The Mystery in The Forest

Untitled Part 1

It had already been a few days since the kid that lived down the street of my pueblo disappeared in the Fate Forest. I've always been afraid to pass by it when I'm walking to school. The grim darkness of the forest gives me the chills. Pablo told me about stories his older brother would tell him about kids getting lost in there all the time. This part of South America was notorious for having missing kids all the time. My name is Jorge, I'm 15 years old and I live in a small pueblo in Ecuador. My parents always tell me that I'm crazy for thinking that the forest actually takes children, but I don't think I'm crazy. Some of the kids that disappeared in the Fate Forest went to my school, I've seen it happen, but my parents just don't understand. I arrived late to class, again. It's the sixth time now, stupid forest. "Why don't you wake up earlier,'' said Karina, one of my best friends. "I try but going around the forest slows me down." I'd been going to school with Karina since the first grade. We've been really close ever since. Omar is another one of my best friends. Unfortunately, I didn't see him as much because this year we don't have any classes together, but after school we all hang out, just me, Pablo, Karina, and Omar. When I got home from school, I dropped my backpack on the floor in my room and zoomed out the door. " A donde vas?" said my mother. "I'm going to hang out with my friends." "Okay I want you back before it gets too dark." I headed to Pablo's house first, then Karina's, and finally, Omar's. "We should go to the Fate Forest." said Pablo. "You're insane, Pablo," said KarinaKarina was right, there's no way I would ever lay a foot on those grounds. But if Pablo really wants to go, I'm not letting him go alone. "I will never in my life go in there, Pablo. You can go, but I'm staying home." says Omar."We can't just let him go by himself, guys." said Karina. Gosh, it's like she can read my mind. "Yeah, she's right, we have to go with him." "Fine. I guess I'll go." said OmarWe arrived at the forest in less than ten minutes. Omar couldn't stop talking about what happens to all the kids that go into the notorious Fate Forest. "Okay guys, we're here. Can we go home now?" Omar said. "Stop being scared Omar, we haven't even gone inside yet." said Pablo.I'm not going to lie, I was actually pretty scared to go in. I think we all were. We walked in and right away I felt a cold snake slither down my spine. Sun light was now filtered by the tall trees that scraped the sky. As we walked into this bloodcurdling forest, the branches and plants crunched and crackled. "Creepy," said Karina."This isn't even all of it, let's keep going." said Pablo. We walked for maybe ten feet before Omar stopped walking. "Okay that's it, I'm going back." Omar said."No don't leave, Omar" said Karina.

"Just let him go," said Pablo.

"I'm not leaving anyone alone." said Karina.

