“Run,” Elizabeth hisses. Will scrambles to his feet, twisting his body away from the behemoth before him and snatching up the ball. “Oh, now ya wanna run?!” he shouts as he picks his legs up and launches into the forest, his sister following close behind this time. There’s a harsh shriek, and the beast charges.

“Is this really the time to be acting snarky?!” Elizabeth calls ahead as she barrels effortlessly through the trees. “I’m coping!” he shouts back, prancing back and forth through the densely packed forest. The two continue their mad dash through the woods as the creature behind them launches from tree to tree, shrieking and snarling horrifically, black goo splattering across the leaves below.

The chase continues, deeper and deeper into the depths of the darkness, their only thoughts being of running. Will, always the faster sibling, slowly inches ahead of his sister, who feels the leash from before tightening around her throat. She reaches up to her neck and feels cold metal wrapped tight around her like a collar, but she can’t see anything there. Still, the leash tightens, limiting her oxygen as the world around her grows darker.

Devilboy~! Come out come out come out! Come give your neighbor a hug!

nopenopenope

Will runs and runs and runs, the sound and smell of the beast behind him wearing the twisted visage of a senile old lady growing closer and closer. Still, he runs, but for how much longer? How deep does this forest go? How long can he keep this up?!

Without noticing, he runs straight into something soft, but sticky. It wraps around his body, clinging to his arms, his body, his face, and he struggles and tugs on it in a crazed attempt to get it off.

Devilboy! Stop running, and just accept your fate!

Her voice is angry, and his mind only grows more panicked. He rips at the substance around him, tugging it off of his body as he hears her grow closer by the second. Then he feels it.

Tiny little legs.

They crawl on his arm.

In his hair.

On his face.

He lets out a petrified scream, as he dances from foot to foot, coming to the realization that he’s caught in a spiderweb, and dozens of tiny spiders are now marching along his body, under his clothes, all over him. He jumps and hops and swats and bats away as many of the little critters he can, but they only seem to grow in number.

He doesn’t notice when his foot doesn’t hit the ground until he’s already tumbling over the side.

He lands with a hard whump on his back on the cold stone below and the air escapes his lungs in a loud whoosh. He coughs and gasps for oxygen, his entire body aching, from his exhausted lungs to his throbbing legs. Everything hurts.

He attempts to roll over on his stomach when his arm swings out into open air, catching on the side of the stone slab he’s on to prevent himself from tumbling over the side. He lets out a shaken gasp as he scrambles away from the side, realizing that he’s on some ancient bridge inside a deep gorge. There’s only darkness below. Looking up, he sees the ledge far above, and he briefly wonders how he even survived the fall.

His thoughts are quickly interrupted when the air above him suddenly goes dark. There’s a loud crashing sound ahead of him and he looks to see her standing there.

Ms. Lingham, or whatever creature has taken her form and twisted it in such a horrifying manner, grins down at him from the other side of the bridge. Will, sitting up, quickly pushes himself as far away from her as he can, his back hitting the wall much quicker than he’d hoped.

Just the two of us now… Nowhere to run… Nowhere to hide…

“Please, jus’ go away… Leave me alone, please, jus’…”

A thick glob of black fires from her mouth, slamming into his body and sticking him to the wall with force.

“AGH, frick… crap… please…”

He doesn’t know how much more he can take. Tears sting at the corners of his eyes, the edges of his vision blurring as he begins to sob.

“Please…”

It’s over. His adventure had yet to even start, and he’s going to die here. Just pathetic.

She crawls closer, and closer…

And closer…

The sound of an angelic melody interrupts its attack.

“You…

you gonna break my heart…”

The creature stops its advance.

“You gonna tear it apart…”

It looks to the ledge above, its disgusting grin finally dropping.

“No matter what you do…

I’ll still be there for you…”

From above, Elizabeth drops, landing in between Will and the creature, but her gaze isn’t on Ms. Lingham. She looks directly into Will’s eyes, and he could swear there was gold in that look.

“And if you call my name…

I won’t be far away…”

She steps forward.

“No matter where you go…”

She rests her hand on the ball in Will’s arms.

“You’ll never be alone.”

Gold light emanates from the ball, but not with nearly as much force as before. It slowly hums and vibrates, tugging at his arms as if begging for release. Will looks into his sister’s smiling face and warns, “Ya migh’ wanna duck.”

