A forest can be many things. It can be dark and mysterious, tranquil and beautiful, fun and magical. Or in our case, just pure evil. It wasn’t always like this, at least not in the beginning. I’ve lived in the small town of Windale my whole life, and from what I can remember growing up, the forest just beyond the town always served as an escape for anyone looking to get away for just a moment. Children used it to play hide-n-seek, teenagers used it to party, and adults used it to escape their mundane lives by hiking its winding paths. Whatever it was used for, if that forest could speak, it would tell so many tales of almost every resident in Windale. For years the forest just beyond town was just that, a forest. Nothing more, nothing less. Up until that dreary dark day in October, when the forest we once knew, became forbidden to all who came near it. It started off like any other , a beautiful, crisp, sweater weather day. The town of Windale went about it’s usual routine like clockwork. Nothing out of the ordinary. But at exactly 2:18 p.m., for precisely 13 minutes the whole town of Windale went dark. It was as if a curtain shade was placed over the already partially hidden sun. The only area not affected by this darkness, was the now illuminated forest just beyond town. It stood out gleaming among the dusted shards of beaming sun light. The whole town stopped in its tracks, paralyzed by fear, not knowing what to do next. It was the longest 13 minutes anyone of us ever had to endure. It wasn’t just the darkness that consumed us, it was accompanied by the overwhelming sense of fear. But not just any fear, it was the kind that stayed with you forever, leaving an invisible dark stain on your soul. The only option to escape the dark, was the illuminating forest. It beckoned to us with its shimmering towering trees. It screamed our names through the howling wind. It tempted us with salvation and hope. But as soon as we attempted to cross the line between darkness and light, the forest shoved us back and howled “get out!” Shrouded in even more fear, we were all dumbfounded. The place we’d always escape to our whole lives, the place we needed the most during this time , left us out in the dark cold. We desperately needed the forest, but the forest didn’t need us. We stood there for 8 minutes trying anything and everything to break through. But with every attempt we were met with an instant failure and another howl from the forest. Then just like that, our 13 minutes of hell was over. The choking feeling from the darkness released us and we were able to breathe again. And like a flip of a switch, the town of Windale became illuminated and the forest turned to darkness. No one could explain it. But if that was the same darkness we just endured, we dared not enter the forest. What we thought was one day of 13 minutes of torture, ended up being everyday for years to come at precisely 2:18pm. This is our life now here in the small town of Windale , a town with a forest just beyond. A town controlled by the forest for 13 minutes a day, with no way of getting out.