Chapter 1: The beginning - I

*The curtain opens in a dark room, illuminated only by the rays of the morning sun peeping shyly through the window. A slender frame lies peacefully in the warm embrace of the blankets and sleep*

*Alarm blaring*

“Ugh! Not this dream again, it feels like I just slept”

*With the sleep still evident in his eyes, young Rafael woke up. He has been unable to sleep due to a strange, recurring and yet disturbing dream*

“Oh shit! It’s 8AM. I am going to be late again”

*With the sudden realization of the time Rafael got up. He stared at himself in the mirror. His black hair an uncombed mess, his raven eyes told only one story. HE NEEDED MORE SLEEP*

*His build average, looking at the mirror he thought he needed more exercise but then again, he knows he is never going to do it*

*Hastily he dressed up in his black hoodie and jeans. His hoodie plain except for a large skull in the center of it. He was always fascinated with death for who knows what reason. He then popped in his earphones and was on his way to the bus stop*

*waiting for his school bus he was thinking about what the dream could mean and then got bored and then started thinking of which album should he acquire next. He was debating between the two popular bands, when he suddenly felt a pat on his back*

*He turned around to find a blonde-haired guy. Standing at 5.6’ Max was still half a foot smaller than Rafael. His fair complexion was only complimented by his blue eyes, his face always wore two things, a goofy smile and freckles. These two things made him comparatively younger than others, though he was of the same age as Rafael himself. Rafael smiled back and removed his earphones*

“Hey Blondie! How are you?”

“Would you quit calling me that already? And you look like a Zombie yourself. Still not able to sleep?”

“Nope”

*Max was Rafael’s best friend in the whole wide world and though Rafael had told him nothing of the ordeal he was facing, he knew that Max knows him too well, to figure out that something was wrong*

“You know a change in the air might really help. The guy wore thinking of going camping today after school”

“I don’t know Max; it doesn’t sound like a very good idea”

“Come on man! It’s Friday. You know what its ok. I get it. You don’t want to hang out with your old buddy anymore. It’s ok. I understand”

*Saying that Max smiled. This was the one thing that could get Rafael do whatever he wanted. An age-old trick he discovered when they were barely 5 and it still works today*

“Alright, Alright. Stop it, drama queen. When do we leave?”

*Their chit chat continued throughout the day and then they said their goodbyes at the bus stop to see each other in the evening again. Rafael soon reached home and was done with his packing. And as much as he hated to admit it, he was more excited for the camping trip then he let on. Spending time in the lap of mother nature, it always tended to calm him down. He felt right at home, as if there was a deeper connection of man and nature than they realized at that time in modern sciences*

*Time is a tricky thing indeed. When having a good time, it tends to pass quickly and slows down to barely a crawl when bad times come, and so was happening with Rafael. Lost in his thoughts about the trip the time passed and he was in the embraced by yet another elusive thing. Sleep. It had evaded him for past so many months that he could no longer differentiate between when he was asleep and when not*

“Find me Rafael! The time is almost up! Find me”

*Rafael woke up with a jerk*

“Great, now I am hallucinating again”

*What he thought was a mere hallucination turned to be more blood freezing than he thought at first when the same rusty old voice echoed in his room while he was wide awake*

“Lives depend on you Rafael. You must make haste. Find me”

“Who is it? What do you want from me?”

*Silence*

“Who is it?”

*Silence*

*Rafael repeatedly yelled at the empty room, but was greeted with silence each time*

“Is everything alright dear?”

“Yes Mom! Everything’s fine”

*Rafael had almost forgotten. His voice can reach the ground floor, where his parents lived*

*The trip was still some time away, so he tried another shot at sleeping and this time thankfully he succeeded*

*He woke up with something hitting his window. He got up and opened it, when a small pebble hit him right on the forehead. A little surprised and annoyed Rafael yelled*

“How many times have I told you not to do that Jo”

*Jo short for Joseph, stood at 6 feet tall, as tall as Rafael himself. His dark complexion and short hair were accompanied by his brown eyes. His build would suggest he was an athletic but he would be winded running a 100m run in the video game*

“Come on out Raf! We don’t have all day”

*Rafael picked up his bad and joined his friend outside. Before he could ask where were the others, 2 figures came into view, Max and Smith*

*Smith was the shortest one in the group. Standing at 5 feet 4’ he almost looked too young to be with them. His hazel eyes along with his pasty white complexion, formed, well formed a unique mix. Though the shortest he definitely was the sharpest amongst them all. They were an odd bunch of people, yet Rafael loved them like family*

“Hey Max, Smith you guys ready for camping?”

