The Duration Saga: A Crossover Series

A Lost Soul

(Tw: Character Death)

Modern Day: Five Years Before the First Book Takes Place (2007):

Rosswood Forest had swallowed up someone in its depths: a little girl, lost in the embrace of the chilly night. She clutches a fluffy white teddy bear to her chest, shivering as a soft autumn wind weaves its way through the branches around her. They wave in response and send down copper leaves in a shower atop the girl's gray coat. They fly off her as her pace quickens, and she sniffs, still in a state of sorrow from losing her way. The girl has been here since noon, wandering aimlessly in search of the way home. She wipes her snotty nose with a free hand as she recalls her father's biggest rule:

"Never go anywhere by yourself."

She broke it, at the time only wanting to explore a tiny bit while her brother was playing basketball with his friends. She had never expected that she would lose her way in the trees, not at all.

"I'm sorry daddy..." she whispers, beginning to sob again, breaking the usual silence of the forest. She squeezes her teddy bear in a hug, burying her face in its fur. Her father had given it to her after school one day, and it was her most prized possession. Berry went everywhere with her. She was lucky that he was with her at least, and that she was not completely alone.

She shivers once again as the nippy wind bites her exposed skin, and holds Berry even closer, kissing his dainty black nose.

"Mommy and daddy will find us, I promise..."

She looks upward and spots a square of the forest floor blanketed in pine needles. She understands that she would most likely be here for the night, so she shuffles over to sit among the needles, hoping to be home in the morning.

She cries harder.

"Oh, Berry, I'm sorry...!" she whimpers, hugging her loyal friend tightly and once again burying her face into his fur.

Suddenly, the quick snap of a branch sounds from her left, and the girl's neck snaps upward in response. She looks over her shoulder, the sob that she was going to lose caught in her throat.

She sees nothing but moonlight and the forest floor. Spotting a pine tree directly behind her, she scrambles to plant herself against the thin trunk, tears falling as she recalls an event that makes the current situation terrifying.

"Don't let the boogeyman get you!" teases her older brother, his eyes squinted and hard.

"Stop it! He's not real, Alan!" the girl shoves him away, racing down the hall to tattle to their mommy about her crazy brother.

"If you tattle Tilly, the boogeyman's gonna get ya!" Alan raised his hands and pursued a screaming Tilly down the hall to their mom's office.

Tilly whimpers, pressing herself harder against the tree.

I did tattle to mommy...the boogeyman's gonna get me!

She is now scared out of her wits, trembling from head to toe.

At the time, she knew that telling on her brother was a saving grace; it was the most rational thing to do! Now, a cold realization hit her that when she told her mother these things, she, without meaning to, had summoned an awful beast that was now stalking her in the shadows all around.

She shuts her eyes tight and buries her face in her bear's fur, hoping that her companion will keep her from harm. Desperate to not get caught by the boogeyman, she struggles to hide the cry rising in her throat.