I'm afraid that some times

  you'll play lonely games too.

  Games you can't win

  'cause you'll play against you.

  And when you're alone there's a very good chance

  you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.

  There are some, down the road between hither and yon,

  that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.”

  ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

  Once Upon a Time,

  In the Middle of Nowhere

  Blurry smudges of greens and browns. A hazy light tantalized his eyes through gaps in the color and the heavy scent of earth tickled his nose. Perhaps he was in a forest. He couldn’t remember. The only thing he could remember was his name. Kevin. Kevin Kennedy.

  As if startled awake from a dream, Kevin gasped and sat bolt upright. Hazy late-afternoon sun shimmered through a canopy of thick trees engulfing him on all sides. As his eyes adjusted, he glanced about. It took him a scarce few seconds to realize he had absolutely no idea where he was or how he got there.

  A girl’s scream made both his body and his heart jump. As birds fled the branches and bows, the little hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He scrambled to his feet as something crashed in the forest following the scream. He turned this way and that, but the almost featureless forest blocked him in every direction as if the trees had been planted by a lazy gardener.

  No landmarks told him which way to go for safety. Every way looked the same and each path wandered into the unknown. He turned this way, then that way, and then this way again. His mind tensed, his body even more so. Not wanting to be here anymore, Kevin chose a direction and ran. To spur him on, the girl shrieked once more.

  Low-hanging foliage slapped him in the face and arms as he ran. His clothing ripped when he fell into a tree—clothing he didn’t remember putting on, an ill-fitting white cotton short-sleeved shirt with a slash of blue across the chest. Branches reached for him and clawed at his thin body and light brown hair in attempts to capture him.

  Rocks hidden under a bush caught his foot and he tripped. Pain shot from his toe to his shin as he rolled end-over-end through the briars and bushes before hitting a tree trunk. The force knocked the wind from his lungs.

  Again, the girl in the forest screamed. Her cries chased him until they bounced off the trees.

  Something howled, deep and ferocious, like the roar of a bear, but somehow not.

  Using the tree as leverage, Kevin pulled himself to his feet and coughed to get his breathing back. Many more parts of his body protested and his foot ached. When he put weight on it, pain shot through his bones and crawled up his leg. “Shit.” He hopped through the woods, but with each step, the crashing and the screaming came closer.

  Kevin paused long enough to glance over his shoulder. Within those few seconds, he saw a girl his age, about eighteen, running through the forest. Her dark hair flashed in and out of trees and tall bushes.

  Tree trunks splintered and branches broke. In pursuit of the girl ran what may have been a grizzly bear-like creature. It galloped on all fours much faster than she could run, barreling through the forest as if the trees were of no concern to it.

  Kevin fought a momentary battle with himself, caught between running for his own life and helping the girl. That conflict proved to be a second too long, and the girl caught sight of him.

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  Hope shined in her eyes and she changed course to run towards him “Help me! Please!” she yelled.

  Kevin flopped for words before he waved his arms frantically. “This way! Run!”

  Not checking to see if the girl followed or not, Kevin turned on his good foot and leapt back into the forest. Pain assaulted his lower leg at him every other step, but ran anyway.

  The girl dashed past him, but caught a fistful of his shirt. “Move it!” she yelled. She dragged him behind her, and they ran directionless for a few paces before they tumbled out of the forest onto a dirt road.

  A horse reared in their path and whinnied. “Whoah, whoah,” a man’s voice soothed the beast. As if unfazed, the man gave a warm laugh. The horse quieted immediately and shook its head.

  “You have to help us!” the girl yelled. She abandoned Kevin and ran to the side of the cart. “It’s chasing us! Something’s chasing us!” As if in proof of her statement, a dark shape like a full-sized SUV broke through the forest and landed in the road.

  A huge bear hunched on legs as thick as Kevin’s body. Its clawed paws dug into the dirt. A massive head lifted into the air and roared. Loose rocks jumped around their feet.

