The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 1: Into the Woods (and Back Out Again)

Author's Note: I am apologizing in advance for any mistakes you come across. This is the original, unedited version of The Forest Gods' Reign. In print, this single online book will be split into two different books, ultimately making the series a trilogy. The first book in the trilogy (equivalent to Ch1-18 online, with some minor changes) will be published on Amazon and in bookstores June 9th, 2015. Hope you like it! Please don't be afraid to give feedback :)

---------------------

START OF BOOK 1

PART 1: THE GODS

Beep. Beep. Beep. My eyes flew open and I rolled over on my bed to violently punch the black alarm clock that sat on my nightstand, glaring at me with its red numbers. 5:00 AM, it reminded me. Yawning, I dragged myself out of bed and slowly got dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a simple blue tank top - not in the least bit flashy, but definitely comfortable to move around in. I lazily tied up my long, wavy, dark brown hair in my usual side ponytail before stopping by my open window to look outside at the quiet forest on the other side of the empty street, across from my house. I couldn't help but smile as I grabbed my little black pocketknife and walked out the front door to meet my friends, thinking about that crazy day three years ago, the day that had completely changed my life...

The four of us - that's Zach, Connor, Luke, and I (Ashley) - were only six years old when we became the first people ever to go into the mysterious woods and come out alive. I always thought our young age was partly why we survived, the other being luck, but maybe there was another reason too; we just didn't know it.

We lived in the Woods (yes, the name of our town was the Woods), named after the sprawling forest that stood rooted beside the wonderfully rugged establishment. Although the forest itself was huge, the town was very, very small - only one main road lined with six tired-looking shops facing the forest and twenty ancient houses lined up to the south, to be exact. There weren't even any real stoplights, and all of the children were forced to take twenty minute bus rides to the school in the bigger town nearby, called Pine Grove. Naturally, the Woods was one of those cute but cliché towns where everyone knew everyone else, no one had fences of any kind to keep each other away, and gossip traveled like wildfire.

The bad part about living in such a small town, however, was that there was always someone poking his nose into somebody else's personal business. Keeping secrets was awfully difficult when all of the families had known each other for generations on top of generations. So, yearning for freedom and new experiences after high school, most teenagers went to out-of-state colleges or to travel the world with friends. Somewhere out there, in those huge, unfriendly concrete jungles called cities, they would find jobs, settle down, possibly even start their own families. However, one day in the future, each would receive a call which he knew deep down inside himself to be inevitable, a call which would inform him that his parents were aging faster than ever. Most of these formerly hopeful teenagers would then return to the Woods, perhaps bringing their own new families along to permanently settle in their exact same childhood homes, or perhaps rekindling a relationship with a high school sweetheart who would come home for a similar reason. They would take over their parents' beloved shops simply because they hadn't realized how much they missed the playful gossip and the lazy atmosphere of the Woods, but even more so, because they felt obligated to keep the old business alive, thus passing down both the businesses and the houses from generation to generation, creating a timeless fog surrounding the tiny town. It was far too comfortable and easy to cross into the hazy isolationism of the Woods.

The fact that the growth of our beloved town had been stunted in this fashion was only partly due to the fact that the forest was a real death trap. Before Zach, Luke, Connor and I went in, over 40 people had walked in confidently (the last one had gone in more than 30 years ago) but had never come out. Decades ago, someone had finally decided to put out a large "Danger, Do Not Enter" sign in front of the forest. However, the sign didn't help as much as the former mayor had foolishly expected, and so the devastating killings did not cease, a reason most families had more than one child at a time. Still, children of all ages were constantly reminded by their elders to never go into the forest, and most children listened. Until the four of us beat the odds.