Ghost Of The Forest

Ch 1: Lost

                                                                    Ch 1: Lost

  Mu Ko Ang Thong is a beautiful archipelago of about 40 islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Ang Thong translates as bowl of gold, but the locals of Ko Paluay have seen sightings on the island not that far away from they’re own tropical paradise, totally freaked out as they avoided it with all precaution. The population believed that the curse was real…that the Ghost Of The Forest was true.

  And my boss wanted a full blown report.

                                                                    * * *

  I kept stumbling over roots and twigs and rocks as I looked around frantically, calling for the other reporters as I had no idea where they had disappeared too. And to be honest? I didn't care that I was alone...I was better off. 

  Now, seeing that I was totally lost, did I regret storming off by myself. Yet again, I had been so angry and humiliated because Colin, who had been in charge and should have been more professional, had shouted at me, mocked me and had said that I wasn't a good enough reporter in-front of everyone who had came. And that had hurt a lot more than I care to admit.

I scowled angrily at myself when I realised I was going soft, "Everyone will turn against him when I turn up dead, or if I go missing," I mumbled to myself angrily, knowing for certain somthing bad was going to happen. I huffed as I continued on my own.

  Eventually I stood on a twig, gasping as a vine wrapped around my ankle and pulled me forward so fast I couldn’t stop myself from hitting my head before I was pulled along the ground and then jerked upwards so fast the blackness took me into its grasp…

  When I awoke I was dangling upside down almost four hundred feet in the air. I cried out as I realized my foot was slowly slipping out of the vines grip, my pounding head stopping me from moving too much as I nearly blacked out with the effort.

  I’m going to die and nobody will ever know, my panicking brain’s whisper echoed through my mind but I was crying by the time I was released into the air.

  Screaming, I collided with a panther that transformed into a man midair, sending us both spinning into the nearest Kapok tree, its huge green leaves waving softly in the air from where we had went through, but I faded into nothingness as I ended up at the bottom of whatever had caught me, a slight wetness dribbling down my temple slowly.

  I awoke to the sound of monkeys calling to each other from somewhere nearby, the chatter of birds up above as they sat in the trees as I opened my eyes slowly, looking around the sunlit canopy as I lay in a dip of the tree.

  I took the wet cloth off of my forehead as I sat up, looking at the patch of blood before spotting my bags as I looked around myself. Eyeing a parting in the leaves, I wondered where it led to. I went through it slowly, letting my curiosity get the better of me. I gasped as I nearly fell right over the edge of a thick branch of the tree.

  I tried to regain my balance as I slowly but surely started to fall forwards, making me panic all the more. Gasping from the force of whatever had tackled me from above, it caused both of us to go tumbling back into the tree.

  I moaned softly as I started to sit up, holding a hand to my head as the other fixed my slightly messed hair, but I stopped moving so I was like a statue when my nose came in contact with someone else's. 

  I stared at the bare-chested nineteen year old in front of me, his green eyes as bright as the greenery of the jungle as his jet black hair came in contrast as it fell over his forehead, his tanned skin glistening with slight perspiration under the suns rays.

  I could feel the excitement and a bit of fear bubbling through my bloodstream at my findings, but I realized that excitement and a look of wonderment was on his handsome face as he studied me too.

  Frozen in place, he inched towards me like I was a wild animal.

  He played with one of my loose golden curls gently, so fascinated he even leaned into my neck and took a few sniffs. He played with my hair sightly and stroked my cheek tenderly, smelling the fear off of me. I didn't realise that he didn't like the thought of me being afraid of him, and he wanted to change my view.

  “ Your one of us…,”

  I jumped back, out of his reach as I was finally able to act on my fear, and I shook my head at myself when I wanted to go back and sit besides him again because of that shocked-hurt look displayed so clearly on his face. I pressed myself against the trunk of the tree, wanting to get as much distance from him as possible while holding myself up.

  " Us? Who's us? What are you?" I said shakily and fearfully, my chest heaving as I panicked, but his eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he searched my face, another look coming across his own as he stood from his crouched position.

  He ignored my first two questions, " We're panther shape shifters. You clearly don't know it..but you're one too."

  He moved closer to me a few steps when I paled, but stopped when I looked at him with wide fearfull eyes, slightly in the corner just so I could have over a metre of space between us.

  " You can't be one of those th-things...It's impossible," I said quietly, denying everything that was clicking together in my head, it all making perfect sense now.

  A faint frown appeared on his forehead, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, four big black panthers jumped down onto the tree branches that were free from leaves, making my breath catch in my throat as I stared at them. The boy kept his eyes on my face as he turned his head slightly in the panther's direction.

  " If you shift, she'll be even more freaked out. Give us some time to talk," he said to the panthers, but they looked from me to the boy before they jumped back up into the leaves. I gulped in a lung-full of air when I realized I had been holding my breath.

  " It can't be true," I said more to myself than to him, closing my eyes as my head pounded with the new information. I looked at him when a growl rumbled in his chest.

  " How do you think you got up so high? How do you think you stopped bleeding so quickly?" he said, clearly getting annoyed that I wasn't listening to him, but I shook my head angrily, getting up from the tree.

  " No! I won't believe your lies!" I half shouted at him, disappearing through the thick leaves and running away.

  I didn't hear him follow.