Callo Dolman

Callo is an adventurous type and always thought to seek it out. After his mother made him porridge he finished his bowl and wandered off looking for something interesting to do. That day had been usual, his father sat reading magazines on the stairway step and his mother had been painting what looked to be a frog. He noticed they seemed to be off in their own daze so he left through the back glass door; precariously stepping, not to trip. He still remembers this day well.
He was around nine at the time and what happened on the journey still leaves this day vivid in his mind. His backyard was not anything special, it had a stone paths leading to the side of the house and had a blueberry bush acting as a fence that walled his house off from the forest. Callo already knew where his adventure would begin, just a year previous, he skipped about in the yard and noticed what looked to be a slight opening behind a stone rock. He moved the rock with all the force he could muster which was enough to see an entrance. He crouched down and began to crawl through the blueberry bushes. This left his pants muddy and knees scratched. With some tears in his shirt above, this was enough to fit. After a minute or so he was out on the other side. He saw a forest he knew he wasn't allowed to go near, yet it called to him. He turned around only to see the blueberry thicket towering over him. With a momentary pause, he heard his mother calling him from inside for lunch, but he knew even before she called, that he had found, a new adventure.
Now after a year of going in and out of the opening, today was no different. The opening now became a path as sorts he called Lumino. A few months earlier he even took some clay his mother was using as an art project and began to make a solid path that would no longer scrape his knees. He made sure it fit and let it dry in the sun. Which was easy because it was summer at the time. Today was different though, he was on a time crunch because his mother expected him inside at lunchtime. Which was only an hour and a half away, to keep track of the time he asked his mother to buy him a watch a month earlier. The item was adorned with polka dots and a face of a mouse. It was big on him the time, loose on the wrist which made running difficult because it would slip off. But it will do the trick. To save time, instead of going his usual route he thought a shortcut would do him fine. He saw what looked to be a path that could do and he thought maybe on the path he would see some new creatures he could jot down in his notes as well.
"A possible caterpillar or even a bluejay!"
On this path was a series of roots of overgrown trees that made the ground uneven and navigation difficult. They intertwined leaving the place feeling rather eerie because of the misshapen trees that looked to be towers on there own. Callo continued down on what he thought was a shortcut until he stumbled upon a cave. The cave was quite tall with grass on either side making it morph into a hill. The cave had an old rustic sign on the side, which looked to be there for almost a decade or two. Even though the letters where faded it appeared to read "Westward" which can be assumed the forest name is. With all the bravery Callo could muster, he ventured into the cave, curiosity peaked. The cave had cracks along the top which aided in light. This was the only saving grace of it, because at least Callos own two feet where visible. The place surprisingly never echoed, but rather creaked. It was so loud leaving Callos head aching afterward, all his footsteps caused a loud ricochet off the ground to his ears. When he finally came outside the cave he didn't see his normal path, or even normal critters. Rather many transparent beings of all hues, shapes, sizes, and varieties. Callo stepped backward in some shock, but not of fear. He read about these beings in his schools library about a being called a, "Tulpa" which he assumed these to be. He quickly brought out his journal and crudely sketches the figure of these beings out. Even for someone who was nine, it was almost just a scribble of shapes but to him it was more than that. It was a true adventure.
He ran through the cave and along the roots to the Lumino. He never ran or crawled so fast in his life. Even though the creatures themselves don't scare him, everything else about it did. The cave, his parents reaction, the sign. He felt trapped and paralyzed in place at the same time. He was truly petrified. He crawled out of the blueberry bush and shoved the rock back to place. He sat down in his backyard taking it in, he breathed a sigh of relived and checked his watch to see only 30 minutes had past. Never the less he walked to the sliding door to seem normal but it was locked. Still spooked, he began to panic thinking something terrible would occur. This was brief because his mother had opened the door in a matter of 20 seconds. He looked up to her and hugged her tightly, only see the look of concern was evident in her face. His dad even peered from behind his magazine to see what the commotion was about. His mother was asking questions frantically,
"What happened?" "Are you okay?"
"Why are you here earlier than usual?"
With all that he could muster, Callo said one word which made his mother smile in relief and his dad to continue to gaze at his magazine which was,
"Spiders."
A good cover-up and with that, all is well, though Callo knew he could never actually tell anyone he, for starters, wasn't allowed in the forest and would face punishment, no one would believe him, and lastly he didn't want anyone else to know, this was something special to him and him alone. Over the next years, he would go every Sunday and this tradition would continue till he was 19 when a change would happen.
To his parents, a suspicion would grow. It is one thing being a 9-year-old playing in the yard and another being 19. His dad assumed he had no social life, which wasn't too far off from the truth. He had classmates which he was close with, but no actual friends to hang with but he was okay with that. Friends seemed like to much work. And his mother thought he would read books on the side of the yard, where the stone path ended. Callo supposed this was assumed because he always brought a book with him, but in reality, it was his journal used for the tulpas. His parents either didn't care enough or couldn't be bothered so they never inquired about it.
Some things have changed though. The blueberry bush had grown so tall you could not see past it and there now is a swing set in the yard that he had gotten when he was twelve. Lumino also couldn't fit him anymore so he had to expand the entrance which made the rock covering it useless. To counter this, he planted a tree nearby whose branches hung low enough to where they covered the entrance.
Another thing which had changed was the 'cleanliness' of the forest. On the outer edge of Westward had litter covering it. From teens smoking and littering the cupcake and candy wrappers, they got from the gas station nearby. He noticed this when he tried to find another entrance to the tulpas but he was relieved to find a huge thicket of undergrowth acting as a wall to those in the town trying to enter the forest. Callos side was rather clean, because of the wall, the only way to enter the forest on his side was through the residential area which meant you actually had to live there to access it. Also, since the outer edge was so bad, no-one thought to go to the center because many thought the other part of the forest was trashed so why bother using that much effort to get there. It was a deterrent of sorts, which was a love-hate relationship to Callo. Hate because the forest was his home, he spent the better half of his life here and people are trashing it. Though he loved it meant because no one would come to his end of the forest.
Today Callo went his normal route, he passed by the old sign that he with a big marker wrote Lumino. To claim it as sorts. He didn't know when the transition began. When Lumino was also his secret tulpa hangout instead of the pathway through the blueberry bush but it did with some time. He went to his normal rock and began telling the tulpas about his week and some issues at school. He spoke to them as pets, with the accompanied baby voice. He sketches down the tulpas hoping to find a repeat but there never was one. Every time he came here they where always new even though they remembered him the same. This strikes him as odd but he has grown to accept it. Recently, Callo began to sneak out to Lumino towards the evening swell as the mid-to-late morning. He used to go only on Sundays but he has found himself going after school and hanging about till 5-6 pm or so. His parents don't mind his absence, they assume he's studying. This place is more than a hangout, its a home to de-stress and that's special. Weirdly, Callo always only goes to hang on his rock because the tulpas would just follow him up. But when he comes he finds footsteps that go everywhere. Almost as if the person was lost or intent on interacting with the tulpas. This means that someone either saw a culpa and found them here, or a construction workers is going to tear the place down which is Callos biggest fear. The footprints are reoccurring so it can be assumed that the person comes often.
Today changed all theories Callo had, he went after school as usual and stumbled across a journal on the rocks. He didn't recognize it as his and before he had enough time to analyze it he turned his head to see a man. He looked about his age but shorter. He wore a lab coat with a polka dot overall. He looked as shocked as Callo and one thing he did notice about the stranger was the dots on his outfit were the same as his watch, which now fits him but is torn and tattered from use. So, with that, all Callo could think to say was,
"So, you know about them too?"