The Dead Forest

By Tom Raimbault

Too bad Mother and Father couldn't protect their beautiful daughter from her dangerous boyfriend. The forest is now haunted and echoes her final moments of desperately crying for help.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Raimbault
• Release date: Dec 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370452101

Tom Raimbault

When author Tom Raimbault was a teenage boy, he experienced a moment of terror in which he was thrown out his bed by a malevolent spirit late at night. It should be clarified that this spirit didn't actually enter the physical space where he slept on that particular night. Rather, it somehow accessed his consciousness as he tried to enjoy sweet dreams. The spirit coerced Tom to poise himself at the edge of the bed and then jump onto the floor. Upon relaying the incident many years later, he recalls growling some seconds before taking the plunge into darkness.Then his feet hit the floor which caused Tom to fully wake up. Terribly frightened and confused as to what happened, Tom screamed in terror and, of course, woke up the entire family. His startled father rushed into his bedroom to see what was the matter."It threw me out of my bed!" Tom declared to his father, who probably figured his son merely had a bad dream. But to Tom, the incident was very real. To this very day he knows what happened. Through dreaming, he had exposed himself to what was perceived as some dark and evil place in the astral realm where (what he perceived to be) a malevolent spirit with hyper dimensional existence managed to affect him here, in the physical realm. For many months, thereafter, Tom had to learn how to protect himself while dreaming. And it caused him to have the unfortunate phobia for some years after of his inherent skill of astral projection. It wasn't until he was in his early twenties that he resumed the practice of projecting his consciousness outside of the body.On that fateful night of being thrown from his bed; Tom had a series of bizarre dreams, afterwards, of a barn. It was an old barn that people had converted into a living area; not a farmhouse, but a barn. In his young mind, Tom concluded these people to be evil, perhaps even possessed by demons. And the barn held a mystery that could never be solved. You see, one would never want to enter the building because its infinite interior of ever changing, and "paradoxical" realities would trap an unfortunate visitor forever! The old building was a portal to some reality that we could never comprehend in this world.But what does Freudian dream analysis suggest of a barn?If one sees a barn in his or her dream, it often represents inhibited feelings or instincts that remain locked within the subconscious. With this revelation it's safe to conclude that on that fateful night, Tom simply had fragments of himself trapped within the subconscious mind. The malevolent spirit that threw him out of his bed could very well have been his Jungian shadow that was yearning to be consciously embraced and brought to light. You see, we as humans need to call to light and explore the dark facets of our psyche. Enlightenment does not happen by concentrating on "fluffy bunny" thoughts and imagining beings of light and benevolence. We need, rather, to expose the darkest corners of our subconscious, and understand them. Once set free, only then can we begin to experience states of enlightenment. Subconscious manifestation, after all, is one of our lifelong journeys.And that, my friends, is one of the purposes of writing for author Tom Raimbault. It could very well be his personal plunge into the dark corners of the subconscious mind where he extracts and brings to life the many nightmarish realities, some of which defy all logic or reasoning, but are for some reason bothersome and anxiety-provoking.Ask someone who is a fan of Tom Raimbault's writing; he or she might comment that "Tom writes those horror books."The reader interpreting his stories as being horror is fine for author Tom Raimbault. But, as he often lectures, "Horror has been tainted in the modern age in much the same way that the celebration of Halloween has been poisoned. For some reason, most people have come to see horror as blood and guts or evil. What fun is that? Horror is so much more and should offer a glimpse of what life beyond the veil is like."Tom further self-describes his writings, "Rather than write of blood and guts or feed people's obsession with demons and Hell, I simply write what I like to call dark fantasy, dark romance, paranormal or bizarro fiction."There is usually some supernatural element in author Tom Raimbault's writings that imposes itself our world. Characters have psychic abilities. Magick is a common theme. In many stories, those who have passed on to the other side continue to exist by simply reaching their hand through the veil and intertwining their dimension into ours. And most often, there is a lesson to be learned for conducting oneself unconscionably. It's old fashioned horror; elegant with integrity and always maintaining a respect for God.​You can feel good knowing that this is the sort of person writing the Mapleview series of books.

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The Dead Forest

Tom Raimbault

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © Tom Raimbault 2016

License Notes:

Copyright © Tom Raimbault 2016

All rights reserved! No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission from the author!

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer:

This work is 100% fiction. All scenes and events within these pages have been an invention of the author's imagination, and to his knowledge never occurred in reality. Any resemblance to the reader's own experiences is purely coincidental. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

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The Dead Forest

People call it the dead forest. Literally nothing more than a forest of towering, dead trees; really the forest preserve district should burn it all down. It's a section of some several hundred or more acres that can be accessed by an adjacent forest preserve that is separated by a shipping canal. Well, actually if you visit the adjacent forest preserve, you would need to cross the parking lot and connect to the sidewalk which runs along the highway bridge that extends across the shipping canal. If lucky, you might see a barge plowing through the water. And when finally reaching the other side, one accesses an obsolete forest preserve that has been taken out of commission for some years. The parking lot always has the Closed sign cable stretched across to prevent motorists from entering. Weeds grow through the cracked asphalt parking lot. And if brave enough to continue, one immediately finds him or herself in a place that locals call the dead forest.

