The trees blurred past.
The forest was alive. Bark shivered, and leaves hissed. A beast of shadow and light thundered behind us, weaving between the trees like smoke with claws. Its glowing, ever-changing eyes flickered—red, green, violet. It fired arcs of rainbow-colored energy, twisting like lightning through the air.
BOOM!
A blast struck behind us, and trees exploded into sparks.
Noah's bike screeched around a bend, mud flying everywhere. Ezra gripped his waist tighter, screaming—half in fear, half in exhilaration. Her backpack bounced violently behind her.
"Tell me again why we're doing this?!" she shouted.
"FOR SCIENCE!" Noah shouted back, cackling.
Another beam grazed the bike's back tire. He leaned forward. "Okay, maybe not science! Maybe just bad decisions!"
They didn't dare look back.
---
Let's pause for a moment.
You're probably wondering how we got here.
Fair enough. So let's rewind a bit.
---
You're seeing this through my eyes, by the way.
My name's Noah. I'm of average height, get decent grades, and used to think the weirdest thing in life was tripping in front of my crush at lunch.
Then I moved to Grayeridge.
You know the type of town where things go bump in the night and mirrors literally try to eat you?
Here's a quick recap:
My sister Leah and I moved here with our mom, Ruth.
We made some friends—Jamie, Ezra, Quinn, and Paige.
We discovered a weird mirror in an abandoned room at school.
Accidentally, we unleashed a silver nightmare that pulled our siblings into a mirror prison.
We fought off a twisted reflection monster.
We screamed, we ran, and maybe cried a little.
We saved the day using high-frequency sound waves, glass explosions, and a light show that put fireworks to shame.
And we promised ourselves we wouldn't go looking for trouble again.
Guess what?
Trouble found us.
---
It started with a school trip.
The school thought it would be a great idea to send our class into the woods for a "nature learning experience." You know—team-building, fresh air, and mosquito bites.
Red Willow Forest. Creepy name, right?
Ezra and I tagged along, while Jamie and Quinn couldn't come—wrong class, lucky for them.
We figured it would be boring at worst, just a break from all the paranormal insanity.
Turns out, the forest had other plans.
*
The bus pulled up with a hiss of steam and the tired groan of old brakes.
It was early morning, and the forest loomed in silence—tall red-barked trees twisting up into a white sky, their leaves glowing faintly crimson under the filtered light. The air smelled clean. Too clean. Like something had scrubbed the scent of life away and left only stillness.
Students chattered as they filed out, backpacks slung over shoulders, sneakers crunching against the gravel. Laughter, idle complaints, the slap of a soccer ball being kicked from one end of the group to another—it all seemed normal.
But Noah felt it immediately.
The shift. The pressure. The faint static under his skin.
"Something's off," he muttered.
Behind him, Ezra stepped off the bus and stretched, hair caught in the wind. "It's just nature, Noah. You're paranoid."
He gave her a look. "After what we've been through? I think I've earned the right."
Ezra rolled her eyes, but her hand didn't stray far from her bag, where a folded journal page was hidden—scribbled notes about "zones of fracturing," "anomalous echoes," and a warning:
> Do not enter Red Willow.
The forest listens... Which they didn't respect eventually.