The scent from the pie radiated through the atmosphere, and as it filled my nostrils, my eyes brightened up.
My legs swung back and forth even more rapidly as he brought the apple pie closer to me.
He sat down beside me and handed the tray to me with a smile on his face.
“Father, you shouldn’t have,” I said, concealing the excitement I had in my heart.
“Anything for you, dear,” My father replied.
As I stared at the pie silently, the smile on my face wanned and the brightness in my eyes dimmed out.
I let out a sigh, tightening my grip on the edges of the tray.
“Mother didn’t make it… did she?” I asked softly.
My father stared at me for a moment, the smile on his face also vanishing.
His brows furrowed with sadness and he turned away from me.
“I’m sorry, Celene.
I failed to protect her,” he replied with a quiet tone.
On hearing this news, I felt a light shock in my heart.
Although I expected his reply, my mind still wasn’t prepared for it.
I tried to stay strong; I tried to smile again, hoping that the apple pie I held in my hands would bring me the joy it did moments ago, but before I knew it, tears fell from my eyes and hit the transparent wrapping around the pie.
I clenched my jaws and shut my eyes as my brows furrowed.
More tears poured out of my eyes as my father pulled me into his embrace.
The tray of pie fell from my hand.
It dropped slowly to the ground, and just as it was about to land, my eyes swung open.
I quickly sat up on a bed with white sheets, breathing heavily with my eyes wide open.
It was a memory that haunted me all my life.
One that signified that day my world began to crumble.
My breathing slowed down I looked around and found that I was in a room almost completely made of wood.
The clothes I walked into the forest with were gone and I was left with only a plain white dress.
I looked around slowly, scanning through the walls until my eyes met a mirror, hanging over a small cabinet directly in front of the bed.
As I stared at my reflection, I noticed that my eyes had switched colours from night-black to dark-blue.
I suddenly remembered the injury I had on my right shin and quickly pulled off the blanket that was over my legs.
To my surprise, my leg was fine.
The large wound that was once there was completely gone and not even a scar remained.
“What’s going on?” I asked, puzzled.
I turned back to the mirror and saw something I didn’t notice before.
It was a piece of paper stuck to a corner of the mirror’s wooden frame.
I got up, walked to the cabinet and pulled the paper out from behind the mirror.
After opening the folded piece of paper, I read the words written on it silently.
“You chose life over death, be prepared to face the consequences.
Take the necklace on the cabinet and leave the cottage immediately.”
I slowly turned to the cabinet and saw a necklace sitting upon it.
I raised the necklace to the level of my eyes and stared at the strange gem stone that looked like something from one of my books.
A moonstone that had magical traits that could change the appearance of a person.
There were two types, one that could be programmed to pull off only one look, and another that could change a person’s appearance to whomever they thought off.
But this couldn’t be it; this had to be a fake because those stones were almost impossible to find, and one couldn’t just be sitting in a cottage somewhere in the middle of the forest of the damned.
I recalled the message on the paper, saying I should leave the cottage immediately I put on the necklace, but I then I thought of all the monstrous creatures that lurked all around the building. Read this novel at novelping dot com for the best experience.
I didn’t want to go out there to get eaten; not again.
“What do I do?
Put on the necklace and go out there to potentially get eaten, or stay in here and possibly be in even worse trouble,” I asked myself, staring at my reflection in the mirror.
I continued t stare at my reflection for a few more seconds, then pushed out a sigh.
“No, I’m not going to stay in here to find out what will happen inside this cottage if I don’t leave,” I decided, my brows furrowing.
I raised the necklace again and put it around my neck, clicking in its hook before adjusting the necklace gemstone to sit perfectly at the centre of my neckbone.
I smiled at the sparkling gemstone, then raised my head to look at it in the mirror.
The moment my eyes met with my reflection, they widened in surprise.
My chest had become almost completely flat, and my hair, shorter.
My face was still clear of hair, but my jaw line had become a little more angular.
Even my clothes transformed into that of a male farmer with a large dark blue cloak around my back.
I placed my palm on the mirror gently, staring into my dark blue eyes.
All my visible feminine features were gone, and I had now become a young man.
“Wow,” I said softly.
I turned to the door of the cottage and slowly walked toward it.
I wrapped my palm on the door’s handle and gently clicked it open.
the moment I did, a heavy gust of wind blew it open completely, pushing me back toward the cabinet.
The bright rays from the sun shot into the room, increasing its temperature rapidly.
I let out slow breaths as my eyes widened in reaction to the entire land scape outside the cottage.
I had now realised that I was no longer in the forest of the damned.
There were no trees or grasses in sight, but just pale white sand for miles.