THROUGH THE DARK FOREST

THROUGH THE DARK FOREST

“Hey are you guys coming in my party tonight?” asked Dave to everyone on the conference call. Everyone excitedly replied “Yes!” except for Sam.

“We haven’t met in a while. You should definitely come.” insisted Benjamin. “I really want to. But I have got extra classes tomorrow. You guys have fun. Maybe will see you all next time.” said Sam.

“Sure, but classes are more important.” said Alex.

“We’ll miss you bro!” added Rosie.

The hall was decorated with artificial flowers, dancing lights, a huge loud-speaker from which there was rock music playing and waiters roaming over here and there serving welcome drinks in the party.

“It’s so good to see you guys after a long while” exclaimed Sarah hugging everyone. “Of course! A get-together like this can literally make us relaxed from our everyday life’s hustle-bustle.” said shekhar. “Exactly” replied Benjamin.

The group of five friends were grooving on to the music and talking at the same time, when Dave arrived. “Are you guys having fun?” shouted Dave as the music was really loud. Everyone excitedly replied, “Yes!”

The well-enjoyed party was almost over. Everyone was saying their goodbyes, when suddenly Alex spoke up, “Hey, have we got some time for an adventure trip?” “Yeah that sounds like a really good idea!” said Rosie. “I am in dude” replied Shekhar. “What about you guys?” said Alex pointing out at Sarah and Benjamin.

“If everybody’s in I will join too.” replied Sarah and so was Benjamin’s answer. “Cool, so I will let you guys know when and where we are going, in a short while. Until then let’s talk about this with Sam too.”

Everyone then left the party hall and returned back to their houses.

[A week later]

Sam’s phone rang up. It was Alex. “Hey! So in Dave’s party we decided to go on an adventure trip which can be about 3 days long. So I have decided to for a trek.” “That sounds really interesting!” said Sam “So when are we going?” “We can make out when everyone’s ready. I will just call and ask everyone if their ready to go on Friday.” replied Alex. “Fine, let’s divide the work. You call Sarah and Shekhar and I will have a word with Rosie and Ben (Benjamin).” confirmed Sam. Just after saying this they hang up the call and talked about this with their friends.

 Everyone agreed on this idea and decided to meet at 6pm on Thursday at Alex’s place and will go in his car. As the route to the mountains was really long they decided to start their journey late at night and would reach the mountains early in the morning so that they can enjoy the beautiful sunrise from the peak of mount Magent.

 That group of six friends started out their journey at 8. They had already reached half way when they happened to pass through the dark forest. “Isn’t this the way to through the dark forest?” asked Rosie “We should not take this way! Didn’t you guys read the newspaper? There are many crimes and suicides committed here.” “Oh come on Rosie, stop being a coward! There’s nothing like ghosts on this planet.” assured Shekhar who wasn’t afraid of anyone in this world. “And moreover there’s no way other than this.” added Alex. “It’s almost 1am and this atmosphere is a bit scary.” said Rosie cowardly. “Rosie can you please shut your mouth and let me concentrate on my dri...” just on the time Alex was saying this everyone on the car shouted, “Alex look in front!” there was a man standing their right in middle of the road. Alex swiftly turned the car and it hit a tree really hard.

“OH goodness! Is everyone alright?” exclaimed Alex. “But who was that man who was standing in the middle of the road? And where is he now?” questioned Sam. “He just seemed to have disappeared!” said Benjamin. “Yeah” said Sarah putting her head out of the window as if she was searching him. “But who cares just pray that he’s alive.”

Alex got down the car hoping that he could solve the matter quickly. “The engine is damaged very rashly. I won’t be able to fix it. I need a mechanic.” said Alex fretfully. “Where are we going to get a mechanic here?” asked Sam worriedly. “I already sensed something wrong here. Anyone who passes by this forest never returns! And that man who was standing right in front of us also disappeared. We are all going to die now.” said Rosie crying. “Shut up Rosie! There is nothing like ghosts. Let me tell you guys, she is the one behind this accident. Alex was peacefully driving before she took up the ‘ghost’ point.” argued Shekhar. “Can you guys please stop arguing? We are already into trouble and now we have to find a solution to get out of here!” accused Sarah.

Alex sadly came back to have a talk with his friends and said, “We have to stay here all night. There is no other option. Even the way out of this forest is really long. We are right in front of the forest. And there is no one going to come here for help at this moment.” Shekhar got off the car holding his mobile light. Shekhar please stay here. Where are you going?” asked Sam worriedly. “I am just taking a round around this area. Just in case if I find something or someone who can help. I won’t go that far.” said Shekhar.

