Of Curses and Wishes

The Unfamiliar Darkness

I screw my eyes shut as the portal takes me to god knows where. The wind rips at my hair as I fall, fall, fall. All of a sudden the screaming wind quiets and I feel still. A soft breeze washes over me but it wasn't magical, no it was normal, natural, free.

The dead pine needles stick to the bottom of my feet as I stand up. The tall pine standing proud beside me acts as a support as I try to steady myself. The earth shifts beneath me but I hold my ground, screwing my eyes shut and taking deep breathes. The watery sunlight shines through my eyelids and I listen for the sweet chirping of birds but... there's nothing, not a single rustle of leaves as a bird takes flight nor the soft scurrying of small animals running home. My eyes fly open. Something's wrong, something is very very wrong. One of my last surviving memories is of birds singing their morning song but now, in this strange forest, there's silence.

I dare to stand on my own as I walk to the middle of the small clearing, trying to understand where the portal has taken me. The tall pines spiral up into the sky and as I look through the dense forest I notice, there's no end the trees. They stretch on and on into the unfamiliar darkness, the darkness that seems to be... living.

I stumble back a step, fear creeping up my throat, onto my tongue. Just then the darkness moves. No. Something in it moved. Towards me. Closer. Stalking from tree to tree. The darkness seems to grow bigger and shape itself into the silhouette of a tall boy, a club over it's shoulder.

The breathe escapes form my lungs as I realise that it isn't darkness that is stalking towards me, it's a person, a boy, coming towards me, a weapon over his shoulder.

I keep stepping back and the boy keeps prowling forward. Suddenly my back hits something but it's not a tree, not a person. The sharp point digs into my back, harder and harder and I have to step forward to try and get away from the pain but as I do I come face to face with the tall boy. He smirks at me, a stick of grass hanging casually out of his mouth.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" The boy's voice sends freezing cold skittering down my spine. I want to run, I want to get away from the strange boy but as I look for a way out I realise, I'm surrounded by spears and the owner of each one is smiling like a wolf right at me.

My heart races an irregular rhythm, I haven't been this scared since... since... I block the memory out of my mind. It was in the past, gone, set in history forever never to be changed.

The boy chuckles, a cold, unforgiving sound, "Cat got your tongue?" He teases taking an all too casual step forward.

I can snatch the wilted grass right from the boy's mouth, that's how close he is.
"What do you want with me?" I ask, the sound of my own voice shocks me, I can't remember the last time I spoke nor what my voice sounds like, that is, until now. It was different from the boy's. Less harsh but it was obviously different. The word to describe my voice runs around my head, just out of reach, "What do you want with me?" I insist after a beat of silence.
"What would the fun be in telling you?" My stomach churns at the boy's words.

I look around, looking for any clue to what the boys wanted with me. The boys with the wolf smiles take a small step back, the hoods of their cloaks still casting their faces in unforgiving shadow. I force myself to look at the boy with the grass in his mouth, he seems to be the leader of the wolfish boys. He smiles, a cruel, taunting thing and says far too quietly,
"Run." And I do.

I push right past the leader boy and sprint into the dark forest. My thin legs shout at the sudden movement, struggling to keep me upright after all the years of being imprisoned in a cramped cell. Every inch of me tells me to stop, to breath but I can't. Not with those wolf boys behind me. At least I presume they're pursuing me. I can't think of anything that could me chasing me other than them.