The screams of the Winkie Guards, the ferocious roars of the Kalidah's and the sounds of battle continued to become more distant as the Wizard made his way through the thick underbrush of the woods. The sun had already set, and darkness descended as he continued to walk along the dirt path, guided by the pale light of the full moon.

However, he noticed that as he made his way deeper into the forest, the trees began to lose their leaves. Soon, every tree was dead and completely devoid of leaves.

However, as you walk deeper into the forest and the trees start to lose their leaves, it gets much scarier…

The Wizard remembered what Ugu had told him. He stopped in his tracks as his heart started to beat faster and his breathing quickened. He began to feel goosebumps on the back of his neck as his hands began to tremble and his mouth jittered from fright. He heard the repeated sounds of an owl cooing above him in a nearby tree. A breeze blew past his face. Unlike the warm and comforting breeze in other areas of Oz that he was accustomed to, this chilly gust of wind screamed in his ears that he was not welcome here. He wrapped his hands around his body as he heard a distant and haunting moan envelop the forest. This spooky sound began as a low murmur once the trees began to lose their leaves. But as the Wizard continued to venture further into the forest and more of the trees lost all their leaves, this noise slowly increased in volume.

Unlike when he entered the Dark Forest with Finley and China Girl, this time the Wizard was completely alone. He was scared. Like before, he thought he would be able to pass this section of the forest quickly, but he then realized that the Haunted Forest was much larger than he ever anticipated.

Maybe I should just go back, he thought to himself. As much as he did not want Theodora to find him, he now thought he made a mistake by venturing into this forest. While the witch would have been able to find him and intercept him easily via her crystal ball had he taken the path towards the Emerald City, a possible capture would have been preferable to death.

Even though he was indeed exhausted, the Wizard dared not sleep, as he heard many stories of the horrors that awaited unfortunate travelers who became lost in the forest. He continued to slowly tread along the dirt path as he quickly rubbed his tired eyes with his hand.

"What are you doing now, boy? How about you sit by the fire and give this old man some company?"

The Wizard perked up and turned around to the voice behind him. Could it be?

"Father?"

Indeed, the Wizard gazed upon an old man who was sitting on a chair under a large leafless tree on the side of the desolate dirt path and using a twig to poke the logs under a vibrant firepit for warmth.

It couldn't be, but it was. It was his father, seemingly back from the dead.

He turned his head to his son and glared at him.

"Yes, it is me. And I am disappointed in you, son…"

The Wizard looked perplexed. "What, why?"

"Why do you think, boy? You could come and see your old man more often. It wouldn't hurt to come and see your own father…"

The Wizard frowned. His father would often mockingly call him "boy" when he was on the farm and his verbal abuse was one of the many reasons why he ran away from home. However, his frown disappeared from the Wizard's face as he then felt guilty. "I am sorry, father, but I…"

But he sternly shook his head at the Wizard. "No buts about it. You could have come by to see me more when I was alive, but you didn't. You left me. You left your mother, and you abandoned us to work in some god forsaken circus. You left us boy! You left me and your mother! And she died because of your callous actions!"

The anger in the Wizard's voice was palpable. "Quiet old man! You were always a drunken cur! You were the one who killed her! You killed her because you never took care of your family! You don't speak to me like that!"

His father huffed and spat at him derisively. "Oh really, boy? I can speak to you however I want! I am your father! You better give me the respect that I damn well deserve! And, you know what, at least I had a family! At least I had your mother. I unfortunately had you too, for what little that gave me. Because you are an embarrassment! Do you hear me, boy! A rotten scoundrel!"

"Be quiet", the Wizard yelled at him. "You are the scoundrel! It was your drinking that drove mother to suicide…"

"No! Wrong", his father seethed. "You abandoned us and that drove her to suicide! She was heartbroken by your betrayal! After she lost your little sister to miscarriage, she couldn't bear losing her only son! Her failed son who could not do anything to make a name for himself and make his parents proud! A lawyer? A doctor? An engineer? No! You were a son who couldn't even find someone to settle down with and get married! It was you, boy! You killed your own mother!"

