“I’m safe nothing will eat me. I’m too young to die. Chances are the ugly monsters will eat a nice big fat rabbit. God knows they’re all over the place.” Shannara whispered under her breath. At the moment the only thing keeping her from turning around and running for her life were the softly spoken words.

Within her minds eyes she could see the towering trees turn into tall shadowy figures with stark white teeth that could pierce a steel bar. There long arms with bony hands, and sharp nails reached out trying to capture her so that they could feed from her youth, bushes turned into hairy balls of fur with red eyes and sharp white teeth, their saliva dripping to the floor hungrily.

The dark and silent atmosphere did not help her overactive imagination, or at least that’s what she hoped it was. She also hoped that the trip to her aunt’s house would end soon. Any longer in the forest and she was sure to die of terror. The only reassuring thought was that it wasn’t a full moon and it wasn’t a new moon; if it had been she would have a lot more going through her head then a monstrous trees and killer bushes- a lot more.

Shannara soon found herself watching her back every few steps. Stories of how monsters seemed to attack most from that direction made her nervous. The very thought of some kind of dark creature with blood red eyes filled with a vicious hunger, black knotted fur, long nails covered in crusted blood and God knows what else attacking from behind was just to horrifying for her young mind. He would be 6ft tall if he stood on his hind legs, the exact positioning which he would attack her in. He would be silent, as silent as a cat when she spots her prey. He would be watching her, waiting for her weakness, and then attack, from the front. Why from the front you ask? Because she was to busy looking behind her.

Shannara screamed. She swore she saw something black move in front of her, silent just like the monster she pictured in her mind, blending in with the shadows with his thick-knotted black fur. She must have seen him, the dark creature who could kill her in seconds. And who would be know attacking from behind because she was to busy looking into the forest ahead of her. She really hated her imagination.

A twig snapped to her left, the sudden sound of leaves moving, more twigs, the beast wasn’t playing any longer. Only seconds left before he bust through the bush to her left. Only second that she did not have to start running for her life. She froze in terror. If she could think could think at that moment, she would have hated herself. All the books she had read to about monsters and how to get away from them… useless. She was about to die and she just stood there, stupidly.

The bushes opened, Shannara tensed, eyes shut tightly, awaiting her fate. Nothing happened, she waited a few more seconds then opened her eyes to see a black rabbit with brown eyes. No big scary monster and no red hunger filled eyes. She was pathetic.

“Wait one moment… why would a rabbit run that fast?”

A second later she remembered when she was six years old and watching a movie that still scared her. The hero was walking through a forest much like this one. A monster, much like her monster, had been chasing him, and then a rabbit came. He let his guard down, and was attacked moments later by the very monster he was running from.

Shannara paled, her legs finely became unfrozen and started to move before her brain even told them too, and move they did. She would have made her gym teacher proud with her sudden burst of speed. In fact, if this had been a race she would have won first place. Shannara didn’t stop till she was safe in her own house, with her mother’s arms protecting her from all the evils the forest could create, and her imagination… most definitely her imagination.