She ducks her head down to the stone ground as the ball launches itself from his arms, blasting through the air and slamming itself into Ms. Lingham’s face, digging a black track through her features as it bursts out the other side. It stumbles back, letting out one final, ear-piercing shriek, before collapsing on its back/front, its legs curling around its body. Any color that it used to have leaves it for that same, light-absorbing darkness, as the creature decomposes into the ink it’s truly made of. It slowly collapses into itself in a puddle of black goop, before slipping off the side of the bridge and into the gorge below, finally hitting the ground with a wet splat.

The siblings’ vision blurs, their heads swim, and the world around them twists and folds into itself, until they at last open their eyes to find themselves still in the middle of the forest, not a trace of the gorge or the creature in sight, Elizabeth standing over Will sitting in the dirt.

Elizabeth flops down next to her brother, taking a moment to breathe alongside him. Looking over to him, his head in his hands, his body giving out sharp jolts, she realizes he’s crying. Her “big sis mode” reengaging, she rests her palm on his back. He shivers, looking up from his hands and to her, but he doesn’t push her off.

The two sit there for a moment, letting him cry.

---

“Are you finally ready to talk about it?” Elizabeth asks gently.

Will stares at the ground in front of him, his tears having long since halted their flow. The ball, now returning to its original energy, hovers next to him. “Talk about what…?” he mutters.

“What really happened at Ms. Lingham’s, Will? You said she chased you around, which sounds kinda freaky, but this?” she asks insistently. “Besides, every time we pass by her house, you get this freaked-out look on your face… I’m worried about you.” He doesn’t move a muscle. He doesn’t look from his empty stare. But he answers,

“I delivered th’ pie, but she caught a look at who I was. Like ah said, she went nuts, throwin’ sandals an’ other stuff at me, chasin’ me down. But then… she screamed. Like, really screamed. Screamed a kinda scream that only th’ craziest an’ most broken kinda people could scream. She hardly sounded mortal. An’ when ah heard, I felt some of what she felt. And it was terrifying.

“She lost somethin’. Ah know it. An’ that loss still eats at her to this day. An’ that scared the bejeezus outta me.”

A few more tears drip from his eyes before he looks back up at her. “So that’s what happened.”

The silence continues for a few more seconds before Will asks a question of his own, “What made ya start singin’?” She lets out a slight chuckle. “Well, you remember that book, ‘True Tales From Across Oracle’?” He nods. “Well, it just so happens that, before I got zapped into… this…” She gestures at herself. “I was reading the chapter on ‘The Forest of Fears.’”

Will’s eyes widen in recognition. “Wait, you mean… this is th’ Forest of Fears? From that freakn fairytale?” She smiles and nods. “Yep, looks like it. At the very least, the situation reminded me of that story, and how the only way Collin made it out was through a song his wife used to sing. So, the first thing that came to mind was that old lullaby mom used to sing for us when we were scared.”

He nods in understanding. He remembered that story well; The intrepid adventurer Collin Angelo was chased down by a giant bear, the same one that killed his wife. It was through that song his wife sang that the creature vanished. The forest was supposedly meant to manifest your greatest and darkest fears as a way of killing you, meaning he was right near death. He shivers at the thought, before coming to a second realization:

“So that means my worst fears are spiders and an old lady… great.”

Elizabeth giggles at his remark, and the air feels somewhat lighter. He always loved making people laugh, and Elizabeth’s smile is a treasure. He needed that talk, much more than he’d thought he did.

He slaps his hands on his knees and shoves himself to his feet, a universal sign that it’s time to get moving. Elizabeth follows him up, then taps her finger on the top of the ball, which briefly shimmers gold and sets itself back on its original path, with Will and Elizabeth following close behind. The darkness no longer feels as oppressive, and the two walk onwards without a care in the world.

At least for about a dozen yards until the distant sound of sobbing breaks the silence, stopping the both of them in their tracks. Will looks in the direction of the sound, to their right. “Please tell me you hear that,” Will begs. “I do, don’t worry,” Elizabeth replies. He’s unsure whether that’s a comfort or not.

He starts off into the direction of the sound, but Elizabeth touches him to stop him. “Will, stop,” she insists. “Remember? The Demon guy’s in this forest, what if it’s a trap?” He looks at her, then back in the direction of the distressed sounds. He clenches his jaw and purses his lips, considering the risk. “If it is, I can run. If it isn’t, well…” he starts back in that direction. “God willing, I’ll do something about it.” Elizabeth shakes her head, looking to the ball for support. When it doesn’t bring her any, she follows him close behind, with the ball following her.

