Once upon a time, in a forest where the trees grew taller than any skyscraper you've ever seen, something very strange was happening. It was a place where the mist always seemed lost, swirling around like a dog chasing its own tail. The birds didn’t fly in straight lines but zigzagged, as if they were in a hurry to get somewhere but didn’t quite know where. And the strangest thing of all was that, if you stood still long enough to listen, you could hear laughter. But not a cheerful, contagious kind of laugh that makes you smile. No, this laugh was sharp and faded away like a soap bubble before you could find out where it came from. It was the kind of laugh that made you glance over your shoulder, sending shivers down your spine.
Of course, this wasn’t an ordinary forest. This was the Crooked Scares Forest, famous for turning fear into something so absurd that sometimes you’d split with laughter… literally.
The kids from the nearby village, always in search of exciting stories, couldn’t stop talking about the forest. Every day a new rumor popped up: that the moss could talk (but only in rhyming poems), that the wolves howled out-of-tune lullabies, or that there was an old tree trunk with a face that told bad jokes whenever you got close. But the rumor that scared everyone the most, the one that made even the bravest feel a weird tickle in their stomach, was about a creature called the Joy-Snatcher.
The Joy-Snatcher was an ancient legend. No one knew how it started, but everyone knew the story. They said it lived in the heart of the forest, where the mist was thickest, and the shadows seemed to belong to no one. It wasn’t a fierce monster with sharp teeth or terrifying claws. No, that would have been too normal. Instead, the Joy-Snatcher was, as the tale went, something much worse: a creature that scared you so much, so deeply, that you’d burst into laughter. Literally. Your ribs would start shaking with uncontrollable giggles, and before you knew it, you’d collapse like a tower of blocks. Some said you’d laugh until you were just a little puddle of giggles.
Despite the warnings, there was always someone willing to face the unknown, because isn’t curiosity just a little push towards what scares you? And in this story, that someone was Paulie.
Paulie wasn’t a typical kid. For one thing, he had the habit of walking backward when he was thinking hard, as if his brain and his feet didn’t get along. He also collected mismatched socks, convinced that each one had a secret story only he could figure out. But the strangest thing of all was that Paulie wasn’t afraid of anything. Or at least, that’s what he thought.
One day, as the sun was setting behind the hills and the shadows of the forest stretched out like old chewing gum, Paulie decided it was time to face the Joy-Snatcher. He tied the laces of his sneakers into a knot so complicated it looked like it had been made by a nervous octopus, and he marched into the Crooked Scares Forest.
At first, everything seemed pretty normal. The trees were more twisted than usual, sure, but that was to be expected. The ground crunched under his feet as if it were munching on cereal, and each time Paulie took a step, the echo made it sound like someone was walking right behind him. But Paulie, being Paulie, kept going, determined.
After a while, he started to notice that the forest was getting… weird. Not the kind of weird you expect in an enchanted forest, but a different kind of weird, like the forest was having fun at his expense. A perfectly normal-looking rock suddenly let out a loud “Achoo!” that made Paulie jump a whole foot in the air. “Bless you,” he said, a little confused, and kept walking. Then, a bush started shaking, and before Paulie could get closer, it sneezed too. “Bless you too!” he muttered, getting more puzzled by the minute.
Further ahead, he came across a puddle. But this wasn’t just any puddle. The water wasn’t clear or brown. It was… bright yellow? “Well, that’s new,” Paulie thought. When he bent down to look closer, the puddle cheerfully greeted him with a, “Hello, neighbor!” Surprised but determined not to let anything intimidate him, Paulie raised a hand and waved back. “Hello, puddle!” he replied, and continued on his way, more and more convinced that the forest was full of pranksters.
And then, he felt it. A presence. Something, or someone, was watching him from behind the trees. Paulie froze. The air around him had turned colder, and the silence was so heavy that even his thoughts seemed noisy. Without daring to move, he heard a strange sound. It was like a whisper, but more… squeaky. As if a bunch of crickets had decided to put on a tiny opera. The sound got closer. And then, suddenly, it was there.
It wasn’t at all how Paulie had imagined the Joy-Snatcher. For one thing, it was much smaller. Almost tiny. It looked like a mix between a cotton candy cloud and a hedgehog that had been squished in a blender. It had a smile, but not a “I’m going to eat you” kind of smile. It was more like the smile of someone about to pull the biggest prank of your life.
And then, the unexpected happened.
The Joy-Snatcher leaned forward and… made a noise so ridiculously high-pitched that it sounded like a duck being squeezed by an accordion! Paulie stood frozen. It wasn’t the fierce roar he’d expected, nor a terrifying scream. No, it was a loud “Quaaack!” followed by a series of noises that sounded like poorly disguised farts.
And that’s when it happened. Paulie tried to hold it in, but it was useless. First, a small chuckle. Then, another. And before he could stop himself, he was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face. It was ridiculous! Absurd! The Joy-Snatcher wasn’t scary at all! It was the most absurd thing he had ever seen.
Paulie’s laughter grew so loud that soon the whole forest joined in. The trees creaked with laughter, the ground shook from all the giggling, and even the stones seemed to chuckle through their cracks. The Joy-Snatcher, delighted to have fulfilled its mission, kept making more absurd noises until Paulie couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed to the ground, exhausted from all the laughing.
When he finally caught his breath, Paulie stood up, wiping the tears from his face. The Joy-Snatcher looked at him with satisfaction, as if saying, “Mission accomplished.” And then, with one last “Quaaack!”, it disappeared into the mist, leaving Paulie alone in the forest.
As he walked back to the village, Paulie couldn’t stop smiling. He had found the dreaded Joy-Snatcher, and instead of being scared, he had discovered that fear was just a joke waiting to be understood.