Don't Go Into The Woods

Chapter 1

Rain drops covered the car door window as the car drove down the long winding road with nothing more than miles and miles of countryside scenery. I sunk down in my seat and sighed heavily. The feeling of dread just increased as the car approached not only the end of our trip but what also felt like the end of my life. Perhaps I was over reacting a tad bit and perhaps in a year or even a month from now I will be able to look back at today and think to myself how pathetic I was to feel this way. I honestly hoped that that would be the case, but considering the fact that this was all my mother's doing, something inside me refused to believe that any good would come from this. After all. Everything my mother touched ended up ruined. Just like me. Thinking back to the unearthing moment that led to this, I wished that I had just been more careful when it came to not being caught out. My eyes wired shut as memories of that nights flashed before them.

I climbed up the tree in the cold dark of the night. After years of gymnastic classes, finally they were put to good use. I reached the thick spiraling branch which I had walked across so many times before that even in my state I would be able to balance perfectly. Once at the end of it I leapt over onto the ledge of the balcony to my bedroom, landing on both feet. My boots made a bit of a thump when landing, but I was confident that I had not made enough noise to wake up anyone. After all. This place was big. A 10 bedroom mansion with massive grounds that contained a tennis court and a barn for the horses. Yes - husband number five really did his best to impress my mom by splashing on her as much as he could. Of course this meant splashing on me too seeing as I was the step daughter he was trying to win over. I honestly had no idea why he cared. No one ever cared about what I thought and that surprisingly enough included my mother. Her multiple marriages was proof of this. Though I somewhat accepted this fifth guy seeing as he had made a world record with my mom. They were actually going to be celebrating their fifth anniversary soon. Still. I did not consider this mansion or any of the other big and expensive places we stayed at before, to be my home. Maybe that was why I preferred not to be in it as much as my mom did.

Sneaking in way past my curfew was definitely a sign of this.

I crept up to my balcony door and pulled on the latch. To my disappointment it was locked. I did not recall locking this door when I left, but I was far too tired to take note of it. I just wanted a change of clothes and my bed. I dug in my black leather jacket for my keys. Fortunately I was smart enough to always take a spare key with me. I pulled the keys out, shoved it into the keyhole after selecting the correct one and unlocked the door. It was open. I checked my time before scurrying inside. It was after 3am. No wonder I was so tired and partially drunk which no one needed to hear about of course. Upon entering the room, I forgot I had left my pair of skates laying there on the floor. In an instant, I found myself crashing to the floor after tripping over them. Suddenly the lights were turned on. Squinting from the bright main light of my large bedroom, I brushed my long wavy dark chocolate brown hair out of my face and looked up to see who was responsible for blinding me after my fall. My mother stood in the door way of my bedroom dressed in her pink night clothes with her pink night gown tied over it. Her arms were folded and her face was creased at the sight of me. She was probably going to be making more botox appointments for this week after this. Probably going to book another day long appointment at the spa as well. I let out a laugh at that thought as I climbed up to my feet with help of the bedpost at the end of my bed. My mom brushed her bleach blonde hair out of her face. Of course that was not her real hair color. My mom was naturally a brunette, but ever since she was shopping for a husband, my mom has repeatedly colored her hair blonde. Though no matter how many times my mom changed her surname, I insisted on keeping my dad's. The only man who never divorced her.

"Savannah King! Do you know what time it is?!" My mom said in a high pitched tone of voice. She only ever used my full name when she was really angry and that seemed to happen a lot ever since I turned 16. Rick appeared in his matching and extremely embarrassing pink night clothes. For a well known plastic surgeon, he clearly had no say in this marriage. I fought really hard to hold back the laughter at the sight of poor little Rick who was so whipped by my mom it was scary. His greying black hair looked like a mess. He was obviously sleeping when he got woken up by my mom who just wanted to make my life difficult. That was the only reason why she was here with her sidekick. To make my life difficult and to turn every fun moment in my life into a miserable one. "So you think this is all very funny?" My mom said after noticing the amused look on my face. "Creeping in far passed your curfew and probably drunk too." My mom's voice only became higher and higher which just became increasingly annoying for me to the point that all I wanted to do was close my ears and block her out.