idea / forbidden [9/2/16 - 13/10/18]

I knew not to walk into the forests. Everyone did. We all knew there were things in there – monsters, creatures, things that could eat you and tear you apart from limb to limb. People would always tell stories about the place – people who had gone in there to retrieve objects they had lost, to hide away from others or just because they were curious. They never returned from the place.

Us kids and teenagers, we would call it The Forbidden – and some still do today. We were all told by our parents, our teachers, even strangers that we didn’t know, that it wasn’t safe to enter, and to never set foot in the forest. Or we risked going missing.
You can probably guess where this story is going.

I was about 15, playing with my other friends, and we were near the forest, at the park, playing ball. We often played football at the park, divided into random teams. However, I was a bit out of practise, as I had missed a lot of our football games at the time (blame exams). What ended up happening was that I went to take a free kick, and kicked it too high. The ball flew past our playing field and rolled straight into the forest, sinking into its darkness.

“Great.” One of my friends, Dee, threw his arms up into the air. “Now the ball’s gone, and we don’t have a spare. Thanks a lot, John.” Dee slapped my head as he walked past me, deciding to leave the game. But I wasn't going to let this mishap ruin our game.
“I’m gonna go get the ball.” I said to the others, walking up to the forest.

“Dude, no!” Another one of my friends shouted. “You know what’s in the Forbidden – monsters and things that will tear you to shreds!”
For some reason – I can’t remember why now – I decided to ignore him. Maybe it was because I didn’t believe the accusations of the monsters? Maybe that was it. Either way, I continued walking up, but when I turned around again to see if they were still looking at me, I found that they had all left. I guess that they had no hope of me ever coming back.

I stared at the forest that now lay in front of me. It wasn’t too inviting – much of what I could see was trees and mangled branches – the rest was pitch black. It looked like something that belonged in a stereotypical horror movie. Like Cabin in the Woods or something. However, I had a mission to adhere to. Slowly and a little bit hesitantly, I walked in.

It was definitely dark, I should’ve expected that. And I really should’ve brought a flashlight, because I couldn’t see my way around. No wonder people who came in here got lost – it was too dark to find anything in here. Occasionally I bumped into a tree or a branch, but apart from that it was just me walking.

Eventually I was able to find our football. I picked it up to check if it was ours, and it was, from what I could feel. To be honest I couldn’t see it, and I didn’t care if it was our football or not, I just wanted to get out.

That’s when I felt it – a suspicion. A suspicion that I was being watched by someone.

I looked around and saw nothing. There seemed to be nothing there – or so I thought. It occurred to me that I could hear something. A slight mumble, a whisper, something I couldn’t make out. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew instantly then that there was something in these woods. There were monsters. What ones they were, I didn’t know, and I wasn’t interested in finding out. Instantly, I ran. Ran off, ran ahead, hoping I could get out.

Instantly, as soon as I ran, something came out from the shadows. It was a large black silhouette with features that I couldn’t make out. It was chasing me really fast, and at that point I thought I knew my fate. As I continued to run, I grew tired and gradually started to slow down, but the black silhouette showed no sign of slowing down. Whatever it was, it had impressive stamina.

After about 5 minutes, I had to stop. I knew that I couldn’t escape my fate – I was going to die here. Finally accepting this, I stopped and kneeled down on the floor to let the mysterious silhouette catch me and kill me. I was prepared and ready for it to tear apart my limbs, eat me, whatever it planned to do.

It never happened.

Suddenly, in front of me was a large white ball of light, which shocked my vision and nearly blinded me – I had to close my eyes or risk being stuck in permanent darkness. I didn’t see what happened next – As I tried to get my footing, I found myself knocked out by the sheer brightness that was now surrounding me, and I fell down to the floor, out cold.

-----

I woke up to an entirely different surrounding. I found that I was now in a house.