It had already been 15 minutes. “I am worried about shekhar. Where would he be?” asked Benjamin. “He said he would come in a while and it’s been really long. He would have gone really far.” Just after Ben completed his sentence shekhar showed up with a smile on his face. He shouted, “Guys! I found a place where we can take shelter this night. Everyone get off the car and follow me. That place is not so far.”

Everyone got off the car and followed shekhar. The forest was really spooky and one could hear the eerie sounds made by insects and bats. They arrived at the hotel which looked like a three-storey building and was really creepy. It looked like it had not been opened for years and was covered with spider webs all around it.

There was no one near the hotel but Rosie saw someone near. She pointed him out to others but by that time he had disappeared. Rosie, at this point, was indeed scared. But to her surprise, the man was standing right in front of them. He had a horrific look. He wore a shawl all around his body although it was summer and held a lantern in his hand. His eyes were blood-red.

Sarah immediately recognized him. She whispered, “He is the same guy whom we saw on the middle of the road.” Alex was annoyed and spoke up, “Yes he is the reason we have to stay here. My car is also damaged because of him! Who roams in middle of the forest at this hour?”Shekhar now got angry and said, “Hey! What were you doing on the middle of the road? It’s 1 am. And didn’t you see our car approaching? You would have died if we wouldn’t have sacrificed our car.” The man gave shekhar a horrifying look.

He asked in a quavering voice, “What are you guys doing here at 1 am? Do you know you shouldn’t be here at this hour? Haven’t you guys heard of this forest?” Ben talked to him and said, “We were just passing by this forest for our trip, where in you led us to an accident!”

“Leave that thing! Do you know if this hotel is open?” interrupted Shekhar. “Years ago this hotel used to be a bright food and rest court for the people passing by this forest. But over the time this forest’s reputation was decreased and no one dares to pass by this road even in the day time. After years someone has arrived here.” said the man. “Are you the owner of this hotel?” asked Sarah. “Yeah you can say that” he continued “Do you guys really want to stay here tonight?”

“Yeah where else will we go at this time? And it’s just a matter of one night. We will check out tomorrow as soon as we find a mechanic and get our car repaired.” cleared Alex. “Yeah but let me say you guys, there is no electricity and water in there. There is just a dim light on the 2^nd floor which is working.” assured that man. “It looks really scary! I don’t prefer going in.” said Rosie being scared. “Oh! Rosie Stop being a coward” said Sarah.

“I’ll go first and check if everything is alright in there.” asserted Shekhar with confidence. As he opened the door it made a squeaky voice. The reception of the hotel was really large. It had a two-sided staircase which connected the bedrooms and the party hall. It had a huge chandelier which almost covered more than half area of the ceiling. But perhaps, everything was covered in dust and could be seem by the help of the moon light.

He quietly observed the hotel and found something terrific. While he was climbing upstairs, he saw a dim light shining in the dark and in that he saw a light shadow of a person in the room. There was an arm chair in the room which was placed in front of a mirror. And upon that, there was a lady sitting with her hair covering her face. She held her head up a bit and shekhar could see her burnt face. He was petrified and ran downstairs.

He saw his friends coming in inside the hotel and shouted, “There is a ghost here! I saw a girl with a burnt face. We need to get out of here. Run everyone!” At first everyone thought he was joking but as Shekhar tried to get out of the hotel the door disappeared and was converted into a wall. There was a black smoke coming towards them. They had no option until the smoke passed by their bodies and hit the wall. Then after a moment when they saw the wall, it read ‘ALL OF YOU WILL DIE’. Rosie almost fainted this time and everyone was trembling with fear.

Shekhar was terrified and his bravery was almost gone. “No! No one is going to die. We will find a way out of here. If only we work together cleverly.” encouraged Sam. “Are you serious? Don’t you see what is written on the wall!” exclaimed Sarah. No one even believed me! I constantly said you guys to leave this place as soon as we could.” cried Rosie. Shekhar screamed loudly as the girl with the burnt face was running downstairs. Everyone was spine-chilled after seeing this. They quickly ran and got into one of the rooms. 

That room didn't even contain a window. They could hardly see each other's faces. Alex tried to turn on his phone's flash light but it was of no use as his phone automatically switched off. He spoke, “Are your phones working?” Everyone replied a sad no. 

