Isaiah

The horrible, unnatural swaying made me panic and my eyes became wet as fear took a solid hold of me.

I picked up the rope again and lobbed it desperately at the lantern.

I missed and the bundle of rope sailed off into the darkness.

Helplessly, I turned to Chris, who had already grabbed his backpack.

He span around and threw it with a yelp, and it hit the lantern dead on.

It fell and thudded to the floor with a crack, but the light was still on, and I ran to pick it up.

I turned to Chris and almost cried with relief.

Okay, go, go, go, let's go, I urged, and he started jogging quickly towards his house as I followed.

Bro, that idea, the image of it hanging up in the tree and like as it sways, all the shadows of the near trees are like swaying back and forth.

What a great visual, man.

And also the idea of like, whatever did this, did it to mess with them by hanging it up in the tree.

And it's almost made them like they're in a fish bowl, right?

Like they're not going to step out in the darkness.

So they're stuck to this, like this chosen area.

That's so crazy.

Something had to reach.

There's nowhere to climb.

Something had to reach up that big to tie the tree.

Yeah, we half ran, half stumbled off into the dark, checking over our shoulders and working ourselves up as our thoughts were consumed by everything that may be waiting in the trees for us.

I don't know how long we were moving, but it soon became apparent that Chris's house wasn't in this direction.