The Wizard shook his head as he was consumed by guilt. "Father…I'm…I'm sorry..."

"I don't accept your useless apology, boy", he said scathingly and with much bitterness in his voice. "All you wanted was fame and fortune. Well, now you have it, for what little it did for you. And look at you now. You are still the same pathetic loser who toiled away at the circus. All I wanted was a successful son who could have been better than his father. But I couldn't even have that! And you took your mother away from me, too!"

The Wizard contorted his mouth in anger. "I'm a loser? And what are you? A low life farmer who could barely provide for his wife and children! I wanted something more than that! And you couldn't even be loyal to mother! You were a cad who had multiple affairs!"

His father heartily snickered at him. "Oh please…you are not half the man I ever was, nor will you ever be. Because I know what your secret is. That's right, boy, I know your deepest and darkest inchoate secret that you hide away from the world. Perhaps it is your biggest fraud yet…"

As his father spoke and started to probe him, the Wizard started to become more uncomfortable. "I…don't know what you are talking about…"

"Oh, shut up", his father spat at him. "Of course, you know very well what I am talking about, boy." His father curled his mouth into a devilish grin. "So…you think you are such a playboy, huh? A womanizer? A man who boasts about his conquests. Well, then tell me boy, when was the last time you been with a woman, huh? When was the last time?"

The Wizard looked at him with his jaw tight. "I've been with many women and…"

"Shut up, you idiot", his father cussed at him with growing anger and irritation in his voice. "I'm not talking about childish sleepovers that sissies or little kids do. I'm talking about activities that *real men* do! Are you a real man, boy? Huh? Are you? Did you do these activities with Glinda? Did you? Or how about that Theodora—"

The Wizard curled his mouth in frustration. "You leave them out of this, you asshole!" He was fuming mad, but this didn't faze his father, who continued to castigate and mock him.

"I will bring up whomever I want to, boy! And there's nothing that you can do about it because I have ALL the answers already! I just want to embarrass you and see how MAN enough you are to finally admit it! For you to finally admit that you have been lying to yourself and who you are all along! You can't hide anything from me, boy!"

"Hide what", the Wizard asked in a defiant tone. He shrugged his shoulders coolly. "Hide what?"

"You have been hiding the fact that you are NOTHING like your old man! I know the truth! Deep down, you have NO desire for any of these witches. For any women at all. Ever. Or anybody else, for that matter! Isn't that true, boy! Isn't it?"

The Wizard was silent.

"Heh, that is just what I thought", his father sneered at him. "I know exactly what you are thinking and feeling. I've seen your whole life play out right before my eyes. I know everything, boy. And there is not one thing you can tell me that will change the objective truth I know about you oh so well. And that is you desperately want to emulate your old man so badly, but you can't. Because there is something that is defective with you! Deep down, you have zero desire for none of these women that you meet. None. Nada. Zip! Zilch! And—"

The Wizard interrupted him. "But that's not true. I desire—"

"Let me guess. Romance? Pah! That's not what a real man does, you buffoon! Romance is what women want! Are you a pansy, a namby-pamby, a milquetoast pathetic excuse of a man? Is that what you are, boy? If so, you will NEVER be able to measure up me!" He began to snicker.

"What type of man runs away from what men are supposed to do, boy? Because that's what you are! You are just a boy, small little child, an insignificant puny nothing who will never amount to anything! So, let me ask you this, boy! What type of man would not have any interest in this? What type of man would abdicate his responsibilities? What type of man would avoid all normal activities that all humans gravitate towards? What type of abomination are you!"

The Wizard clenched his teeth together. "At least I am true to myself. Unlike you, who hides behind the cloak of fakeness and falsehoods. I—"

"And that's exactly where you have failed, boy! And that's exactly where you have failed. How many people have you talked to about this "secret" of yours? Huh? How many?" His father began to snicker again. "Only Annie, am I right?"

