I.

It was late October, a week before Halloween. A girl named Lilith lived in a town on the edge of the woods that was breathtaking in autumn. It smelled of buttered rolls, coffee and maple; the leaves were often swept up in a gust of wind into the street and sidewalks; and it was the perfect time for a nice, leisurely stroll in the woods.

A particular time Lilith went walking in the woods, she had just gotten out of school and decided to take a detour to a different part of the woods she had never explored before. There were steps down every side of the school, north, south, east and west; north led to the front of the school, where buses came about or parents’ cars; west led directly into town; and south was where the playground was; east - led into the woods.

Her usual route was to walk home, finish her homework, see her mom; whatever came about. This time she tried the detour.

Lilith never went that far into the woods; there were some precautions her mom had made her take, as to not get attacked by an animal. She didn’t plan to go too far off the detour; after all, it was unexplored territory.

As she walked along the tall, orange and yellow-leafed trees, her shoes crunching on the fallen leaves and snapping twigs, she heard, rather than the usual chirping of birds and scurrying of squirrels, absolute silence. She tried to contemplate this as she dreamily meandered about: why would the animals be quieter on this side of the forest? Were there any animals at all?

Just when she was asking herself these questions and wandering aimlessly, she tripped over a tree root and fell against the tree which it belonged to.

Lilith massaged her back, for it had rammed against the tree fairly hard. After she gathered her thoughts and brushed the leaves, soil and bark that had stuck to her clothes off, she stood up and continued walking.

And then she heard a noise.

II.

It was footsteps. Of two-or three- she couldn’t recognise if they were human or animal by the footsteps, but she believed they were humans. She didn’t care though.

She just knew she was going to run.

Lilith sprinted along the path she took; I mean the opposite direction from whence she came, because-

there was no path.

She had never been here before, and was very confused; but little did she know that when she thought she was running home-

she was actually running deeper into the dark, eerie forest.

Lilith panicked. The footsteps were growing louder-and getting closer. She couldn’t turn around to see what was chasing her, because she could run into a tree. She couldn’t stop because then “they,” she thought in a questioning tone, would catch up to her.

So many things were rushing into her head she couldn’t bear it. Who was chasing her? Why were they chasing her? Was she going the right way? The forest seems to be getting darker. Maybe that’s just because it’s getting late. Oh no! She better get home on time. How will she get home? Will they ever stop chasing her? Is she imagining this after she banged her head on that tree?

Is she?

Lilith suddenly slowed down and came to a halt. Then she lifted her left hand across her right-and pinched herself.

She was not imagining this.

III.

Lilith was scared to turn around. She could feel her heart pounding and her breath was heavy. But she was also just running.

Just to her luck, she didn’t have to turn around. The people who were chasing her walked out from behind her.

They were three black-cloaked figures with hoods almost covering their eyes. They slowly lifted their hoods and-

They were three girls that looked only a little older than Lilith. Neither of them spoke for a while, but then the three cloaked girls decided to break the silence first.

“Who are you?” the girl in the middle asked.

“I’m Lilith, from the town outside the woods,” she responded with fear in her quaking voice. She gulped, almost too afraid to speak, but she did.

“Who are you?”

The girls looked at each other, and the first girl said, “Vivian.” The middle girl said, “Jade.” And the last girl said, “Scarlet.”

“Why were you chasing me?” Lilian blurted out defensively.

“We wanted to see why you were in our side of the woods,” Jade answered.

“Why haven’t I seen you in town?”

The girls all gave each other a quick glance, and then Scarlet said: “We don’t live in town.”

Lilith spread a confused and suspicious look across her face. These girls lived alone in the part of the woods no one ever goes to? Why do they avoid this side? Does it have to do with the suspicious three girls? Even the animals seem to avoid this side. Silence is the only thing the girls have accompanying them.

“You live alone out here?”

The girls all nodded.

Lilith wasn’t that surprised. She never saw anyone else living in this part of the forest.

“What do you do out here?”

The girls all gave each other frightened, doubtful looks, and then Vivian said:

“It’d be easier to show you.”

IV.

Lilith followed Vivian, Jade and Scarlet deeper into the forest; she was now ignoring the thought that she had to go home that night because the suspense was gnawing at her and spitting out pieces of her onto the forest floor. The excitement and mystery of the three cloaked girls and what they do out here-alone-in the woods-was too much to saunter back to town where life was boring and routine for.

The girls kept taking her farther and farther into the woods and Lilith’s legs started to feel like hollow logs; she was very hungry and very tired.

Just when that thirty minutes of walking started to feel like two hours, they arrived at an extremely tall and thick tree; and hanging from it- was a ladder. A long, long ladder that stretched all the way up- Lilith’s brilliantly green eyes followed it up rung by rung -to the branches, where sat a - truly astonishing, mind boggling - treehouse.

