The Woods Curse

Alice's First Visit

The day after the fight after school me and Alice set off into the woods, I had promised to take her after all. At first I had tried talking her out of it because of what had happened with me being attacked and all but Alice absolutely insisted plus the fact that she knew about the woods now so I may as well take her and at least be there to protect her in case any of the daemons tried anything. We crossed the gap in the wall and I caught small glimpses of those little pests dashing through the bushes at one point but I could tell they were only trying to scare us, at least, I hoped that was the case. 

We found or way along the path, in silence, to the point where I had first met Anne and I called out to her and the others for them to come and meet my friend. I then sat down and lent against the rough bark with Alice doing the same and gazing off into the trees, I expected a fairly lengthy wait so settled down so I was reasonably comfortable. I was wrong. Less than a minute later I could distinctly hear a set of wing beats, no, two wings beats, just above the canopy. I sprung to my feet in excitement and motioned for Alice to do the same, in hindsight this was not a clever move as we moved right into the spots where Max and Anne were going to land! Anna managed to swerve and dodge Alice right at the last second with expert technique however, Max just crashed down on top of me so that we lay in the dirt half tangled up in a mass of wings and limbs. 

I pushed him off, both of us giggling, and got back onto my feet again. Looking over at Alice I could very clearly register the shock in her face but that was mingled with a strong sense of marvel and wonder with fear being pretty much invisible. She probably wasn't too scared because she already knew as much as I did about the brother and sister minus having seen them. Anne was as bubbly and welcoming as ever with an arm outstretched and a wide grin reaching from ear to ear plastered across her face as she said "Hey, I am Annabelle but everyone just calls me Anna and that little monkey over there is called Max." Max proudly spread his wings and put his hand up in the air to wave at Alice, she waved back enthusiastically.

"Where are Danny and Jacob?" I asked looking around me, I couldn't see or hear them yet. It had happened again, whilst I was looking for the ghost and zombie it felt like someone was turning the noise up gradually so that I could even hear the individual birds shifting positions up in their tree top nests. It was really creepy...

"Wow Lizzy, whats happening to your eyes!?" Anna looked worried and pulled my face towards her and stared straight into my eyes for far longer than I was comfortable with, then it clicked and I thought 'Oh, my eyes must have gone yellow again'. "Yeah I am gonna have to explain that and the fight..." I said as I pulled away from her a little and brushed my face with my sleeve mainly to break the eye contact. "THE FIGHT??!!" Anna half screamed, I couldn't tell if she was angry or concerned. Probably both. 

'Oh sweet jesus' I thought but just as that thought popped into my head Danny and Jacob arrived. Jacob paused when he say Alice, still in his tracts and staring dead eyed at my friend, I recognized that look in his eyes. 'Oh no' was my final thought before all hell broke loose.