Forlot: Forgotten Forest - Book Eight {Completed}

Chapter Four

Sheila and Valerie burst out laughing, and the rest of the class did the same. I hugged Collin tightly and pulled him close to me. I frowned at the bullies.

"You know, he has a point," I scolded them. "You two are as wicked as an evil wizard."

"Man, you really are dummies," Sheila insulted. "Do you not know that evil wizards, let alone wizards and witches, do not exist?"

"And your friend was stupid enough to compare us to a wizard," Valerie added. "Wizards are boys, not girls. Everyone knows that." She ruffled Collin's hair and giggled.

"Hey!" Collin pulled away and slapped her hand. "I do not like to be touched!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Not even by me?"

He glanced at me, and then back up at the mean girls. "Ari is the exception to the rule. She is the only person who understands me."

Sheila snorted. "And the foolish."

"Shut up, Sheila and Valerie," Paul ordered. "No one thinks that your jokes are funny. As for the rest of you, stop laughing at Ari and Collin. Especially Collin because he has been through a difficult time."

"We were not laughing at them," a boy corrected him. "We were laughing at Collin's joke."

My friend narrowed his eyebrows and shifted his body to the back of the bus where the boy's voice was coming from. "My joke?"

"The supposed wizard who lives in Forgotten Forest and kills people."

He pushed up his glasses and moved his head around, glaring at every student. "He is real. This is the true story that I was referring to."

"Sure. A magical being lives in a rotten forest and murders humans became he apparently cannot do anything else," a girl said sarcastically. "Oh, please. There is no such thing."

"Says the girl who believed in myths. Wolves and girls dying."

"That is because wolves are real. We can die. Those are things that could happen. Everybody knows that wizards do not exist."

"I see. I had a hunch that none of you would take my story seriously." He unzipped his backpack and took out a small object.

It was a bone.

"The heck is that?" a boy demanded. "A model that you made out of clay?"

"I am surrounded by idiots," Collin muttered so that nobody would hear. I was the only person who overheard him. "Anyway..." He held up the bone. "...this is a bone that I found near the forest when I was there last year."

"And...your point?"

"This is proof that a wizard resides in Forgotten Forest."

"No, it does not."

"Think about it for a minute. There have been no sightings of any animals. None. If there were, then this bone would probably be part of a small animal. But like I said, no animals. So why was there a bone by the forest?"

"Uh...somebody ate chicken on bones while staying at the camp?" another boy guessed.

"Good assumption. But wrong! The wizard killed a human! Therefore, this bone used to belong to a human being!"

The boys gasped.

"Ew!" the girls declared, sticking out their tongues.

Paul chuckled. "Collin, I know that you had a rough moment in your life, but do not scare the new campers. Please."

Collin tucked the bone back in his backpack and zipped his bag back up. "It not actually that scary, sir. It is easy to avoid the wizard."

"How?" I wondered.

"Just do not go in the forest. Stay away from it." He rubbed his hands together, warming them up. "The wizard hates whoever enters Forgotten Forest. He loves being by himself." He cleared his throat. "The wizard put a curse on that forest so that if a human wandered in there, they will forget their memories, who they are and what they are doing. When all the memories fade, the wizard will kill them."

"My goodness. What a horrific way to die," I stated.

"Lame!" Sheila and Valerie said in unison.

The bus drove over a bump on the ground, and we all leaped into the air and out of our seats.

"The crub?!" Valerie exclaimed.

"Sorry about that," Paul apologized. "We are almost there."

He slowed the bus down, and we looked out the big window. The bus driver's window.

For a camp that received great reviews and offered lots of activities, the campgrounds were small. Smaller than your average campsite. There were only three wooden cabins, one on the left , one in the middle, and one on the right. In front of those cabins were nothing but a basketball hoop, basketballs scattered all over, and a slide.

Strange. I thought that there would be more.

Paul parked the bus and opened the doors. "We are here!" he proclaimed. "Go and meet your camp counselors. I will get all of your luggage out of the back."

The kids hurried out and towards the cabins. Collin and I were the last people to get off.

As he and I said goodbye to our bus driver and were leaving, Paul patted Collin's back.

"I do hope that you enjoy like you did last year," Paul said. "You were so happy."

My best friend hesitated. "...I will try."

We got off, and I helped him with his suitcase and backpack.

"You could have left these on the bus," I told him.

He ignored my suggestion and just replied, "Come on."

I shrugged, and we followed the others. As we got closer, we spotted the camp counselors standing on the porch of the middle cabin.

My heart dropped when I realized that one of the counselors...was me.

My doppelgänger.