Lucian's Mark

Lucian's Mark- Chapter One

"Are you sure this is the way?"

I called out to Beth Maguire in not-so-subtle anxiousness. Great, my first day in town was heading no-where fast. Beth, my new next-door-neighbor-turned-tour-guide, who had spent the day showing me around town, was now eight feet ahead of me, deep into the woods of Black Forest. Despite my subtle pleas, she had insisted on taking a shortcut.

"Yea Lilly! Just through these woods− I think..."

I sighed, carefully stepping over a decaying tree branch. That didn't sound very promising, but I reminded myself that this was my new home now, and while I would rather have spent the day in solitude, it was best that I immerse myself into the local culture. 'When in Rome,' I recited aloud, quite unsure of myself. As my words vanished into the foreign air, I trudged on through, barely making out my guide's bright blonde head amongst the woods.

When Beth had approached me earlier, I hadn't had the heart to tell her that I wasn't one for tours or gossip, (she having spent the day talking about everything and everyone in Black Forest), so instead I had kept my mouth shut, silently counting the seconds and remembering the reason I was even here in the first place.

That reason.

I shook my head, suppressing such thoughts. I had promised myself that today would be a good day. I tugged the sleeves of my hoodie further over my palms, though still decent, the temperature was quickly dropping. Being that I was anemic, my skin tended to register a variation in coolness much faster than the average person. As I carried on through, I made a mental note to remember to take my iron pills from now on.

I had made my way deeper into the woods for a good ten minutes before I became nervous. The sky was dimming rapidly, and my converses were beginning to feel heavier with each step I took. I wanted to get out of here, I wanted to sleep, and I really wanted to just forget about everything. I quickened my pace at the thought of getting back and taking a long, long nap.

"Ouch!" I had tripped over a fallen branch and fell face first onto the ground. Luckily my rarely used reflexes had prevented any harm to my face, transferring injury to my hands instead, which were now scraped. I got up and brushed the leaves out of my dark skinny jeans and black hoodie before examined my hands. They were barely visible in the darkness but I could none-the-less make out the scarlet trickles of fresh blood.

Great.

I looked around, I was surrounded by untamed trees and bushes so dense that I had lost all sense of direction.

"Beth?" I called, getting uneasy.

The sky had turned purple and navy blue, so visibility had become severely limited. Meaning the curly blonde head I had been following all day was nowhere in sight.

"Beth?" I repeated louder, the worry in my voice unmasked.

No response.

I felt my heart rate quicken as I analyzed my current predicament, I was alone in the deep woods of a place I barely knew. 'Just keep walking,' I advised myself, the beating of my heart reverberating in my ears. That seemed to work for a while, until I heard the crack of a wood breaking in two.

"Beth?" I tried once more, my voice a whisper.

Just then my survival instincts kicked in, advising me to run. Only problem was that at the same time I heard the sound of a very fast movement whipping past me. Then I heard two more. Fear rooted me to the spot as the atmosphere around me immediately changed. It suddenly got very dark and very, very cold.