It wasn't always called this. If you look at the old, warped sign you can see that it reads Berry Bush Forest Preserve. There actually are raspberry bushes that grow throughout this now untamed forest preserve. That's how it got its name.

But what about the trees?—you might ask? How did they all die?

It was a fungus attack that took a little over two years to completely destroy all the trees in the forest. It spread like wildfire, and rotted the outside bark of all the poor trees. As for the fungus; apparently it was unable to spread itself across the wide shipping canal which protected the adjacent forest preserve. But as for the dead forest, all that remains are towering skeletal trunks with large offshoot branches. It's an eerie place to visit in late autumn and throughout winter.

Now I'm going to contradict what I said above and add that summertime proves the dead forest to be anything but dead. Visitors who sneak past the Closed sign and hike the forest marvel at how the trees never actually died. What do I mean? Well, you see, like most trees in nature; many of the trees in the dead forest exhibit a drive to continue living and surviving to be beautiful, towering trees with lush, green leaves. Small offshoot branches began to grow out from what little life the trees had. These branches actually turned into long vines which extended hundreds of feet and wrapped all the way around the trees. The surrounding vegetation on the ground took advantage of the nearby trees and grew long vines upwards. The end result; the trees looks healthy and green with long, vine-like branches and leaves that rustle in the wind. And all the trees throughout the dead forest do this. It's a green forest of gnarly, old trees that continue to live beyond death. It gives new meaning to the nickname dead forest.

The dead forest certainly wasn't like this many decades ago, around the time that Donna was alive.

Who is Donna?—you might ask? And what could she possibly have to do with this fascinating dead forest"?

You will soon find out her connection to the forest in this story. But Donna was an amazing, young woman who was born in the mid-1950s—one of the first in her family born on American soil. Donna and her family were Spanish, not to be confused with Latin American—at least that's how ignorant Americans in the old days perceived Spaniards. It was often believed that since Spaniards and Latin Americans both speak Spanish, they should be considered one and the same.

But enough of all of that. Just understand that Donna and her family lived in a time when they were considered Spanish—the bull fighting people with all of their conquering splendor and pride. As for Donna, she certainly possessed the stereotypical Spanish appearance of long, raven black hair with dark Spanish eyed. But it was completed with fair skin. She was a pretty girl, to say the least, even at a very young age. When looking upon the child, one would immediately realize that Donna would grow up to be a very beautiful, young woman.

But it wasn't just her beauty that made Donna so outstanding. Donna reflected a certain wisdom and maturity that went many years beyond her age. This may have been attributed to her peculiar devotion to the Catholic faith. She spent many hours in the church, kneeling and praying before the numerous statues of the Blessed Mother and saints. At eight years old, she felt their constant presence and guidance. Keep in mind that this was in the days before the reformation of the Roman Catholic Church, a time when the entire mass was spoken in Latin and very few people actually understood what was being said. However, through Catechism, the nuns revealed to Donna all the doctrines of the Catholic faith, and countless prayers to be said. And like mentioned above, Donna often wanted nothing more than to spend hours in the church to say the Rosary, and kneel before one saint or another to pray. Yes, there was something outstanding about her. Mother and Father eventually assumed that she would grow up to be a nun.

Donna disproved this notion by the time she reached high school age. Many of the boys were crazy about Donna. And Donna seemed to enjoy every bit of it.

But, Donna... cited Father one afternoon, upon realizing that he would have to protect his daughter from countless boys who might fall head-over-heels for her, Don't you want to grow up to be a nun? All that time you spend in the church?

What? challenged Donna. When did I ever say anything about becoming a nun? I just like to pray, that's all. I want to get married some day and have a family.

Not that there's anything wrong with becoming a nun or—in the case of a young man—a priest, but Mother and Father felt a sense of relief with this.

***

Too bad Donna's parents were unable to protect their daughter against her future boyfriend, Stan. The home that Stan lived in had the town's cemetery just behind their backyard. A look out one of the back bedrooms would reveal the numerous gravestones, cement crucifixes and statues. And the only thing separating their backyard from the cemetery was a chain link fence. Now there are those who might believe that most people would have a problem with purchasing and living in a home near a cemetery. But this isn’t' the case. Surprisingly, most people agree that a cemetery off the backyard is a beautiful sight. It's peaceful and tranquil. And most people are sensible to realize that the dead don't hang around their graves. Are you, the reader, going to hang around your grave when you die?

But back to Stan. For the most part, Stan was a normal boy while growing up. But he developed some peculiar sexual perversions around the age of puberty. Remember, this was a time when people maintained a sense of decency. Sex was a big no-no back in those days. So when Stan developed those natural urges around early puberty, he buried them in the dark corners of his mind—hid them from parents, teachers, priests and the likes who would have scolded and punished Stan for thinking such things. And he wouldn't dare disclose his fantasies to his ever-dwindling group friends who were already noticing something odd about Stan. Someone might have told on him.

Then came a late summer in 1959 when a young woman named Lisa had been tragically killed in a car crash in town. At fourteen years old, Stan watched from his bedroom window as countless family and friends of Lisa assembled around her gravesite for one final goodbye. The gravesite could be seen