The Great Unknown

Chapter One

        Juliana sat up in bed, it was only 4 AM, but she couldn't fall back asleep. She looked over at her window, the world outside still dark and lifeless. She sighed as she checked her phone. No new notifications. She stood up from her bed, and using the flashlight from her phone, walked down the hall towards the bathroom.
        Making her way back to her room, she stopped in front of Max's door again. Not this again. She had grown tired of the strange pull that brought her to the door. Resting her hand on the knob, she sighed. If I open it, maybe I won't feel the need to keep coming to it. Twisting the knob, she slowly opened the door.
        Peering in with her flashlight. She noticed the room was a mess. Probably from when mom and dad tore the room apart looking for clues. She had remembered how they tore the entire house apart looking for an answer or clue until finally, they succumbed to the thought that they would never see Max again.
        She stepped inside the room, a tear forming on her cheek. She grazed her hand over his scout books that he used to collect. He always loved the outdoors. She smiled, remembering when he said he was going to go on the greatest adventure ever and bring back tons of souvenirs.
        Sitting on his bed, she looked around the room. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like he's gone. She let her flashlight rest on his closet. He always used to tell me there were monsters in there. She let out a faint chuckle, remembering a time when he used to wake her up in the middle of the night to check his closet. She stood up and went over to the closet door. She felt a strange urge to open it.
        She opened the door slowly and noticed it was the cleanest part of his room. She noticed a small stack of papers sitting on the closet floor. She bent down to pick them up and sat back down on Max's bed. She carefully held her phone light so she could examine the pages.
        The first page had a bunch of trees on it, all drawn in green crayon. That was it. Julie found it a bit strange but didn't pay any mind to it as she looked at the next one. This one had an 8-year-old's handwriting written all over it. The page said things like forest, explore, and weirder things. Julie sighed and thought about how much he wanted to explore the forest near their town, but no one would let him because no one would come out of there alive.
        In 1997 there was a young couple who took a walk through that forest and never came out. A friend of theirs filed a missing person report, but they were never seen again. The same thing happened in 2003 when a large group of teenagers decided they didn't want to heed the warnings of what everyone was saying. They were going to explore the forest, drink some beer, probably have some teenage party, then come out alive and have a tale to tell. But they didn't. All 14 of them weren't at school the next day, and they were never seen again.
        Because of the reputation the forest had, the police didn't search the forest, as they were too afraid of never coming out. The last time police went in there was in 1979, in the case of a missing girl who was only twelve years old. A small search party went in, but never came out and that was when people knew that this forest was no joke. People started calling it Death Grove.
        Over the years, it was estimated that a little over one-hundred people went missing within that forest, and it's started to scare people into moving out of the town. No one knew why this was the case, but no one had any answers, nor did they wish to investigate for themselves.
        Could Max have gone into the forest? She couldn't think of it like that, but she honestly didn't know what to believe at this point. It's not impossible. If anything, It could explain why he just mysteriously just disappeared. She knew he wanted to explore it before. To find the people that went missing. Every time he brought it up, everyone would shut him down saying how dangerous it was.
        Julie set the papers down and stood, walking out of the room and shutting the door behind her. Could he have gone into the forest? She didn't know what she would do if that were the case. Surely I can't try to find him, as it'd be a suicide mission. She ran to her room and unlocked her phone, swiftly opening the messages.