Chapter 10
Whispers of the Forest
The Guardian of the Forest reveals itself, speaking in gentle whispers. It explains that the spiderwebs were a test, a way to gauge the intentions and hearts of those who enter.
The air in Pinewood Forest, once alive with the giddy chatter of three friends, now hung thick and silent, a heavy blanket woven with the threads of fear. Tina, her knuckles white where she clutched a fallen branch, strained her ears, listening for any sound that wasn't the frantic thumping of her own heart. Beside her, Eva’s breath hitched with every rustle of leaves, her eyes wide and darting into the inky blackness that pressed in from all sides. Kitty was gone. Vanished. Swallowed by the very woods they had so eagerly embraced just hours before. The s'mores and ghost stories seemed like a distant, foolish dream.
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