Me, the Ponies and my Grandma

The sight of houses, buildings, stores, and coffee shops on every corner was quickly replaced with trees, trees, and even more trees as we travel all the way from my comfortable couch to the deep of the forest. A "family trip" as my parents like to call it, I vote more for the name "prison" but I guess that's only my opinion. And since my opinion isn't worth that much in this family. I guess I am stuck here.

I Look at the forest in front of me as I think about all the other things I could have done this summer instead of going to.. to THIS. I could go to paintball field with my friends, go skateboarding. I could have seen the new Y-Men movie, I could even go and ask Martha for a date, maybe, I don't know? that's a possibility, right?

"Monty….MONTY!" I hear my mother finally screaming in frustration while I was pretending not hear her. I slowly turn around to see her with a boring expression in my face. "Monty, are you listening? Can you please clean your little sister mouth, she could be drawn with her own barf" She says from the passenger seat of the van while my dad drives.

I look at my 3-year-old sister bond to a custom made baby seat of the car like if she was in one of those mental institutes for crazy people. "Calm down Mom, she is ok. Is just a little spit of milk," I say as I clean her her cheek with my shirt and making funny faces earning a cute laugh from her.

"But not with your shirt sweetie, we have to look nice for your new sister-in-law. We need to have a good first impression. Or did you forget about them?"

"Sure, how can I forget about that?" I mentally roll my eyes. Not seriously I am asking, how can I forget about it? My mom and dad could not stop talking about my oldest brother, Jimmy getting marry with a woman of a prestigious family, owners of a chain of a 5-star hotel all over the world or something. Frankly, I start thinking that they forgot all about my other older brother and me.

"Oh, and we forget to tell you that Sammy is about to get his doctorate in medicine too so we have organized him a party for him. We even invited all of his friends. So don't ruin your clothes before the party would you, son?" My dad says adjusting the rear-view mirror to look at me.

So is just me who is forgotten, as usual."What? Are we going to have a party? Why hasn't anyone told me before? And why does he have a part? No one throws me a party when I pass 8th grade" I complain while I got aware that we have already arrived at our destiny, I cabin in the middle of the forest where we went every summer and I loved going when I was a child. Only when I was a child.

"Ush, Ush, Samantha. there-there," My Mom runs to comfort my sister as the sudden slam of the car door I shut scare her. She releases all the harness from the costume made baby seat she order and hold her close as she looks at me with an angry expression. "You mean barely pass. You almost fail the semester, remember? Seriously Monty Jimmy and Sammy pass with straights A's in their high schools. Sure you can do better than that in.. yours." She says making emphasis in yours.

I roll my eyes and sigh deeply "Yeah sure mom, sorry for being the shame of the family," I say grabbing my old and trustworthy blue backpack out from the back of the car. I have to do it by myself since there wasn't anybody to do it for me. Dad has given them all a vacation for the week.

"Augh, Monty don't be so melodramatic. And I am going to tell you this before you over react, Your Grandma call and she says that she is coming to the party too"

And as if someone had thrown a baseball ball into my weak point I let go of my backpack and turns to look at my mom in shock." Grand's coming?!"

The rest of the day pass as I expected. The party was as boring as any other party my parents organize. Full of fancy stuff with a fancy food and all. I stare at Sammy's friends with a little amusement while they slowly die of boredom. They surely didn't expect this to be this boring. I and all my other brothers are already used to this kind of parties but it is always fun seeing the will of some people being decayed on parties like this.

After a while, when the dinner was over and the sun was getting down, Sammy and his friends call a limousine to go to the "real party" as he calls it. Of course all behind my parent's knowledge. For them, Sam is an angel. If only they know the things he has told me.

"Well is getting late. Why don't we prepare everything for some smores and sing songs around a campfire like we use to." My dad says after he and mom say their last congrats to Sam and give him and his friends a farewell.

"Ho good idea Albert. Jimmy, why don't you come with me to grab some firewood in the forest " My grandma says with her trembling voice graving my shoulder with her hand. Since she arrives at the cabin, she has tried to make a conversation with me. I, being the stubbornness teen as I am, try my best to pretend not hear her and walks away from her.

I like my Grand, I really do. And maybe that's kind of the problem. But if there is something I hate about her is that awful habit of her of mistaking my name with my brother's.

"Grand he is not Jimmy, I'm Jimmy, did you take your pills?" My oldest brother says entering the room with my soon-to-be-sister. She was a tall Caucasian young lady with long red hair. I would salute her before if it weren't for the fact she seems to have a snotty attitude. My brother sure knows how to pick them. "And is better if I go instead, is getting late and soon it will get dark"

"No, is ok, he can come with me. I will protect him if something happens. And thanks for reminding me about my pills Sweety" Grand says grabbing Jimmy's cheek like a little kid, he is 28 by the way, then she grabs from her big purse a bottle with big, yellow and green pills and swallows one of them.

