I’m sick and tired of it all. My moms always telling me about what I can and can’t do, like I’m a
seven year old. I’m twelve, and I can make my own decisions. Just yesterday mom told me I can’t
take theatre at school, because I have football. I don’t even like football, while theatre is my passion. Being restrained from theatre led me to my latest choice; I’m running away from home.

Jamie Gronson had four days worth of clothes, and enough food to feed an army packed in his Transformers bag. After carefully shutting the front door so nobody would hear him, he descended the steps onto the sidewalk. He turned right and walked to the woods, a place his mother had forbidden him to enter alone. Jamie came here partly out of curiosity, and partly out of reverse psychology. Obviously, the last thing Jamie wanted to do right now was to abide by his mother’s rules. So, he looked left, then right to see if anybody was watching him, and when the coast was clear, he took a deep breath and stepped forward into the shade of the woods. Jamie let the breath out, and was relieved to notice the odd feeling he had was adrenaline, not fear.
A short distance into the woods, Jamie tripped over a tree root. He hit his head on a mossy rock, and blacked out. When Jamie came to, he wasn’t in the same woods as he was half an hour ago. All of the leaves on the trees were blue green, and Jamie had the creeping sensation he was not in Washington anymore. His Transformers bag was gone, though he did not remember taking it off. Jamie looked around frantically after hearing a rustling sound. His darting eyes stopped searching when they landed upon a moving bush, and a second later, a skull could be seen emerging from it.
Now the entire creature was visible. With no flesh, muscles, or ligaments, it was just a skeletal figure that seemed alive. Jamie immediately retreated until he bumped into a tree. A few more of these creatures appeared, each of them resembling a different animal. They all stepped forward slowly, sniffing along the way to Jamie. His heart was racing, he had broken out into a cold sweat, and he was pushed against the tree so hard his back hurt. Finally they were at his feet, none of them more than three feet tall. Jamie relaxed some when he realized their intention wasn’t to harm him, or they would have already. He slowly stepped from the tree, and as Jamie moved forward, the creatures stepped back. Now that he knew he was safe, Jamie became comfortable in this parallel universe.
He explored, and after an hour or so he grew hungry. He didn’t have to look very far to find a source of food, an apple tree. Little did Jamie know the apples on the tree weren’t apples. He took one, and unknowingly poisoned himself when he took the first bite. His hunger was not satisfied, so he ate a few more. After his fourth apple, Jamie noticed he was feeling strange. He grew lightheaded and dizzy, and was suddenly nauseous. He found a soft mossy spot on the floor of these strange woods, and lay down. Jamie’s heart was beating irregularly fast, and then, it stopped beating all together.