Rushing water splashing up the side of the canoe, as his heart beats out of his chest. Turning around every few seconds to see if he’s still being followed. He was. Always.

Paddling faster, he did all he could to speed up at least a little to get away from what follows him. Then once he turned around and what had been after him was no where in sight, and the river stilled. He let out a sigh of relief, this creature had finally left him alone. So he thought, but when he turned back around he faced his death.

A voice laughed from the banks of the river, he looked over and saw his giant pointing and laughing at him. In a frantic attempt to turn his canoe away from the waterfall his giant threw a rope out. The end was tied in circle and he could see his giant showing him to pull it over his head. He did.

The giant pulled the rope, then tied it around a tree and walked away. Leaving a man hanging dead over a dried up ditch in the middle of the woods. As the man’s giant left the forest it saw a little girl running it, she was frazzled, so the giant followed her.

She ran, and ran, and ran some more. Then she stopped and a scream broke the forest silence. “DAD!”

The girl looked around and frantically grabbed a stick, beating the rope praying it would snap as tears rolled down her face. The giant sat and watched her for hours, screaming and crying. Until the rope gave out and the man’s body fell.

“Dad!” She rushed to him, his neck bruised but other than that he was clean and dry.

When she went to check his pulse a letter fell out of his pocket. She grabbed it and rushed to get it opened.

“Maria, darling I’m so sorry. The giant came back, and he chased me through the woods and into the river. I thought I could out run him, but I just wasn’t strong enough. Not anymore I wasn’t. But I love you my little girl, I did my best and I’m so sorry I can’t be there to watch you live the rest of your life. Just promise me you won’t let any of my giants get to you. I know you think it’s crazy “giants” and the doctors think I’m sick, but I promise you they are real. And they are dangerous. Promise me Maria, you’ll be safe with out me. I did all I could to protect you, but my best was just never enough. I love you little girl.

-Dad”

She sat there for hours and hours, reading the piece of paper looking for something that made sense. But she never found it, her father was a schizophrenic. And had been hospitalized so many times she had lost count, but when they let him out the last time everyone thought he’d gotten better. They were all wrong, he wasn’t better and now he’s dead. He killed him self because he’d lost his mind.

The giant just sat and watched the little girl cry and scream all night. She cried herself to sleep over her fathers dead body and the giant just picked her up and hung her to. When the giant dropped her body, after putting her head through the noose, it said “At peace, apologize to you.”

Then the giant laid down in the ditch and waited for the earth to grow over. That was the last man to ever be diagnosed with schizophrenia, and people grew to forget about it.