Forest Secrets

*Dream*

I got up from off the cold hard floor I was laying on, I was told to run as fast as I could to the open door in front of me; I stood in fear as I waited go through.

“You ready?” He asked me; and I nodded fearfully not sure if I truly was.

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.

“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; we are invisible to them now.”

“How do we get out?”

“Why would you want to?”

“Hey! Wake up! You can’t sleep here.” I was awakened suddenly to an angry librarian standing before me; she placed her hands on her hips and shook her head.

I realized I had fallen asleep while I was reading in the library; the hours had passed before me and I had a pounding headache.

“I’m sorry, I must have dozed off.” I said gathering my things up and getting ready to head back to my dorm room for the evening.

“Just don’t make it a regular thing.” She warned me as I left the library.

Taking a quick glance at my phone I noticed it was almost 7:30 I had been asleep in the library for almost 3 hours, it felt like I was asleep much longer than that. I tapped on the elevator door and made my way up to my room, anticipating Samantha wasn’t there so I didn’t have to deal with her crap.

Luckily for me she wasn’t in the room, and even more luckily it looked like she had completely moved out. Leaving me on my own until I had another roommate, I hoped it was someone nicer than Samantha.

Knock, Knock

I jumped startled at the sudden noise of someone banging on the door; I made my way over and opened it. No one was anywhere near but on the ground sat a single envelope. In utter haste I opened it to reveal a typed letter inside, with only a small paragraph to be read.

You have arrived to this destination; but, the forest you shall stray. It is not for your kind to enter; the other just like you has been here and if the both of you have been here it will be hell for all of us; do not enter.

PS. If anyone finds out of these warnings, you will know the true wrath of the forest dwellers.

I shook my head and read it over and over again; trying to decipher what the entire thing had meant. I had no idea what forest it was talking about either; so why should I have been told to stray?

I opened my laptop and opened up Google Maps, I decided that looking for a forest would be no harm. If this was a warning not to go there I should at least have an idea of where I shouldn’t be going. I saw a surrounding forest that was in behind the college but it didn’t seem very big and was not to the west. It drove me crazy all these little warnings and weird dreams that made no sense.

I tinkered around my room for a little awhile, putting more of my things away and putting up my posters so it felt homier there. Since Samantha wasn’t here anymore I felt a little bit more at ease and not like I was walking on eggshells every second.

My phone buzzed beneath the sheets and I saw a text from Taylor, ‘Hey girl, call me if you’re not busy.’

I immediately dialed her number she picked up on the first ring, she sounded out of breath and a little bit frightened.

“Okay so, I was snooping by your Aunts place; because you know me I like to snoop and well she came out of the house with a fucking shotgun and chased me down the street.”

“What the fuck? Are you okay? I thought she was in jail?” I asked immediately concerned for her safety.

“She got released on bail, as long as she goes to her probation every week. But dude, I’m literally freaking out.”

“I can imagine, go home and lock your door and don’t go near there again. How’s my uncle?” I asked.

“He’s doing a lot better; he left your Aunt and is living on his own.” She told me and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m going to go now, I just got in my car. I’m going to drive to the police station and let them know what happened, I’ll text you later.” She hung up and I played around on my phone for a little while until I fell asleep.

*Dream*

What’s going on, where am I?” I shouted at the men, who didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. They spoke among themselves in a strange language I had never heard before.

“Where is my friend?”

Only the one man had spoken English and he just laughed at my confusion. Suddenly I heard a bunch of shuffling and a scream; Josh was being brought in by two of the strange men. He had his mouth taped and he too had his hands tied behind his back. He looked frightened and worried about what was to happen next.

“Silence, you know very well why you are here!” He seemed to be the leader among the other men; he had a cape tied around his shoulders and long fangs. “You disobeyed the warnings sent to you, and for that you will be punished.”

The men threw Josh roughly on the floor and kicked him hard, I tried to get up to help him but I was tied tight to the chair and couldn’t move for the life of me. It killed me to see him being tortured this way, and I was so afraid for him. I tried to break loose from the rope that kept me from him but it was no use, they kept kicking him and soon he was passed out unconscious on the floor.

“Why are you beating him? Aren’t I the one being punished?” I screamed at the men who laughed at my remark.

“Oh darling.” The leader laughed getting close up to my face. “This is your punishment.”

I shot up suddenly in my bed; I lifted up my arms and saw that everything was okay. Nothing that I just felt or saw was real, I grabbed my phone to check the time it was nearly 10:30. My stomach growled signifying that I was hungry and needed to eat something for breakfast. I decided to take a shower before doing so.

