The Witch Within The Forest Of Illusions Arc

Part Five

Midnight

“Why didn't it say that the Forest Of Illusions took lives?” she snapped the moment that Curogh walked in. He looked at her as if he was some-what gleefully surprised that she had figured it out. She could even see his overly large grin that made her feel uncomfortable.

“Would any of you come if you knew?” he asked.

“No! I would've done everything in my power to put an end to all of this!”

He let out a soft and laid back sigh.

“That I can see, but the gods of illusion and forests demand their sacrifice. That is the true purpose of the Forest Of Illusions. The only ones that do not become the sacrifice are the ones that are strong enough to live.” he explained almost as if he was giving them a lesson.

“And you expect us to go along with this?” Endow snapped as his lip curled.

“You have no choice. The moment that you signed on to take this course you were all placed under an enchantment so that you can not physically leave until you have finished nor can you do anything to harm or return to the forest once you have completed to course. There is even an enchantment that means that none of you can warn others about this possibility either.”

“And how do you know that?” Max asked.

“It is not your place to know.” he said with an ominous tone to his voice. “Now that you know there is nothing that you can do let me start this morning's lesson. Now tonight you will go to sleep early and then get up as late as you wish but tomorrow night at no sooner than midnight you will be back in the forest and this time you will see the faces and they will be less difficult to resist. This will be the last lesson and no less than four days from then you will enter your final exam, where you will not get the sleep that you will get tonight and tomorrow morning.”

He then left them to think about what happened and what he just said. Loc only had one thought, somehow, some way she was going to burn this forest down to the ground. She looked at the others and it was all too clear with their fiery eyes that they were thinking the exact same thing. They looked at her.

“You got a light?” a boy younger than her.

“No, but I wish that I did.”

“No magic?”

“I can't control it nor is it reliable.”

“Max?”

“I don't have anything. So sorry I can't help.”

They all looked around. Wondering if there were people listening. Loc then looked at them and placed her and in the centre her palm facing the floor.

“Let's agree that one day when we are strong and prepared enough, we'll come back and destroy this forest.” she said. “If you wish to help then place your hand on mine.”

They all looked at each-other and placed their hands on hers. Max then placed his hand on their pile last and then pressed down and raised and broke apart. They then spent the rest of the day in the library looking at the history of the Forest Of Illusion.

“Well that's interesting. This forest was planted by the forest god Panifore and fertilised by the illusion goddess, Illutai and they did this to create an alter to them and the more people that die in this forest the more powerful they become.” Endow said.

“I've found something too! It also mentions that the more powerful the individual that dies the more powerful the they and the forest they become!” Max contributed.

“It also says here that the souls who die here become slaves to their whim and they also become trapped in their corpse!”

“You mean that there are zombie slaves out there?!” said the boy.

“According to this book. Yes.” she said as she passed the book over to him. He read and his eyes widened.

He looked up at her with dread in his eyes. With that they all decided to go to their bedrooms and slept until it was well past midday and hat breakfast at three o'clock in the afternoon. They again went to the library but soon found that there were no other books left about the Forest Of Illusions. This left them to read the books that they all started but they mainly gave the names of all the victims that the forest had taken. This to their horror took up the rest of the books that they were reading!

“We need to get out of here.” the boy said but as he turned to leave they noticed Curogh standing there smiling as if to remind hem that they can't.

“I see that you are studying the Forest Of Illusions. Very good but it will not help you nor will it lead you to take the forest down, no, that answer lies elsewhere, where I do not know.” he said as he pointed to the clock. It was eleven. It was time to go.

It took them even longer to get to the forest and the path for it was too dark and there was several illusions that were flying in the air. They were there at twelve o'clock on the dot. Loc found her place as did the others and in sheer anger they set foot before the teacher could say anything.

The first thing that Loc did was pick up a stick and found a plank of wood and tried to light a fire but for some reason her arms were weaker than usual almost as if they did not want to light this fire. She tried again but her arms were unresponsive and she soon realised what was going on. She threw the pieces of wood out of anger. She then got to her feet and walked on in rage and determination.

She then felt her anger slowly subside and the darkness and silence made her feel a slight sting of fear. She could die in this forest, she could die and nobody will know or care. Her parents were dead and her sisters were the ones that did it. Her sisters were now two awakened pieces of Grasharlo and because she was the third, she was hated and even-though everyone here may be talking to her and seemed to like her, she could not be quite certain that they were only pretending to appease her. To save their own skin and make sure that she did not hurt their friends or families.

“You could be right about that.” came her father's voice. She screamed and looked behind her. There she could see him, her father he had a face too. Her eyes were wider than she thought possible.

“F-f-no, you're not my father.”

“You maybe right, you maybe wrong, but that matters not. All I know is that that Max, is not good for you.” he said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Nor is anybody, for that matter.”

“Really? And why is that?” she asked.

“Yes, after all they will always get in the way and get themselves killed by those who are your enemies.” he replied. “It is better that you die before that. Before you cause them to.”

“You're wrong. They will not be killed because they're my friend and they are my friends and there's nothing that you can say or do anything that will change my mind so get away from me.” she shouted and walked on with even more anger in her than before. She walked on and on.

“That was not very nice. I thought that we raised you better than that.” came a woman's voice. Her heart dropped and her eyes began to water as she turned around to see the form of her mother in front of her.

“You didn't raise me.” she said her voice hollow and more shaky than she wanted.

“How do you know that?” she asked as she came closer to her. “After all, how can you know that I am not your mother? Do you not remember how I played with you and your sisters? Do you not remember how often we used to pretend to be knights and princesses?”

“Yeah, you were always the queen and father was always was the evil dark lord that we always wanted to save.” she let slip as her tears started to fall.

“Yes and however hard he would make it you was always the one that would 'rescue' me and your sisters would always 'fight' the evil dark lord.” she laughed.

“Yeah, that probably made it easer to kill the pair of you.” she cried. “I'm sorry. I should've been there. I should've stopped them.”

She broke out into a weep. She felt her arms around her. She placed her hand on the arms and squeezed.

“Shh, shh, it's alright, it's alright.” she whispered. “I'm here, I'm here.”

She felt the tears fall faster and she soon could not breathe. She soon felt pain in her head and her ribs. Then she tasted blood in her mouth. Her eyes opened and she pulled away to see that spikes covering her body. She screamed and flew away from this monster of illusion. She ran and ran on her path just wishing to get away from her but when she looked over her shoulder and spotted that she was already close behind her. She felt her lungs hurt by trying to get enough air through her weeping and her vision was blurring. She then fell and curled up as she cried and covered her head.

Then she heard two steps coming for her.

“Just give up Loc, it is not worth it.” came her sisters.

“You killed me, and so you did this. So all you can do is to stop yourself from killing others by stepping off the road and let the forest take you.” she said. “If you don't you will kill others and cause the deaths of more.”

“Shut up!” she shouted as she released something and a ripple of the wind left her. She then got onto her feet and then walked on and out of the forest. She turned back to the forest.

“I'm going to burn you down!” she shouted.