Sam said, “We can just pray and wait till the morning now.” Everybody started to make a prayer. After some time something really terrible happened. Sarah's hair started standing upright as if she had got a shock and slowly she started to levitate. And with a great swing she was pulled out of the room. Her friends were thrilled watching this, but as soon as they stood up to catch her the door was shut-closed. “Oh god please save her! She is an innocent girl.” Shouted Alex. “You biggest mistake was arriving here!” hollowed a hard voice.

After a few minutes, someone knocked at the door. No one dared to stand up and open the door. But then there was a harder knock and then more harder. Ben stood up to open the door but then Rosie whispered in a crying way, “No! Please don’t open the door. It’s her!”

“What if it is Sarah?” said Sam.

“Are you mad? How can it be her! She would have died till now!”

But after this conversation Sarah’s voice could be heard, “P...Please open the door it’s me, Sarah.” Of course, everyone had a smile on their face and Benjamin opened the door. It was Sarah but she didn’t look well. Benjamin pulled her in and closed the door.

“She was a really greedy witch. She wanted more and more powers. And in search for powers, she offered her soul to the devil, performing the sacrifice by cutting open her stomach with a royal dagger.” said Sarah with a serious voice. Everybody was hearing her quietly, but then she started to levitate and cried, “The dagger is placed somewhere in this hotel. You need to find it and burn it! That is the only way you can get ou...” she didn’t even complete the sentence and fell to the ground so hard that she started bleeding. Everyone was petrified. “Sarah open your eyes!” cried Alex. “She is dead!” replied Benjamin. “She has told us how we can get out of here! If we work cleverly we can still survive.”

“you are right!” exclaimed Sam. “But how? For searching the dagger we need to go out of this room. And if we will get out of this room, we will die!”

“But even if we stay here, she will kill us one after the other! It is better that we show some bravery and that dagger.” said Benjamin. “Didn’t you see Sarah, that you want all of us to get killed?” scolded Rosie. “Rosie please try to understand, we can reach our homes safely if we will kill her!” said Shekhar. She thought for a while and then agreed upon that idea.

They got out of the room and decided to divide up. The idea was worse but they had no other option.  Benjamin and Sam decided to search on the first floor, Rosie and Alex on the second and shekhar in the reception.

Rosie was a timid girl so she always had a cross with her. She took it out from her bag. She opened the door of the room and got inside it. There she saw the ghost and held the cross in front of her. She screamed loudly and got out of the room. Rosie locked the room and started searching for the dagger. A few minutes later, she found nothing and got out of the room. Shekhar was done searching in the reception, he too didn’t find anything. Even Benjamin and Alex did not find anything.

 They decided to go and ask Sam about it. Sam went to the second half of the first floor where there were party halls and an abandoned chamber. He opened it and went inside. There he saw all the beautiful antiques which were kept. He also saw a dagger and called his friends, “Everybody get here faster! I found it!” Before they could reach there, the door was closed. There was a moment of silence. Then, someone kept a hand of Sam’s shoulder. He turned back and saw the ghost. She had a burnt face and was covered in blood.

 Sam’s friends were knocking hard on the door and screaming, but there was no response. After a minute they could see blood flowing out of the door. They were terrified after seeing this. But they gathered courage and went inside the chamber. The dagger was placed in a small box like-structure made of glass. The boys tried to break the glass but they failed. At last, they searched something in the chamber to break the glass.

 Ben found a piece of rusted iron and tried to break the glass. He succeeded this time and took the dagger. Just in time, the door of the chamber opened. It was her! Rosie tried to get the cross out of her bag but it was late. The ghost looked up at Alex. He started to choke up and in the mean time he was dead.  His friends mourned another time for his death and that girl laughed scarily.

“Now it is just the three of us left. Come on guys if we waste time she will kill us too!” said Ben.

“We need to find fire! Where will we get it?” asked Shekhar.

“Alex always carries one!” shouted Rosie. Shekhar took the lighter from Alex’s pocket and tried to burn the dagger.

There was a loud scream from the reception of the hotel! The ghost came in the room in agony. She held up Shekhar’s neck and slammed him to the wall. Now, even shekhar was dead!

“It is just the two of us left now, we need to work wisely.” said Ben. Rosie, you have the cross! Protect me till the dagger burns up completely.” Rosie did as he said and the dagger was burnt. With it also the girl was burnt!

Rosie and Ben took a peaceful breath as the past few hours were really horrifying.  

As they stepped out of the hotel, they could see the light sunshine appearing on their skin. They reached near Alex’s car and even the car was back to normal.

After the friend’s bravery, the hotel became a safe place to eat and live. They had regular customers like before and it regained it’s reputation.