Chapter 1: Children's Gathering

“Well, children, gather round! We will not repeat the instructions twice!” One of the teachers, Mr. Brown, frowned. He was the strictest teacher in the whole Spirit School. “As you might know, we will not be able to accompany you into the Spirit Forest. We shall remain here at the border to be close just in case, but you will have to solve your problems on your own, so listen before it is too late!”

Fifteen-year-old children – the finishing class of the Intermediary Spirit School – carefully watched the teacher, even though they clearly seemed annoyed, especially boys.

“Spirits don’t like large gatherings of people, so you will enter the forest group by group. The groups will consist of five people, as spirits can withstand such an amount. I will form groups according to the list. The first ones to go are Timothy Biever, Lola Brown, Damon Bruck, Lucy Caldwell, and Rose Cassidy. Those I’ve named – please, step forward!”

The five children made a step forward. Among them was Lola – a red-haired black girl, grimacing with arrogance – Mr. Brown’s own daughter. Next to her stood an icy-blue-haired, brown-eyed, sullen girl, looking down at the ground – Lucy Caldwell. When all the other children seemed excited, she appeared to be rather indifferent.

“Very well, you five will go first. Now listen: stick together at all times. When you are deep enough into the forest, make a bonfire and sit around it so you could attract benevolent spirits. They admire light and are attracted to it. When you see spirits do not get scared by any means – they feel your fear and it makes them worked-up. It is true we humans made peace with spirits long ago now, but you must still refrain from awakening their inner instincts, especially if it is predator-natured spirits such as Bears or Wolves. And the last, but the most important warning – do not, by any means, even if your life is threatened, step into territories whose borders are marked with skulls on trees, because if your life is threatened, you can still find a way to escape, but if you step in those skull territories, it shall mean certain doom.”

The children sweated seeing their teacher so agitated, and gulped in fear – those so-called Skull Territories were indeed so scary… It was told that evil man-eater spirits resided there.

“You’ve understood everything? Well then, Lola will be the leader of your group.”

Mr. Brown looked at his young daughter, who smirked with arrogance. The other group-mates of hers got irritated – such an annoying lass to be their leader, huh? It was only because Mr. Brown was her father!

Lucy seemed rather indifferent even now. She had barely heard Mr. Brown’s instructions, so engulfed she was in her mysterious thoughts.

“Well then, depart!”

“Sure, dad!” Lola took up in a bossy manner, “Let’s go, guys!”

As they walked on, the voices of the other classmates and the teachers became fainter and fainter, and soon silenced completely. Only the dark forest surrounded them now, with large trees, noisy crickets, hooting owls, and an ominous aura.

“Oh boy, this feels rather scary…” Timothy Biever – a short boy with brown hair and glasses on – shivered, cautiously looking around.

“Hmph, quit whining! This is the greatest opportunity we’ve been long waiting for!” Lola boldly stepped forward to show off her coolness. “We are finally eligible to acquire our spirit guardians and form bonds! This is what our goal has been from the very beginning since we enrolled in the Spirit School!”

“Yeah, Lola’s right in that.” Damon Bruck – a black-haired boy holding a pocket-knife as if a street-fighter – spat aside.

“But what if some evil spirits catch us?” Timothy’s legs trembled at the thought.

“Don’t be silly! Evil spirits don’t really step out of their territories.”

“Actually, they do,” Rose Cassidy – a long-red-haired nerdy girl with glasses – cut in, “They step out occasionally when they’re on the hunt.”

“Ohhh…” Shivers ran down Timothy’s spine.

“Ugh, quit yapping like a scaredy-cat, Timothy!” Lola got irritated. “We’d better start making a bonfire as my father said. We’re already deep enough.”

“Yeah, let’s do it!” Damon began collecting dry sticks on the ground.

The only one who did her job silently was Lucy, who hadn’t interacted with her classmates yet. She just calmly collected sticks and added them to the pile her friends had already made.

“That shall suffice,” Lola instructed.

All of them sat around the pile, while Damon took out his lighter and made a fire.

“Now what?” Lucy asked. She had finally decided to dive into the conversation too.

“Ah, Lucy?”

The children started as they had only now heard her voice. Lola shrugged:

“I don’t know… We wait?”

“Hey, while waiting, let’s tell some scary stories! Whoever has the scariest one wins candy!” Damon showed lollipops he had brought along.

“Wow, cool! Let’s do it!” Rose smiled, as she was a candy-lover.

“I’m in!” Lola grinned, “My story will scare you all!”

“Oh, that sounds fun.” Lucy beamed.

“I don’t know, that sounds so… scary…” Timothy shivered.

The children laughed. Damon retook:

“Well, as I am the one to have proposed this idea, I’ll go first.”

So the fun began.