by Jimi Alan
“Very good.” Madam Highfield smiled. “Can anyone tell me what kind of ingredients, we’ll be collecting today?”
Looking around the room, Madam Highfield noticed Liliah with her hand raised up, ready to answer her question again. With a disappointed gaze, she let out a sigh from her lips.
“Anyone.” Madam Highfield smirked. “Who isn't Liliah?”
Gloria shyly rose her hand up from her desk. Her hand got as high as her shoulder before Madam Highfield noticed her. A smile went across her face as she nodded for Gloria to share her answer with the rest of the class.
“We will need.” She took a minute to ponder her thoughts. “Some kind of wooden or structure that we can carve into a desired wand shape of our choosing.”
“That is correct.” Madam Highfield looked pleased to have Gloria answer her question. “Everyone get ready, and we will head out of the forest to find the base of your wands.”
Alice glanced around the classroom. She held her hand nervously in her pocket. Hoping she would be able to find a twig or branch of a tree that could match her father's wand. She knew she would need a wand to cast spells, and her father's wand would only allow her to do some spells with it. For it was her father's, which means for her it has a limit.
The class began to leave the room. Each student walked out with their friends, as Alice walked with Gloria and Justin. She kept her distance from Lucia and her sister, Liliah. Alice thought some time for Lucia to be alone with her sister might be a good thing. After all, they had been apart for four months.
Walking out of the classroom, Alice looked over her shoulder at Lucia. She smiled softly at her friend, as if she was greeting her. Lucia smiled back as her sister muttered to her. She seemed to not notice the change in her sisters face as she continued to talk.
Looking away from Lucia, Alice looked at Gloria. She saw the puzzled look on her face, like she was thinking of an answer for a pop quiz. Gloria smirked at Alice.
“Your wondering what I'm thinking of?” Gloria seemed pleased. “It's pretty simple to guess. I’m thinking of what to make my wand out of.”
Justin sighed. “Your probably going to pick something cool, like a magical creatures bone or some old tree.”
Alice wondered. “You can make wands out of bones.”
“Well yeah.” Justin seemed surprised.
Gloria told her. “You can make a wand out of anything that can be carved. It's all about what you feel will be great in your hand.”
Alice felt her hand on her father's wand. She felt like she already had the connection she needed with one. Her mind trailed off as she walked through the school hallway with her friends. She had not noticed they had walked outside.
Heading away from the school, Alice felt a darkness dwindling from the forest. Every bone in her body was telling her to walk away. She placed her hands into her pockets with her eyes down to the grown in front of her. Her gut tugged as she pushed on into the forest with the rest of her class.
Justin noticed the look on Alice's face. He seemed to be concern for how beezar his friends was acting.
“Alice.” He whispered as he crept slowly beside him. “You don't look so good.”
“I'm fine.” Alice felt her atomic telling her to go away. She raised her head as she thought of anywhere else she could be. “I just really don't like the wilderness, that's all.”
Justin seemed to have bought her act. He kept on walking with Gloria ahead of them. Alice felt better as her fingertips touched the handle of her father's wand. She kept walking with her friends, glancing over her shoulder at Lucia and her sister as the horde of students separated them from each other.
Madam Highfield stopped the class in the middle of the forest. She gathered the whole class around in a somewhat clearing with trees double the size then any tree Alice saw before. She raised her wand out of her pocket.
A simple word flow out of the teacher's mouth. “Proteggere.” She said the word loudly enough for her voice to echo through the forest around them.
The tip of Madam Highfield’s wand glowed. She moved her wand in an x shape as she walked around the clearing. Her eyes locked with each of the students as she walked around them.
Lowering her wand, she ended the spell with the glow vanishing from her wand tip. Alice saw the blank expressions on her classmates faces. They seemed confused as she felt with no clue what their teacher had done.
Madam Highfield smiled as she walked towards the middle of the group. “This will act as our safe zone. Anyone of us may leave the circle and if you get chased by anything in the forest, make it back here.”