Well I'm in love. "Jorge stay with Pablo" said Karina."You got it.""Jorge check this out."I've never seen anything like it. It was like a huge white glowing globe. I didn't know what to do, Pablo was getting closer. "Wait, you don't know if it's dangerous or not.""It looks cool." said Pablo. The way he said it was strange. His pupils expanded as he walked towards this bizarre sphere. "Pablo!!" shouted Karina as she came sprinting with Omar.Immediately, he jerked and snapped out of whatever had him hypnotized. I looked at the globe and I can see a reflection of Pablo that made me really uncomfortable. The reflection looked at me and faded away. "Are you okay Pablo?!" Karina said worried. He didn't respond. We had no idea what to do, Pablo collapsed to the floor and he wasn't showing any signs of life. "GUYS HE'S DEAD!" Omar panicked.We ran away from the sphere as fast as we could, we ran for what seemed like ages. We ran and ran and ran but after a while we ended up at the sphere. I was really scared now. I understood what the Fate Forest was doing. "Don't look at the sphere, it hypnotizes you and takes your soul." Karina shoutedShe's a brave girl, I love it. "We have to destroy this sphere." Karina said. "There's no way. We can't even look at it, how are we supposed to destroy it." said OmarHe bends over to pick up a rock and chucks it at the sphere. I didn't want to look, but from the hollow thump it made I can tell it didn't do anything. Karina marches out of the clearing with the sphere back into the forest. Me and Omar look at each other and he nods his head towards her. "What?" I say "Go get her, I'll...stay here, with the sphere..alone" says OmarI run after Karina, I duck under leaves and branches and I jump over big rocks and tree roots. I felt confident, I felt alive. I catch up to her. I got suddenly get nervous now that I'm with her. I take a deep breath, I tap on her shoulder, she turns around and right there. Our eyes locked together, are bodies are like magnets and start coming together slowly. Closer and closer. "Took you two a while" says Omar as we enter the clearing. "Yeah yeah" I say. Karina seems a lot calmer now. "Okay guys we need to destroy this thing. Let's loWok around to see if we find anything capable of destroying this." says Karina. The three of us hastily walk into the forest to look for tools. I had no idea what to look for but I think Omar and Karina didn't either because they had a very worried look on their faces. "How about we split up, our meet-up spot will be by the sphere." I said. "Sounds good" said Karina."It's okay you guys go, I'll stay by the sphere just in case anything happens." said Omar"Okay, but if anything happens just yell." said Karina "Be careful, Karina"I started walking faster than I was before. Now that I was alone, I could really hear the crickets and owls as I walk deeper into the forest. Anything can jump in front of me and eat me alive. I really hope Karina is safe. I was trying to brainstorm ideas on how to get rid of this thing, I couldn't think of anything. We had limited resources which made brainstorming a lot harder. I don't even know what this sphere was made of. I lost my best friend and I wasn't able to save him. I kept thinking of Pablo's reflection on the sphere. I've seen movies about people's spirits getting trapped in objects and the only way to release them is to destroy the object. I have to look for something heavy or big to.. "AGGHHHHHH" sounds like Omar.I rapidly ran back to find him. The trees passed by me as I ran as if they were getting thrown at me and I am dodging them. I get there at the same time Karina does. I see Omar on the floor looking up at... "What the heck is that!?" I shout. It was like a bear with horns and a lot bigger. "Omar don't move!" yells Karina as she picks up a large branch. She storms towards this bear thing and launches the branch aiming for the bear's face. The bear's attention immediately darts from Omar to Karina. I race towards Karina, the bear is now focused on the both of us. I wrap my arms around her and walk backwards as the bear is marching at us with its claws in the air pointing at us. We get closer together and brace for the bears claws. I cover Karina with my body and we hear a loud thump and feel the ground shake. I turn around and I see Omar on the bear's back. "Look guys, I took it down!" Omar says with excitement."Omar you saved us!" shouts Karina. "How did you do that, Omar""Well, I climbed on the bears back and I was trying to hit it in the head, but it wasn't doing anything. So I did the shoulder thing Pablo's older brother does to me. I squeezed the muscle on the bear's shoulder and before I knew I was flying down."I had an idea. "Guys, I have an idea""What is it?" says Karina."Well this thing is huge and it made the ground shake," "Massive" says Karina. "Why don't we try to get it to fall on the sphere?""I'm down to give it a go." says Karina. "Okay I got this." says Omar, standing up straight, looking confident. Me and Karina get branches and rocks to try to wake up the bear. Omar gets into position on the bear's back. "You ready, Omar?" says Karina, in position with rocks in one hand and the same branch in the other."Ready" shouts Omar from on top of the bear. "Are you ready?" says Karina now looking at me. "More ready than ever." I said feeling confident. Me and Karina start by throwing rocks at the bear. The bears menacing eyes explode open and right away lock into me and Karina. "Woahhh" yells Omar as the bear slowly gets back on its legs. The bear growls loudly and my confidence has gone down. "Okay Jorge hurry let's go around the sphere!" shouts Karina and she gets ready to run.The bear steps forward and I run. We get to the opposite side of the sphere and start throwing rocks at the bear. The bear walks towards the sphere and we yell at Omar. "Now Omar now!!" me and Karina yell together. The bear feels it's shoulder and throws a claw at Omar. Omar ducks down to where I can't see him anymore. The momentum of the bear's own claw knocks him off balance and falls on top of the sphere. I hear the impact and the whole forest starts to light up. I sprint to Karina to cover her and we fall to the ground as light drowns the forest and sky. I opened my eyes and my ears are ringing. I try to get up but my body feels sore. I turned around to look for Karina. She's out cold. I quickly crawl towards her and try to wake her up. "Karina, please wake up!" I yell with tears in my eyes "Jorge! Karina!" I turn and see Omar getting up from the bears back. He runs towards me and Karina. I turn to Karina and again I shake her to wake up. Omar got on his knees and we both sat there in silence, looking at the ground. "Are you okay?" I look up and Karina is now breathing and blinking. She holds my hand and the three of us stand up. We look around and we see that most of the trees that were here before have disappeared. There's a deep hole in the ground and we walk towards it. As we take a few steps there's kids climbing out of the hole. "Are you kids okay?" shouts Karina but the kids ignore her and run into the forest. I'm guessing they're trying to run back to their homes after being trapped in the sphere. More and more kids climb out of the hole. In the crowd we catch an eye on Pablo. We all race and shout in happiness to see him. "Pablo!" yells Omar. We get to him and we all hug as a group. "You guys destroyed that thing?" says Pablo in surprise. Me and Karina look at each other and then look at Omar. "Omar did it," we both say. Omar looks at us with the biggest smile painted on his face. "There's no way he did it" says Pablo. "Oh shut up, Pablo. Let's go, Jorge can't be late to school now." says Karina and all of us walk out of the Fate Forest together.