The swamp

The Swamp

Written by: Chris Negen

SLAM! The hut door crashed shut “GET
OUTTA HERE LIL MAN,” mother said. I didn’t
get why she booted me out of our humble
abode, I only let the dog loose, almost
exploded the house, and put my baby
brother’s life in jeopardy by leaving our pet
alligator out of his cage. Agh she's
overreacting again, I thought, she always
does.

I walked down the block for a while and came
back to the hut door LOCKED! SHE LOCKED ME
OUT, I thought, I have to find a way to make up this
spare time. I heard these kids at school a couple of
days ago talking about a magical creature in the
Greenway Forest, The name is pretty ironic because
nothing in the Forest is green, so the kids basically
call it “The Swamp”.

The Swamp is a forest on the dark side of town away from all the
houses. The Swamp has low-hanging trees that have moss draping
down from them, almost creating a horror movie scene. Little rivers
run through the swamp which makes the frog population very rich.
Rumor has it that if you are at the swamp at midnight on April, 26
(which is today) you can hear the sound of all the frogs in the swamp
getting together to sing carols, It’s almost like a frog holiday for
worshiping some kind of frog god of some sort. I decided I was going
to head there tonight…

I strolled to the dark side of the swamp, where all
the weird stuff happens. As I was walking I saw
something up in a tree. All of the leaves were
rustling and they were making a little tornado under
the tree. I peered up to the tree to find an 8ft 450lb
green beast staring down at me. “Hey what ya doin
up there,” I said. He said “GEET OUTAA ME
SWAMP,” I tried to run back to where I came from
but there were frogs everywhere almost like a frog
roadblock. My only choice was to run deeper into
The Swamp.

I pulled up to a clearing in the forest, it was
beautiful, there were fireflies everywhere, and you
could hear frogs singing in the distance. There was
a shack. I was already trapped by the frogs and the
green beast would be coming at any moment. I
scarily jaunted up the dirt path. Every step would
make me question my decision to even come here.
As I got closer I could hear a fire going on, like my
grandmother's house on a cold winter day. When I
got to the door I peered through the peephole. I
could see a silhouette of a slug-like creature
dancing around the fire. I was terrified. “RAHHH” It
was the green beast, he was coming for me. My
only choice was to bolt into the shack.

Once I was in, I could see the creature staring
into the fire. I tried to open the door, but I couldn’t
my whole body was too numb to move. I was scared
for my life. Every second I stood there for seemed
like a century. The creature slowly tilted its head,
“you are in my domain now little boy,” He said. I
was shivering in my boots at this point and sweat
was dripping down from my forehead. “Please let
me go,” I said. BANG BANG BANG it was the green
beast rapping on the door. The slug-like creature
swooped me up in his flabs and we obliterated
through the ceiling into the night sky. “Sorry, I was
just in the middle of an ancient ritual of blessing my
books, I love books,” he said. Then we flew back to
my house. “Thank you, sir,” I said.

I walked back into my house, with my mom,
sleeping on the couch next to my little brother
sound asleep. The tv was on, they left spiderman
on. I carefully tiptoed past them and into my room
to go to sleep and hopefully wake up from this night
wiped out from my memory.