This really confused me at first, since the last time I remembered I was in the Forbidden and nobody mmsescaped from the forbidden. So to find that I was now in a house and apparently back with civilisation was pretty shocking.

I looked up to check my surroundings. The room was a pastel green, decorated with various plants. There were bits of wood here and there around the place, seemingly just randomly scattered. It seemed like a forest again – not very comforting, considering my previous predicament in the Forbidden.

I got up out of the bed. Looking back at it, I found that this too was made out of wood (I guess looking back on the memory, it wasn’t extremely comfy lying there). What was going on?

As soon as thought that, someone came into the room. It was a girl, but she seemed totally different from anything that could be classified as, well, human. It looked like she had a white glow all around her. She had light pink hair and seemed to be floating? Levitating? I wasn’t sure what one it was. She was wearing was seemed like a giant leaf. You remember the leaf that Tinkerbell wears in Peter Pan? It was like that, only a bit longer.

The girl at first didn’t notice me, but when she did she seemed pretty shocked, dropping what she was holding in her hand (it seemed to be some kind of weird bottle – I later found out that it was a special drink that provided special nutrients).
“You’re… you’re awake,” were the first words to come out of her mouth.

“Yeah…” was what I replied. “Where am I? The last thing I remember is – “

The girl put up her hand and did something. I don’t know what, but for some reason for a little while after that I couldn’t speak. She was clamping my mouth shut with some kind of force. It didn’t hurt, but it was a bit annoying that I couldn’t say anything.

“You’re awake…” she repeated. “The grand master needs to see this.” She walked towards me and grabbed my hand. “You need to come with me, right now. This is important.”

Due to the fact that I couldn't argue back because I couldn't speak, I felt like I didn't have much of a choice. I was also curious - I hoped that the "grand master", whoever he was, would tell me where I was, and what had happened to me. I decided to go along with the girl. I nodded.

She took my hand and led me out of the room, leading to outside. It seemed that the room was actually the whole house. Outside I found myself inside what looked like a completely different world.

The place I was in seemed to be a small village. Much of the land was plain grass surrounded by some trees, with light shining in some spots - a nice change from the constant darkness I had previously found myself in. A few houses were scattered here and there. Oddly, they seemed to have no windows. There were small children playing in the grass. They seemed to be almost exactly like the girl I had met in the house, only with changes in colours of hair. Teenagers and adults (parents?) were also chatting and talking around the houses and grass. I could tell this was a place of peace.

We kept walking on until we got to the biggest house in the area - it was two storeys high, and had a few windows, which was a change. The girl gestured at me to go in. I walked in, and she followed.

Inside this house, the walls were a bright pastel blue, however it was almost completely empty, aside from another person being inside. The man was once again like the girl, with turquoise hair. He was wearing a very smart suit, and his hair was very well combed. He stood with his back turned from both me and the girl, and seemed to be looking at something. To us, it looked like he was staring at the wall.

"Grand master..." the girl proceeded to speak.

"What is it, Taffia?" The grand master turned around, unfixed from his daze at the wall. "You can see that I'm busy with a troubling problem."

"One of the victims... they have woken up."

The grand master's face turned from puzzled to astonished. He turned his eyes to me. "Is this... the..."

"Yes." Taffia replied. "And he very well could be the one to wake the others."

He continued to stare at me, and my face was just as puzzled as his from a moment ago, as I tried to work out exactly what they were talking about.

The grand master turned back to Taffia. "Taffia, I need you to leave. Don't tell anyone else about this yet - I need to figure out a course of action. Oh, and take that Silencing Hex off of him, please? If he can't speak, we can't get anything done."

"Certianly." Taffia made a motion with her hands, and suddenly my mouth felt normal again, and I found that I could open in and speak. So of course, the first thing I said was -

"Ok, who are you people, where am I, and what are you guys talking about?"

Taffia proceeded to exit the room, while the grand master just smiled at me. "Relax, the answers to all of your questions will be answered in due time.  First, introductions. Tell me, what's your name?"

