Forest Secrets

The door opened and in front of us stood a beautiful serene place; it was peaceful. We both walked in and took in our surroundings.

The air smelled of a misty pine, we were surrounded by trees and lakes. It was beautiful where ever we where. I breathed in the air and turned around and eyed Josh who was watching me closely.

"Where are we?" I asked trying to let everything sink in.

He looked at me with a look of wonder on his face, not even sure how to answer that himself; but sighed and walked ahead of me.

"The spell must have worked; we are free, they won't find us in here."

"How do we get out?"

"Why would you want to?" He smirked taking out his phone and frowning at having no reception in the new place.

We heard a crunch in the woods a few feet ahead of us, we both froze and waited for the sound to stop.

"There you guys are!" I heard Andrea shout as her and Chris emerged from the woods.

"How did you guys get here?" I asked noticing they were huffing and puffing like they where out of breath; and Chris had a huge cut down his arm. "And what happened to your arm?"

"Long story, we need to get away from the door. The vamps can sense your energy, come on." Josh and I eyed each other for a moment before shrugging and following them down a dirt path ahead of us.

As beautiful as this place was; it was very hot and humid here. The air was sticky but there was also a light breeze that happened every so often. After following Chris and Andrea for awhile we arrived at our destination.

A large round shaped building with giant glass doors; a patio with stones and a waterfall that flowed out the glossiest water I have ever seen stood before us.

"Wow..." I muttered breathing in slowly.

Chris held the door open for us and we made our way inside; the inside of the building was just as beautiful as the outside. A round staircase stood to the right, a huge living room which was the size as three of my bedrooms combined was on the left. Which lead into a kitchen which was stocked with all kinds of foods. The backyard had a giant swimming pool with a hot tub.

"What is this place?" Josh muttered taking a seat on one of the leather couches in the living room.

"This...is a different dimension; this one is loft 6." Chris said pulling out a book and handing it to Josh who started flipping through it. "Tortured one of the Vamps, needed their blood for the spell."

"Is that what happened to your arm?" I asked.

"They captured Andrea, I had to fight back to get her here too."

"How do we get back?"

"Haven't figured that out quite; but what we do know so far is that an entire day here is only an hour in our world." Andrea replied.

Just than there was a knock on the door of the house; it sounded persistent and angry. We all looked at each other in a panic. Josh stood up and slowly began making his way down the hallway to the front door; he peered through the peep hole but saw nothing there. The knocking continued with high persistence.

"What the..."

"Josh; is everything okay?" I asked walking up behind him with Andrea slowly trailing behind me. He turned around and put up his hand, indicating to stay where we were.

A note slipped its way under the door and we heard footsteps making there way away from the entrance; Josh slid the door open slightly and saw no signs of anyone there, but a track of two sets of footprints left their mark on the ground leading away from the house.

Josh closed the door and grabbed the letter that floated onto the ground, he picked it up and the letters started appearing on the page as he started reading it; and he made his way over to Andrea and I.

"What does it say?" Andrea asked.

"Dear The Four From Earth." He started raising his eyebrows. "Welcome to Loft 6; we hope you have made yourselves comfortable so far here. We invite you for a dinner at hour 5; in the city hall. Your invites are under the microwave in the kitchen; directions are there as well. We hope to see you there. Signed; People of loft 6."

"Are we going to go?" Andrea asked grabbing the paper from Josh and reading it to herself.

"I don't see why not?" Chris said reading it for himself.

"This seems suspicious I'm not sure if we should go..." I muttered thinking the whole thing sounded sketchy.

"What's the worse that could happen?" Andrea asked, pacing around the living room.

'Plenty of things' I heard Josh think to himself; I glanced at him shocked that I was able to read his mind again.

"We can go, but stay alert of everyone around you and don't let your guard down." Josh said hoping down off the stool he was sitting on.

"They said hour five; I'm guessing that means 5:00 o'clock; it is now 3:30." Chris replied glancing at the microwave lifting it to find our invitations underneath it like they said; along with a map which gave directions.

"Lets leave now and explore a bit!" Andrea said excitedly; I smiled to myself she was always up for adventure. "I want to check this place out."

I glanced at Josh who looked like he disapproved but decided to go along with it; he and Chris went upstairs to see if there was anything of interest there.

Ten minutes later I heard Chris call out from upstairs, "Hey guys come check this out!" Andrea and I ran upstairs and saw Chris and Josh sitting on a Queen sized bed looking in a small box of antiques and photo albums.

"Where did you find that stuff?" I exclaimed sitting next to Josh on the bed looking through the photo album he was holding.

There was old photographs of families who lived here; they went to different events in the town. Everyone in the photographs looked happy and excited.

"Found the photo album under the bed; there's a whole community here. Their technology is much more advanced than ours." He replied touching a photo which started playing a video of a couple dancing at their wedding; even sound played from it.

"Look at these clothes!" I heard Andrea shout from a huge walk in closet; I got up and looked around it myself.

The clothes here where very fancy, Andrea tried on a knee lengthed dress, it was a sparkly blue that had a small remote attached to it. She pressed a button which made the dress turn a different colour. All their clothes seemed to be like that; I chose a medium lengthed skirt and a tank top to wear to the dinner.

"You look...great." Josh replied blushing slightly.

I smirked and thanked him, "We should go now."

We walked outside the house and followed the trail that the map told us to take to the city hall. It was still bright and hot side despite the fact that it was growing to be evening here; a voice in the back of my mind told me that this was a bad idea and something was going to go very wrong. The look on Joshes face said that he thought the same thing as I did.

"Oh wow, look at this!" Andrea said excitedly kneeling down towards a small garden of purple flowers. They changed colours as she touched it and a small computer screen appeared.

"Thank you for changing my colours, please choose a design." A robotic voice came out of a small speaker on the flower; and some settings popped up to change its design. Some of its options where; lilies, roses, daises and other types of flowers.

"That's neat!" I said admiring it.

"Come on guys let's get going its almost 5." Josh said noticing the time that displayed on the flower.

We finally made our way to a small city, it appeared rather empty but their where tonnes of little shops. We saw a sign that pointed downward that read 'City hall, square five'.

We saw a short man in black robes appear out of the shadows and approach us, he had four books in his hand and handed them to us.

"Welcome, you must be the four from Earth. Those our manuals, please have a read in your leisure time. Follow me."

We did as he said and we approached a door that was connected into a small mountain; the man tapped a few times before the door opened and we saw a staircase leading downward into a cave.

Once down the stairs was a tunnel, with vibrant wood flooring done. Candles lit the hallway and we entered a large room; which was filled with laughter and conversation. As soon as we entered everyone in the room stopped talking and stared at us.

"The four from Earth are here."