Sometimes we see the world differently than others. I mean way differently. Some see cars while others see dragons. Some see trees while others see little girls with green tears. Some see a creepy forest filled with animals while others see a creepy forest filled with monsters. That's where I come in. You see some of us are… special, and our moms or dads are royal entities. I’m one of them, nice to meet you, reader, my name is Princess.

My brown hair was draped over my face. Blood creeped through my dress and pain around my hip made it hard to walk. Before me stood a fearsome forest. I decided that a unicorn would be too smart to go in there, so I went in. I immediately got captured. A woman with green bone-like skin stood over her. Long black hair covered the backside of her white dress. “What are you?” That was a really smart thing to say. “I’m your worst nightmare,” she growled. “So you’re a unicorn?” “NO, I’m the guardian of the dead,” she roared. “Ok so you’re Hades,” I think I was being annoying. “No that's a whole different universe, I’m Knolon.” The K was not silent. People have weird names. She smacked me. The world went black.

Guess what, I’m still alive. I survived getting smacked by Miss Lady of the Dead. She took my hand and pulled me up. “You’re not dead- that means… oh my queens.” “So where we going?” “To find your mother,” she got up and started walking. She was a fast walker. Between pants I said “Is my mom Aphrodite?” “You’re really annoying aren’t you,” she growled. “Yes thats me,” I finnally caught up with her. “So who is my mom?” “Her names Conenyo, Queen of Beauty and Love.” “So like Aphrodite but a queen?” “I suppose.” I noticed on Knolon’s side it was dark and scary. On mine it was beautiful and sunny. Weird.

We got to the palace and I yelled “HELLO.” Wow someone responded. “HELLO?” Then I ran to the palace. Knolon stayed though. I came back. “Come on Knolon,” I told her. “I can’t,” she looked back at the trees “I have to go.” A tear of gold rolled down my face. “I’m going with you,” I said stiffly. “You can’t… you aren’t my daughter.” Then a sword radiating darkness appeared in my hand. “Yes you are,” I slashed the sword at a tree and it instintly died. Another appeared in my hand. It was beautiful but rather dull and not good for fighting. “I get to choose, and I choose you,” I run into her arms and hug her. She just widens her eyes and hugs me back.

Remember, in the world between anything can happen. You never know. See you in the world between.

They said it was a bad idea to come here. But I never listen anyway.

Towering trees make it nearly impossible for any stream of light to make its way through. I had entered the forest at midday, but it might as well have been midnight. Only the soft glow from above the treetops makes it possible to see anything at all.

The wind whistles through my ears, playfully brushing my hair from side to side. Otherwise, it was eerily silent. Not even a cricket dare makes a noise in the Mistress's domain.

But that is precisely why I'm here. I'm here to make noise. I want to be found.

Leaves crunch underneath my every step. Twigs snap in response to my weight.

"Come out and get me, you bitch!" I yell into the expansive forest, "You took something from me, and I want it back!"

My voice is hoarse, I've been yelling for hours. If I keep this up any longer I won't have any voice left. Then I'd be stuck wandering this forest forever. Until she finally shows herself, that is.

She could make me wait for hours, months, years, eternity.

But she won't.

You see, I have something she wants. Something she wants even more than what she stole from me.

"I've waited long enough. Show yourself, you coward!" I pound my fists on the nearest oak tree, intent to make a point. You hurt mine, I hurt yours.

The breeze stills, and what was silent before becomes deafening.

"But I have so enjoyed watching you wander aimlessly." A menacing voice hisses behind me.

I turn around and the Mistress of Borwood Forest looms over me. She's more than ten feet tall, double my height. Her hair falls in long tangled curls that nearly reach the ground. The tattered white dress she wears flows in a phantom breeze, her hands carefully clasped in front of her. Her old, wrinkled face composed in a bored expression, but her gaze gives way to triumph.

"My sister. Return her. Now." I stand my ground, unwilling to break under her intense stare.

"I'll require payment." Her eerie voice echoes in the silence.

