36

Why? For the love of God, why can't I live a normal life? Why can't I find one family who I can live with forever and not have all hell break loose?

Ashley was right. There was something wrong with the woods.

I work up around 1:20 this morning to find my laptop on and MSN up. Someone has logged on. The old man and woman are, like most elderly people, afraid of technology like computers. They hate them and that's why they'd never have one, let alone use mine.

I logged on and talked to Ash. She said to be careful. She said the dear doctor was there. And I told her something I learned when I looked out the window. The branches of the trees surrounding the house were braided together tightly to to keep anyone from escaping. They even blocked the driveway.

I had enough. Ignoring Ash's protests, I went out to the shed and got out an ax. By now the old man and woman were awake, God knows why, and they saw what was going on with the trees. They were freaking out and I was determined to get us all out of there.

Well the first chop resulted in my face being covered in blood. At the time I didn't pay attention. I chopped all the way through without giving a fuck that there was blood coming from the now squirming "branches".

When I chopped a path out of the yard I ran to the house to get my things and that was when I realized I was covered in blood. Yeah, I freaked out.

Anyway, the old couple and I ran to a neighbor's house. One who has no trees in their yard. He didn't want an explanation for the blood. He just let us in and let me get cleaned up. After I was clean we left. We're in a small town now, in a ratty motel.

I tried to tell the old couple that they had to get away from me. The old woman said "That won't get him away from us."

She went on to explain that ever since her daughter was a little girl, way back in the 50's, she use to talk about a tall faceless man. At first they thought it was an imaginary friend. Then things started to happen. The old couple was never actually afraid of him. If anything, they thought he was helpful.

When the old woman would reach for something up high and couldn't reach it and went off to get a stool, she'd come back to find that item sitting on a counter or table and the demon standing in the corner looking shy. (I don't know what she means by shy. I never know how he looks since his face is hard to see under all that skin.) One time he helped the old man fix his truck.

He had never done anything threatening like imprisoning them like this before. So I told them that they needed to get away from me. He'll keep doing this if I'm around them. So the old man just got back from checking if the branches are still braided together. They're not, but there's still blood on the ground from where I chopped through.

They're about to leave now. She gave me an envelop of money. I feel bad for accepting it but she insisted. I haven't even looked to see how much is in it. I honestly don't care. I just feel bad I got them into this.

I'm going to stop accepting help and just hope I don't freeze to death at night. But maybe it'd be better if I did. Then this would all end for me. I don't want to survive, I want to live. I'm not living. Not a life worth living.