***

I couldn’t decide what I wanted to eat for breakfast that morning, nothing appealed to me but I was very hungry. I decided on a simple meal of eggs and bacon with a side of toast. I stood off to the side of the line and waited for it to be finished.

“Here is your bacon and eggs mam, the ketchup and other condiments are off to the side.” The cook passed me my plate and I wandered to the table to sit down. I looked up and noticed Samantha giving me a dirty look.

‘What a loser, so glad I moved out.’ I heard her ponder to herself. I saw her friend point and me and laugh; I just glared back at her and tried to ignore her.

I picked through my breakfast, trying really hard to ignore Samantha and her stupid posse. My head started to pound again and the room got blurry, every muscle in my body decided to give way and I had almost collapsed to the floor when I felt strong arms keeping me from doing so.

I looked up confused and saw Josh was there, he sat me down on the chair next me.

“You have to stop doing that.” He laughed, staying for a moment to make sure I was alright; then taking off out the cafeteria doors.

***

I woke up in my room; later that day from a nap I didn’t know I was taking and looked over my recent sketches. I decided not to go wander the town today and to just take it easy. I had bought my textbooks from the book store earlier and went over them for a while and started to make notes to prepare myself for classes on Monday.

I heard a knock at the door and ignored it for a moment; I figured it would probably be another stupid letter from whoever was trying to prank me. Whoever was knocking was rather insistent and really wanted me to answer.

“Hi!” A peppy voice called out as I opened the door. A fairly short girl with black hair and bright pink streaks stood at the door way, she was wearing leggings and a leather jacket over a leopard print top. She held a pink guitar case on her back, she seemed friendly. "Is this room 303?”

She must be the band student that Samantha mentioned as our roommate, she didn’t seem like a loser like she said but then again; Samantha’s opinions about people seemed biased.

“Yes, it is! C’mon in, you must be my new roommate!” I said excitedly.

“I sure am, sorry I’m late my dad didn’t want ‘his baby’ to go off to college right away.” She laughed snickering putting her bags down on the bed Samantha once used. “I’m Andrea by the way, but you can call me Andy my friends back home usually did.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jewel. You can just call me Jewel, because you know that’s my name.” I laughed thinking I sounded like a loser, but thankfully Andrea laughed along too.

“Everyone is so nice here; back in my town everyone was mean. I’m so happy to be away from there!”

“Where are you from?”

“Oh a little town about 9 hours away, its way off the map it’s so small that it doesn’t even have a name.” She explained opening her suitcase. “So I hear you’re in the art program, that’s so cool! I’m taking music, I’ve been playing guitar for years ever since my dad bought it for me when I was 8.”

“Wow, I’ve been drawing for almost that long too and yes, art is my passion I’m so excited to finally be on my own, my last roommate said that art wasn’t a real career.” I left out the fact that I actually read her mind, not wanting Andrea to think I was some sort of psycho.

“Last roommate, did she move out?” She pondered curiously starting to hang her clothes up in the closet by her bed.

“Yea, we didn’t get along very well…”

“Oh, well I’m sure you and me will do just fine!” She smiled picking up her phone off the bed and plugging it into the wall to charge. “There’s a party or something downtown, did you want to go? It should be fun.”

I almost declined seeing how exhausted I still was, but decided a night out wouldn’t be so bad. It was my first year of college after all. What could go wrong?

“That sounds like fun, are you hungry? I can order a pizza if you want?” I suggested realizing that I had not gone grocery shopping yet.

“Count me in! I’ll pitch in if you get some wings!” She laughed as I picked up the phone.

A half hour later the pizza arrived and Andrea and I were digging in to some cheesy peperoni goodness, it was almost like we both haven’t eaten in years the way we were gobbling it up so fast.

“You never said where you’re from? Is it a small of a town as mine that doesn’t have a name?” Andrea asked swallowing a bite of her pizza and scrolling through her cellphone.

I chucked, “My town does have a name, and I’m from a small city called Harmony Hill. It’s not actually a hill; I don’t know why it’s named that. But, I’ve actually really been all over the place but that’s where I lived most with my crazy Aunt.”

“Oh, what made your Aunt so crazy?”

I explained to her about the past with my Aunt and how she stole my stuff and beat my uncle, she listening inattentively to the whole story with wide eyes as I explained.