"I expect nothing less." I hold out my arm and slide my knife from its scabbard. In one smooth motion I slice the tender skin. Blood flows down my arm and drips to the ground below.

The Mistress's dull eyes widen and her body twitches. She knows she can't move until I invite her. I savor the few moments I have. Her agony a satisfaction I deserve.

"Drink up, bitch."

In quick swoop she's at my arm, slurping and gnawing at my gash. It only takes a few seconds before she jumps back.

Electricity fills the air. The breeze picks up to a whirl of wind, and the Mistress's body is encased in swirling leaves, twigs, and other forest debris.

As quickly as it started, the breeze stops. The Mistress stands glowing in the low light. But in the place of the old, wrinkled hag stands a beautiful young woman. Her golden eyes exaggerated by the soft pink of her plump skin. Dull tangled hair is replaced by vibrant curls that flow around her small waist. Her tattered dress now a sparkling gown that any young lady would envy.

"My sister now, if you please." I say with a bored tone. I've had enough of this waiting.

"Of course." The Mistress flicks her finger and my sister appears out of nowhere. She crumples to the ground. Pure anger flares in her eyes.

Princess April was dashing into the forbidden forest, her tiara dropping from her head while salty tears streamed down her face. She was running away from her problems of being a noble of her village, the harsh words of her father’s displeasure with her replaying through her head; she has had enough with the stress that she had to intake.

Growing tired, she slowed down her running before eventually stopping, gasping for breath as she was still sobbing. April wiped her eyes, smudging her makeup messily as she took in her surroundings; there was an ominous, damp fog that covered the entire woods, yet there were vibrant flowers that graced some bushes. Though, there were supposedly baleful rumors of witches and entities who roam the land, and because the king sheltered her of all evil of the outside world, she had no idea what she could be in for…

Out of the corner of her eyes, the princess noticed that by her feet was a tattered piece of paper that was surrounded by a circle of pale daisy petals; it was a surprise that she could even see it through the thick fog. She furrowed her eyebrows in curiosity and when she had finished crying, she slowly reached down to grab the paper, observing the cursive words that stained the paper.

_“What’s this…?” _April thought, reading the heading of the paper named, “The Ghost Of The Forest.”Oblivious as to what might occur as her curiosity was overcoming her, she softly uttered the words;

“I call upon the ghost That roams this deep woodland, As I wish to forever befriend the dead, And give me more contentment than anyone could understand..”

Then, gusts of wind spun in the circle of petals, making a tiny, weak tornado in the middle. April gasped with astonishment as she clutched the battered sheet of paper, her chocolate brown hair flowing with her pink dress in the breeze. Suddenly, the princess noticed a figure begin to emerge from thin air as the hazy air still once again; it seemed to be an towering, eerie being with long, ink-colored hair covering its face.

“Who are you?” April asked with a shocked expression, hiding her fear just in case it might trigger the entity.

“I am the Ghost of the Forest, like how the spell is named. Is there any reason as to why you summoned me?” The ghost questioned in a calm, unnerving voice that had hints of femininity in it.

It took just a couple of moments only for April to answer, having numerous queries forming in her head.

“Oh- no…it was only out of intrigue. Excuse me for wasting your time…well, if it is even possible to waste a spirit’s time.” The girl tried her best to hide her anxiety, and her body tensed as she apologized.

The ghost gave a small, almost unnoticeable nod before replying again. “It is alright; I understand. To repay me for my moments wasted, you should sit and talk with me.”

What it said had no trace of suggestion in its request for April to join it, and the girl herself has caught onto that fact. Her wish to stay safe, combined with her naivety, made her utter a small “Okay..” before sitting down in the petal circle with the sheet of paper in her lap. The Ghost of the Forest sat across from April, its lofty height still being immense compared to her.

