All night I sit in my room, by my window sill, watching the glistening full moon.  As it gets later in the evening my eyes start feeling like rocks, but I can’t go to sleep.  Not now, not ever.  Tonight's a night I will never forget!  While I was in the bloodcurdling woods with my closest friends, we saw miles of things I’ve only heard about in books and movies.  Things I would have never believed if I didn’t see them myself.  My eyes are damp with tears as I remember the tragic evening.  I will never forget what we saw in there, and neither will Claire.  This is how it all started. 
Earlier today I went to the pizza place downtown with two of my friends, Claire and Mia.  We all sat around the table and ate the large, spicy pepperoni and sausage pizza.  The smell of the freshly baked pizza was intoxicating!  After we finished eating, we started to talk.
“So guys, what else should we do today?” Mia announced, her short, black hair bobbed against the shoulders of her pink, frilly blouse.
“I don’t know, we could walk around town for a bit I suppose.” I replied as I looked up at the faded red and black paneled ceiling. 
“I know!” Claire almost shouted as her shoulder blade length, blonde hair flew forward hitting her crumb filled plate, “We should go into the Phantom Woods!  No one at school is brave enough!”
She paused for a second and smiled like she was thinking, “ Can you believe it!  Those cowards are afraid of trees!  Ha!” she howled and threw her head back playfully. 
Later in the already late afternoon, we got changed into more adventurous clothes and met up just outside the creepy thicket.  I nodded at the girls as a signal to enter.  Claire had a smile that could be looked at as cute or psychotic, and Mia was fiddling with her sweaty fingers, her back hunched over with fear.  We held hands and took the first step inside together.  As we entered, the air got colder and moved around us in circles as if we were being pulled around inside a whirlpool. The trees seemed to smile down at us through its strong, finger like branches and the grass seemed to scurry on the dirt floor like mice in a corn field. 
Right away Mia whimpered and cried out,“ I’m not doing this!  This place is creepy!” she climbed out of the brush and back to the street, her breath sounded heavy as her footsteps echoed as she pounded down the black pavement. We didn’t try stop her, I just gave Claire a worried glance as we stepped further into the bone chilling woods. 
“Wow, it’s really nightmarish in here.” Claire’s head turned every which way as she spoke, but her eyes glowed in a way making her seem excited.
“Yeah, no wonder no one wanted to come in here.” I responded skittishly, my palms had started to get wet with salty sweat.  We pushed farther on and came upon a lake in the middle of a small clearing.  The lake had pristine water, as clear as the night sky, and the moss that surrounded the beautiful lake was as green as a garden snake slithering through the shadows.  But as we looked closer, we noticed little creatures with small auras hover over the magical scene.  I stepped closer, my beat up Nikes sinking slightly into the soft moss, now I was curious.  I held my hands beneath one of the odd things and gently enveloped my shaky hands around it.  I held my hands close to my face and peered inside. I got a glimpse of a blue light that formed around a fairy who wore the wings of a karner butterfly. As I gazed starstruck at the fairy it viciously poked my eye.  Instinctively I let go with a yelp and covered up my injured eye.  I heard Claire scream her head off beside me.  Uncovering my eye I looked out to the lake to see what all the commotion was about.  The fairies, all of them, had gathered above the lake and banded together, they looked like an army ready for battle, and they were facing our way!
Our bodies drained of color and we ran for it!  What we didn’t realize was that we ran in the opposite direction from the entrance of the awful Phantom Woods.  As we dashed through the dank undergrowth, we came upon a giant Yew tree.  Its branches were long and stretched out far from the trunk, it leaves were luscious and welcoming.  Claire and I stopped and leaned against the soft, thick trunk of the tree.  We thought it was safe and we took a brief moment to catch our breath when we heard a rustle in the branches above our heads.  We looked at each other with nervous glances before we simultaneously looked up.  The tree had a face appear through its rough bark as its branches reached down for us.  We both wailed as the branches tried to grab our ankles, we barely escaped the trap as we sprinted through the other trees that seemed to smile at us mockingly. We ran deeper in the wrong direction trying to get away from the things we had seen already in our adventure.
  At this point my legs felt like a lead weight dragging me down into the earth and my chest was a raging fire barely able to bubble out any air, but I couldn’t slow down for a second!  Claire, who had thick, ugly tears streaming down her face, was just a pace or so behind me.  Her legs were scraped up and bloody from the roots that kept reaching out and trying to trip us, and her hair was full of long, emerald colored leaves from the eerie Yew tree. 
As we bounded on the soft earth I heard a low growl that sounded like a lion's roar up ahead.  My legs were shaking like jello as I got a peek at the growlers head.  Squatting in front of us was a behemothic, mauve dragon with a spiked up head.  Its wings were easily fifty feet high and a mile wide.  The beast glared at Claire with deadly bloodshot eyes and snapped its mouth hungrily.  In a single movement the dragon had captured her in its twenty feet long, dirt filled talons and glided through the trees tops heading to the center of where a giant nest laid.   I could hear Claire´s high pitched shrill in the distance and panic set deep into my body.  My heart dropped into my stomach like a stone sinking into a river. 
I cried, I knew I couldn’t save her, if she was even there to save, so I ran toward a light in the forest that shined like an angel through the thick bricket.  I gallopped over to the light, my legs not seeming to want to work right, one was hurt from a nasty fall that occurred while I ran from the spot the dragon was.  When I finally broke through the last wall of trees I was back on the street, standing under a light post.  I looked around checking to make sure I knew where I was.   I recognized the rickety nail salon, I was about five miles from my house.  If I kept going up this road I would have to take a left and I’d be home.  I was exhausted, but I ran jaggedly until I got to the fork in the road.  
After I turned left I half jogged, half shuffled up the steps to my persian blue door that stood at the front of my house.  I let myself in and looked at the clock on the stove, it was 10:11 pm, I was in the woods for four hours!  I ran up to my room where I now sit watching the moon above the woods.  If I look close enough I can see the wings of the dragon move among the trees.  I’m watching to see if maybe Claire will break the tree line like I did, and she’ll be alright. As I look closer a body erupts from the trees. The figure has shredded closes and it has blood everywhere, I recognize the sterling blond hair and I realize that it’s Claire! I burst into tears as I run out of my house and go to Claire.  I help her get home and clean up the blood that seems to be flowing from everywhere. We look at each other for a minute, realizing that we’re alive. I leave her in her bedroom sleeping and travel zombie like back to my own house. I know for a fact, Claire and I are never going back into Phantom Woods.