Lilith’s eyes dropped back to the ground, where she saw a ring of large volcanic rocks encircling charcoal and ash. Apparently this was where the girls lived.

“What do you do here?” Lilith’s voice turned from shaky and terrified to amazed and exhilarated.

And it would only get more so.

Scarlet approached the firepit, snapped her fingers, and in that very second a large, crackling fire suddenly appeared, perfectly fit in the circle.

Lilith’s mouth dropped to the floor. She covered it with both hands, and her eyes reflected the dancing fire that had just appeared out of nowhere. She backed away a few steps, and then got closer, removing her hands from her mouth and approaching the fire. It was getting cold.

The role was then transferred to Jade, who lifted her hand to below her mouth and blew. A dragon, composed entirely of fire, came off her lips. It slithered through the air and danced around the fire. After it circled around a few times, it joined the central fire and the show was over.

Except for Vivian.

Vivian reached into a pocket on her long black cloak and pulled out what looked like a fine, tapered stick, but Lilith knew right away it was some sort of-

wand.

Vivian slung back the wand as if it was a fishing pole, and cast a ball of pale blue light into the air and it transformed into another black cloak like theirs, which she directed onto Lilith’s lap.

Lilith picked up the cloak. “Thanks.” She immediately remembered that Vivian had just conjured that from a magic wand, and that she had much more to say than ‘Thanks.’

“So you're…”

“Witches,” Vivian said proudly.

“Hmm,” Lilith said, completely consumed by all the thoughts skipping around her brain.

“Would you like us to demonstrate again?” Jade asked hopefully. She seemed to be very proud of the fire dragon she had produced.

“Okay,” Lilith agreed happily, and slipped on her cloak to watch the show.

V.

That night, Lilith watched Vivian conjure a squirrel, which scrambled up a nearby tree very quickly, Jade conjured a beautiful carved jade garnet, and Scarlet determined her past, present, and future casting runestones.

Scarlet took a small pouch out of her pocket, and she dumped the contents onto a table. Twenty-five shiny river pebbles, each inscribed with what Scarlet said, was a symbol from the runic alphabet.

Scarlet looked at the night sky, or at least the little spots of it visible from underneath the trees, and selected three runestones.

She examined each of the stones and swiped the rest onto the ground. She set one down. “This represents your past.” She set the second one down. “This represents your present.” And the last one. “This is your future.” She looked at the first one. “Sowelu. Wholeness.” The second one. “Raido. Journey.” And the last one. “Kano. Opening. Hmf,” Scarlet said thoughtfully. “I supposed that is true…”

Lilith looked up from the mesmerising fire. “How?”

“Well… you have the opportunity to… become a witch… if you'd like…”

Lilith gasped. Did she really?

“I do?”

“Of course you do!”Jade said excitedly.

“Okay!” Lilith cheered.

The girls cheered with her.

“Just one thing-” Lilith said cautiously.

“Will we use this magic for good or evil?”

The girls all spread wide, sly grins.

Scarlet rose from her seat and slowly walked over to Lilith’s chair.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

VI.

Vivian slowly bent down, and dipped her wand into the giant, dancing mass of flames. It glowed red like an ember, and she started to draw a strange symbol Lilith had never seen before, a star with two bands around it.

It gleamed red and orange, the beautiful, deep, flaming colors of fire.

“Give me your wrist,” Vivian said sternly, without looking at Lilith. “Why…?” she asked doubtfully. “Give me your wrist,” she repeated in a demanding tone. “If you don’t, we will.” Scarlet gave her a dark look.

Lilith slowly got up from her seat next to the fire, and walked towards Vivian. She took her wand, and then Lilith let out a shriek of pain.

The wand was hovering a few centimeters away from her skin, but still: that same star symbol as the one composed of fire, was inscribed onto her skin. Blood was trickling down her arm and pooling on the floor. The cut was not that deep, but it was very painful. She winced and a little tear was forced out and ran down her cheek. When it was over, that was just the beginning of the pain.

They pulled her wrist over by the fire, and held it up to the star in the air. Then, they pressed it up against her cut. Lilith screamed. It was over in a second, but her skin was just cut and singed and she had the right to be in extreme pain. She examined her wrist. The star symbol had now turned brown. It did look very neat, but was much more painful than a tattoo, she imagined. “Why did you do that?!” she asked, dumbfounded. “It’s called a blood ritual, used by dark witches,” Scarlet explained. “So we’re dark witches now?” Lilith asked. “Obviously,” Jade said. “Then I have to back out, sorry I’m not the black magic type,” Lilith said, backing away. “You can’t back out after a blood ritual. Especially when it’s finalized in fire.” Lilith froze.