The two had a surprisingly nice conversation that lasted for a long while, telling their stories to one another: the princess enlightening the spirit of the hardships of nobility while the ghost illustrates how its forced to drift through the murky woods in lonely solitude. It was a nice, comforting discussion, both of them relating to each other in a way, since they are both trapped in lives that they were forced into. Though April was feeling a bit of contentment about the talk, the entire situation still seemed a bit off…

A knight of the kingdom was rushing through the same foggy woodlands on his steed, desperate to find the missing princess. Finally, the man finally halted his horse as he found her.

“April! It has been months! Where have you-”

The knight abruptly stops his words as he notices princess April herself sitting alone in a circle of daisy petals with the roots of a nearby tree was trapping her legs in place, her face pale and her appearance grubby. She was speaking as if a friend was having an amusing chat with her, and she also had a contented smile on her weathered face, which was strange and concerning to him.

“Princess?”

No matter how many times he had called her name, she would never look his way; it was almost as if she was in a psychological trance, but the knight had no clue why…

Thios was being guided by her master to see something…interesting.

“Now, honey I want you to follow my directions very carefully.” My imaginary friend Amy said to me. I enthusiastically nodded my head, excited she was giving me instructions. “So first. I want you to go and sneak into the woods in the yard, okay?” Amy asked me, I nodded again. I walked to my back door, reaching all the way up to reach the handle and opening the door, making sure to close it behind me. I ran down the porch steps and into the dark forest behind my house. I was so excited she was finally asking me do do something! She’s been telling me how much fun the other kids she’s been with before had for months! “Okay, Amy. I did it, what’s next?” I asked, barley able to stay still. “Okay, next run as far into the woods as you can! And hurry before your mom and dad come out and try and stop you.” “Okay!” I exclaimed, rushing through the trees until I collapsed, trying to catch my breath. “Oh…Kay… what next?” I asked, still breathless. “Now collect a big pile of the sharpest rocks you can find…” I found this instruction sort of unusual, but it was Amy, and she would never have me do anything dangerous. I took a few minutes collecting sharp, pointy rocks carefully. I don’t know how long I spent, but I soon had a ginormous pile of rocks piled in the middle of the woods, and the sun was starting to set. “Honey! Honey! Where are you?” I heard my mommy and daddy calling. I wanted to go and run to them, but Amy told me no. “Final step Honey. Take the sharpest, pointiest, hardest rock in your pile, and press it to your arm until you see red.” I started to worry why Amy wanted this? Why did she want me to hurt myself? “Oh, okay…” I said, in a small voice, too afraid to stand up to her. I found the rock she wished for and held it to the inside of my forearm and pressed hard, a small amount of blood started to pool, and i was about to take the rock away, but Amy insisted I don’t take it off. “Honey, you’ll be okay, just don’t move it.” She said in a kind of aggressive manner. Now, I saw a lot of blood. “A-Amy… I’m scared, this hurts and I’m starting to feel light hea…” my voice cut off as I passed out. I heard my parents voice getting closer and closer. “Honey? Honey! Oh my god!” I heard my mother cry as she picked up my limp body, my mind fading away quickly. “HONEY? WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT DID YOU DO?” She asked horrified. “A-Amy told me to” I squeaked out before my body went completely limp and my mind left my body. “NO!” She screamed, holding my, cold body close to her chest, my daddy coming up next to us and crying too. I don’t know where I was right now, but I felt tears running down my face too. I tried to move my arm to wipe them, but I couldn’t move.

Time skip: Honeys funeral

“She was only fi...ve years old.” My mother said, her voice breaking as she continued my eulogy. “She was loved by all, no one disliked her. She was so helpful and kind and smart and everything anyone would have wanted.”

Her hair as silky as a wooden floor

Her clothes as bright as a dusty mirror

Her eyes as deep as the sea

But on a wooden floor you could slip

But a dusty mirror could crack

But being in a sea you can sink

Being in the cold presence of hers

You could fight or flight

The lady in white slowly approaches me, her tattered dress rustling with each step. Her hollowed eyes fixed upon mine.

She raises her slender, pale hand and gently places it on my cheek.

I was completely paralyzed. I tried to run. I tried to scream. But, I was frozen in fear.

