It was a
cold dark night in the haunted forest, ghosts moaned in the distance, rustling
could be heard in every direction and occasionally a menacing laugh would echo
through the trees. The Haunted Forest used to be part of the Autumn forest,
which was a forest full of life and eternally stuck in autumn. The whole Autumn
forest had towns, animal life, brightly colored flowers and autumn colored
leaves on every tree. Then a necromancer built an awful spire of evil magic on
the western most end of the autumn forest. The corruption from his undead
soldiers and evil magic twisted the trees and brought spirits up from the
netherworld. After the Necromancer’s defeat the haunted forest remained cursed
and haunted.
Soldiers
brought a powerful mage to heal the haunted forest and while they successfully drove out the spirits in the southern
edge, the forest never returned to its full beauty. So the humans of the Autumn
Forest grew to know their neighboring forest to the west as the Haunted forest
and the southern edge of the haunted forest became known as the Dark Forest.
The Dark Forest was no longer haunted or cursed by magic, but the trees were
black as coal and never grew bigger or bloomed with flowers or leaves. This is
important because in order to survive a trip to the haunted forest, someone
would have to be as fearsome and powerful as the forest itself.
On that
cold dark night in the haunted forest a figure casually walked along a broken
path. The figure had its hood up and stood about five and a half feet tall. The
figure stepped into a clearing to find a group of skeletons all mashing their
teeth and guzzling down beans and wine. This event was some sort of picnic for
skeletons.
The figure
watched for several hours, fascinated by the sight. It wasn’t a well known fact
that skeletons were in fact quite social. The figure stepped out into the
clearing and was instantly noticed by the entire group. The figure stepped
forward. The figure was a boy, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, track runner
pants and casual white and black sneakers.
“Sorry kid,
humans aren’t allowed!” Shouted one of the skeletons. The whole picnic of
skeletons turned to look at the boy and some of them stood up menacingly. Bob
the skeleton, who had organized the picnic, stood up and walked calmly over to
the boy. “Excuse me, how did you find this place?” Bob asked calmly as his
fellow skeletons seemed angry and confused at a human visiting their picnic.
The boy had
pale skin and the hood from his sweatshirt hid half of his face. He had short
dark brown hair and one visible eye that was a striking blue. “I am searching
for something, the forest…” The boy stopped and chose his words carefully. “The
forest, led me here. It let me in. Trees moved out of my and apologized when I
bumped into them” Explained the boy. A look of fear washed over the entire
group of skeletons. “W-what are you?” Asked Bob who tried to stay calm but was
so nervous his totally real and not fake mustache almost fell off.
“I-I don’t
know” Replied the boy. He sounded sad and confused. He stared down at the floor
in shame. Bob realized that this boy might have parted the most dangerous
forest in the land, but he was still just a boy and seemed lost as well. Bob
patted the boys shoulder with his skeletal hand. Bob’s skeleton fingers felt
hard and weren’t very comforting. The slender bones of each finger provided no
warmth or softness, it was like trying to comfort someone by placing a bare
tree branch twigs over their shoulder.
The boy
looked up at Bob and smiled. Though a skeleton hand isn’t comforting the kind
gesture was. Bob was pleased and placed his hand on the boys back, leading him
to the group of skeletons. “So what is you name? Are you hungry? We have red
beans!” Bob said, proud that he actually had human food to offer the human.
This was the only time of the year Bob ever had any food to offer anyone, as
the skeletons don’t eat and the beans are just for ceremony.
“my name is
John. John Pharris. Yes, I am hungry, thank you” the boy spoke slowly and
carefully with each word as if trying to keep some secret or truth from
slipping from his lips. John sat down at the table at was given a bowl of
cooked red beans. The beans had been cooked hours ago and were now as ice cold
as the frigid October winds. John didn’t care about the taste or temperature of
his food and began eating the red beans a few at a time, picking them up with
his hands and chewing each bean carefully. The skeletons watched in wonder and
amazement.
“I haven’t
seen a human eat in hundreds of years, did we all used to eat like that? Did I
used to eat like that?” Asked a skeleton wearing a medieval era shirt and
pants. “Probably, though I remember eating with a fork and also being more
refined” Bob replied, posturing himself up and rubbing his mustache between his
forefinger and thumb bone. Bobs mustache was a black and bushy mustache that
was almost long enough to touch his cheekbones and the mustache curled up at
both ends.
“D-do any
of you guys know about the grave wagon?” Asked the boy after a few moments of
silence. None of the skeletons wanted to answer and possibly incriminated
themselves. Earlier, during the picnic, Bob mentioned that many humans blamed
skeletons for the grave wagon attacks on human cities. “We are as equally aware
of the Grave Wagon as any other creature is” Bob explained.
