“Do you think there are mushrooms in this forest, Fia?” Ravenna asked, leaning against a stump.
“I don’t think so,” the girl responded as she approached her from behind.
“Why?”
“As you recall, we used to come here every summer. Never found any mushrooms.”
“Pity,” the girl straightened up and looked around, saying, “Doesn’t it look strange to you?”
“That we found no mushrooms here?”
“No, this place... it’s kind of strange. I can’t explain how, but I feel it.”
Felicia stopped right in front of her friend and looked at her curiously. In all the three days they had spent together, she had never seen her face so serious.
“What do you mean?”
Ravenna remained silent for a while, trying to comprehend herself as she felt the freshness of the earth under her bare soles. She could still picture herself running through the forest, the branches crunching beneath her feet, but she was afraid it was bones rather than branches, so she couldn’t bring herself to look down.
“It’s like a massive grave,” she remarked, speaking so softly that Felicia could hardly hear her.
“What are you talking about?” She shuddered at what she said. “Don’t scare me like that!”
Ravenna slowly walked along the narrow footpath. Not wanting to be left behind, her friend hurried after.
“I don’t want to, but I do feel something,” the girl continued. “Sometimes I think I hear voices. It makes sense—I have a map of the area and this place is called the Forest of Death. Once, something very terrible happened there...”
“Something terrible?” Felicia gulped.
“Forget about it now. Take a look at all the wild roses!” Ravenna shouted and dashed in their direction.
For a while, Felicia stood on the footpath, contemplating, watching the girl picking roses from the top of the bushes as she stood on tiptoe. For what reason did she say that? What’s the meaning of it all? Is it just a fanciful story? If so, though, why must it be so creepy?
“Fia!” Ravenna’s words startled her out of her thoughts. “Fia, look, we can decorate the house!”
“Yes, of course,” she replied shortly. Maybe it was true, but Ravenna couldn’t face talking about it just now, so she tried to divert her thoughts elsewhere. She didn’t want to ask any more questions because it was hard for her to believe. Felicia never felt anything at the Forest of Death, no matter how many times she went there. Since she was one of the Specials herself, she must have felt it too if Ravenna had in just three days. Something was seriously wrong here.
“Fia, what are you thinking about?” The girl enquired.
Felicia sighed and eventually moved to help her pick the roses. “About my mother,” she said. “She acted so bravely because she protected me from my father. Oddly enough, you experienced the same thing.”
“Do you remember your mother at least a little?”
“No, not a bit, she handed me over to my foster parents when I was four. I only saw her in a photo.”
YOU ARE READING
Demon Daughter (Book I)
FantasyOn the night of the Blood Moon, a girl was born, destined for a dark future. She is the daughter of a demon, created from a false love, but she knows nothing about her origins because during the war she was sent to live on Earth with Lynn and Roger...
