Attached [Rewritten Version]

9. Her

Monday, September 26th, 2016

Sometimes Sid wished he wasn't as curious as he was. It had led them to enter forbidden grounds, or more specifically, a forest that had been forbidden grounds because of all that had happened in history. And even once Sid and his friends had been confronted with their own stupidity, they went even further, and asked Cory for more information.

One could say it was better to know what they were dealing with. But Cory lacked crucial information since he had been locked away for two years, and further refused to elaborate on what had happened to him. They only knew why he had been in the forest all by himself as a fourteen-year-old, not what he experienced, or how he managed to get out while others hadn't.

All Cory had been able to tell, was that some ghost girl apparently marked them, to haunt them for the rest of their lives. When asked what it was exactly that she did, Cory had been hesitant to tell. But eventually he explained that she would enter their dreams and try to lure them into the woods through sleepwalking for 'a game of hide and seek'.

Sid had tried to laugh it off, telling Cory there wasn't any possibility to just sleepwalk into the forest. But according to Cory, there was. He just didn't want to explain what could make it possible without getting through or over the fence.

"Honey, why don't you go to bed? Your head must be sore still," his mother Olivia said with a small, sad smile decorating her face. She had been sending him sad looks ever since he woke up after getting out of the woods already and Sid wondered why. They were out, they were fine, and to their parents, that should be all there was to it. Punish and move on.

"It's actually fine," Sid muttered, skipping to the next channel in the hopes of finding something light to watch on TV. For some reason though, faith decided to rub things in his face and mainly show him thrillers or horrors, or documentaries about said topics. Eventually he settled on a TV show about cops chasing bad guys, which was right about enough thrill-seeking for him.

"Really?" his mom said, sitting down next to him. She lovingly caressed his face. "Well, you were never quite the complainer when it comes to injuries. Are you sure it's fine?"

"I'm sure, mom," Sid replied with a smile. "No headache, really. It wasn't as bad as it looked."

"Still, I think some rest will do you good. You look exhausted."

"I'm fine, mom," Sid whined, unwilling to go to bed. Cory's stories about the ghost girl were on his mind constantly, and he was afraid to go to bed, fall asleep, and have a nightmare about a ghost that would try to lure him back into the woods. No thank you.

"Okay, well, if you don't want to go to bed yet, can we talk about Saturday?"

"No."

"Your father and I would like to know what exactly happened. You three were... spooked."

Sid rolled his eyes at her choice of words and got up from his seat in annoyance. "On second thought, I am kinda tired and I have school tomorrow. Goodnight mom." He rather faced the possibility that he would get a nightmare, than having to tell his mother what happened. She would think he was crazy, and they would possibly be sent to a ward like Cory.

No, the deal he had with his friends was simple; tell nobody.

Which was why he reluctantly went up to his room, dressed up for bed, cursed himself for not making up some sort of story about tripping over the roots of a tree so that he could stay downstairs a little longer, and eventually got in bed. He was slightly trembling with nerves as he tried to find a comfortable way to lay down. His eyes felt heavy with sleep, which wasn't weird seeing the fact he hardly slept at all in the past two days. Drinking Red Bull to stay awake could only work for so long.