A simple nod of her head told the students she wasn't kidding. Justin looked nervous as her grabbed ahold of Alice's hand. He seemed to blush as he let go.
Shyly Alice let out a sigh. Her mind seemed to drift as the teacher spoke to the class. Alice found herself in the forest, the leaves where all over the ground. Bright autumn colors seem to light up the ground of roots and mud. Alice knew she had gone back in time, for the cold winter breeze had vanished. She heard Madam Highfield’s voice from before her.
“Collect as many items as you wish.” She held her hands behind her back. “But keep your sights out for that one thing that pulls you in.”
Alice heard a whisper beside her. She glanced over her shoulder to see her mother standing beside her. She was surrounded by her fellow classmates. Her mother's friends with the dark aurora around her was distant. She stood behind her with a glare on her face.
Thinking back to the tunnel, Alice thought her mother's friend Natas was acting a bit strange. Her complexion had become lighter than before, like she had become sick. The sparkle in her eyes from before had gone. A kind of loneliness Alice knew a bit too well, seemed to have ahold of her.
A voice crept in Alice's head. “Your be mine soon.”
She heard the voice creep into a laugh as she took a slight step back. Alice returned to her present. She saw Madam Highfield standing in the middle of the clearing with her hands together like she just clapped.
Glancing at Alice, Madam Highfield had only kept her eyes on her for a second before smiling at the rest of the class. “Head out into the forest at start collecting.”
Alice's classmates headed off, each searching for any twig or tree branch to make into a powerful wand. Her hands in her pockets, Alice felt the handle of her father's wand. She knew she would need a powerful wood to make a wand like her father's.
Heading away from the clearing, Alice looked around at the trees. She had to find the largest tree in the forest to make her wand out of. Her parents were powerful when they were Alice. A kind of power Alice hoped she would become. She knew a wand from the oldest tree would be strong enough to hold anything she through at it.
Walking through the forest, Justin and Gloria followed behind Alice. They seemed to be worried about their friends. Justin vocalized his concern to the group.
“Are you sure that you’re alright?” Justin worried. “I just mean.”
Alice stopped and glared over her shoulder at him. She hoped her look would say everything she needed to say. The look on Justin's face told her that he understood.
Gloria sighed. “So where are we going?”
“Exploring.” Alice smiled. “I guess.”
Justin told them. “We should not go too far into the woods.”
“Who knows what we might find?”. Gloria joked with her friends. “Like Madam Highfield said, you might find something you're never expect.”
“That didn't sound good.” Justin worried.
Alice told him. “Relax. She was just trying to keep up from wandering too far away.”
“You really should read a book.” Gloria said. “Or three of four. This forest has many legends, and some involve monsters from your darkest dreams.”
Alice tried to seem enjoying herself. “You mean nightmares.”
Her friends seemed to enjoy her bluntness. “Yes.” Gloria smirked. “So we should stick together, it's better than being
alone.”
“Sure.” Alice agreed.
Looking back at the clearing, she realized how far they had traveled. Alice could barely notice the clearing through the thick trees behind her. She saw a few of her classmates wandering through the forest together as well. She used to like wandering around in a dark place before she went into the tunnel.
Now the tunnel was all she could think of. She wished she never had walked into the stone entrance by the lakeside with Lucia. Her scream echoed in her ear as Alice looked over her friends.
Gloria and Justin both had petrified looks on their face. Gloria seemed to be able to make hers look not as noticeable as Justin. He had less practice with hiding his emotions then Gloria. Alice knew Gloria's mother would see such a thing as being weak.
Alice knew the voice behind the scream. “Lucia.”
From her breath, she rushed through the forest. Hearing the scream of her friend from in front of her. Alice knew something was off, but every bone in her body was telling her to run towards her. She kept running. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Justin and Gloria running with her. The three of them ran through the forest, passing many of the trees. Alice felt a smile across her face as she ran faster. She always liked running.
