10 friends decided to spend summer in the woods, away from the smoke-filled city. In a grand treehouse near the lake, travelling by a ten-wheeler truck loaded with nothing but their summer belongings and everyday supplies.
Loriane, Aubrey, Audrey, Evangeline, Louise, Vermonte, Allen, Aljohn, Frior and Richard arrived at the said treehouse early in the morning. The guys helped the ladies carry their luggage up to the spiral stairs to the treehouse, occupying six trees with an additional floor. They ventured to the bedrooms first by the second floor. It had nice furnitures made of wood and was polished thoroughly, the bed had a nice soft mattress with silk sheets and cotton soft pillows, each one of them had gone to the room with their names plastered on the door. They dismissed it as merely a coincidence and moved on to the living room. The furnitures had a red maple affect since it was originally made from red maple tree, soft cushions were placed on the sofas and warm round fuzzy mat was placed in the middle. A round table with a radio, a flat-screen TV by the wall, a glass door and terrace adorning with plants. By the kitchen was an empty fridge that they have to fill in with the ingredients bought, but they still have to restock it once the ingredients runs out. It has a complete set of kitchen tools and equipments needed, good thing they bought ingredients for both baking and cooking whenever they'd want to. The house was a mansion in held by six trees, the mansion was actually cleaned up by the rich Loriane beforehand.
After unpacking their stuffs, they decided to play games before lunch. They all had gone to the lake with the barbeque grill and the meats. Allen and Aubrey had stationed themselves at the grill to cook, Evangeline and Frior set up the table and took care of the drinks while the others had either went to the woods to gather firewoods or swimming at the cool lake.
The ones in the lake were Aljohn, Audrey, Louise and Richard. While Vermonte and Loriane were in the woods, gathering stuffs. While waiting, Aubrey took a good look around the place. It simply felt like home, at the same time it gave her the chills. Like someone's watching her every movements, their movements. Loriane and Vermonte returned minutes later with a basket full of fish, basket of assorted berries and herbs, and a dead boar equal to the size of an adult bear.
"Hey guys! Found them all in the forest!" Vermonte, who was carrying the dead boar and the basket full of fish, laid the boar by the ground along with the basket then started stretching his muscles then sat down.
By then, the group had surrounded them both as Loriane, who carried the basket of assorted berries and herbs, placed the basket down also and massaged his back.
"I said I can handle the basket of fish but no, you stubbornly took it from me. Now don't complain because I'll tell you I told you so!" She snapped at him lightly as he groaned internally from the pressure of her soft hands.
"Fine, fine. I'm sorry for not listening to you, Lor. There, satisfied?" He looked at her apologetically as she sighed.
"You better don't repeat that again, or else you recieve punishment from me." She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Yes, yes." He sighed, defeated.
"Good boy. I'm gonna bring the herbs, berries and fish inside. And you better change your clothes." She said, taking the two baskets with her. And they walked to the spiral staircase to the treehouse.
"Oh wait, Lor!" Audrey shouted and both of them turned at the same time, only to be met with a flash of light.
*CLICK*
"There, thank you. You may go now." Audrey smiled like a maniac while the other seven were smilling suggestively. The two of them just rolled their eyes and continued on their way inside.
Minutes later, they returned back to the lake. All night, they swam, ate and laughed by the bonfire. Few of the guys fell asleep at the couch while the rest was on their own respective bedrooms. By morning, every but one person in the house had woken up late. The ever responsible daughter, Aubrey, was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. The second to wake up was Loriane, followed by Vermonte, Allen, Aljohn, Frior, Audrey, Evangeline, Richard and the last one is Louise.
"Morning guys! Breakfast is almost ready, hang on!" She said, she was currently arranging the table while Loriane offered to cook the bacon, hotdogs and the fried rice.
They ate in their normal selves after tasting the food in the morning. "Lor, I heard there're people living in the woods also. Not far away from here?" Audrey stated while chowing down on her third plate.
"Oh, them? They're the caretakers of this house, they said the original owner entrusted this to them. But it's free to be used for rental if the costumer would pay for the fixing and expenses or send their own fixer and pay all expenses in the alloted time they'd want. Besides, no one had dared to rent here. They said the place's haunted, had dead bodies hidden and a very creepy atmosphere but when I asked my maids if they even found anything suspicious, they said no. It was safe for us because I knew they'd look every nook and cranny they'd find but nothing was out of place, just the half destroyed treehouse that looked like it hadn't been used for decades." She explained, fiddling the cold cup of chocolate. "But sure, Monte and I just visited him yesterday. We departed because we caught a boar in the trap, then we went fishing and we washed few of the blood from the boar and on the way back, we encountered his wife and she gave us a basket of assorted berries and herbs. They were really kind!"
By the time they finished and got ready, they ventured to the caretaker's home in the woods. They'd let let the teens in without a second thought, offered them drinks and cookies. Sometimes, eyes can't help but wonder. And what Aubrey saw can't be an illusion, no such thing can be an illusion.
They'd decided to discuss it back at the treehouse as to not raise suspicion.
"I'm telling you! There were male boots in there with blood, dried blood. Like they rushed to hide it, could it be?" Aubrey argued.
"Well, we can't say for sure. I've heard rumors of killings in this place but it wasn't confirmed yet. They were also the caretakers of other rental houses in this forest so it's possible." Audrey said.
"How are we gonna deal with this?" Aljohn asked, now the attention shifted to his question as they turned silent.
"Let's...not think about that now. We have to do a bigger mission at hand." Allen stated.
"And that mission may connect us to the real happenings in this place." Richard stated, this time they smiled.
"Well, we better get started or else we won't be done by sundown." Frior stood up as the rest followed to their own rooms to change.
