Do Not Go Into the Woods!

Oh no! Billy was up to bat. He always, and I mean always, hits home runs. I call him “The Billy.” Our family was camping out for the weekend with Billy’s family. I have two brothers, Tommy and Timmy, and a sister, Suzy. Billy has a brother, Bobby. We wanted to play a friendly softball game before we went fishing. Sure enough, Billy slugged hard at a perfect pitch and the ball went sailing up and away… right into the woods. I was running after the ball, when all of a sudden my dad stopped me and yelled, “Do not go into the woods!” “What? Why? The ball went in there!” I exclaimed. Dad lowered his voice and said, “I will tell you later. Let Bobby go and get the ball.” Billy’s team ended up winning, which was no surprise. After eating hot dogs we roasted on an open fire, we all decided to go fishing. Fishing can be so boring OR so exciting! It is boring if you do not catch any fish and exciting to catch a fish. I caught three fish, and Bobby caught the biggest fish of the day. Between everyone, there were ten nice-sized fish. We are going to clean our catch and eat them around the campfire for dinner.

I like to camp out with my family. We get to enjoy nature and what my mom says, “We are roughing it.” At night, we always sit around the campfire and someone will tell a story. Billy’s family decided to go look at the stars out on the lookout point tonight so that just left my family and me sitting around the campfire. I asked, “Dad, why did you stop me from going into the woods today?” Dad began by saying, “Well son, this is quite an old story that you and your brothers and sister need to know. Thousands of years ago our ancestors were called “Luminos.” They looked like everyone else, but our ancestors had a special and unique quality about them. They did not even know they had this ability in them until one day something happened.”

“Dad, can we make S'mores before you keep talking?” asked Timmy.

“Sure, sure, let’s do that!” answered Dad.

“OK, now that we all have our chocolate and marshmallow sandwiches, let me continue the story,” said Dad.

“Yea, so what happened?” I asked.

“Well, one day the Brights, a family like ours was hiking in the woods. It was a perfect day with the sun shining and a blue sky. When all of a sudden, these creatures showed up and blocked the hiking path and surrounded this family of six. These dark creatures were really ugly and frightening. They were very short, but they had long arms with huge hands and huge feet. Their teeth were sharp and pointy. They forced the little family down into the depths of the earth,” described Dad.

“Was it a cave or something?” asked Tommy.

Dad answered, “Yes, but it was a series of caves that were all underground. It was very dark inside those caves until the Brights were forced inside the caves. Everywhere they went, the Brights seemed to illuminate light. The dark creatures were so excited. They began chanting over and over, “Luminos! Luminos!” The Brights were confused because they did not know that they could produce light. They just knew that they were usually happy and had good thoughts. However, this dark cave network was not a pleasant place to be and they wanted to leave. They asked the creatures what they were or what they were called. The creatures told them that they were called “Darkness.” The Brights felt sorry for the Darkness, but they did not want to stay underground. They wanted to leave and go back into the sunshine. The Darkness creatures would not let them. Every day, the Darkness creatures would go out of the caves and grab other Luminos. Soon, they had many Luminos living underground with them. Life was not good underground for the Brights and the other Luminos. They were not free and the Darkness creatures would say terrible and frightening things frequently. This made the Luminos very afraid after a while, and they continually tried to plan a way to escape the underground caves and to get away from the Darkness.”

“This is sort of scary, Dad!” quivered Suzy. “Does it get any better for the Brights?”

“Suzy, this story is true. It really happened. I want you to know why, we can not go into the woods, even to this day,” Dad said very gently but firmly. “It is important that you know why none of us can go into the woods. We are descendants of the Brights, and we too have the ability to give out light if put into darkness. The Darkness creatures still exist and they still will kidnap any Luminos that ventures into the woods. They know if you are a Luminos or not. The Darkness creatures will never leave the wooded area because they know if they do, people will hunt them down and kill them. They are so hideous. Many people would consider them a threat. Therefore, the Darkness will only grab us in the woods where they can hide and quickly get back to their hidden caves.”

“Did they escape? What happened?” I asked.

Dad continued, “Yes, some of the Luminos did escape! Our great, great, great grandfather Simon escaped with his wife and son. Simon was a very strong-minded man. He would focus on what he wanted to see and not what was in the dark caves. He did not even listen to the Darkness creatures’ negative talk. Instead, he would say positive things every day and think about their home above the ground. He would remind his wife of the colorful flowers she grew in the garden and tell his son that their horse missed them every day. One day they would all be back home safely. He continually looked for a way out of the tunnels. Then one day, an opportunity fell right into their laps! The Darkness creatures had all left the caves to find more Luminos. Now was the time to get out and quickly! Simon showed his wife and son a tunnel that he had found which was in the opposite direction of the main entrance. So, they crawled through and came out onto the edge of the woods. They just had to run a few feet away from the woods and they would be safe! As soon as, the family all got out of the cave, they ran for it. After getting safely away from the woods, they went home. From then on, they never went into the woods and they warned their son’s children and their children and so on. Until now, here I am warning you … do not go into the woods!” finished Dad.