"I need no protection. I am already all grown up thank you very much. And who is saying I want to go? " I say while pulling my shoulder away from Grand's hands as well as giving her a quick glare. My grandma looks back at me with eyes that I really couldn't read. I never know what is in her mind sometimes so I don't know if she was mad, confuse or sad which really defeats the purpose of doing that sort of things. I can never get an overreaction from that lady.

"C'mon Monty, you know Grands. She always does whatever she wants. You must have gotten used to it by now." My brother says while putting a hand in my head petting it. "We all know how she is" he finished saying with a melancholic tone in his voice.

Grand use to travel a lot in her younger days for her work. Now that she is retired, she still travels a lot but we don't really know why or even where most of the times. We know she travels around the world only because of the few times she sends postcards of the different places she goes and the quick visits she gives from time to time. From Egypt to Australia and from South America to the North pole. She always goes traveling the world without even a goodbye, one day she is eating dinner with us, the other she is gone for a year.

"C'mon everyone, is getting dark! Why are you taking so long to come over here?! Monty, could you please go already for some wood its getting cold out here!" My mom screams from the backyard where we usually make the campfire.

"Ugh, I am on my way!" I scream at my mother while I go to get my backpack and coat. "I am going alone if you don't mind," I say to my grandma while taking my phone and earphones out of my backpack and put them on while I walk towards the door and went outside and into the woods.

The sun has just hidden into the western horizon. The animals in the forest start to get ready to sleep only for the nocturnal creatures to start hunting for their food. The first star of the night is already up in the dark sky. I heard that if you are the first one to see the first star of the night your most wanted wish you had in your mind in that moment will be granted at the start of the next day. I really hope it isn't true though. I can't wait until morning to get my most wanted wish granted.

"Where the fuck am I?!" I ask out loud to no one in particular hoping for someone to answer. I was collecting dry pieces of wood for the fire but I guess that in between the complaints about my life and my music I get distracted and swerve off the path because I didn't recognize where I was.

"Great, I have no signal in here, damn Verizon. GPS isn't working either" I say walking and looking at my phone trying to get it to work. Since I have memory, I always use this forest as my playground, I should have known it as the palm of my hand but….

"Hmm?... HAAAAAAA!" I scream well I was falling down a hill that was hidden between some bushes. The sudden falling makes me lose the firewood I was caring as well as my phone I was using as a lantern.

"Ugh, dammit," I say as I examined my right leg where I can see a small blood stain. I also have some bruise and cuts all over the rest of my body but nothing too serious. "Ouch!... *sigh* Luckily I have a first aid kit in my backpack, wait? where is my phone?"

While looking for my phone I examine where exactly I have fallen. Apparently, I didn't fall from a hill, it was a hole in the ground. Deep enough to hide a tree and It was full of vegetation and vines covering the sides. "That's why I didn't see it." I thought to myself blaming the vegetation more than me.

Expecting carefully my surroundings, I see the light of my phone stuck in between some branches and vines on the ground all the way on the other extreme of the hole. "How the heck did it goes all the way there?"

I walk towards it and stand on my knees trying to reach it from the ground but I move back when I feel pain going through one of my fingers."Ouch! what a sharp piece of wood" I say while liking the cut in my finger.

I suddenly stop all my movements when I notice the low sound of breathing from something near me." Ho please let that be a squirrel" I pray.

My blood gets cold as I notice the sharp branches that were holding my phone, or should I say claws dragging my phone into the darkness. A big silhouette caught my eyes as well as a pair of yellow glowing eyes with no pupils from behind some vines on the wall It seems that the vines were hiding some sort of cave or a tunnel from where this creature glares at me.

I took slow steps back trying to run from the beast but the only thing I accomplish was cornering myself into the limits of the hole. The walls were too slippy to have a good grasp on it and the vines break easily with my weight if I try to use them to climb. Now I was between the rock and a hard place.

"Oooooowhoo!"

I heard the howling of the beast taking steps towards me. It is then that I finally could see the creature. Its sharp fangs and big size tell me it is not a friendly creature of the forest. The big dog with no fur was getting close get out of the shadow and is seeing thanks to the pale light of the moon. The strange but intimidating wolf was reaching out to me but I didn't give it enough time to do whatever he was planning to do with me. No, before that I let out a loud scream, a scream that probably was in a very high-pitch for a human male to be able to make.

But regardless of that, it seems that the scream took the wolf by surprise because it moves back banishing between the darkness of the tunnel. But not before I notice a small grim on the creatures face and the sound of a subtle laugh echoing in the tunnel.

"Di-did that wolf just laughs at me?" I thought. Shaking my head I try to push the strange thought of a smiling dog out of my mind. "I have to get out of here and quick," I say as I took my backpack from the ground ready to try to climb up once more. But before leaving, an unsettling feeling pass through my head. You need a quick pick from the tunnel, You need to see what is in there.

"No, I can't. What if the wolf comes back" I say out loud trying to convince myself. But the more I think about it, the more I want it to take a look. Something in my guts is screaming at me to do it.

With my curiosity winning over my sense of self-preservation I move the vines blocking the tunnel and took a pick into the dark cave.

"Here dear, you can use this"

"No thanks, I have a flashlight I think," I say as a hand retires a lighted torch in front of me.

"Let's go then. Let's see where this tunnel leads to. You wouldn't let an old woman go alone through this tunnel, would you?" My grandma says as she took a step forward into the tunnel with a torch made up of wood and a rope of some sort around the piece of wood taking a step inside.

"GRAND! Where? What? How did you…?" I say in surprise to my grandma who was already relative far into the tunnel." W-wait, Wait for me!"

As I enter the tunnel I grab my phone that was a drag before by that thing only to find out it was broken. The screen has a small scratch and when I watch the screen I see that it was glitching showing random times and dates while making a hissing sound so I decided to turn it off for the moment. "Ho no this is my third phone this year, mom is going to kill me."

Puting the phone into my backpack I see my grandma with the torch not so far from me."How do you find me?" I say finally reaching up to her, for an old lady she walks fast.

"I hear a woman screaming so a went to check it out and found you, how about you? How you end it up in here?" Grand says while she keeps walking with her walking stick.

"Huu?... Ho! Yea right I-I hear the woman too hehe" I lied scratching the back of my head while trying to avoid eye contact and the blushing of my face. "I hear the scream and went to check it out too. But what are you doing in the middle of the forest? in the middle of the night for that matter?"

"Well, isn't that obvious Jimmy? I was looking for you. We get worried when you didn't come back. After a few hours, I come looking for you."

"Ho! And where did you get the torch?"

"But from my purse of, course" Grands say tapping with her fingers the big old lady purse in her hands. "I never get out with some torch fuel and a lighter in hand Sweaty. What I have always told you?"

"That you should always be prepared for anything," I say rolling my eyes in annoyance. Telling the truth, she is the reason I have my backpack with a med kit with me at the first place, but to be prepared with the materials needed for a torch. Grandma is hardcore.

"Exactly Jimmy, I had thought you well"

"Grands, for the last time I am not Jim-"

"Shuu, Jimmy do you hear that?" Grands ask interrupting me. I stay quiet while listening, that's how I was able to hear the sound of drops of water falling. And not only that, I smell humidity in the air, the smell of dirt recently getting wet.

"Is it... raining? But I didn't see any clouds in the sky when we enter" I say while finally noticing something strange with the tunnel. I couldn't see the moonlight in the entrance from where we enter the tunnel. Even though the entrance was cover in veins, I was still able to see the pale light of the night through it but now I just see pitch black.

"I think it comes from the other side of the tunnel, c'mon Jimmy," Grandma says increasing the velocity of her walking.

"Wait, Grand. I think we should go back. There is something strange in here and I don't like it." I say in vain as my grandmother walks out of the end of the tunnel.

The other side of the tunnel was cover in vines like the other side. But where the other side was inside a hole, this end was on top of a mountain. And, as we thought, it was raining. We were still in the forest, I can still see the trees but something was odd about it. It didn't feel the same.

"Grand, I don't like it in here we better go back, I satisfy my curiosity already. Let's just go home should we?" I say ready to get back into the tunnel.

"Jimmy! Where is your sense of adventure, let's explore a little bit more. We could find something interesting." The old lady says walking into the forest with me behind her.

"Something interesting? What can we even find in a forest that will be even remotely in-ter-est-ing?" I say with my words cutting off as I see what it was in front of me. We have walked reaching the edge of the mountain where we were able to see a big castle in ruins. The old castle was a few kilometers from where we were standing which was strange since I don't recall ever hearing about a castle being around this place. Did we really move that far from the cabin?

"Wait, Why is that a cast~ Wait? why are we on the top of a mountain?! How in heavens do we get here? We were at ground level when we enter the tunnel and we walk in a straight line. Why the fuck is there a castle here and why I never see it before" I say freaking out watching desperately at my surroundings trying to find an explanation to all of this.

"Jimmy, watch your language, also I think there are bigger problems to be concerned with."

"What could be more important than this," I say moving both hands and pointing at the castle in emphasis. There is when I notice, the feeling of something watching us from the shadow of the forest and the sound of branches breaking.

The howling combined with the sound of thunder in the sky makes my legs to sake as I slump down into the ground. The approaching of shadowing figures coming out of the forest make my blood ice cold once again as I recognize those shadowy figures."Of course, there are more. Wolfs always hunts in packs"

"Ho, but these aren't ordinary wolfs, deer," Grand says with her unchanged trembling voice looking everywhere at her surroundings;

I didn't think twice of what my grandma means by that. As soon as the wolfs come out of the shadows I realize that what I have in front of me wasn't natural.

"Are they..... made up of w-wood?" But I didn't have time for an answer as one of those wolfs jumps right at us.

" Ho CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAPPPPPPP!"