He takes extra care to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible. If it is a trap, he secretly hopes he’ll be able to figure it out before it’s too late.

He carefully steps through the foliage, following the sounds of crying. There’s a strange, hollow sound to it, and the voice is deep. Finally, he comes across a clearing, and, at the center, a lone figure lies on the ground, hands over their head, forehead to the ground, and sobbing uncontrollably.

Two swords rest at their sides.

They’re cloaked in black armor.

It’s them.

Will stops dead in his tracks, Elizabeth walking straight through him before she realizes the situation. “What’s going on-” she stops herself when she sees the shuddering form of the Demon on the ground.

“Please, please, please… I didn’t mean to… Please, just leave me the hell alone!” they scream, their hollow voice bouncing off of the trees and into the night. “I was just doing what he said, it could have been so much worse, I-” They stop their ramblings, turning their head to face the siblings, revealing those piercing red eyes that stab directly through Will’s heart. “Wh-what…” they mumble, before they stumble to their feet, swinging their head wildly. “Where’d they go…” they say, until their eyes land back on the two of them. “You,” they rasp. “What are you doing here?!” they demand, their voice suddenly booming.

“Back to runnin’,” Will whispers, Elizabeth nodding in agreement. She ushers the ball ahead with her hand, pushing it onwards, and it responds, quickly zooming off into the trees. Will and Elizabeth quickly follow, with the Demon hot on their heels. “You get back here!” they cry.

Over the roots, through the bushes, you know the drill. After all of the problems they’ve faced so far, they only seem capable of running. How sad. But that doesn’t stop them of course, after all, what other option do they have? So they run.

The ball leads the way into the seemingly infinite darkness, and Will wonders if there really is an end to this God-forsaken forest. It just goes on and on and on… At least, that’s until a pinpoint of light appears in the path ahead. It’s small, and it’s far, but they’ve got plenty motivation to get there quick. “Elizabeth!” Will calls back. “I see the end! We’re nearly there!” She looks up, squinting ahead until she sees it, then her face lights up. “Still, doesn’t mean we took care of them,” she remarks, jabbing her thumb behind her. He follows her gesture and sees she’s pointing at the Demon, which he wasn’t entirely sure was even following them since he couldn’t hear their footsteps. “Don’t let that slow you down! Keep going!” Elizabeth encourages.

And with that, the chase continues.

“Where the hell did you even come from?!” they shout.

He can’t help himself from looking back every now and then, catching a glimpse of two pinpricks of red light standing out against the overwhelming darkness. They seem to have no issue traversing the land, while Will struggles through every minor obstacle. They’re catching up quickly. Too quickly. The light seems out of their reach, and the Demon seems only a hairsbreadth away. They’re running out of time.

But time is on their side.

Closer, and closer, and closer…

The light grows, consuming the group of four, and the world is engulfed in brightness.

There’s a loud whump, and once their vision clears, they’re standing in a field of lush grass. The night seems to have completely vanished, replaced instead with a day brighter than even the hottest summer. The siblings stare in awe of the sky, before they hear a frustrated grunt from behind, and twist around to see the Demon standing just a few feet away.

They swing their fist onto open air, and in the space where their fist stops, ripples of light-blue light emanate from the place of contact. Again, they slam their fists against the invisible wall, again to no avail. Will and Elizabeth approach with caution, flinching with each hit.

Will stands face to face with the person on the other side.

“Well, I have to say. That was quite a chase. Who exactly are you?”

He balls his hands into fists.

“My name is Will Newbie, and you took my town away, my family.”

They tilt their head, almost as if in concern.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry to hear that. I hope you understand, though, I’m doing this for the sake of my people.”

His eyes widen in shock at their nerve.

“Your people?! What about my people?! What about my mother? What about all of the hard workers? What about the kids?!”

They almost seem to wince at the word “kids,” though they remain firm.

“Listen, I’m going to give you a friendly warning: stay out of this. This is leagues beyond the importance of some backwater town in this crap-hole kingdom. So remember this: he has your face. So if I end up seeing you again, I might not be able to hold him back.”

And with that last ominous remark, they turn to leave, their black form merging with the shadows.

Will stands a moment longer, watching them go, before he turns back to Elizabeth with a stupid grin on his face. “He wa’n’ as scary once I realized I’m taller‘n ‘im,” he chuckles. Elizabeth rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “Are you gonna have a genius and witty remark to cap off every near-death experience we have?”

The two laugh together, before finally turning to face the new world they find themselves in, Will trying to hide his shaking hands behind his back.