One year she joined the track team at her school. Alice had won a medal for coming in first. Her popularity with her classmates weren't the best, after that. They saw her as an overachiever, someone who would do almost everything to win. Made her less popular than she thought it would. She quit the team shortly after.
Alice kept running. She placed her hand in front of her as she saw a log from a failed tree in front of her. She pressed her hand onto the tree branch as she jumped over it, using her hand to lift herself up over it. Keeping her speed, she glided over the log landing on her feet on the other side. She breathed for a single second before heading back into a run.
Keeping up with her seemed to be a task for Gloria and Justin. Justin had fallen over his feet, being the silly guy Alice remembered. She looked over her shoulder as Gloria stopped dead in her tracks. Alice stopped as she was worried about her friend.
Gloria nodded to her with a smile in her eyes. “Keep going.”
Alice heard a loud scream from Lucia with her sisters voice charming in. She tried to make out what they were saying, as a breeze sparked in her ear. She heard the whistling sound of the wind, telling her to stay where she stood. Her mind seemed to darken for only as second.
Snapping back, she heard Gloria's voice in her head. “We’re catch up.”
Alice nodded as Gloria thirdly walked over at Justin. He crawled to a sitting position with a tree supporting him. Alice knew they still needed to find some kind of branches or piece of a tree to make there wands. She wondered if the twig Justin tripped over would be good enough for him.
Smiling at the thought of such karma, Alice kept running. She felt the breeze blowing her away from the sound of her friends voice. Her arms went up to protect her face as she felt the leaves of the forest whirling towards her.
“Lucia.” Alice stopped for a moment. “Where are you?”
Creeping into her head, she heard a ghostly voice. “Over here.”
Alice looked over her shoulder. The breeze had vanished as quickly as it had came. Leaves drifted down to the floor of the cold forest. Spotting Lucia right away, Alice rushed over to her side. Her eyes felt with fear as she rushed over to Lucia and Laliah, who laid on the floor of the forest. Both of them had lifeless eyes as they lay beside each other.
Placing her hand onto Lucia’s hand, she felt cold to Alice's touch. Alice reached her hand into her pocket. She had no idea what to do. Her hand touched the handle of her father's wand in her pocket. She wished she knew a spell to warm her up.
In the moment, Alice moved her hand away from the wand. She knew a spell would not be a way Lucia would want to come back. Alice placed two of her fingers up to her friends knock. She felt her cold skin on her fingertips as her eyes began to water.
Her tear rolled down the side of her face. She felt no pulse in her friends neck, as she remember a memory with her uncle. Sitting alone in a playground, she remembered looking up at the sky. The rest of the children were playing around her. She saw a bird lying on the ground and decided to walk up to it. Her hands touched the bird. She cradled the bird in her hands as she walked towards her uncle Cedric.
He asked her. “What is that?”
Alice smiled. “It’s hurt.”
Cedric reached his hand out. “Let’s see if it has a pulse.”
He reached his finger to the birds knock. “I don't feel.”
Pausing for a moment, he looked surprised. Alice smiled as she bird’s eyes awoken in her hands. She felt a warmth on her fingertips for only a second as her memory faded.
Sitting on the cold ground beside Lucia, Alice heard the ghostly voice in her ear. The voice was taunting her, with a faint whisper. Alice looked around at the quiet forest. Not even the sound of a branch moving, Alice had a feeling something was there. She stood up as her tear rolled down her face. Whipping her tear away, she looked up at the tree behind Lucia's cold lifeless body with her sisters right beside her.
Behind the tree, out walked the lady. Alice noticed her front the tunnel, she searched for her name. On the tip of her tongue, the ladies name was for a second before Alice forgot it again. She saw the way her eyes looked, darkened with veins popping out from around them. Her skin looked cold and pale as she stood beside the forest.
Alice glared at her. “Who are you?”
“We are everywhere.” The ghostly voice came slithering out from the ladies lips. “But we are nothing and something.”
