Finders Keepers

Chapter 1

Ghost stories. The number one thing that people try and do to scare people with things that aren't true. I don't believe in ghosts, or spirits. Or anything 'evil' in the form of someone dead for the matter.

Do you?

~

We live next to a large forest in Canada. We actually just moved here from LA a few days ago. I live with my mum Lauren, dad Chris and little sister Lisa. There are only four of us in this family including me, Rachel. I had to start a new school, make new friends, start all new classes.. It's bullshit. I'm not the shy type. Or the type to get scared easily. Which is good I guess. We have no neighbours. We are the only family that lives on Anchor Street. There are a few houses here but they look super old and not stable.
My mum - 39 - wasn't tall but wasn't short, brown hair and green eyes. She's fit and all about manners. My dad - 43 - on the other hand is tall, abit more.. Round, black hair and hazel eyes. My sister is obviously small as she is only 7 turning 8 in a few weeks. I'm like my mum in height, not tall but not short, just right. Me and my sister both have black hair and blue eyes. I'm 17.

~

"Rachel hurry up or you're going to be late for school!" My mother yelled from down stairs.

It was my third day of school today. And I was not looking forward to it. Some girls at the school are the biggest bitches and I noticed that only two days in. Now that's saying something. Im not popular, and i don't plan to be. I don't want to be fake and perfect - that's just not me. I want to be real and myself. And I found the best group of friends who want the same. Besides, popularity is so overrated.

"Coming!" I yelled back.

I looked at myself in the mirror one more time. I was wearing black shorts, a simple white top and white all stars. I would say I'm wearing a little bit of make up like the natural way but I've actually got a decent amount on today. I grabbed my bag and my school laptop and raced down stairs to the car where mum was already waiting for me. Lisa was already in the car. The trip wasn't that long, only about 20 to 30 minutes. Ok maybe it was a while. When we made it to school, it was 8:50am on the dot. Only 10 minutes to drop my sister off to her groups of friends then go to where my group hangs out in the mornings and talk before the school bell rings at 9:00am. I kissed mum on the cheek, and me and Lisa walked into school. I walked Lisa close to where her group of friends hangs out in the morning, next to the play ground. Once they were in sight Lisa gave me a hug and whispered sweetly in my ear 'see you this afternoon sis.' Then I watched her run off to get friends. It was actually a pretty big group of kids. You would think it would be harder for younger kids to find friends.. Clearly not. I met up with my group of friends and sat down with them. There was Kaity, James, Tahlia, Kay, Matt, Tim and me. We started talking and a few minutes in the bell rang. Roll call time. We said goodbye and went our separate ways. Once I got to roll call I over heard two girls talking.

"Doesn't that knew girl live next the that forest where that guy died?" One girl said.

"I heard that too. Hey isn't that the forest where people go in and don't come out?" Replied the other girl.

"Yeah."

Um, what? People go in and don't come out? That's bullshit. Not like they got murdered in there.. Did they? I was thinking about it all day. Imagine if that was true and my back yard backs off to the forest. I live right next to it. I cleared my mind. That wasn't the first time I heard that some guy died in there but I doubt people go missing in there. At the end of the day I went to find Lisa and bring her back to where mum was waiting in the car. Once we got home I went to my room and opened up my school laptop.
'Anchor forest' is what I typed into Google. After a few sites, I was in shock. Site after site, page after page, i was reading the same thing.

'54 year old Jack April murdered in Anchor Forest'
'Three people missing in Anchor Forest'
'Strange lights and sounds coming from Anchor Forest'
'Sightings of Jack April in Anchor forest days after he was found dead'
'2 people missing in Anchor forest'

I couldn't believe it. I slowly closed my laptop lid and took a deep breath in. I turn my head to the right, so I was facing the forest. It was thick. Dark. Scary. I was staring at it. Looking to see how far back it went, then I noticed smoke in the distance.

'Smoke?' I thought, 'someone is camping out there?'

At first I was thinking maybe they are the people that are missing, maybe the they just got lost not killed, but my thoughts were cut off as the sight of Lisa standing only centimetres away from where the forest begins was now In my view. I shot up and ran down stairs, out the back door, and to her. She turned around as she heard me coming. I took her arm and pulled her away.

"What's wrong?" She asked, with a confused and worried look on her face.

"Um, I just don't think you should go in there by your self"

"Well, can you come with me? I want to go exploring!" She said, a massive smile grew wide across her face.

Dad was always at work, even before we moved, he was constantly working, and mum was always either cooking it cleaning it at her part time job. It was mostly just me and Lisa. She looks up to me, and she knows I'll do anything to protect her. I don't like hurting her, all I want is to keep her happy. She's only 7, she deserves to be happy. Plus, I couldn't say no to that face. I remembered what I read on the Internet.

"Ok." I knelt down to her eye level, "but, we aren't going too far in and you can't leave my side, ok?"

"Okay!" She replied, gabbing my arm and pulling me closer to the forest. A few steps in, I didn't feel safe. I know I wasn't the type to get scared really easy and the house is just meters away but I still did feel like the forest is closing in on us. But Lisa didn't want to stop, she wanted to explore. After a a meter or two, i got used to it. It wasn't that bad. Until I could smell smoke.

'No. No we couldn't of walked that far already.' I thought, looking back.

We were only about 60 meters away from the backyard, but when I saw the smoke from my room it was at least a mile away.

"Rachel, I don't feel so good."

I look down to see Lisa holding on to a tree and her other hand on her head. I took her hand and said were going home. In the corner of my eye I could see Lisa's head rolling around a bit.

"Do you feel dizzy?" I asked stopping her.

"Yeah, I feel sick Rach."

I knelt down and put my back facing her. She jumped on and I continued walking while give her a 'piggy back'. It seemed like forever but we finally made it out. I took Lisa to the lounge room and told her to relax and watch TV and slowly sip of a glass of water. After I got her a blanket and was standing there watching her, making sure she was ok, I felt a tingle feeling running down my spine. Like there was someone behind me. My stomach turned inside and out. I took a deep breath and spun around. Nothing was there but a massive strong gust of wind suddenly came from the forest and inside the lounge room screen door the second I turned around. I looked at the forest and noticed the smoke was a lot closer now. Like it was moving. Like someone had a fire going and was holding it walking around. Except the smoke was scattered in the air, it stood still. After a few seconds I closed the door still having my eyes glued on the forest. The wind died down and eventually left, same with the smoke.
After night fall, dad was still at work, mum went to the shops and left me and Lisa at home. It was about 8:30pm when I told Lisa to go to bed. She still wasn't feeling well, I said she should sleep it off. Even though I was tired myself I stayed up thinking about the forest. After a few second I told my self to wake up. It's just a forest. A bunch of trees and plants. Mum came home at 9 and i went to bed an hour later.
I laid in bed thinking to myself that I'm going to go into that forest one day and prove to not only myself but pretty much the whole town that someone can go in all the way and come back out and it's not haunted. This Jack man isnt dead and his spirit is in the forest taking people. That's just plain stupid. Except I couldn't think of a reason why they went missing though. Thoughts started filling my head, but after a while I drifted off to sleep.