Jimmy Spencer was only ten years old and scared to go into the woods behind his house because his older brother Steven would tell him stories about a man that lived in a cabin in the woods that liked to kill children with his sharp ax. The stories always came late at night, whispered in the darkness of their shared bedroom, Steven's voice dropping to a rasp as he described the glint of moonlight on the blade, the wet sound of steel meeting flesh, the way children's screams seemed to echo forever among those ancient trees. During the daytime, Jimmy's brother would dare him to go into the woods, but Jimmy was so scared that if he did, he might be on the old man's chopping block behind his cabin. He'd seen the woods from his bedroom window—how the trees grew so thick that sunlight never quite penetrated to the forest floor, how fog clung to the undergrowth even on the brightest summer days, how no birds ever seemed to sing in those branches. One day when Jimmy was playing in his backyard all alone, he thought he heard a voice coming from within the woods calling his name. The voice was soft, almost melodic, drifting through the gaps in the fence like a serpent. "Jimmmmyyy... Jimmmmyyy..." Jimmy first thought it was the wind howling, so he just kept bouncing the rubber ball off the back wall of his house. The rhythmic thud-thud-thud of the ball helped drown out the unsettling whisper. Then he heard it again, clearer this time, more insistent. "Jimmy... come play... come see..." His hands trembled, and the ball bounced away into the grass. Sure enough, he did hear a voice, so he went to see who was calling his name. Each step toward the tree line felt heavier, as if the ground itself was trying to hold him back. The temperature dropped with every footfall, and he could see his breath misting in the air despite it being a warm afternoon. Just as he stepped foot in the woods, his brother Steven jumped out of a bush to scare him. Jimmy just about jumped out of his pants, his heart hammering so violently he thought it might burst through his ribs.