THE FORGOTTEN GROVE

Nine

"With the roar of the fire, my heart rose to its feet
Like the ashes of ash I saw rise in the heat
Settle soft and as pure as snow
I fell in love with the fire long ago"
Hozier
—————————
(Would That I)

(.

"What do you think?" Hafsa asked.

"I don't know what to think of a dead man's skeleton being there half a second ago and nowhere to be found the other." He tucked a dancing hair from his face.

"I for one think— I don't know, maybe he took off the minute we freed him from his journal."

Eamon frowned, "Why would he need saving from his own journal?" Hafsa shrugged faux-nonchalantly. "Or a wandering spirit took over his skeletal parts, or he faded into oblivion."

"None of those makes any sense." Eamon shifted to adjoin their knees.

"None of anything we've experienced ever since we got here makes sense." It takes a moment to settle in, but the statement soon lights an invisible bulb on Eamon's head.

"Hold on a tick— The temperature out here, it was warm and bearable when we first got here." His expression grew deadly serious. "I certainly am not the only one feeling the chill now, am I?"

"Now that you've mentioned it," Hafsah rubbed on her arms, fog rousing from her breath as she drew her shawl tighter.

"You're not listening to what I'm saying. Okay, hear me out. You can call me crazy but I think this place truly is alive." He says with a flamboyant smile playing on his lips.

"Obviously the spirits and ghosts are alive, we've seen them in action."

"No, no, no, not the spirits or ghosts. I mean the forest itself. The Forbidden Grove. It's alive." He's circumferencing the place with his hands dramatically.

"That's crazy."

"I know it's a long shot. But think about it. It explains a lot."

Hafsa bit on her bottom lip trying to trail along the line of his thoughts.

"It explains the crazy switch of temperatures, think about it; it's like every new situation comes with a new temperature. Like it's matching whatever emotion we feel at that moment." Hafsa nodded to that.

"Makes sense."

"Yes, Reynold too. We can't explain why we found him in the first place. And suddenly after discovering something big which he'd, for some reason, refused to mention in his notepad, he vanishes?"

"Reynold's not real."

"Bingo!"

A thought crossed Hafsah's mind and she started digging through the Journal. she gasped lightly; eyes widened. "it's here now."

"What?" she showed the open page to him. There, in the earliest scriptless page was the horror they'd just survived in the Subterranean dungeon.

"I had thought I was crazy; I never miss anything in any book. especially not ones as interesting as this Journal." Eamon gawked at her warily, she nodded her head as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It didn't appear until it occurred to me. How I unlocked the door. It was just an insinuation." She was thankful he didn't ask to know how; she was embarrassed enough about the Nostalgia.

"This place... it's feeding on our fears, an attempt to claim us like it did the others who came here before." Eamon said.

"Also explains the sudden Labyrinth that popped out, out of nowhere."

The wind suddenly started whistling, intensifying— a renegade of their discovery.

"One moment," Hafsa flipped open the book to the page where the outline of the symbols was; Each symbol, now lined horizontally in a merged form, and opposing it was written in clear English words: "NO WAY OUT" Goosebumps aired in their skins.

The wind a mayhem, blowing at everything, the canopy of the trees, the rusted wood of the house... everything.

"We have to think of something. fast." Eamon shouted over the whistling wind. "It knows we know."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know, maybe ask it what it wants."

"Bad idea." Hafsa reacquainted her quick-to-think skill, "Inception." She got to her feet.

"What?"

"The starting point— everything started with—" They both looked down at the journal in Hafsa's hold.

Refusing to let the living grove in on their latest discovery, in a final desperate attempt, Hafsa laid the journal on the ground gently, covered it up with a few dry leaves while Eamon fishes a matchbox from Hafsa's rucksack.

They burnt Reynold's Journal in the hope of finally meeting closure. In the hope of breaking the curse.

Soon enough the grove erupts in a maelstrom of fire and screams as the spirits are released to vanish into thin air.

Though they barely escaped the rampage of fire and smoke, they'd followed an uncertain trail that luckily led them out of the grove.

Grabbing their bikes, they rode in haste, in impetuosity not once stopping until they made it back to the city. Forever scarred by what they thought would be one of their normal Sunday exploratories.

The grove now a smoldering ruin, stood as a grim reminder of the horrors they uncovered. And the dark secrets that some places keep buried.

The End.

Updated— 14-06-24

Ladies and Gentleman,
This is it.
I genuinely hope this wasn't a waste of your time.

UNTIL NEXT TIME ;)

I'll be sure to keep you guys posted for future updates.

That said,
Stay Ravishing❤️'