"John." I told him. "My name is John."

"Well then," the master replied, "It's very good to meet you, John. My name is Esca."

"So... Where exactly am I?" Despite him trying to be formal with introductions, I still wanted to get to the meat of the situation, if you catch my drift.

"Come with me." He put his arm around my shoulder, and preceeded to walk me outside. It was the same scene as before - the children were still playing around. "Right now you are in the forest - the very same forest that you almost died in."

This shocked me for two reasons - one, that I was still in the Forbidden. And two, that this place, a nice and peaceful oasis, was located in the Forbidden.

"Here in this forest, our kind - our species - have been fighting the monsters that lurk these woods for a while now. But they keep on taking people, and killing them. We've been able to save some, but they've been stuck in long sleeps for quite some time. In fact..." Esca turned towards me. "You're the fiest one to ever wake up."

"You mean... no-one has ever woken up? Well, how long was I asleep for?"

"Relax, you've only been asleep for a few weeks." Esca started to walk up towards an area of grass. I followed. "We think that, since you're the only one to wake up so far, there might be something special in you that we might be able to use to wake up the others. There are quite a few."

"So..." I replied, "How exactly do we go about waking up the others?"

"I don't exactly know that yet." We kept walking until Esca stopped at what seemed to be a bench, although it was shaped quite weirdly. He sat down, and tapped his hand on the bench, gesturing me to sit down with him. I did exactly that. "We can discuss that a little bit later. That's two of your questions answered - what was the third again?"

"Who you people are." I answered him.

"That... is somewhat of a difficult question." Esca turned his face upwards to the sky, as if lost in thought. "You might not believe this, but we're actually what you humans would call... aliens."

This was surprising, to say the least. "You... You're joking me, right? Aliens?"

"Yes." Esca remained in his thoughts. "We've been here for a while - groups of us, scattered around the world. We believe that the human race is a special thing - possibly something that could revoultionise the universe. But when we found out about you, we also found out about a threat - another alien species that wants the human race gone for good."

"The creatures in the forest, I'm guessing?"

"Yes. We don't know what they are... yet. We're getting closer to finding out, but they know that we are here, and now they are not only trying to kill your race, but our race too. We have been attacked many times. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to attack today."

"Wait." I had to interrupt here, because I noticed somewhat of a mistake here. "If they've tried to attack you, wouldn't you have seen them, and therefore know what they are?"

"You'd think that," Esca answered, "But they have a special way of attacking. They shroud us in darkness, and take away all the light, so that we cannot see. Then they pounce for us. So far the only thing that can stop them is a special staff that was created by our ancestors, back on our home planet. It generates a ball of light that is bright enough to scare them away, and can also clear the darkness that they leave once they have dissappeared. It's the very same staff that saved you, here in the forest."

I remembered the large ball of light that appeared moments before I blacked out, and nodded.

"As I was saying, they have attacked us, and they are still attacking humans today. Many of the little kids that were attacked many years ago aren't kids anymore. Even though they are asleep, they are still growing.They have never woken up. We have tried everything to wake them, but to no avail. Some people were even thinking of euthanasia and thought there was no hope for them. But I haven't lost hope yet - I still believe there is a way to wake them. That hope now lies in you, John. As I have said, you're the first one out of all the victims to awaken, and I believe there is something inside you that can wake the others."

"So... you want me to help you." I was starting to see the reality here - these were two alien races engaged in war, and the winner would ultimately decide the fate of the human race.

"Not just me." Esca pointed towards some houses further away from where we were sitting. They were near the house that I was in before. I could see a sign located around them - it said "Darkness Victims" on it."But them too."

I didn't exactly know what I was doing at the time. I wanted to bail, but I knew I couldn't because there was no escape from the Forbidden. And I was filled with hope too - that at least some of the people who had come in this place were still alive. I knew what I had to do, for the good of those people.

"Alright," I said, "I'm in."