“Oh my god, that’s nuts. I hope she gets locked up for good, that’s good you’re out of that situation but no one should ever have to go through that.” She thought gloomily playing around with the purple striped heart necklace around her collar.

I nodded glancing at my phone looking at the time; it was nearly 6:30.

“When does the party start and where is it?” I asked curiously.

“It’s in a club downtown I’ve been there before and not till around 9 so we got plenty of time.” She explained looking through her closet for something to wear.

“So it’s not your first time here?”

“Nope, I have family up here actually. Which is why I decided to come here for college, I didn’t want to live with them though so I choose to stay in the dorm and visit occasionally.”

“Oh, that makes sense I guess. I’ve never been here before so you’ll have to show me the city and how to get around.”

“You can borrow this for now.” She replied reaching into her purse and pulled out a white ticket. “It’s a monthly bus pass, it only has a few days left on it until it expires but I just bought my new one.”

“Oh wow, thank you very much.” I put the ticket into my pocket and got up and made my way to the mirror placed above my desk. “Argh, my hair.”

“It looks fine girl! Love the color, just like mine only better!” She laughed running her fingers through her hair and turning up the music on her phone. “So, got a boyfriend?”

“Nope, got no time for that; been single for almost a year.”

“For real though girl, boys suck, I’ll take my education over a stinky boy any day!” We heard a knock on our door at that moment; Andrea walked up to it and opened it. Samantha stood there looking rather pissed off, more than usual.

“Only here to grab some of my shit, I don’t plan on staying.” She sassily replied and barged past Andrea into the room walking over to the closet.

‘Who pissed in her cheerios this morning?’ Andrea thought which made me laugh.

Samantha turned around glaring at me, “You got something to say?”

“Nope, not at all carry on.” I snickered as she turned back rolling her eyes.

“WHERE IS MY LAPTOP CASE?” She screamed glaring at me.

“Where ever you left it?”

“Seriously? Don’t touch my shit.”

“Relax, maybe try actually looking for it and you’ll find it.” I said walking up to the closet and pushing some bags aside where in the laptop case was placed.

She snatched it out of my hand and stormed out of the room, “Whatever, I’m out.”

“Good riddance.” I said as she slammed the door.

“So that was the roommate you told me about, well I’m glad she got another room.” Andrea said sitting back down on her bed looking at her nails.

“She seemed cool at first but then she just snapped, so I snapped back and now she’s a total bitch.”

“Well shit, anyway lets go to the liquor store across the street and grab some pre-drinks before the party.” She said gliding her jacket on and snatching her purse.

“Sounds like a plan, bar drinks are too expensive.”

***

“I’m not a fan of that, it leaves a bad after taste.” Andrea said as I picked up a bottle of strawberry vodka, I laughed and agreed.

“Sour puss isn’t bad, mixed up with a little bit of 7 – Up.”

“I like it, and how about some coolers. I mean we won’t drink all of it tonight but it will be good to save some for another time.”

“Perfect, I think we’re good to go.”

“ID please?” The cashier asked us both as we reached the checkout, I reached into my wallet and placed it on the counter ahead of me, Andrea did the same and the cashier looked over them then rang up our items. “That will be 21.99$”

Andrea handed me a ten to pitch in for the alcohol, “You sure?” She nodded and forced it into my hand. I pulled out the rest and handed it to the cashier.

“Here’s your change, and have a good night. Don’t party too hard.” The cashier laughed as we left the store.

“Alright, we have about an hour till we have to leave for the party. Let’s go do some pre-celebrations!” Andrea laughed as we were outside getting ready to cross.

“Hey, do you know that guy across the street?” I asked her noticing Josh standing by a bench waiting for the bus to come by; she’s been here before so maybe she would know more about him.

“Wait, the one in the black sweater and jeans?” She probed.

“Yes, he was an asshole to me when I first met him; but suddenly became very sweet and nice.”

“That’s Joshua Parsons, he doesn’t talk to people…he’s been going to the college for a year or so now. He used to live across the street from my cousin before he moved into the dorm. Rumor has it he set his house on fire back when he was a child and killed his parents, but no one really knows the real story.”

“Oh, wow…that explains everything….” I muttered as we opened the doors to the dorm.

“Explains what?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“If you say so!” Andrea giggled as she pressed the button on the elevator door; we stepped in and made our way to our room.

“Alright so, we need to take a shot together before we do anything.” I said pouring a shot of vodka into a glass and passing it to Andrea.

“I agree, here’s to a good night and a new beginning!” She laughed as we clunked our glasses together and downed our shots.