𝔉𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔣𝔩𝔶 𝔉𝔬𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔱

Chapter I

The busy sounds of the city were ringing in my ears as I left First Avenue and turned right into Amistad Street, to head south, to the edge of the city, where my favorite place was.
I was there on holiday, visiting my mother's family just like every other year. Being an only child and having no cousins to play with, my parents allowed me to sneak out of my aunt's messy apartment to go play near the lake, where no one usually went. There was a legend that spirits inhabited those waters and meadows, but I was too a skeptical kid to believe such stories.
I didn't mind the loneliness, I wasn't much of an extrovert anyways.
Even at such a young age I had problems making friends, and I much more enjoyed the company of said "spirits" that the one of my peers.
My hometown was North from there, where the people and the climate were cold and gray. I didn't mind.
All year I longed for summer to come.
Though my head kept heading north, at least on summer we would drive south. I loved the south, where the warmth and the peace were ordinary things.
But my thoughts kept heading north, to a deserted land made of nothing but ice, darkness and loneliness.  Why was my brain stuck in the north? Why couldn't I, too, be happy?
The truth is I had always been a troubled kid, with an affiliation to death. It seemed like it chased me, haunted me, chose me to be its prophet.
So, that day, the seven-year-old-me didn't even flinch when, entering the usually deserted forest that lead to the lake, I saw a stranger leaning on a tree, smoking a cigarette.
The boy didn't look too keen on talking to me, or even acknowledging me at all.
He was wearing a weird, broken mask, that covered half of his face, enough to hide his features, but not enough for me not to take in his deep green eyes that were glowing as bright as summer grass under the sun, but were also as dark as an emerald deepened in jet black water.
His pitch black hair seemed to turn transparent as a ray of sun hit it, the light splitting as if it was going through a prism.
After ages the boy seemed to take in my presence and turned to me, his relaxed expression changing to a frown.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"My name's Sam, sir. I'm not from around here, I just came to play a bit by the lake."
The stranger now looked genuinely confused
"How did you not get lost in the Forest of Wanderers?"
"Do you mean the Forest of Wonders? That is how locals call it.
And anyway, I came here so many times now, I know the path by heart."
The stranger's eyes suddenly lit up in realization, as if he had just solved the weirdest of mysteries.
He offered me a smoke, it was his last one. It was now my turn to feel confused.
The wind suddenly blew our hair and the boy strained his ear as if he was hearing someone calling him back home.
As if on cue he put the empty container back into his pocket and started walking deep in the forest, when he came to a halt. He turned around and spoke
"It is no mistake the way I addressed to this forest. You sure can wander and wonder in here. Names are powerful after all."
And with that he disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Author Note
Hello everyone.
This is my first book and I think I'm excited about it (?), dunno, emotions aren't my thing. Anyway I hope you like it and I apologize in advance for my typooooos cuz dyslexia and shit (ADHD kids will conquer the fucking w o r l d).
I'm trying my best out here.
Until next time.
Cheers.

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