Shadowood- H.S

eleven |11|

Song of the chapter

Made for you- OneRepublic

The Meadow- Alexandre Desplat

(I SUGGEST YOU LISTEN IF YOU HAVEN'T. BOTH SONGS ARE SO GOOD AND HAVE THIS HAUNTING/EERIE QUALITY TO THEM LIKE YAS)

Enjoy Xx

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The clouds have grown slightly darker since we've entered Shadowood and a light mist surrounds the air, but we still continue to walk through the narrow paths of the woods, Harry only a few feet ahead of me. We've only been in Shadowood for about an hour and a half, probably almost to the center of the five mile thick forest.

So far, neither of us have really spoken since we met up at the bench. I've spent almost every second that we've been in here fully alert, watching my peripheral, listening to every little twig snap. I don't know what gives Shadowood its reputation, or why people are so afraid of it, and if I'm being honest with myself, I'm not entirely ready to find out.

There's a loud shuffling above me, like some creature is stalking us from above. I gasp and duck, looking up to the top of the woods. "It's just a flock of birds." Harry turns around, smiling at me.

I look up to the canopy one more time, but only see a bunch of crows. "Right," I say, even though my heart still beats at a pace a little quicker than usual.

After we walk for a few more minutes, I speak up again. "Why do they call it Shadowood?" As we walk deeper into the woods, old dried up leaves crunch beneath my feet and water from the trees above fall on my cloths from the recent weather.

Harry stops in his tracks and looks around, as if making sure no one else is listening. Then he speaks in a hushed tone. "Because they say that wherever you go, even in the clearings, a shadow is always following closely behind."

A chill runs up my back and I shiver at his words, his set tone, and his set expression. I look around a couple times, looking for a shadow.

A friendly smile returns to his face and he takes a step towards me. "At least that's just what I heard. I don't think it's true though. I mean look around, do you see any shadows following us?"

I look around us. I see nothing but a long stretch of trees running from all directions around us. A couple of birds sit perched on the small trees and small bugs buzz throughout the cold air, but I see no shadows.

I gulp and straighten up. "I guess." He smiles again and we continue to walk a few more minutes before we enter another clearing in the woods. There are a few broken down trees that cross throughout the clearing from previous wind storms, but it's mostly just patchy grass and a large sitting rock.

"How far in do you think we are?" I ask. I had no idea it would take this long, it must be approaching two o'clock in the afternoon by now.

Harry looks into the distance of where we'd come from, squinting his eyes. "We'd been walking pretty slowly, so I'd say about three miles."

"Dude," I say as I sit down on the large rock. "Not going to lie, but this is the most exercise I've gotten in a while."

Harry laughs and sits down next to me on the rock. His body is extremely close to mine. "I could say the same thing."

I smile and look up at him. Even sitting down, he's still a lot taller than I am. As he focuses his eyes into the distance, I watch him carefully. His lips are slightly parted, it seems like they always are. His eyes are the same color as the majority of the trees in the woods and are framed by long, dark lashes.

Even though I barely know him, I feel as if Harry and I have a lot more in common than I do with anyone else, personality wise. We're both interested in mystery novels and the idea of a mystery itself. I don't know anyone who would actually go into Shadowood with me, except maybe Brandon, but he's just crazy.