the house. The back is plain just as the front, with only a door and a small window this time on the left side. When I see this house the only people who I could picture living here would be wicked witches, lumber jacks or the Amish. I suddenly don’t hear his feet chasing me anymore. So I check the back door. It doesn’t open. I go around to the front door, once again locked. I walk over to the axe. It is heavier than any object I have ever raised over my head before. In mid-air I realize that I have a random, old, key that I found near a random, old, cottage. Maybe the key could work for the cottage. Since I am hiding to save my life here, I take the axe with me. I put the key into the lock in the knob and the door opens. It’s a miracle from God. I am able to escape away from the mad man who is chasing me.
When I get inside of the cottage everything has cobwebs on it. It is clear that the house hasn’t been used in many years. Everything in the house looks like antiques. There is no television so I have no form of entertainment. There is running water thankfully. I checked the pantry and they had plenty of canned goods that I will be able to eat. I wouldn’t trust anything else in this house and I’ll find a can opener later. I did more searching around the house. It is a one story with a bed, bath, living room, kitchen and dining room. I tested out the pluming and water in the bathroom and that all worked. The bed room has a king sized bed with a walk in closet. The clothes in the closet confused me. It is a one bedroom house with one closet yet the clothes looked like they were for more than one person. There were clothes for babies, children, teens, adults, and elderly of both male and female. The living room only has an old couch and a coffee table. When I get to the dining room there is a table with four chairs. The oddest thing about this table is the table is already set. It’s a very formal setting too, fine china, with forks, a knife, and a spoon, in all their proper places, around a white, china plate with gold trimming and a goblet. The goblet catches my eye because I have never seen something so beautiful before. It is a golden goblet with all kinds of jewels on it diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and others that I don’t recognize. There was at least one jewel for every color of the rainbow. It reminded me of some kind of extravagant communion cup. It looks real, but I don’t know how you can tell. I guess it doesn’t really matter since I’m only borrowing the house until I think it’s safe to leave again.
I use the setting and eat my canned food like a queen. I stay in the house for a few more days. It is as boring as can be but I do things to occupy my time like play dress with all the clothes in the closet and I imagine myself in a castle living like an actually queen. On the third night of my staying in the house, while I was lying in bed sleeping I heard someone trying to break into the house. I get up out of bed and I heard banging on the door taking the axe that I kept by my bed with me. When I look out the window of the front door I see the man. He is back. He is going by the logs. I have no time to take anything with me I take the axe that I have in my hand and rush to the back door. The man behind me hears that I was in the house and left so he starts following me again. This time he doesn’t have his gun with him. He is only on foot. He is very tall and very big. I could probably take him with the axe but I don’t stop to test it. I just keep running until I can’t run anymore.
I look back from time to time and he is there right behind I’m only running a little bit faster than him. Then as I run, I step back to see what I have run into. It is a bear a very large bear, a black grizzly bear. He roared at me from at least eight feet high. The man behind me stopped also. I guess he wants to see how I will react to the bear. I the bear reached down as if to attack me and I reach my axe back to swing at the bear but I was too late. Something got to the bear before me and it wasn’t a weapon of any kind. Out of nowhere a squirrel comes and attacks the bear for me a flying squirrel leaps on to the head of the bear and started clawing at him. I was amazed. Once again my life was saved. While the bear was occupied I ran away from him then the man started following me again. I felt as if I was stuck in the middle of a sick horror movie or video game that I can’t beat. I can’t get out the maze.
The man started gaining on me. I push harder as I go deeper into the woods. I see something gray as I am running. It looks odd so I keep staring. I have never seen anything like this in the forest before. As I get closer I realize what I am seeing. It is a gray stone wall. I look at both ends of the wall as I come up to it and it looks like it does not end either way. I don’t want to take my chances so I decide to go over the wall. It is only about as tall as I am which is just under six feet. I still have the axe in my hand and the man is still behind me. I turn around and chuck the axe at his head and I hit him in his forehead. The man drops to his feet and dies. I climb my way up the wall. It feels like the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do my fingertips bleeding after. When I finally get to the other side of the wall I see a high way. SALVATION. I am saved. No more mad man. No more chases. There are cars speeding down the highway with another forest on the other side. I start walking down the road, walking to find civilization, walking to rejoin society, walking to my freedom.