The Woodland Mansion (scraped)

Chapter 6: The Woods

"Can I come?"

We turned around, surprised by the voice, but I knew exactly who it was. Standing in front of us was Max, looking really bored.

"We're not going anywhere." I lie. I am terrible at lying, but Max is pretty clueless. I'm sure he bought it.

"Yeah." Said Payton nervously. "It's not like we were going to go into the woods or anything."

I knew there was no way Max would believe that, he may be clueless, but he's not stupid. Despite it was all her fault, I wasn't mad at Payton. I've blown some secrets on accident too.

"Oh, well I am." Max said. Maybe he really was stupid, but he couldn't be in the woods while we were.

"You can't go in there!" Tori blurted out.

"Why?" Max asked.

"Because-" Tori grew a blank.

Maddie saved the day and cut in. "Because it could be dangerous."

I added, "And Mom said we weren't allowed."

"I know you were planning on going." Max said. "So can I come, I'm bored out of my mind."

We just stood there in silence. Was it a good idea to bring Max along?

"I'll tell Mom that you had friends over." He really was smart, blackmail.

I sighed in defeat and said, "Fine, you can come."

"So what are we doing anyway?" Max asked.

"Looking for our friends." I answer. "They're still alive, I don't care what you think."

"So we're ghost hunting?" Max asked. "Cool!"

He was never going to understand, so I gave up trying to explain. I knew Addy was out there, and I was going to find her.

We stepped into the woods and everything changed. The trees were bigger and taller, and behind us were more woods, not Grandpa John's backyard. We were on a dirt path and all around us were beautiful trees that were blooming with bright colors of yellow, white, and pink, and rose colored, leafy bushes were scattered amongst the ground near the trees.

We all looked at each other, there was no going back, these woods were certainly not normal. If we ever wanted to get back, we'd need to find another way out, but first we have to do what we came here to do, find our friends.

___

As we walked along the dirt path we started to panic a little bit. We had no idea how to get home, and had no plan to find our friends.

"How are we going to get back! What about school!" Said Maddie

"Forget about school."said Max. "We never have to go again."

"Shouldn't we be thinking positive?" Tori asked.

"So now you want to be positive!" Maddie said angerily. "You're always so negative, but now you want to think positive, WHEN THERE'S NOTHING TO BE POSITIVE ABOUT!"

"Of course there's a positive." Max said. "We won't have to do any chores or go to school again."

We all sighed. We were never going to find our friends, and we were never going to get out of here.

Just then, the trees above us began rustling, there was something in the trees! Before I could think, a giant tree branch crashed down onto us, and everything went black.

___

I wake up on a pile of grass and leaves, an agonizing pain in my head. I was in some kind of hut, made out of bamboo, leaves, and other natural resources. Sitting in a chair next to me was a boy.

I finally sit up and the boy looks up. He has brown eyes and a few freckles on his face. His hair was a shade of hazel. He looked to be about my age and by the looks of the hut, he's been here a while.

"You're up." He said, standing up.

"You hit my in the head with a giant tree branch." I said, rubbing my sore head.

"Yeah, sorry about that." He said, looking down at his shoes. He wore beat up sneakers that had holes in the souls, and one of them didn't have a lace. "Thought you guys were centaurs."

"What?" I ask. "Centaurs aren't even real, where is everyone else anyway?" This kid had to be joking, centaurs only existed in movies and books, not in the woods. Not on real life.

"They're outside." The boy answered. "And centaurs are real, you must be new here. The woods are very magical, and they're full of mythical creatures. I'm Kevin by the way." He almost blushed a little bit as he smiled at me.

"Paige." I said, probably blushing too. I have never liked a guy since the incident, but I had a feeling that was about to change.

"Well, let's go meet everyone outside." Kevin said. He lead me outside and I noticed the pretty trees and bushes were gone. Instead, tall dark trees towered above us and the sky was dark and cloudy. There was no path I sight. If this was a horror movie, these woods would be hunted.

With the others, there was three more boys. They must have been with Kevin.

"Paige, this is Oliver, Tommy, and Noah. Guys, this is Paige."

Tommy had dark brown fluffy hair that sat at the top of his head. He was pretty tall and had a pointed chin. His eyes were light blue and he wore a yellow long sleeved shirt that had a thick orange strip in the middle.

Noah was no taller than me and had thin black hair. He had dark blue eyes. He wore a blue shirt and jeans. His clothes were coated in dirt and had small holes.

Oliver had a shy face and had light brown hair that hid part of his face. He had dark brown eyes and was a good couple inches taller than Noah. He wore a red hoodie and green rain boots that were covered in mud as well as his jeans.

"Sorry about the branch." Kevin said. "But now you can be on your way."

"What are you doing here anyway." Tommy said.

"We're ghost hunting." Max said.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "We're looking for our friends who supposedly died here." I said.

"The bodies at the funeral had to be fake." Payton said.

"Well if your friends entered these woods, then the bodies are definitely fake." Said Tommy. "There's only one way out of here."

"And what's that?" Asked Tori.

Noah looked at each of us and answered, "The Woodland Mansion."

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