  The old man leaned from the cart seat and smiled at Kevin the girl. Smiled! For a few seconds he simply stared into both their eyes, oblivious to the gut-wrenching battle cry of the giant bear beside his cart. “Monsters in this part of the world are drawn to you when you stray from the cart road.” The man pointed a calm finger under their feet. His smile never faltered, even as the beast took a bold step towards the teens and roared again.

  Kevin and the girl scurried around the cart to put it between them and the monster. As the bear snarled and stalked them, the horse pawed calmly at the dirt road. The cart driver only smiled.

  “You . . . you have a sword!” the girl yelled. She pulled at Kevin’s shirt before she shook him. “Use it! Kill that thing!”

  “What?” He patted down his body until his hand found the hilt of a sword and pulled it to his defense. The weapon was nothing more than a dull-edged, rusting blade as long as his lower arm. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” He threw a frown at the girl, and spotted a quiver and bow poking out from a holster on her back. “You have a bow and arrow! Why don’t you shoot it?”

  Another pounce sent them shuffling to keep the cart between themselves and the beast. A paw made a swipe for them, but caught a cart wheel instead.

  As the cart jostled and shimmied, the horse and cart driver remained calm. “You’re an Archer, Veronica,” the cart driver explained, his voice level and calm.

  Her head snapped up to him. “How . . .” She shook her head. “Never mind, just help us!”

  “Long-range fighters like archers can defeat enemies when it’s not feasible to get close enough to one to kill it.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” The ground rumbled again as the bear dropped back to all fours and leaped around the horse and cart.

  “Try your arrows, Veronica.” The cart driver smiled until his eyes turned to half-moons.

  Kevin waved his rusted sword around. Sloppy chops did little to discourage the bear or its desire to eat them alive.

  The girl, Veronica, snatched the bow from her shoulder and nocked an arrow. “But I’ve never shot at—”

  “Just try!” Kevin shouted. “Shoot it!”

  An arrow loosed from the bow with a snap. It pierced an eye and quivered in the socket. The bear howled and dropped to its belly to claw at its face.

  “Good shot, Veronica!” the cart driver congratulated. “Now Kevin. The target is dazed. You can finish it off with your sword.”

  Kevin gulped. “I-I, what?” His eyes swiveled to his sword. “Oh no! No way am I getting close to that thing!” His jaw dropped open when the cart driver simply smiled again. “Ah, you’re useless!” he yelled before turning to the girl. “You! Veronica: shoot it again!”

  Veronica bit her lip but pulled another arrow. It flew straight and true and hit the bear in the rump.

  “Good shot, Veronica!” the cart driver congratulated again. “Now, Kevin. The target is dazed. You can finish it off with your sword.”

  Kevin and Veronica both stopped. They studied the cart driver before turning to each other.

  “What is going on here?” Kevin asked.

  She shook her head in swift and jerky movements.

  A sour lump of dread formed in Kevin’s stomach. He swallowed hard. “Well, at least the bear isn’t coming after us anymore.” He heaved a sigh and pointed with the rusty sword. The giant bear sat on its haunches now, front paws clawing at its face in a poor attempt to reach the arrow piercing its eye.

  A spirited battle cry sounded from the forest, heralding the arrival of another teen dressed in the same white and blue tattered clothes Kevin and Veronica wore. He wielded a wooden staff, taller than him by half a foot, gnarled at the top until it curled in on itself. “Light that burns, hear my wrath!” he shouted.

  Fire shot from the staff and hit the bear square in the head, sending Kevin and Veronica diving for the road. Fur erupted into flames and the bear wailed and dropped to the dirt.

  “Good shot, Michael!” the cart driver congratulated. “Now, Kevin. The target is dazed. You can finish it off with your sword.”

  Kevin glared at the cart driver.

  The boy identified as Michael ran down the road towards them. “Kill it!” he yelled. “Before it kills us! Kill it!” Michael’s course brought him across the road full steam. He ran into Kevin and used his body to stop his momentum. The injury in Kevin’s foot made itself known with a colorful bloom of pain. “You need to kill it,” Michael said, panting. “Come on, I’ll back you up.”

  “Kill it? Back me up? Wait! Do you know what’s going on around here?”

  Michael smiled, showing all his teeth. “Nope. I have absolutely no idea.”