15 January 2026, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2983: don’t go into that forest

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scrooger1 hour agoPeakD3 min read

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I always enjoyed doing these, just never stuck to them on a regular basis. Thought I might give it a go again, just for fun.

Moving into a new house is not always the most fun thing to do, as you might be losing friends if you are moving to a new place far away from home. This was indeed exactly the case for Jonathan. Being only 8 years old, he was already missing his friends from school, and especially his closest friend, Theo, who lived a few houses down from where he lived.

The first thing he heard his mom say was not to go into the forest behind the town walls, as it was out of bounds for town folk. Living in a small rural community just so his mom could help save some poor people really sucked. Truth be told, he kind of liked it out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by greenery. Sadly, he could not enjoy any of it, as he was restricted to only this little town.

Weeks later, he had enough and packed a day pack to go and explore this jungle his mom was warning him about. When he finally entered the jungle, the first sound he heard was laughter, followed by cries of fear and pain. It was Theo's voice, his laughter, his pain. He was in the forest for less than a minute, but that was enough to never let him go there again. He ran all the way home without looking back.

Now, many years later, whenever he comes close to the forest, his skin starts to crawl and he hears faint sounds of laughter. He always turns back before the crying begins… Before Theo begins...

I kinda forgot how hard these were. 5 minutes is so short. Yet, they can mean the world to us in the morning if we need them to snooze a little more.

As a dad of young kids and a teacher of young students, I used my go-to timer. Haha! Feel free to use it as well, but maybe mute the sound as it made me nervous to finish quicker. Now I know why some students might not like it.