John
Where were they? I searched about as I looked around for my siblings. This was not what the plans were. We weren’t supposed to scatter, we were all supposed to be together. I didn’t want to believe this was what we had turned into.
I cursed as I thought of those damned boars. They had been the reason we had gotten separated. My heart skipped a beat as I thought of the boars, remembering how huge their teeth were. I didn’t think and had just run for my life as the others had as well. Why didn’t we think of fighting them even if we didn’t have a chance? We fidgeted like dummies and that wasn’t nice of us. That was rather silly of us.
We couldn’t have made it if we stood there to fight. The forest was haunted and we were outnumbered. There were four boars to three werewolves and one human who couldn’t defend herself. Regardless of how Mia tried to be strong, she was still our weakness and we wouldn’t be involved in the battle and leave her for any of the boar to rip to pieces. That meant that one of us would have to fight two boars at a time and that was nothing but disaster.
One of us couldn’t possibly fend off an attack from two boars at the same time without becoming a casualty patient. Moreover, we had no idea of how many boars were in the forest. It wasn’t possible that those four boars were the only ones in that strange forest that picked up on every sound in it. There was a possibility that the other animals in the forest would hear the scuffle if we decided to fight them and that would be a huge risk if they traced the sounds and joined the fight. Running for our lives was the smartest thing to do. If only we had all run in the same direction, it would have been better. We would have reformed and continued on our journey, going on another path.
I hoped that the others were safe. I scowled, reminding myself that there was no way for me to know if they were safe. There was no connection in the forest and I doubted that their phones would still be on even if there was network coverage in the mystical forest. Quinn hadn’t bothered to charge his phone knowing that he wouldn’t be making use at our destination.
I licked my lips, my heart thudding with fear as I hoped that someone was with Mia. I couldn’t think of her being alone in this forest. She would be scared shitless. I wondered why the forest was silent at the moment. It was as if there was no life in it. It had pulsed with life earlier, even when we were passing notes and making signs to one another. There had been a sense of awareness that the forest knew we were there but now, it was different.
It was like the forest had written us off as dead. It was either that or we were not in the forest. The first thought scared me like crazy. I didn’t want to be dead yet. I had a lot of things to do.
The second thought wasn’t comforting. It was confusing. If I wasn’t in the forest, where else could I be?
I thought back on the path I had run through when I had seen the boars and decided to take it back so I could find my siblings. Hopefully, the boars would have gone and my siblings were looking for me as I was.
I scowled, refusing to focus on the thoughts in my head. Maybe they weren’t. If they were looking for me at the moment, they were meant to shout my name so I could trace it to where they were but I couldn’t hear anything. The forest was silent as a graveyard and my heart filled with fear. I concluded that they were lost as well or the forest was drowning their voices.
I snorted at the idea. That wasn’t possible. The forest echoed every word and it would be weirder if it didn’t at the moment.
“Mia! Quinn! Jack!” I shouted, deciding to test the theory and confirm to myself that the forest hadn’t gotten weirder than it already was.
I listened attentively, with everything that I had working in my ears but I heard nothing, not even a faint echo.
I sighed, my blood running cold at the cruel realization. The forest was playing pranks on us. It had suddenly decided not to echo anything again after echoing our voices for the disasters in it to find us.
It was possible that the others were shouting my name but there was no echo for me to trace as I had just discovered.
There was nothing. It was as silent as a graveyard. I wondered if the forest was about to become our graves.
I looked around and noticed that the path looked different from how it had been when I was running. I wondered where I was and tried to get back to where I had been with the others. I found a path that looked like it and went through it. I was shocked to find a mirror on the road and it was when I looked at it carefully that I realized it was a portal. I wanted to turn back and find another way and saw that there was a wall which hadn’t been there before now behind me. I was trapped and the only way to get out was to go through the portal.
I wondered where it led to and hoped that it was going to lead me to where the others were or where I was initially.
I walked to the portal, intending to walk through like we had through the secret door. I hoped that Mia wasn’t in the same situation as I was and the portal she would have to walk through wasn’t a picky one like the secret door we had used to get to the forest which would only allow supernatural beings to walk through.
If that was the case, then we were all royally and totally fucked. The thought of having Mia trapped in here without an idea of where to find and save her was enough to make me go crazy. I had to confirm that she was safe. I had to find her.
I moved towards the swirling portal and struck my hand forward. I gasped for breath, stunned when I was thrown back and winced when my back struck the hard wall. I fell to the ground, holding my scream in my throat. I felt my back as I stood up, wondering if it had been displaced. The force of impact against the hard wall was enough to snap my spine if I was weak. I had never felt a wall as hard as that but I shouldn’t have expected any less. There had been nothing normal about the forest ever since we had been in it.
I rubbed at my back as I stood up and moved closer to the portal. The swirling had stopped and it seemed to have solidified as a white board. Words began to appear on it and I read carefully, my eyes following the words as they appeared.
If you want to go through the portal and move successfully through the Island of Death to get what you want, you have to battle your fears. You will be safe if you can overcome your fears but you will die here if you can’t win over your fears.
Now, that was comforting. I sneered. Death and freedom all in a sentence. What a perfect usage.
I was wondering what my fears would be and imagined fighting with my claws and teeth when the portal changed again and I saw images appearing on it.
I stumbled back in surprise as I saw the images on the screen. Of all the things that I was guessing of that could be my fears, this images being projected vividly before me was the last thing I had hoped to see.
How possible was this? I felt chills over my body and couldn’t help shivering. I was scared and prayed like I had never done before that I made it out of this strange forest.
I watched the terror as the memory I thought I had buried in my brain was being displayed on the strange portal. I had forgotten about it until now. I wondered if there was an unseen being reading my mind and projecting my deepest and most hurtful memories on the screen. If there was such a being like that, I would like to fight him instead. I would like him to show himself to me if he wasn’t a coward. He should stop being a weakling and using the weakness of others to ruin them.
Thankfully, there was no one beside me to watch this with me. I didn’t think I could cope with someone knowing what my actual fear was. I stood there, paralyzed to the bones and kept on watching the images on the screen against my wish as they changed, wondering how I was going to fight this and get free. I wondered if I would ever see my family again.
This was really a scary place and I sincerely prayed that I didn’t die here.