It was a sunny day and I was near Tenebrous Forest, I have heard a particular folk story many times about the four; four friends Ellie, Nicholas, Ivy and Lukas played a game in the deadly forest, they were all only fourteen years of age. When playing a game of hide and seek they fell into a deep hole, so deep that they couldn't get out of it no matter how hard they tried.
After a few days the four eventually died due to starvation, infection and exhaustion. Next to the hole where their corpses lay grew a sycamore tree and so the four now as ghosts carved their names into the tree striking a knife through the names to show that they had died. They vowed to collect the souls of children in their never ending game of hide and seek.
I was waiting for my friend Hannah. She had beautiful black hair and emerald green eyes. Hannah arrives a few minutes later accompanied by a blonde girl, black-haired boy and a brunette boy" Let's play hide and seek Amalia!" she calls out I look at Hannah and shrug as if to say sure "Yay! Ella, Nick and Luke will be joining us" Hannah exclaims happily 'those names sound oddly familiar' I think to myself as Hannah starts dragging me into the forest, the others following along, her friends seem to be move as if they're hovering slightly which I take note of as we reach a clearing.
"Iv-Hannah will be the seeker!" Ella says, her crystal blue eyes twinkling with mischief. Everyone nods and Hannah faces a tree closing her eyes and starts to count down.
"25, 24, 23..." I instantly run deeper into the forest until I run out of breath. I look around at my surroundings and see a tall tree, by the looks a sycamore tree. I look closely at the tree and see carved names that have been crossed out in big writing; Ellie, Nicholas, Ivy and Lucas and in smaller writing; Tommy, Rose, Elliot and Hannah I trace my finger over the last name then look at the big names 'Those names are so similar to the names of Hannah's friends' I look at the tree then think,
"They must be the ghosts of the story! That's why they were moving weirdly, This must be the Deadly Forest!" I gasp. I hear clapping and turn to see Hannah
"Well done Amalia, Oh and I am not Hannah," she says brushing her hand over the carved names. I look at the tree as her hand lingers on top of Ivy
"You're Ivy?!" I say my words coming out as a question and Ivy bows
"The one and only, you're in the Deadly Forest and I must say, read the note" and with that Ivy vanished. 'What note?' I look back at the sycamore tree and sure enough, there is a note, I grab it and read it
'You have been abandoned in the Deadly Forest.
You have one change to survive this game'.
A crack of thunder roars and rain starts falling so I run to find shelter, I was confused and scared. After about five minutes I find a cave and hide inside it, the cave was damp and cold.
It has been a few days since I was given the note and the ghosts have not looked for me 'what is this game? And how can I survive it?' my stomach growls, I grab a stick from near the fire which has a fish impaled through it from when I had found a river while exploring, the river had loads of fish and fruit trees. I eat the fish 'maybe I'll have to live like this forever'.
You may be wondering why I haven't returned to civilisation?, well the thing is I can't. This "game" as the ghosts call it has magic binding me to the Tenebrous Forest, I had tried before by throwing one of my socks outside the forest and it was set on fire by nothing, by magic, now if you're wondering how Hannah became my friend that's because one ghost is allowed to leave at a time if the the forest hasn't had a victim on a year, the ghost is to find one or more victims for the forest.
