Kingdom of trees

The lights from the Ferris wheel glittered through the tree leaves, making the forest look almost menacing in the dying afternoon light. Behind me, someone laughed loudly, enjoying their cotton candy or caramel apple or whatever people eat at a carnival. Glancing at my phone, I saw I had nine unread messages, all from my sister Sophie.

"Where are you?"

"We are really worried about you."

The truth was, I didn't know where I was. I had wandered off to think and the time flew by as I looked into the forest, looking for something, but I wasn't sure what it was.

I wandered into the funhouse next to me and walked through the hall of mirrors, forcing myself to look at them. The only thing I had ever seen in any mirror was the ghost of my brother. He died last year in a freak car accident that rolled his car off a bridge. They found the car in the river the next morning.

I bit my lip, willing the tears not to fall as the memory of his smiling face lingered in my mind.

I wound through the mirrors, finding the exit easily enough.

Stripped tents filled my vision as I wandered from tent to tent, seeing what they had to offer. The last tent I stopped in was the tent of a fortune teller. He was a tall man with a feathery cap on his head and a crystal ball at his hands.

"I can read the cards for you." He said.

I had just been about to walk out of the tent but considered his words.

Hesitantly, I sat on the opposite side of the table and looked at him expectantly. What could the harm be in a bit of fortune telling? everyone knew it was a hoax anyways, I might as well humor the man.

He shuffled the cards and pulled one from the deck, laying it in front of me.

"Flip it over" He said.

The card had the image of a skeletal knight on a white horse. The word "Death" was printed in an elegant, looping handwriting at the bottom of the card.

A shiver rolled through me as goosebumps rose on my arms.

"Death? What does that mean?" I said, nearly shouting at the man.

"You think this is funny? I'm going to die?"

He raised his hands in what I assume was supposed to be a calming gesture.

"Calm down girl, the cards are not always to be taken literally. It could mean that you have death in your future in a hypothetical sense, it could be literal." He said.

That explanation did nothing to calm my nerves as I looked at the knight, taunting me with his soul-less eyes.

I stood abruptly ad ran from the tent, bumping into people on my way to anywhere. I flew through tents and went around corners and shoved people out of the way until I didn't even recognize anything around me. There were people walking on stilts, their faces painted like clowns and the music was slowed, almost as if it were playing on a record player that was near its end.

Panic rose in my chest and I couldn't breathe. My breaths came out in short bursts as if y lungs were being squeezed by a rubber band. I crouched to the ground and images of my brother rolled into my mind. Ahead of me, there was a big mirror. It was attached to the side of a tent. I glanced at it and saw my brother standing before me, beckoning for me. I walked closer to the mirror entranced by the sight of my brother in the clothes that he died in. He was wearing a baseball cap and a blue hoody with jeans, they were torn and bloody as if the car had just gone over the bridge.

Something came over me and I stepped closer, close enough to step into the mirror if I could and then I did. My face fell through the surface of the mirror and my body followed.

It felt like falling through Jell-O, slow and like I couldn't move my limbs. I hit the ground hard and opened my eyes.

Standing above me was a strange man. He had jet black hair and a crown made of tree branches.

"Well, what do we have here?" He said. Two knights appeared at his side and hauled me to my feet.

My heart beat wildly in my chest as I looked for a place to run as these strange men took me with them.

I thrashed in their arms as I tried to escape.

"Please! what do you want from me? I don't know you!"

Surprised, they dropped me and I scrambled back to the mirror, running at full speed, hoping to go back through. But when I reached the spot in the forest we had come from, there was no mirror. I was surrounded by trees. I ran and hid behind a bush and checked my phone. No signal. Great, I thought.

With no way to contact anyone and no idea where I was, I panicked. Having a full on panic attack in the bushes. The sound of horses hoofs were behind me and I tried to quickly run to another set of bushes before they got too close.

"We know you are here little fox. Come out before we have to make you."

I stood revealing my hiding spot.

"Ah, there you are. We won't hurt you, we just have some questions." The man with the crown said.

"I don't talk to people I don't know" I said.

The man smiled a wicked smile, curling unnaturally at the corners of his mouth.

"I am King Silas Thornehart, and these are my knights. There, now we know eachother. WHat is your name, little fox?"

I thought of every fake name I knew, I didn't want to give this person my true name.

"Sophie." I said, using my sister's name.