*With that unnecessary yet mandatory check-up all were off to their adobe for the night in the forest. The great thing about where Rafael lived was that the local woods were few minutes away. All of them had explored it when they were kids, and had found out a suitable camping ground since then. They reached the place soon. Rafael and Max started setting the tents as Jo and smith went to gather some firewood*

“You try to relax buddy. Try to get as much fresh air and rest as possible tonight”

“Yeah! And honestly the peace and serenity of this place is a welcome change”

*Rafael and Max had finished setting the tents and were talking about school and stuff when Jo and Smith returned*

“Great timing guys, the sun is about to set”

“Thanks blondie”

“How many times should I tell you to stop calling me that Jo”

*True enough, within the next couple of minutes the sun set, but in the time, they were able to get a good fire going on. Marshmallow’s on sticks, jolly mood, silence of the forest and a raging fire, altogether made a brilliant combination. The banter of the boys echoed throughout the forest*

*Such a beautiful thing it is, teenage, these boys had no care in the world, all that mattered to them was the night and nothing could take that away from them, or so they thought*

*Time swept at its pace, and soon the chill of the night fought stronger against the fire. The loud banter reduced to calmer conversation*

“Guys guys guys, the night has set in and you know what that means?”

“Yes Jo. GHOST STORIES”

“Guys, it may not be that good of an idea. Rafael already has trouble sleeping maybe we should not worsen it out by giving him nightmares of demons and witched and what not”

*Everyone looked at Max at his remark and then burst out into a collective laughter*

“Oh, the little kid is scared huh?”

“You up for it Rafy boy?”

“Honestly guys, with the kind of dreams I am having I would welcome nightmares anytime”

*As if on cue, Joe started telling the first story. Joe was the first one to always begin. Everyone listened silently. The crackling of the fire, the noise of the insects, leaves rustling and Joe’s voice were the only thing that pierced the silence. Rafael was staring at the fire when it suddenly got extinguished. The fire that was fighting an equal battle with the chill of the night suddenly burned no longer the entire proof of its existence gone, no smoke, no ember nothing. But then it rekindled and this time it burned green*

*The green fire illuminated a view lot different from the orange one. He could see bones under his feet, the rock he was sitting on was now a giant skull, that was too large to belong to anything. He heard a distant groan and then some of the bones started moving under his feet*

*Rafael jumped back at the site of the moving bones*

“Come on Rafael. You can’t be scared yet. I have barely even begun”

“Sorry Jo it looks like it was a bad idea after all. Maybe we should call it a night”

“Maybe we should all call it a night”

*With that Rafael and Max headed to their respective tents. They could still hear jo and smith talk who too retired after a short while*

*Rafael was scared to close his eyes. Whenever he did, he would see the sight illuminated by the green fire, rotting corpses of his friends, bones beneath his feet, the large skull and then the moving bones. Everything scared his wits out. He tossed and turned until sleep finally got a hole of him*

*Rafael was woken up by a gust of cold wind. He opened his eyes to see that the fire had gone out again*

“Strange, I was sure, I had closed the zip before sleeping”

*Rafael closed the zip again and was about to lie down when he heard*

“Come to me Rafael! You are near. Come to me! Take the last step! Come to me”

*Rafael jerked upwards. He ran outside to scream and see who it was. He exited to see a sight lot different from the one they had left not that long ago and the strangest thing was that the camp site was gone, all the tents were gone, the forest was completely silent and he was all alone*

“Come to Rafael, make the final step, come to me”

*Countering every logical cell in his body, defying every sense in him screaming to stay, he took off, to find the owner of the voice*

*On and on Rafael went and each step was harder to take than the previous one. He reached the red point. Red point was a line of trees they had marked red in their childhood, a point where they had decided that they would not go further. Ironically, he was now standing at that point thinking of going further to find the owner of a voice that might not even exist*

“Here I am, standing in the middle of night, in a forest, my friends are missing, I am standing at the red point, thinking of going further. Smart move Rafael, smart move indeed”

*What he said made perfect sense, was perfectly logical but still Rafael was not able to stop himself. He went on further without another word. He’s each step felt as if he was carrying the weight of the world itself and his heart was ready to explode at anytime”

“You are almost there Rafael. Make the final step”

*And then he took the last step, the hardest of them all, and yet the easiest. He stepped into a clearing and felt as if the burden he was carrying had all been lifted away and he could finally breathe again*

*An old man dressed in black robes, a black hood covering his face, his long white beard reaching his chest, his wooden staff resting in one hand*

“Well done, Rafael”

*He spoke with the same heavy voice that he had been hearing over and over in his dreams from such a long time*