The Dark Hearts

The old flashlight flickered in Olivia’s hand as she and Maria crept through the dark woods. Dead leaves crunched under their feet with every step.

“Are you sure about this?” Maria whispered, pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders. “My mom will kill me if she finds out I snuck out.”

Olivia grinned, even though her heart was beating fast. At seventeen, she thought she was brave enough for anything. “Come on, don’t be a baby. You’re the one who wanted to see if the stories about ghosts in these woods are real.”

The trees stood tall and dark around them like giant shadows. Their branches moved in the cold night wind, making strange sounds that sent shivers down both girls’ spines.

“I heard Tommy say he saw a woman in white floating between the trees,” Maria said, staying close to Olivia. “Right around here somewhere.”

“Tommy also said he could eat ten hamburgers in one sitting,” Olivia laughed. “And we all know how that ended.”

They walked deeper into the woods, following a narrow dirt path. The flashlight beam danced across the tree trunks, making everything look spooky. Olivia felt excited and scared at the same time.

Then the air around them turned ice cold.

“Olivia,” Maria grabbed her friend’s arm. “Did you feel that?”

Before Olivia could answer, a low moan echoed through the trees. Both girls froze. The sound came again, closer this time. It was sad and angry, like someone crying and screaming all at once.

“That’s not the wind,” Maria’s voice shook.

A pale figure appeared between the trees ahead of them. It was a woman in a torn white dress, her long hair floating around her face like she was underwater. Her eyes were black holes, and when she opened her mouth, no sound came out. But somehow, both girls could hear her voice inside their heads.

Leave this place. You don’t belong here.

“Run!” Olivia shouted.

They turned and ran back the way they came, but the path looked different now. The trees seemed to move, blocking their way. The ghost woman appeared in front of them again, then beside them, then behind them. No matter which way they turned, she was there.

Maria tripped over a tree root and fell hard. When Olivia helped her up, they saw the ghost floating right above them, her face twisted with anger.

I said LEAVE!

The voice in their heads was so loud it hurt. Olivia felt like her brain was going to explode. Maria was crying now, holding onto Olivia’s arm so tight it hurt.

“Please,” Olivia whispered. “We’re sorry. We’ll go.”

But the ghost woman reached out with long, pale fingers that looked like claws. Just as she was about to touch Olivia’s face, a bright golden light filled the woods.

“Get away from my daughter!”

Olivia spun around and saw her mother running toward them. But this wasn’t the same mom who made her breakfast every morning and worried about her grades. This woman’s eyes glowed with golden light, and her hands were surrounded by bright, crackling energy.

Her mother raised one hand, and words poured out of her mouth in a language Olivia had never heard before. The ghost woman screamed - a real scream this time - and disappeared like smoke.

The golden light faded, and Olivia’s mother looked normal again. But she was breathing hard and looked very tired.

“Mom?” Olivia’s voice came out as a squeak. “What just happened? How did you—”

“We need to get out of these woods. Now.” Her mother looked around nervously. “I’ll explain everything when we get home.”

They walked back through the woods in silence. Maria kept looking at Olivia’s mother with wide eyes, like she was seeing her for the first time. Olivia felt the same way. Everything she thought she knew about her life had just changed in five minutes.

When they reached the edge of the woods, Olivia’s mother finally stopped walking.

“Girls,” she said quietly. “What I’m about to tell you must stay between us. Do you understand?”

Both girls nodded.

“Olivia, you and I are witches. We have magic in our blood.” She looked sad and worried. “I never wanted you to know. I hoped you could live a normal, safe life as a human. Being a witch is dangerous. There are people who would hurt us if they knew what we really are.”

“Witches are real?” Maria whispered.

“Very real,” Olivia’s mother said. “And so are the things that hunt us.”

Olivia felt dizzy. “But I don’t know any magic. I can’t do what you just did.”

“The power is inside you. It always has been. I just hoped it would stay sleeping.” Her mother touched Olivia’s cheek gently. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

As they walked back toward town, none of them noticed the man standing in the shadows between the trees. He was tall and handsome, with dark hair and eyes that seemed to glow in the moonlight. He watched them go, a small smile on his lips.

The girls did see him, though, just for a second when they turned back to look at the woods one more time.

“Who’s that?” Maria pointed at the figure in the distance.

Olivia squinted, but the man was too far away to see clearly. “I don’t know. Probably just someone out for a walk.”

“At midnight? In the woods where we just saw a ghost?”

But when they looked again, the man was gone.

The next morning, Olivia sat in her first period English class, trying to forget about everything that had happened. Her mother had made her promise not to tell anyone else about the witch thing, and Maria had gone home so scared she could barely speak.

Mrs. Peterson was talking about their next book assignment when there was a knock on the classroom door.

“Come in,” Mrs. Peterson called.

The door opened, and Olivia’s heart stopped beating.

It was the man from the woods. In the daylight, she could see he was probably around eighteen or nineteen, with dark hair and the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. He was definitely handsome, but there was something about him that made Olivia feel nervous.

“Class, we have a new student,” Mrs. Peterson smiled. “Please introduce yourself.”

The young man looked right at Olivia before speaking. When their eyes met, she felt a strange tingling in her chest.

“My name is Jason Forstern,” he said in a deep, smooth voice. “I just moved here from out of state.”

Olivia gripped her desk so hard her knuckles turned white. It couldn’t be a coincidence. The same night she found out she was a witch, this mysterious stranger appeared in the woods. Now he was in her school, in her class.

Jason Forstern looked at her again and smiled.

Somehow, Olivia knew her life was about to get much more complicated.