The rental car passed through the thousands of trees on the empty road. We needed to go slowly, there were signs about "risk of animals on the road" every kilometer, human influence seemed negligible in that almost paradisiacal place, if it weren't for the fog giving a certain morbidity to the landscape. We tried to pass the time, bored by the hours of monotony.
"No fucking way."
"I'm serious!"
"If you were filthy rich, would you get married and be with just one person? I don't believe you."
"I'm a romantic, and I like solitude sometimes too. I wouldn't have the energy for more than one person. What would you do if you were rich?"
"I would have at least one boyfriend and one girlfriend, but I would probably get new ones every month."
"I didn't even know you were bi."
"I'm not, but with infinite money you have to enjoy everything, right?"
"That's not how it works, woman, you don't choose to become bi overnight."
"If I'm rich, I'll be able to choose whatever I want."
"If you become a lesbian, you have my full support, I would even prefer you to date someone without the chance of getting pregnant!"
The last line interrupted our dumb interaction. Fernanda's father, the famous "cool dad", did whatever his daughter wanted to make up for the time he was absent after the divorce, he never complained or fought about anything. This is the reason he paid for this trip, an abandoned town with no other attractions nearby. But she wanted exactly this location, even though it needed the international travel.
"So, honey, aren't you going to tell me the real reason for this trip? Are you finally going to admit that you're dating Cristian?"
Fernanda made an expression of disgust.
"No, dad! Gross! Cris is like a brother to me. Where did you get this idea? I bet if I look at your porn site history there will be full of incest videos, what a disappointment to hear you say something like this, find some normal fetishes, man, like feet."
Her father laughed; he didn't even have anything to say about that. I wasn't bothered by her reaction, our relationship was really just friendship since childhood, we even gave each other love advice, always without jealousy or anything like that. Like siblings from another family.
We stopped at a restaurant before the hotel. The waiter acted strange, as if he didn't like customers.
"More tourists, huh? If you go to visit the abandoned town, leave before the evening, and don't go into the forest."
"Why?" I asked, curious.
"You know that there are a large number of people who come here just to commit suicide in the forest, right? I don't even know how the government hasn't banned tourists yet."
I found it strange. If the number of suicides here are so high, how come when I researched our trip nothing came up? I thought it was the most boring place on earth, after all "Google" only showed a photo of the abandoned town and a paragraph of information.
"If you think so, why do you work here?" Fernanda asked.
"Capitalism's a bitch, right? There were no jobs where I lived, and no one else wanted to work in this end of the world. So, it's up to this loser, no one likes to die of hunger. Anyway, I hope you three come back, most people who eat here die after wandering into the forest."
We placed our order, and Fernanda's father expressed concern about the information.
"I don't like it here. Why did you choose this place, honey?
"I wanted to visit a place where almost no one else had been. Did you believe this bullshit that most people don't come back? Don't worry, the guy probably wants to get fired so he keeps making things up."
We slept at the hotel, and the next morning, we went to visit the abandoned town. It had an oppressive and surreal aura, I couldn't think of a reason why a place like that would be empty, it was very strange to see all that fantastic architecture without anyone using it. Even more bizarre was that, scattered periodically, there were a series of warnings painted on dozens of walls in that location.
"Don't say her name."
"Death ahead, flee."
"Ignore the calls."
"Ignore, ignore, ignore."
"She lies."
"Don't listen to her."
At the exit of the city, before the entrance to the forest, a sign that seemed to have been recently placed, despite it being decades since anyone lived there.
"Do not go beyond this point, in this forest lies Anabel's hell."
We went back to the hotel, it was more than 30 miles away. At dinner and in our interactions, Fernanda was acting very strange. She said several times how much she loved us, and she was never a very emotional person or one who showed a lot of affection. Before going to sleep, I noticed that she was looking towards the forest, her eyes empty, a smile on her face. Her eyes felt like they were going to burst into tears at any second, but the wet salt didn't come. Before turning off the light, she hugged me and reiterated "I love you, sleep well." I returned the affection and went to sleep.
The next morning, Fernanda was no longer in bed, she had disappeared.
We contacted the police, who didn't seem to care much. "We're going to look around", was basically the summary of our interaction. A distressing week later, the worst possible news arrived. Fernanda had been found dead, leaning against a tree in the forest. There was no trauma to the body, no wounds or signs of a struggle. The reason for death was dehydration. It was as if she had gone walking alone in the forest, got lost, leaned against a tree and simply died. The strangest thing is that there was a giant river crossing that place, and several smaller lakes. It seemed impossible for her to have died like that without it being suicide. There was no way to walk in a straight line for a few hours and not find any source of water, but even so the reason for death was "cardiac arrest due to dehydration for days without consuming liquids."
There was something wrong. I knew that Fernanda would not wander around alone, nor would she commit suicide. I needed to find out what had happened to her, the real reason she died. She wouldn't abandon everyone like this.
Before returning to my hometown, I asked some residents of the nearest city about the warnings found in the abandoned town. It was of no use. Nobody answered anything, nor did they know who "Anabel" was. A hope of finding out what happened came from children and teenagers. When I asked them the same question, I got a lot of "I can't talk about this", "this topic is forbidden", "don't say Anabel, bad things happen when you say her name".
In other words, there was definitely something, there was a reason. People just didn't want to talk about it.
After the arrangements made on Fernanda's body, we returned home. But I didn't give up, I couldn't accept having lost my best friend. I started researching every day, but I couldn't find anything about why that town was abandoned, about the warnings at the entrance to the forest, about any legend related to a certain Anabel.
Nothing.
Every day I spent hours searching online, trying different keywords on various search engines and forums. I tried physical books, I even traveled to access a renowned library. This was my routine. I practically had no hobbies anymore, I spent hours every day researching. I knew there was something, I just needed to find out what.
After 2 months of searching, I found what I wanted in a personal blog with barely any views. The reason Fernanda died. The story of Anabel, the witch who lives in that forest.
