I’ve noticed the opening along my walks through the forest trail many times but this is the first time I’ve ever decided to go down the small steep hill to the dark entrance.

I already feel the prickly chill of goose bumps running up my spine and I’m not even to it yet. I brush it off and step closer to the darkness. I’m at the entrance to the tunnel before I know it and look in, and I could see no end.

I touch the brick outlining the entryway, it crumbles slightly under my fingertips. This tunnel looks like it’s been here for a very long time, the woods have grown around and onto it, their vines swirling around the brick.

It doesn’t take long for my eyes to start playing tricks on me when deep in the tunnel a pair of eyes appear. I rub my own hoping to not see what I had thought I did but they were still there, unblinking and looking straight at me.

I take a step back, my anxiety growing. The eyes are moving now, getting closer, the closer it gets the farther back I step, until my heel connects with a root and I trip. I thankfully catch myself and look back at the dark abyss of the tunnel. The eyes blink and the sound of a small yip sends me running back up the small embankment and back onto the trail. Never looking behind me as I sprint towards home. Missing a small brown puppy trot out of the entrance, ears raised and head tilted in what could only be confusion.