Suddenly, I feel her nails digging deeper into my skin. She slowly drags them down to my neck. Her mouth opens wide and she lets out a blood- curdling scream.

Today you smile at the deeds you were able to get away with.
The smell of the child still on you hands. The cold was gone as a white wave came over her. The smell of the dirt and rotting leaves had faded. The child did not recognize what stood before her but the smell was familiar. The warm smell of tortilla cooking on her Grandmother’s stove and cinnamon. Come with me my love I will walk with you.

“I have a doctor’s appointment today,” Anna said. “Can you take the kid’s to school?”

Henry sucked his teeth. “ I would but I have to go on early tomorrow. They can ride the bus, right?”

“Abigail is still getting bullied.”

He rolled his eyes. “She just needs to fit back. If you want her taken then you take her. You have the day off right?”

After an argument that left her too worked up for sleep, Ann drove two daughters to the school.

She was eight minutes late. The respectioninst frowned at her. “The doctor has a ten minute rule, two more minutes and you’d have missed your time slot. We still bill you know.”

“With treatment, you could live a normal happy life,” her doctor said. He didn’t meet her eyes.

Anna wished she’d been late enough to miss this appointment. She’d have had another month of blissful ignorance. Anna nodded, accepting the information pages. Lists of medications. None of which would work.

“Thank you,” she said, because it was pointless to argue with a man who couldn’t look her in the eye.

She went home. Cleaned out the basement. Did her monthly checks that the locks were still in place on the portal. This check had signed her death warrant, but if she stopped it’d be so much worse. No it would be worse when she was gone, if she didn’t find someone to take over.

She picked up the house, before she picked up the kids. Checked her work emails. She called her husband, he didn’t answer.

“What smells so good,” Henry kissed her cheek when he came home.

“We need to talk.”

“You’ll be fine,” Henry said, after she’d told him what the doctor had said. “Isn’t that what the doctor said?”

“No.” The argument that followed was worse than the night before. She slept on the couch.

“I need you to take care of the portal when I’m gone, until the girls are grown.” She told her sister on the phone the next day.

“Yay, Henry would love that,” her sister, Beth scoffed. “I’ll just move right in.”

Anna hung up. She gathered herbs from the garden, grinding them together. She mixed them into a paste. Wiping it around the polished green trim of the stone portal door, she tried to imagine her husband doing this. She shivered.

“When I’m gone, Beth will have to take care of the portal.”

“This again.” This time he slept on the couch.

After work the next day, she replaced the flowers on the stairs. She tried to show her daughter how to do it, but her arms were to short to reach the hooks. Another year or two of growth at least, before she’d been able to do even this part. Did laundry. Cooked dinner.

“I don’t know what to do.” Her mind felt fuzzy already. Heavy and dull. The family curse had to be satisfied.

Another day of work. She garden after, trying to keep her young daughter’s interested in how to weed the sacred plants. A few more weeks, and she wouldn’t be here to do it. Time was slipping like sand through her hands.

“Henry, can you help me with dinner?”

“Can you carry this basket?”

“Please.”

His pillow stayed on the couch.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine when you’re gone,” her sister said.

Anna shook her head. She imagined the garden dying. The paste cracking and peeling. The portal would open once she was gone. Henry wouldn’t take care of it, not like she could.

“No.”

There was only one thing she could do, her last act to protect her daughters before she was gone.

“You’ll take care of the portal, if something happens to Henry? After I’m gone.”

“He’ll be fine.”

When Henry was asleep, Anna snuck down to the portal. It was old as the town. Maybe older. The truth of it’s origins long ago lost. But, the keeping of it had been carefully documented. Like the effects of tending it. The portal leeched the life out of the women who cared for it, but to not care for it would kill them sooner.

“Goddess,” Anna scrubbed the paste away. “I beseech you.” She thought of her daughter’s faces. They’d grow so quickly. They needed to be children as long as they could. Time was so very short. They needed a guardian who could care for the portal, keep them safe. “I beseech you.” She cracked open the portal.

