Bound Together (Fred Weasley)

Chapter 4- The Thing in The Woods and The Strange Family

"Mum, I'm bored. Can we go to the park?"

It had been several weeks since Scarlet's birthday party and the night she discovered her magical drawing abilities. She had already become bored with her presents, most of which were mundane objects. Even drawing had become dull after so much experimination. Dom had spent most of the Fall break at his friends house and all of Scarlet's friends were out of town for the holidays. So she didn't have anyone to play with.

"I already told you Scarlet, I'm busy right now."

"But I'm boooored." Scarlet whined.

"No. We are not going to the park. Maybe you could use that chalk you got for your birthday? It's just collectiong dust in the coat closet. Or maybe go play in the woods. You could go clean up the treehouse your dad built you over the summer. You haven't touched that thing in awhile and you could clean the cobwebs. Now go outside and play, okay? Mommy's busy."

And with that her mom turned back to continue working on the report she was writing for work.

Huffing in exasperation, Scarlet turned and stalked out the back door towards the woods.

She didn't feel like cleaning out the treehouse. It was too humid and rainy for that. Which was highly abnormal for a November day. besides, she didn't know what kinds of bugs and spiders might have taken up residence in there. What was her mom thinking?

Scarlet shook her head and continued on farther into the woods; just walking without purpose.

It wasn't long before Scarlet realized that she was horribly and irrevocably lost. Turning around in circles, she scanned her surroundings and nothing looked familiar.

The sky, or what little she could see through the dense canopy above, was downcast and rainy. What little light that filtered down was watery and cast frightening shadows about that seemed to dance and mock Scarlet. Rain drops started slowly dripping down from the sky like slate gray paint on a canvas.

As Scarlet pushed forward through the evergrowing dense foliage, the woods became darker and creepier with every step. The silence of the forest was terrifying. Like the noises that made up the music of the woods suddenly knew that someone was encroaching on their territory. Like they knew that she was there and had paused their cacophonous noise and waited with bated breath. She felt as is she was somewhere she shouldn't be.

The rain started falling faster now and a cold gust of air made her skin prickle. Though she warmed again quickly, goose bumps stayed on her skin. She ran a hand over her arms and felt a peculiar feeling... she wasn't alone.

That's when she began hearing the whispers. At first she played it off as the wind whistling through the trees. Being deep in the woods, deeper than she's ever been, didn't help the creepy factor.

She listened harder as the whispers grew more pronounced; more human.

This was the kind of whispering you hear in the dead of night, when everything is silent save for the blood rushing in your ear. When you think you're all alone, but you're really not. The kind that sighs a soft, sinister melody as it wraps around you and murmurs things untold in your ear.

Holding her breath, she strained her ears and heard it again. This time, she heard a single word. Her name.

"Scarlet"

Goosebumps crawled up and down her arms as she glanced around warily. It was just the wind in the trees. Their branches scratching against each other is what caused the whispering sound, Scarlet tried to reassure herself. Hearing her name was just her paranoid mind shouting things into the void. There was nobody out in the woods, she was all alone.