Therapy Bits

Thanks to Missy for hosting her weekly challenge!

Missy’s MAD Challenge # 058 – M.A.D. Works

This week her challenge is…

In the middle of the night, a boy is running through the woods.

Ok then, lets see what I can come up with, here goes!

The boy ran, breath sharp in the cold night air, feet slapping against the uneven forest floor. The moon was a pale lantern above him, slipping between the tangled arms of the trees. Shadows stretched and shifted, long fingers trying to snatch at his clothes as he passed.

He didn’t dare look back.

Branches whipped his face, stung his arms, but he pressed forward, weaving between trunks as if the forest itself wanted him lost. The silence of the night was broken only by his heartbeat and the crunch of dead leaves underfoot. Yet, in the pauses between breaths, he swore he heard it—the faint echo of footsteps not his own, always just a beat behind.

The woods smelled of damp earth and pine, rich and wild, but the air carried something else tonight—something metallic, something wrong.

His chest ached. His legs screamed. Still, he pushed harder. He couldn’t stop, not here, not now. The path—if there had ever been one—was gone. The boy’s sneakers skidded across moss-slick stones, nearly sending him sprawling. He caught himself on a low branch, bark scraping his palm raw, and kept moving.

Then the forest broke open. He burst into a clearing, moonlight spilling down like silver water, and for the first time dared to slow. His breath rattled in his throat. The trees loomed at the edges, a dark ring of watchful sentinels.

He turned, finally, to face what might be following.

Nothing. Only shadows, only stillness.

And yet—his gut clenched. The woods were too quiet, as if every creature, every insect, held its breath.

Somewhere deep in the dark, something shifted.

The boy took a step back, then another. His foot caught on a root, and he stumbled, eyes fixed on the black wall of trees. He didn’t know what waited there, but he knew one thing with certainty: whatever it was, it had been running too.