“What do you do then? Like as dark witches?”

All the girls looked at each other mischievously.

VII.

“We invent new curses for- the Dark One,” Jade answered finally. “He lives at the center of the forest and we visit there often to give him new curses.” “Why do you give him curses?” “Because,” Scarlet began, “He wants to sneak into your town-” “To perform a ritual,” Vivian went on, “A dark ritual. He needs a giant curse to put on the town because of what they did years and years ago-” “The witch burnings. He needs to avenge the deaths of the best dark witches ever at his command.” “What will the curse do?” The witches paused. “It will create a large swarm of creatures. No one will die!” Scarlet added quickly, seeing the concerned look on Lilith’s face. “But the creatures will haunt the town forever.” “How?” Scarlet paused again. “The whole town has to leave. Go somewhere else. Every night they stay- another person dies.” “So, if they evacuate immediately,” Jade said brightly, “No one will die!” Lilith contemplated all of this. Only if she could warn the town somehow- if they evacuated immediately- her mind ran off. She began to doubt it- all of it- meeting the witches, the blood and fire ritual- the Dark One- and then--

Lilith woke up, her head against the tree. It was still before sunset. She got up, and started walking back towards the town while rubbing her head. What a strange, dark dream she had.

When she got back to the town, it didn’t seem the same. The cars were still there, but had no one in them. No one was standing in front of the school. ‘Eh,’ she thought, ‘Probably got home already.’ She walked down the street and into her driveway. She opened the door, and bellowed, “Mom, I’m home!!!”

No one responded. ‘She’s probably still at work.’ she thought to herself. So she sat on the couch and put on a movie, getting a banana from the kitchen. While she was in the kitchen, she looked at the clock. It was 6:00. Mom was always home at 4:00. Wouldn’t she have told her if she was working late?

She went out to the driveway and saw that Mom’s car was there.

Mom wasn’t working overtime.

And what she saw in the forest when she bumped her head was not a dream. She looked at her left wrist and saw a brown star with two rings around it. The very symbol that was written in fire that night with the witches.

And what they said about the Dark One was true.

She walked into the street, looked beneath her, and saw, burned into the ground- the very same symbol on her wrist.

The silence pierced her thoughts. The Dark One had already come. He already performed the dark ritual. The creatures had already threatened the town-

And the town had already evacuated.

Emily wakes up in a strange place….there is silences….all she sees is black. She looks around and sees a little girl a few feet away from here. The girl looked about the same age as Emily. Emily needed help to figure out where she was so she spoke to the little girl. “Hello? I’m lost and I can’t remember anything….can you tell me were the door is so I can leave?” The girl stares at Emily. No answer. After a long period of waiting, Emily finally spoke ones again. “Ok….i can find it on my own.” Emily turns around and sees the little girl once again. Emily looked behind her and the little girl was missing from the spot where Emily last saw her. The little girl had moved. The little girl had blonde hair and it was wavy, covering her face. She had a white dress, similar to a wedding dress. The little girl starts to walk to Emily. She starts slow….than gets faster, and faster, and faster.

Emily runs the opposite direction. She ran into a wall and starts to scream. Then…...she wakes up.

Emily wakes up in her bed and her little sister Poppy jumping on it. It was 6:00 am and Emily got dressed, ate breakfast and went to the clubhouse her and her friends built. When she got there her friends were all doing different things. Archie was playing his guitar, Bentley was watching youtube videos, and Ida was doing karaoke. “Hey guys….sorry i’m late, had a bad dream.” Emily told her friends. “Hey Emily! What was you’re bad dream?” Asked Ida. “There was a little girl with blonde hair & it was wavy, she was running to me and I ran into a wall and she got me.” Bentley stoped watching videos and looked at Emily terrified. “Umm….Emily?” Called Bentley. “Ya” Answered Emily.”I had the same dream last night, the only thing different was that the little girl kept saying the name Amy” Explained Bentley. Archie looks up from his guitar to Bentley.

“I had the same dream last night too, except the girl kept saying Williams.” Everyone was shocked. Ida grabbed Bentley’s laptop and searched the name Amy Williams. She read the article she found out loud. “Amy Williams was a 12 year old girl who enjoyed walking, running and….appearing in dreams?” “Hold on….” said Archie. “Emily, aren’t you twelve while we are thirteen? Also, Amy was running to us in our dream and she is appearing in our dreams.” Emily slowly nodded. Ida continued. “Amy was the most quietest in her family. She was the youngest of all her siblings and the only blonde. Amy’s death is still under investigation but police and detective are coming to the conclusion that the day of her mom and dads wedding she went to the attic to get her laptop and the floor broke and she unfortunately did not survive the fall.” Ida closed the laptop and looked around the room. “Okay….now i’m scared.” She went to sit with her twin brother.

