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Chapter 1: Letter

Drops of rainwater made a soothing sound against the windows of Mae's house. Mae is sitting quietly in her most favorite chair reading Little Woman. She had probably already read that book a thousand times but it didn't keep it from reading it again, again and again. She was sitting there peacefully, enjoying her book and the sound of the rain. Just then, the bell of the oven rang. As she approached the kitchen, she could already smell the delicious just-baked cookies. She took the cookies out of the oven to let them cool down before she could eat them.

Mae walked back to her chair ready to read further in the book she had already read a thousand times, when she noticed there was an envelope laying besides the door. ''That's weird'' she thought to herself. ''Why would someone deliver mails in the pouring rain?'' She walked towards the door to see who it was from. But.. there was no name on the evelope. Mae opened the envelope to see what was inside. Some of the words were smeared out because the letter got wet. But besides that, she still read what was on the paper since she was very curious. She had always been like that, curious and nosy. She always wanted to know what was going on.

The letter said: ''Come to THE forest tonight at 8 o'clock sharp.'' That's what it said. That was ALL it said. No name or anything, just that. At first Mae wasn't really sure if the letter was meant for her. I mean, there wasn't a name on the envelope, nor on the letter. She thought deeply about who might have send her this letter. And ''THE forest'', what could that possibly be? ''THE forest'' was pretty specific after all.

After Mae had thought for a little bit, she thought she knew who the shipper of the note might have been. Mae lived in a small village. Since the village was so small, everybody knew each other. She lived in a pretty small, one-floored house. She loved it. One day while she was at the market in the middle of the village, she met a boy. His name was Julian, Julian Anderson. They had talked for hours there. But there was one subject that Julian loved to talke about the most a forest, that could probably be THE forest. The forest he loved to talk about was one that was really nearby the small village. He said that it was a really mysterious forest. He said he had heard that anybody that went in, never came out. Julian was (just like Mae) always very curious and nosy. So ofcourse he wanted to see what this 'mysterious' forest was all about.

Mae thought that ''THE forest'' out of her letter, might be the forest Julian was talking about that day. Maybe he was scared to go there alone and wanted Mae to come with him. Did Julian really just asked her out on a date? When she checked the time to see how late it was, she saw that is was half past seven. So that meant... that she just had 30 minutes getting ready for the date(?)! And that also includes a seven-minute walk to THE forest!

Mae grabbed her favorite bag. It wasn't too big but also not too small. It was light brown and had animals like snails, frogs and foxes all over it that Mae had embroidered on it herself. She put her home-made cookies, wrapped in a plastic bag , in her bag. She tied her hair in a ponytail, and just to be sure, she also brought a bottle of cold water from her refrigerator. She also brought a few other things such as a comb, a book (of course), a lantern (for when it gets dark), and her bow and arrow that she had once bought at the market. After all, she didn't know what could happen in THE forest.

She wasn't really sure what she could expect. But she did know one thing, she was ready for it.