The woman who stood on the other side wore her face. “Please.”

„What are you?“, the little girl asks, while fidgeting on her pink dress. I don‘t move. Never have I ever seen such a creature before. It tingles my inner senses. I don‘t know what it is, it‘s damn annoying. „Nobody good.“, I say with my scratchy voice. Why am I even talking to this girl? Usually I just do my job. They come, I take their souls out of their bodys and that’s it. No talking, it even hurts in my throat. What’s going on with me? I move one step to her. She stares at me through big brown eyes, her brown hair flows down on her shoulders like a waterfall- why do I even care?! „Why?“, she asks genuinely interested. I think about an answer- _why? _ „Because I am going to hurt you.“, I say finally. „And why?“, her voice is so quiet I can bearly make out what she says. Something inside me hurts. Oh my god, what is that? I reach out an arm and hold my sceletal hand above her face, ready to start my work. But just as I feel the energy rising up my body, a tear rolls out of her eye and falls down on the ground. I let my hand sink. „What happened to you?“, I ask and for the first time in years, my throat doesn‘t hurt when speaking. She sniffs, „They sent me to you.“ „You‘re a victim. They sent you to stand in my favor.“ Now she doesn‘t hold the tears back, it’s like waterfalls pull out of her gorgeous eyes. She sniffs again. I lean down to her, so much that my heart touches the ground. I hesitate, then say: „Don‘t cry.“ My hand reaches out by herself and wipes a tear off of her cheek. She doesn‘t move, just lets me touch her. As if I am an normal human being. „You don‘t deserve that.“, I lean back and rise to my full height. I don’t wonder why I feel this way anymore. I just don’t _want _to kill her, no clue why, it just doesn’t feel right. „What are you gonna do?“, she stares up at me through watery eyes „What do you want me to do?“ Since when do I ask other people what they want me to do? I don‘t care. „Don‘t kill me.“, I can basically feel the fear in her voice, though I don‘t think that she‘s scared of me, just of what I‘m capable of. „I didn‘t want to kill you.“ „Don‘t kill them.“ That surprises me. „Why not?“ „Because if you‘d kill them, you wouldn’t be better than them, you‘d be worse.“ „But I _am worse _than them, why should I care?“ „Because you are not. I know you are not. Your mistaken.“ I tilt my head, she sniffs and wishes the last tears away. „What makes you so sure of that?“ „You didn‘t kill me.“ Now she gets confident, I can see it in her eyes. „But I killed thousands of people before you. You don‘t even know how brutal I am.“ „Yeah, but everyone needs a second chance.“ I snort. „That would be my 5974th chance.“ „No, basically it’s your second, because nobody ever really cared enough about you, to give you another possibility than killing all these people.“ She‘s so sure of herself that I grin, I can’t imagine that this kid cried only a few minutes ago. „Well what should we do again?“ „We … sounds great.“, she smiles the brightest smile I‘ve ever seen and my non-existent heart melts. As I realize what I just said, I freeze for a second. „I- I meant- not we- I meant-“ „Why not we? I would like we.“ I don‘t know what to say. Never ever in my life somebody wanted to do something with me. Never. Why would they? „You sure?“ „What if we just go?“ „What do you mean, go? I can’t just go.“ „Why not? I thought you hated it here?“ „Well yeah, but-“ „No but. C‘mon. We‘ll be our own community.“, she steps around me and proceeds to head through the fog. „You’re the strangest human I‘ve ever met.“ „We‘ll be best friends.“, she doesn’t even listen to me. She just follows the little path through the fog. I need to go after her or I‘ll lose her. „Where do we go first?“, she asks over her shoulder. „Remember. You’re in the dead woods. This isn’t like the normal world. You can‘t just follow the signpost and hope to come out at some strange little village. The only thing you‘ll see here are creepy trees, fog everywhere and, if you’re lucky, a sceletal animal.“ „Sounds great, let’s go.“ „You’re strange.“ „No, you’re strange, c‘mon!“