“You guys
seem nice, I don’t think you guys are involved” Said John. “We didn’t say
anything about being involved one way or another” Bob said nervously. “I felt
it. I can’t read thoughts but I feel intentions. You are worried about me
blaming you for what happened to me…” Replied John but then trailed off. His
eye stared off into the air as if watching a horrible memory reply in his mind.
“What happened to you boy? I would like to help but I don’t know who or what
you really are” Explained Bob. Some of the other skeletons had crept away and
left the picnic out of fear of the child and fear of humans in general but the
majority seemed to share Bob’s concern for the boy who seemed to have been one
of the few humans in history who survived the Grave Wagon’s attack.
“My town
was attacked out of nowhere, this was years ago. I’m fourteen and was barely
nine when the grave wagon attacked. It appeared out of nowhere as if it was a
hologram or an illusion. Things poured out of the wagon, monsters or shadows. I
escaped with my parents. The town crumbled behind us as we drove away in our
car. I was so scared the whole time.” John explained but had to stop. The
memories were still painful even after all of these years. A single tear fell
from his one visible eye. “I escaped with my parents as the trees came to life
and attacked us. It was like the trees in this forest. But when I came to this
forest the trees were nice to me. The trees from my town weren’t nice when they
came to life. The car crashed and my parents and I survived the attack” John
explained. “Geeze, maybe the kid should have some wine too” Said one of the
skeletons, a skeleton dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, who sounded sympathetic
and wished that he could get drunk after hearing that story.
“My parents
and I got separated years ago and I’ve been on my own ever since” John added,
not responding to the offer of wine. “We don’t know where the Wagon is or where
it comes from. We also don’t know how you survived the forest coming here. The
trees here aren’t nice, this is the Haunted Forest, unless you are undead like
us you wont be able to get through the forest easily. I’m a skeleton and the
trees are still jerks to me!” Bob exclaimed in indignation. “How did you get
the trees to actually move for you?” Asked a skeleton wearing a fancy party
dress in the style of the nineteen twenties. “I was injured in the attack. The
grave wagon’s magic struck me…” John said, his words trailed off as his right
hand lifted up and pulled his hood down.
The entire
right side of his face was a black shadow with no hair or nose. Half of his
mouth was a human mouth and the other half was a row of sharp teeth with no
lips. His left eye was a striking blue and his right eye was an empty socket if
darkness. “This explains some things. The Forest is afraid of you, its afraid
of the Grave Wagon’s magic. I can assure you whatever evil magic the Grave
Wagon uses, it does not come from this forest. I don’t know if it even comes
from this world” Bob explained. He was concerned for the boy and was the first
one to even not recoil in fear at the sight of John’s full face. Bob had seen
worse looking monsters and didn’t even flinch at the shadowy face of John.
John lunged
forward and gave Bob a hug. John hugged Bob around his chest, Bob’s ribcage and
spine were easily felt through Bob’s suit jacket and raggedy shirt. “Thank you.
I needed someone to treat me normal. I don’t think I can live with humans
anymore” John said, tears welling up in his one eye. Bob patted the boys head.
“I know what will cheer you up” Bob said putting one finger in the idea to
gesture that he had a good idea. Bob reached into the pocket on his sports
jacket and pulled out a small bushy mustache. “I always have back up” Bob
whispered so that the other skeletons couldn’t hear. Bob stuck the mustache to
John’s face in one quick motion.
John moved
back and felt the bushy mustache on his face. The new facial hair distracted
from the razor sharp teeth on the right side of his mouth and made John look
slightly more human and also slightly sillier. “Look what I just grew!” John
announced with a laugh. The last of his tears trickled down his face as a loud
laugh escaped his mouth.
“Boys can’t
grow mustaches! Especially that fast!” Shouted the skeleton with a t-shirt and
jeans. “Of course he can! Look at that skin! Human skin grows hair” Bob said,
defending John’s new mustache. “SKELETONS CAN’T GROW THEM EITHER!” Shouted a
skeleton in a flak jacket. “IT’S REAL! OK YOU GUYS?! ITS REAL!” Bob shouted
back. “It’s real” Bob said to John. “It’s a real mustache, the others just like
to tease me” Bob explained to John. John winked at Bob. “Don’t worry, I know it
is” John said. If Bob had skin he would have given John the biggest smile.
John the
survivor of the Grave wagon and Bob the skeleton talked and ate red beans for
the rest of the evening. John didn’t have anywhere to go and had run out of
leads for chasing the Grave Wagon. That’s when Bob told John of a town full of
monsters and spirits called Hallows End. Since the Haunted Forest had already
accepted John as a fellow monster, John could travel to Hallows End unhindered.
Bob also explained that a few of the leaders of Hallows End were as old as the
forest itself and might know more about the Grave Wagon. John would go on to
visit Hallows End and even learn some secrets along the way. But that is
another story for another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment