Something gently nudged the back of Kaelen's head a few times, causing him to mumble and furrow his brows as he tried to hold on to sleep. Then the sound of a haunting moan came from behind him and the little boy's eyes shot open. He thought he'd dreamed that sound last night, but it was undeniably real, even in the brightness of day. Kaelen quickly rolled onto his back to see the hideous creature looking down at him with sorrowful, milky blue eyes.

A scream caught in Kaelen's throat, the fear gripping at his chest holding too strongly onto the sound to let it escape his mouth. He could see the creature in perfect detail now that the sun was up. Its gray skin looked decayed and sick, stretched tight across its bones and the tiny bit of muscle definition it had. There was no hair on the creature save for a few long, stringy, dark strands placed sparsely on top of its head. Its lipless mouth was slightly too large for its face and there was no pattern to the shape of its yellowed teeth. Some of them were long and sharp like canines while others were flattened at the end like an herbivore's teeth would be, all of them randomly shoved into its maw without order. Instead of a nose, it had a slight ridge above its mouth with two nostrils allowing for air to come in and out. Its ears were similarly shaped, not really ears so much as twisted holes on either side of its head. Its foggy eyes looked like a dead man's and couldn't seem to focus straight. They looked sad and pained.

It gave out another soft moan as its lanky body sat in the mixture of dust and pine needles that had collected on the forest floor. A bony downturned fist with one finger missing was slowly held out to Kaelen, stopping just above his chest. The wide-eyed child stared back and forth between the creature's hand and its face, waiting for something to happen. Eventually another sad moan came from the creature as it opened its fingers and dropped a handful of blueish-purple berries onto the boy's shirt.

"O-oh... You want me to have these?" Kaelen suddenly realized that the creature had been waiting for him to take them.

It gave out a tired sounding groan before turning its attention to its other hand, which was missing the tip of its middle finger, and unfurling its bony appendages to reveal another handful of berries resting in its palm. Gingerly picking a few of them up, it slowly brought them up to its mouth and ate them. Kaelen watched it repeat this until the monster's share was gone, then looked down at the berries still lying on his chest. He figured if the thing that had given them to him had eaten them, then they were probably safe to eat himself.

After collecting the small blue spheres of food into his hand, Kaelen took one of them and placed it on his tongue before biting into it. Sour juices spilled out into his mouth and he made a funny face, blinking his eyes and puckering his lips at the tartness. The berries were not as sweet as he would have liked, but after swallowing one down, his stomach instantly growled for more. He was too hungry not to eat the rest. It didn't take long before he had devoured them all, sitting up once he was done.

"I'm still hungry," he said, turning to look at the creature beside him.

It drew in a long, rattling breath, before letting out a deep sigh and getting up on all fours. Despite being relatively human shaped, it walked on all fours, bending it's legs out awkwardly so it could reach the ground with its hands. It crept sluggishly away from Kaelen, wandering off into the forest. At first Kaelen just watched its retreating figure, but then he decided he didn't want to be alone, even if it meant following after this terrifying thing.

"Wait for me!" The boy scrambled to his feet and recklessly stumbled after it.

Once he caught up, Kaelen lingered a foot or two behind the creature as they made their way quietly through the forest. Breaking through the thicker part of the woods, the two left the shade of the trees to enter into a brightly lit clearing. It was starting to get hot outside and the sun hung in the sky above, shining brightly down on them as lazy clouds gradually passed by. Kaelen looked up at the blue of the sky, reaching up to rub some dirt off his forehead and brush a few locks of brown hair out of his face. His mom had wanted to give him a haircut before going camping, but he wouldn't let her. He hated haircuts. He was always afraid the buzzing razor would cut him.

Another soft moan from the creature brought Kaelen's attention back to it and he looked over to see it gently brushing a single finger against a plant growing up out of the dirt. It was the same kind of plant that Kaelen had tripped on before, scrapping up his hands and knees. Its leaves were green and red and had pokey ridges lining them, but underneath the leaves hung a cluster of blueish-purple berries. They were the same type he had just eaten.

Kaelen quickly walked over and knelt down to the plant, picking as many of the tiny fruits as he could get his hands on and popping them into his mouth. The creature beside him sat quietly watching as he ate. It was a little unnerving, but it wasn't like there was much Kaelen could do about it. He wasn't complaining, after all, the monster had been nice enough to lead him to food.

Once Kaelen had stripped the bush of all its edible parts, he pushed himself up off the ground again and looked at the creature, who stared blankly back at him. He didn't know if it could understand him, but he thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to try talking to it.

"I'm lost. I want my mommy and daddy. Can you help me find them?" he awkwardly asked the creature.

It made no sound or movement as it stared back at him. Several moments passed in still silence before Kaelen felt tears start to wet his eyes.

"I want to go home," his voice quivered, a knot forming in his throat as he fell to his knees and began to cry again.

He sat there sniffing and hiccupping as hot tears streamed down his cheeks. Kaelen's head was down and he was too tired to sob loudly like he had the day before, so he just stared through his salt and water blurred vision at the ground while birds chirped in the trees around him. A few more minutes of silence passed before the creature stirred in front of Kaelen, making him look up at it through his wet lashes.

Without a sound, the monster slowly crept over to him and put its long, thin arms around him. Kaelen tensed up slightly but slowly relaxed and let the ugly thing hug him. It patted his back in a slow, gentle rhythm until Kaelen stopped crying. Just when the embrace was starting to become uncomfortable, it let go and gave out a very long, haunting moan. It almost sounded like it was crying too.

Once the sorrowful sound faded, the creature slothfully reached for Kaelen's hand, taking it into its own deformed one, and turned around. It crawled slowly back towards the dense grouping of trees, gently pulling Kaelen along with it.

"Where are we going?" Kaelen asked, rubbing the tears from his eyes with his free hand.

The creature gave a short moan in response and continued on, leading the little child out of the clearing and back into the shaded forest. Kaelen didn't know where they were headed or if he'd ever make it out of the trees again. The thought of never seeing his parents or his little sister again made his bottom lip quake. He might never see the pastel blue of his house again or hear the lunch bell from first grade ringing through the school hallways. He may never again count down the seconds as the microwave cooked his dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets or run through the sprinklers in his swim trunks in the backyard while his friends had water gun battles and laughed with him. He wondered if anyone would miss him if he never came back home again.

As the tears started to come again, Kaelen's nose began to run and he sniffed several times, wiping the snot away with his sleeve. The monster must have noticed, because it made another soft moan and stopped to turn around and face him.

"I'm sorry. I'm just sad." The monster moaned again as Kaelen apologized, then awkwardly turned its back to him.

Kaelen thought it might just keep walking but was confused when it leaned back into him and reached its arms behind it to pull him in against it. It reminded Kaelen of when his dad would give him piggyback rides, so Kaelen climbed up on the creature's back, wrapping his legs around its thin frame to keep from sliding off. This must have been what it wanted, because it kept one arm reached back to hold the child steady before leaning forward again and continuing to crawl forward on its other three limbs.

Kaelen let his head rest against the sickly gray skin of the thing's back as it slowly made its way through the forest towards wherever it was traveling to. His eyes stung from all the crying he had been doing and felt puffy and dry, like they had run out of tears. No longer able to help it, the little boy let his heavy eyelids fall and was lulled to sleep by the slow sway of the creatures movements as it continued on through the foliage.