Leila could feel her heart beating at hundred miles a minute, running in one direction, then the other, then covering her face with her hands in resignation to the face she was alone and lost. She cried loudly, scaring a group of pigeons into the air. As she slowly removed her hands from her face, a translucent but recognisable woman was floating in front of her. Leila gasped, too terrified to move. She felt around the leaf litter, searching for something to hit the spirit with.

“Don’t be afraid. I am Dreya, protector of the forest. I am here to guide you on the right path.”

“Ghost! Ghost!” Leila screamed but she could feel her body slowly starting to calm. Was this the spirit’s strange power?

“You are lost, youngling. I know you come from that school. Please, allow me to guide you, for much evil dwells here.”

“Like what?”

Dreya smiled slightly but did not speak. Instead, she turned around and pointed in front of her. She instructed Leila to follow her, and Leila did so. As the spirit floated over dead flowers on the trail, flowers seemed to revive themselves. She eventually came to a stop and asked Leila to hide. She did so behind a tree.

Another spirit floated towards Dreya, this one black all over, with human appearance but with six spider legs attached to his back. He sneered menacingly at Dreya.

“You’re time is nearly up, my dear Dreya. Without swapping your soul with a human’s, you are forever cursed and contained within this forest. Does she know?”

“She is gone from the forest.”

“Really? Most humans don’t find their way out. She was that lucky, huh?”

He drifted over to the front of the tree Leila was hiding behind. She could feel his putrid breath near her, and she tried her best not to choke. He eventually shrugged and reminded Dreya she was doomed as he floated off.

“It is now safe, my dear. Let us continue while you tell me your story, since you heard mine.”

“Are you seriously thinking of taking my body?”

“No, dear. My fate is decided.”

Leila burst into explaining how she got into the forest, from how she went looking for her mobile phone which Olivia, a horrible classmate, had thrown into the forest. She hadn’t gone far when she mysteriously fell asleep and woke up lost.

“Yes, these woods are protected and imbued by centuries of magic. But we are nearly here.”

They arrived at their destination. As Leila was reaching the school playground, she turned round, shocked to see the spirit entering Olivia’s body…