“I am not in any mood for games.” Alice felt her anger surfacing as she looked at the lady. “What did you do to Lucia?”
“Well.” The lady faded into a ghostly stream as the forest became darkened, like a cloud drifted over the sky. She vanished for only a second before appearing beside another tree beside Liliah. “She kept me from you.”
Alice saw the lady's eyes look at Lucia's body. She had no idea what look was on the lady's face. She was hard to understand with her eyes completely black with no light in them.
“I had to pick someone.” The lady kicked her lips. “And they were so tasty.”
Alice felt something turn in her stomach. She felt like she was about to pick. Keeping herself together, she took a deep breath in. She looked down for a second. Her eyes saw no marks on Lucia’s body. She wondered what the lady meant by ‘they were so tasty’ when they look to be unharmed.
“What do you mean?” Alice was scared to know the answer with her voice trembling as she spoke. “Are you going to eat them?”
“No my child.” The lady took a step towards Liliah. “That would be barbaric of me to do.”
Alice was confused. “But their dead.”
“Yes.” The lady grinned. “That does attend to happen.”
“Why her?” Alice looked down at Lucia's face. She felt her tear roll down the side of her face. “Why did you pick her?”
“To get to you.” The ghostly voice of the lady whispered as she stepped over Liliah's lifeless body. “My child.”
She stood on the other side of Lucia's body with her eyes locked with Alice's angry glare staring into the darkness of hers. Her hand touched her father's wand in her pocket. She lifted the wand out with it expanded without her command. Alice wondered if a word would come to her when she was in the tunnel. Her mind stayed blank as she placed the tip of her father's wand up to the ladies chin. She saw a smile on the lady's face as she felt the wand against her skin.
“Oh, such power lives inside of you child.” Her ghostly voice whispered. “ I am willing to offer you a deal.”
Alice heard another voice with a familiar ring to it in her ear. She could not make out the words from the voice. Her told her to listen as she was distracted by the darkness of the lady's eyes who stood inches from her face.
“Don't do it.” The famil
iar voice charmed louder in Alice's head as she made out its confused tone. “Free me instead.”
“What's your offer?” Alice had a feeling the lady was trying to trick her.
“It’s simple.”She crept closer to Alice. “I’ll release your friends.” The lady vanished into the stream of a ghostly darkness, only to appear back by the tree behind Lucia. “But only if I can have you instead.”
The way she spoke was cunning. Her voice seemed delighted by the desire of her offer. Alice knew she would need to make a plan and fast. She had no intention of giving herself to the monster before her. She knew no human was capable of killing two helpless students.
Lowering her wand down to her side, she took a deep breath in. Her mind was clear for a moment. She heard the ring of the familiar voice in her head once more. Crying for her to listen, if only for a second.
“Say my name.” The familiar voice was confused as it echoed in Alice's head. “Say it.”
“I will.” Alice looked at the monster in the lady's body. “But with one condition.”
“Oh my child.” The lady walked behind the tree as her voice traveled around from behind all of the trees. “You are going to taste delightful.”
A laugh echoed around the forest. Glancing around Alice saw the darkness covering over the trees like smoke from a fire. She felt scared as she listened to the voice in her head. Alice knew there was a reason for it to be speaking to her. She said. “It won't be easy.”
“Oh.” The ghostly voice seemed pleased. “I love a good haunt.”
In her head, Alice heard the familiar voice clearly and with an emergency in its tone. “Run!”
Alice listed her foot. She ran away from Lucia towards the only part of the forest, which was not covered in darkness. Running quickly, she listened to the voice in her head. Turning left and right at the command of its voice.
A laugh echoed from behind her as the darkness covered the forest. She kept running without thinking. Her father's wand kept in her hand as she remembered what Madam Highfield said. She darted back quickly.
The voice in her head muttered. “Good plan.”
Alice shook her head as she felt the darkness below her feet. She looked down for a second. Her eyes widened as she heard the voice. She jumped in time as two pale hands came slithering out of the darkness, which almost reached her ankles.