Bentley was always annoyed by Ida because they were identical twins. “You are such a scaredy cat Ida.” “If i’m a scaredy cat then you are too Bentley.” Emily and Archie always hated when Bentley and Ida fight because it was a waste of time. “You both are scaredy cats” yelled Archie. Emily agreed with Archie, “ya, let’s just figure this out and move on.” The room got suddenly cold and the curtains got blown off of the window. “I need to use the bathroom” said Archie. “Be quick Archie” Said Emily. Archie ran down the hall but stoped when he got a video message on his phone. He looked at who sent him the video. “Amy Williams? How can she send me a message when she is dead?” He watched the video….a little girl was crawling to the screen and….Bentley, Emily, and Ida hear a scream from Archie. They all look at each other then run down the hallway only to find his phone. “Why do I see Archie’s phone but not Archie?” Said Ida. “Emily, go check the restroom real quick.” Said Bentley. “Ok.”

Emily went to check if Archie was in the restroom but he was not. When she came back, Ida was gone. “Bentley, where is Ida?” Bentley looked behind himself and Ida was missing. “Ida?” yelled Bentley. “I could heave sworn she was behind me…” Bentley and Emily look all over the clubhouse but Ida and Archie were gone. Night fell over the sky and it got colder then it already was. “Did we check Ida’s bedroom?” Asked Bentley. “No we did not. Let’s go now.” Said Emily. Emily and Bentley ran to Ida’s room. Bentley looks in Ida’s closet but there is no Ida. “Ida is not in her closet.” Said Bentley. “Bentley, I don’t think Ida is in her ro-” Emily stops talking due to her spotting Ida’s phone. Bentley sees the phone too. “Is that….” Bentley refused to finish his sentence because Ida’s phone started playing a video message. Emily’s eyes stayed on the phone. When she looked up to talk to Bentley he was gone. “Bentley?” When Emily did not hear Bentley’s voice she started to panic.

“Oh no no no no! Bentley don’t leave me hear with a spirit of a 12 year old ghost girl!” Emily realized she was alone and was not getting any help. She starts to think, “This clubhouse is built in a forest. To add on to ALL THIS EXCITEMENT,(there is no excitement at all) it is night. Great, this is amazing! (I am very sarcastic)” Emily looks around the room trying to find clues. The window was open and Emily was not worried about is until she realized that when Bentley and her first walked in that window was closed. She slowly walked to the window. The radio in Ida’s room started playing eerie music. Emily did not look at the radio, she was more focused on finding her friends then a radio that randomly just turned on. Emily looked out the window and saw nothing. Emily noticed on beautiful the sky was. “Wow, and I thought I was pretty!” Emily enjoyed the sky. She turned around…. Amy was in the doorway. Emily did not care if she lived or dead. All she wanted was to know if her friends were ok.

“Where are my friends Amy?!?!” Yelled Emily. Amy took a step closer to Emily. “Dead.” Replied Amy. Emily still had a few more questions. “Did you kill them?” Asked emily. Amy took a step closer. “No” Replied Amy. “So, why are they dead?” Asked Emily. Amy once again took a step closer. “I stole there souls.” Answered Amy. Emily was almost done with her questions. “Why?” Amy was quick to answer. “I need 3 teenager souls and one 12 year old girl soul to come back to life.” Emily was confused. “So why not just kill me already!” Amy got as close as she can to Emily. Emily stared into Amy’s eyes, there were red but there was a bit of blue in them. “I can only steal souls from the ones who are scared. Ida and Bentley were fighting over who was the biggest scaredy cat. The biggest scaredy cat was Archie…. I smelled his fear and took his soul threw a video message. Ida got scared when she found Archie’s phone on the floor. She ran to her room and closed the door. I stole her soul after she watched the video.

Bentley got scared after watching the video on Ida’s phone. I was going to take you after I took Bentley but you were brave the whole time.” Emily saw good in Amy and realized that Amy wanted to see her parents get married…. She died on their wedding day. Amy looked very beautiful with her hair and her dress. “I can spare your life Emily.” Emily was relieved. “Really?!” Said Emily exited. Amy’s pretty smile turned into an evil grin. “Nope.” Amy ran to Emily. Emily ran backwards and feel out the window. Amy looked down at Emily’s dead body. “I think you rather die falling out of a window at the age 12 then get murdered at the age 80.” Amy took Emily’s soul and walked out of the forest to her parents house. Little did Amy know that she did not take Emily’s soul…. Emily got off the floor and ran to her house to get help. Little did Emily know that Amy did not take her friends souls either. Everyone was alive, except Amy. Emily was planning her revenge.

THE END! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!