So while I started, I was rather confused at the beginning (I presumed there was some kind of monster in the pine tree forest). I was also wondering how this would tie in to the protagonist, since the blurb mentions a traumatic encounter. Unfortunately, the sequence after the forest scene was just slow to me, with a lot of talking. And well, the monologue made me lose interest, sorry 
I do like the way the protagonist copes with his trauma and tells himself that he'll never do something again to get through the day. I think that was a nice touch to get to know the mc and learn about a shard of his past without a lot of exposition. It's just a shame that after that the monologue starts.