A Flash fiction piece:

By: Jonathan Rockett

Breaking news. We have received news that a 10 year old boy by the name of Jack Forest has been

found beside Haysprings Highway and is said to have been rescued from a system of tunnels. He is

dehydrated and in need of urgent care. At this time, we aren’t sure what caused the boy to be in these

tunnels. Our reporters have found that the boy is alive and that there have been previous arguments

with his parents that suggest his reasoning for such an act. That is all we know at this point but we will

be back as more of the story develops. Back to you, Dan.

The camera flickers to life at the sight of a young boy. The camera is moved to the ground with a shot of

a closet door with clothes inside. The camera jerks forward towards the closet. The change of carpet to

hard wood makes the camera shake. Now in the closet, the camera pushes past clothes and stops at the

end of the closet. A piece of ply wood covers up the back of the long skinny closet, but leaves a small

opening in the lower right corner. The camera jerks to the right to face the hole and slowly moves

towards the opening. Once the front wheels get past the opening, the camera violently jerks from side

to side with the objects on the screen too dark to see. The camera finally stops and a wire is visible at

the bottom of the screen. After a pause, a light flickers on to reveal the menacing look of a skull looking

directly at the camera. A distanced scream is picked up from the microphone of the camera.

Carved into a tree next to the walkway to the entrance of the mansion were shaky letters saying,

The last letter of the words dragged to the base of the tree.

Carved into a tree next to the walkway to the entrance of the mansion were shaky letters saying,

The last letter of the words dragged to the base of the tree where a series of smiley faces were.

The tattered notebook with the title, “Jack Forest, 5th grade” contained many pieces of

classwork and, also towards the end, crude sketches of spiraling tunnels and dusty rooms with

many papers on the tables. Even old skeletons attached to chains haunted the rough sketches

in the notebook.