Young Writers Society

Monster

I was just trotting along on a trail with my horse Pride when all of the sudden he broke into a full gallop. I tried to look behind me to see what scared him and saw a big black figure, with horrid red eyes, standing upright watching me . Finally, we reached a field and I was able to slow Pride down. I turned facing the path we came galloping out of, nothing was there. I turned Pride away because I knew there was another trail to take us back to our farm.

When I got back home I took care of Pride and went inside to our computer to go online. I looked up strange sightings in our area. I found that there have been sightings of a black figure. I yelled to my mom and she came and asked what was wrong. I showed her the picture and told her that’s just what I saw in the woods. She looked at me with a crazy look and told me I was seeing things. I shrugged and walked away knowing my mom was wrong. I knew what I saw, something’s out there.

I woke up early the next morning to mom crying. I quickly got dressed and went outside to see what all the commotion was about. I got outside and the air reeked of something dead. I saw mom, dad, and a police officer standing by a broken fence and a big smelling carcass. When I got closer I almost puked because the smell was so bad. Dad was talking to the officer and I could see the puzzled look on their faces. Mom stood with a handkerchief covering her nose and mouth. I got a chance to really see what the carcass was and I found it was Sara, mom’s favorite cow. Mom noticed me, put her hand on my shoulder, and stepped in front of me. She told me to start my chores. I went to the barn and heard Pride nicker when I opened the door. I saw his head peeking over the stall door. I patted his nose and whispered to him something is going on around here.

Later that day I went in for lunch and overheard mom and dad talking about what happened this morning. I snuck through the living room and up to my bedroom. I called my friend Sandy and asked if she could come over to go for a trail ride with me. She agreed and said she would be over in a half hour. When she got here we went to the barn and got our horses, Pride and his sister Garnet. As we tacked them up I told Sandy what happened this morning, all she could say was, wow! We got outside and Sandy asked if we could just ride around the farm instead of the trails. I asked her why, and she said she was scared to go on the trail. We walked next to the fence because we didn’t want to walk in between the fence and the woods. We talked and tried to keep our minds off the woods. When we got to a corner in the pasture and was facing the woods, we both stopped. I thought she must have seen the same thing because her jaw dropped. What I saw was two big red eyes looking at us. Pride and Garnet were getting a little uneasy. They were pawing the ground and bobbing their heads. Both of the horses started backing up. After being in shock from seeing the big red eyes, I realized what was happening. I gathered the reins in my hands and pulled Pride up. I tapped on Sandy’s shoulder to get her to calm Garnet down. We circled them around a few times and let them canter their nerves away. When we got close to the barn we slowed to a trot. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I looked over at Sandy and I could tell in her eyes that she was really scared. We brought the horses into the barn and started untacking them. We talked a little but most of the time we were silent. Since it was the middle of summer I asked her if she wanted to sleepover. She said okay, but she had to call her mom, let her know, and to bring clothes for her. We brought the horses to the closest pasture to the house so they were away from the woods. We went back to the house and I let Sandy call her mom while I went to see what was for dinner. I told my mom that Sandy was going to sleepover. I knew my mom wouldn’t care because our two families were so close.

While we were eating dinner Sandy and I told my parents about what we saw on our ride today. They gave us the same look my mom gave me yesterday. They said that there was nothing out there. Sandy and I both pleaded to them that we were right and that what we saw was the same thing that killed and ate Sara. All my parents said was it was just our imagination and that we should get some sleep, so we went to bed.

Around midnight I woke up to a terrible noise. I got out of bed and shook Sandy’s shoulder. She opened her eyes and asked me what the noise was. I said I didn’t know. We got dressed and went down stairs. I grabbed the biggest flashlight and we went outside to see what the noise was. We stepped onto the porch and the noise sounded like it was coming from the pasture where the horses were. We ran to the fence and I shined the light back and fourth in the pasture. I passed the middle of the pasture, there was a sudden movement. Sandy was shaking me are furiously yelling, “go back! Go back!” I shined the light back and by that time I saw Garnet running towards us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a light turn on and I knew it was my parents coming out to see what was going on. I looked to see who was going to come out first. My mom ran out first, then my dad came out. I heard a whinny come from Garnet so I turned around, by that time she was at the fence rearing and bucking. I could see there was blood rushing down her leg. I could feel hot tears running down my cheek. I was thinking in my head, where is Pride? Where is Pride? I dropped the flashlight and crawled into the pasture and started running to where I thought Pride was. I could hear Sandy and my parents yelling for me to come back.

I could hear the noise get louder and I knew that I was getting closer. I stopped about five feet away from something big. It was about seven feet high, huge feet and hands, sharp claws, and teeth that were as big as my pinkie finger. I could see it’s big red eyes looking at me. I froze with terror, it looked as if it was studying me. It then took off running. I finally had the nerve to move and as I took my first step I could hear a low whinny. I looked down and saw Pride laying down breathing heavily. I got down on my knees by his head. I could hear the sound of hooves behind me, I knew that it had to be Garnet, I heard her weak whinny and warm breath on my shoulder. I heard my mom and Sandy's running feet in the grass. As they came up behind me I started standing up. Sandy gasped and covered her mouth and my mom started turning me around to give me a hug but I pushed her away. My mom said my dad went to call the police. I looked down at Pride and back up to were the monster had ran. I went to were Garnet was standing, stroked her head, and whispered in her ear that we're going get the thing that did this to Pride. I heard a soft whinny. She stepped to where my eyes were level with her back. I hesitated for a minute thinking that if I rode her with her injury the way it was it could become very serious. I realized that she wanted to go, so I hopped on her back, grabbed some of her mane in my hands, and looked towards the woods. I jabbed my heels into Garnet's sides and we took off towards the fence then into the woods. I could hear Sandy and my mom yelling for me to come back. It was to late, me and Garnet had already jumped the fence and were heading towards whatever was lurking in the woods.

As we were cantering through the woods I kept looking back and fourth to see if anything would stand out in the darkness. We got to a clearing and I slowed Garnet down. I got her to a stop and hopped off. She was breathing heavily so I looked at her injured leg and it was still bleeding. I grabbed a hold of my pant leg and ripped some of it off. I rapped it around a few times and tied it. I heard a noise coming from the bushes and turned quickly to see what it was. As I turned I knew it had to be the monster. Before I could start to move towards it there was a sudden light that came from behind me. I turned, looked, and saw that it was just a truck. I heard Garnet whinny and a deep voice say my name. I then realized it was my dad. There was a sudden noise behind me, I turned and saw the big black figure run away from me. My dad came towards me and turned me around. He asked me why I rode off into the woods with Garnet knowing that she was injured. He gave me a hug and said he was glad I was alright. We went over to Garnet and my dad checked her leg and told me if I hadn’t wrapped her leg she would have lost a lot of blood. I put my arm around her neck so she would follow me and led her to the trailer my dad brought along with him. I loaded her up and got into the passenger side of the truck where my dad was waiting. He told me Pride was going to be okay, his injuries weren’t serious. I was relived that Pride was going to be okay. He asked me why I rode Garnet out into the woods. I replied saying that I told you twice about what I saw, he just looked at me. I looked out the side mirror and saw red eyes looking at me.