01
The ring of my phone wakes me up and I groan. It’s early in the morning and Anne is calling me. My head still under the pillow, I pick it up, “Don’t tell me you’re still asleep?” She says first thing. “What do you want Anne?” I say, my voice muffled. She ‘huh’s me first but continues on blabbing about partying and dosing ourselves.
At the mention of the wood, our neighborhood avoided, I stand up and sit on the bed. “What were you saying? The woods? As in the wood everyone is scared of?” Anne sighs, “Have you not heard a single thing I said?” I can see her through the phone, rolling her eyes. “We’re going to explore the cursed woods. High. It’d be fun.”
That doesn’t sound fun. But I’ve always wondered how it was like in that wood. “Are you in or not?” She says breathing. “If I say no?” There’s silence on the other end and I doubted if she was still there. “You know you have no choice. I’ll come there and annoy you until you say yes.” Yes. She’s so annoying. But I don’t hate her. She’s the person I don’t hate. Her, Casper, Emily and… Jason.
We’re all standing in front of the huge wood. It’s almost dark and I’m regretting coming here. This is insane, but the pill I had taken is giving me goosebumps at the thought of getting into the woods and entering. I move first, as in the wood is calling me. Emily snorts, “Guess the pills are working fast for ya.” Her red hair is tied up and she has her hand shoved in her jacket.
I don’t say anything as I move forward until I’m in the woods. The air suddenly got chilly and the black jacket I was wearing wasn’t enough. I’ve worn a black jacket, jeans, a black and white beanie and a scarf. It’ll be warm soon, I say to myself. You’ll feel like you’re floating, I say to myself. “Boo!” I jump and Casper laughs. His brown curly hair is swept out of his face by the wind. I flip him off, “Fuck you.” I say and turn away from him. “Come on, Ellie, don’t be so grumpy.” He pokes my cheeks and I lift my hand to hit him, annoyed.
Jason, black hair, strong features, hazel eyes and masculine body, thwarts his hand away, “Stop teasing her for once, would you?” He scowls at Casper and Casper gives us the two looks. “Jealous much, Jason?” Emily follows in, “Of course he is, look at his face.” They all laugh except me and Jason. I shove my face down into my scarf to hide the red blush kissing on my cheeks.
After a moment, I feel like the world was moving around me. Like the ground was getting woobly and I started seeing different kinds of colors I’ve never seen before. We’re all lauging and running into the woods. Jumpscaring each other and telling creepy stories we’ve heard in our neighborhood. “Come on, that’s bullshit.” Casper elbows Anne and she glares at him. “It’s not. I’ve seen the girl with my own eyes, something was strangling her on the air.” The hair on my back stands and Anne continues. All of us are walking now, telling each other stories. “She stole something from here. A cave. It was a gold ring. The spirit got mad at her for disturbing the cave and also stealing it’s stuff, so it had haunted her down and strangled her to death.”
My head was buzzing and I was feeling nauseous. Jason holds me up by my back, “Are you alright?” I don’t have the energy to answer him and I head a yelp from my side. It was Casper, he wasn’t next to me anymore. “Where’s Casper?” I say, panicking. I don’t want to stay here longer. The birds screetch and fly away and the wind gets stronger. “Guys…” My head was spinning. “Casper is down here.” Emily says looking down. It was a hole. Casper is lying inside the hole, his eyes closed. I narrow my eyes at him, he’s breathing. “Come on fucker, quit the act before I squash you with a rock.” Emily says clearly annoyed. Casper opens his one eye with a smug look, “Bet you don’t have the strength.” Emily curses at him.
Anne looks uncomfortable, “Get up here and let’s get out of here.” She says and I agree with her, “She’s right. I feel like something bad is about to happen.” We hear Casper gasp and we all turn to him. “Guys, there’s a whole treasure here… and this place looks like a fucking cave. Like some witch ritual stuff and shit.” My eyes widen and my heart stops a beat. Me and Anne look at each other, “Look at these!” Casper is holding a book, Secret Of Black Magic, it reads. “Don’t touch anything.” Anne grits her teeth and Jason snorts, “You look shitless scared right now.” He steps forward to the hole, “I’m exploring the cave, since that’s why I came here.” He says and jumps into the hole. “Dude look at these.” Casper exclaims. Emily jumps in too and me and Anne go forward to see them. “See, nothing.” She says and starts to look around. I look at Anne. She closes her eyes, breathes and jumps in. I curse under my breath and follow her.
“Okay, whatever you do. Do not touch those.” She points at the golds and jewleries. They were a lot, in front of a throne looking chair. It was dirty and wet, moths and ferns growing on it. “There’s a fucking skull here.” Emily says holding her nose. It smells like blood and dead body here. On a table, there were many books. One catches my eye. “The Book Of Death.” I stretch out my hand to pick it up but Anne holds my arm and shakes her head at me. Suddenly, the cave is shaking and dust is dusting on us. The rocks falling and it looks like it’s falling apart. Anne turns her head and shouts, “Casper.” Casper is caught off guard. His hand full of gold and diamonds. “Fuck.” He says. Jason takes a hold of my arm, “We should get out of here. All of you!” The place is shaking hard and stuffs are falling.
Emily cries out. The heavy table has fallen onto her leg. Jason curses and goes to her. Casper throws the treasure and runs to Emily. Anne is to stunned to speak. Temptation is burning my skin to pick the book up. I do, and hide it under my jacket. “Casper, you idiot!” Anne says helping them pull the table up. “I didn’t know!” He exclaims and when they pull the table up, I go to Emily to help her up. I hold her arm over my shoulder and hold her up. “I clearly told you not to touch anything.”
“Stop arguing and let’s get out of here.” I nod and we head to where we got in from. “You go first and pull her up.” I tell to Jason. He nods and climbs up the wall. He stretches his hand out, “Emily, give me your hand.” Wincing, she does and we push her up. “You next.” Anne says to me. I shake my head, “I’ll be next to you.” She hesitates and I stern my voice, “We don’t have much time.” Me and Casper push Anne up and I stretch my arm out for Jason. He grabs it and I pull, but something catches my attention. “Eleanor.” A whisper of my name. I turn around and my heart drops. It’s him. The dark red eyed man. Death itself.
