There were no stars in the sky that night, no. Not a single twinkle. Not a sparkle. Not even one tiny glare. It was pitch darkness, that foggy, memorable night in Chicago, Illinois.
Serine, age sixteen, was in high school and even though she was not fully aware of it, an open-minded girl. A girl of which who was causing not a pinch of harm, filling a single drop of drugs in her veins, nor consumption of alcohol.
Serine, as well as her friends, were not intoxicated. Indeed, they didn't need the things most teenagers her age did to have a good time with friends. In fact, her friends were all she did need, along with catchy music playing on her iPod and a large mossy forest full of ferns and oak trees beside a lake that substituted the starless night sky with it's glimmering twinkles in the dark navy blue waters.
Serine had heard of Riane Fall Forest many times before from people at school and newspapers stressing it's beauty, but never procrastinated on going there due to it's frightening back story of haunted spirits roaming its natural habitat.
Even though the idea of hanging out in the forest gradually became unsettling for her over time, Serine was not very afraid of the forest, so she and her friends decided to give it a chance. And as it turns out, that was the single most best thing that they had ever done.
Every one of them had not a care in the world. They leaped through the muddy, quiet forest. They brought life and energy within the presence of Raine Fall Forest while, at the same time, disturbing its naturally quiet peace with their LED flashlights shining deep within the dark woods.
One thing they could not disturb however, was in definite the seemingly untouched natural beauty of the dark wooded forest.
The forest had roamed with creatures of all different variations. As they laughed and skipped along the pathway with no trail, they came across squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, snakes, spiders, poisonous insects, foxes, and many other nocturnal wildlife that they stopped not once to appreciate, fear, nor even gaze upon.
Most of Serine's friends were in the same grade as her, which was tenth, except for Adam and Guidry. They were in the eleventh grade but that had made almost no difference whatsoever. Tara, Amelia, and Rebecca were always discussing the drama that went down at school.
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