The little boy frowned and folded his arms at the monster in front of him, stubbornly pouting his bottom lip. "I don't believe you're real. Momma said that things like you are just a figlament of imagination," he said, stammering over the word "figment."
"Oh?" The monster said in front of him, his giant snake-like scales glimmering across his smooth back like a thousand gleaming eyes in the dark. "And what did your mother say about the forest?"
The little boy's face pursed up in tight concentration, trying to recall his memories. He was already losing them.
"Never go into the forest."
The beast purred in satisfaction.
"Now why do you think she told you not to come here?"