"Enough!"

His father chuckled menacingly. "You know what boy, at least I left a legacy. And what have you done with your life? At least I had a family. What have you left? You don't have a wife. You don't have a life. You don't even have a woman!"

The Wizard's voice became angrier as he clenched his teeth. "I said stop it!"

"What type of MAN are you? No wonder why you never got married or formed any kind of lasting relationship!"

The Wizard snarled. "Shut. Up…"

His father fiendishly smiled at him contemptuously. "I won't shut up! I take great pleasure in seeing you squirm! And you thoroughly deserve it too!"

"And you know what, at least I was honest with my exploits. At least your mother knew upfront who I was and what I was doing and—"

"Don't you dare try to defend yourself", the Wizard barked. "I am so much better than you!"

"No. You are worse. Not only do you hide away who you are from the world, but you claim to be these people's savior when you've been their biggest enemy all along!" His father snickered again. "You haven't learned anything or changed one bit…"

The Wizard's voice became more pronounced. "Shut up…"

But his father spat at him mercilessly as his tone was stinging and vitriolic. "I will say whatever I want to you, boy! Do you hear me! Do you? Because I am your father! And you are nothing but a fraud! You are nothing but a con man! You are nothing but a stupid useless failure at life who doesn't take responsibility for his foolhardy and careless actions!" He then accusingly pointed at the Wizard as he continued to screech at him. "Even this witch, Theodora, who you claim to 'care' about so much. You yourself created that monster you saw today!"

"That's not true", the Wizard yelled. "She never ate something that—"

"Oh, it was worse than that, boy. Evanora may not have changed her. But you did. You could have brought her along when you went after Glinda. But you didn't! Instead, you abandoned her and left her alone for her own sister to rape her soul. You left her there because you were a coward and weren't man enough to be honest with her! You created the Wicked Witch of the West! YOU created her, boy! You and your perfidious ways enslaved the Winkies! YOU did this! Do you hear me…boy! You man child! You fucking phony! Why don't you take some responsibility for once in your life!"

The Wizard was at his wits end. He put his hands over his face as he shook his head and growled in disgust as he screamed at his father. "Shut up!" He was about to lose it.

But his father's voice only became more enraged as its voice deepened and slowly became demonic. "YOU BOY ARE NOTHING BUT A BIG PATHETIC FUCKING LOSER WHO WILL GET EVERYTHING THAT A BIG PATHETIC FUCKING LOSER DESERVES!"

"SHUT UP!", the Wizard raged. His face was face as he hurled his bag towards his father, but the bag simply went through him and landed on the dirt. After in a blink of an eye, his "father", the chair and the firepit had all vanished.

He continued to huff and puff with thunderous fury, but as the seconds passed by and he began to realize that this was all an illusion—a cruel trick being played on him by the forest—the Wizard began to calm down. He finally inhaled and exhaled through his mouth as he regained his composure.

That fucking asshole, he thought to himself. Came back from the dead just to torture me in the forest.

The Wizard then walked to the location where his "father" had sat and retrieved his bag. He then turned and slowly began to walk down the dimly lit path with apprehension as to what else the forest was going to throw at him.

In the back of his mind, he thought about everything his "father" said. Maybe that is why Glinda and all the others ultimately left him. Maybe that is why he never asked Annie to marry him. Maybe that is why he never desired offspring of his own. And no matter what woman he met, his lack of desire to "have his corn ground" like his father would often repeatedly do—with his mother or other women—had been an enduring trait of his for as far back as he could remember.

No one knew about his "secret", except for Annie. He didn't know how his "father" knew, but it was clear that this spooky forest knew more about him than he realized. The Wizard continued to think about all the verbal abuse that his "father" flung at him. And even though everything that was told to him was problematic, there might have been a kernel of truth in what he ultimately said about the witch.

And this is what bothered him the most.