One time we saw something small and black - something burnt into a tree. It looked like the front half of a frog. We ran the rest of the way back.

It was always darker on that trail. The sunlight had a hard time getting in.

By the time, I graduated from grade school, new apartments had taken over the rest of the block. The forest was gone but the street always felt off.

All the neighborhood kids would go into the forest to wreak havoc far away from the eyes of adults but we would never venture deep. We always stayed on the outskirts of the forest.

We possessed a primal fear about these woods. It felt like something lived in the middle of the forest.