chapter one

   "*It's been two days since we've moved to this house", said a black haired girl called Julia.

   "So?", asked her twin brother, who had the same shade of hair like his sister, while tapping his phone.

"So?", asked Julia with a roll of her eyes before suggesting, "You know, we should explore that forest." 

   "Juli, you know that mom told us not to go in there", replied her brother, James, his eyes not leaving the screen of his phone.

  "Come on, James. Mom even told us that she used to play in that forest, when she was a child, with her friends before they moved out from here in Los Angeles", reminded Julia while getting up from her couch and walking out to the backyard, which was the entrance forest.

   James too followed his sister's actions and stood beside Julia before reminding, "You know the story, right?"

   Julia rolled her eyes, "That was a long time ago, Jaime. It's the twenty-first century, bro."

   James shooked his head, "I know, Juli. But that does not change the fact that two boys died in there."

   "Jamie, don't be such a coward ***. That incident occurred more than a decade ago. Plus, mom said that the forest does not have any carnivorous animals."

   "Exactly!", exclaimed James , "Maybe, that forest is the home of a psychopath murderer."

   Julia laughed, "Oh, Jamie. You should stop watching those horror and thriller movies. Mom never told us how those boys died, so it could be anything. Maybe they suicided. Or they fell from a large tree.", with that Julia advanced towards the forest while dragging James with her. To her surprise James did not protest and entered the forest with her. 

   "If I die then you are responsible for it.", started James while removing his hand from Julia's grasp and followed her anyways, because even he felt that it's just a normal forest. Those incidents happened many years ago and the reasons of those boys death are still unknown to everyone. Moreover, Julia's statement did make sense to him.

   The forest was dark but specks of light emerged from the bright blue sky, lighting the forest partially. The bed of the forest was caked with leaves, grasses and broken branches. The forest was thick and most of the trees were large and old. The more the twins walked ahead, the more the forest became thicker. It was getting more darker but the lighting was enough for the twins to see. Soon, they were in a clearing where skeletons were hung from the trees that were surrounding the clearings. James tugged on Julia's right sleeve while saying, "Juli, we should leave." 

   Julia nodded but before they could turn around and leave, a very thick masculine voice stopped them by saying, "Not so soon, the Avery Twins."

Julia woke up, panting and sweating heavily, on her bed. One glance at her bedside clock made her realize that it was just three in the morning. “That’s odd,” muttered Julia with furrowed eyebrows as she was never an early riser. However, her thoughts were occupied by the nightmare from which she just woke up. With an anxious heart, she turned her head to the right to look at the large window that showed her the forest. The forbidden forest as she liked to call it because her parents forbade her from going there. Her and her brother because of some ‘supposedly’ lunatic murderer, who killed two boys a long and long and long time ago.

With a sigh, she got up from her bed and walked towards the large window beside her bed. Even though she didn’t like her new house, she absolutely loved her room. The walls of her room were painted black and white, there was a large bookshelf placed beside her bed, in one corner she kept her two identical beloved DVD case holders, the sliding mirror door that was right across from her bed led to her small walk in closet and in the middle of the room, across from the window, there was a wooden swing. She just loved how beautiful her new room turned out to be.

Then came the thought of her starting school here. Both James and her were going to start school from next week until then James and her were allowed to do everything except for wandering into that ‘forbidden’ forest. She still did not understand the point of that. Those boys died a long and long time ago. Even though the locals said that those boys were murdered, Julia refused to believe so. If everyone knew that the murderer lived in the forest then why didn’t they simply ask the police to catch him? Yes, him. According to her neighbors, the murderer is a man. How they knew it, Julia had no idea. Moreover, she was angry at her mom because her mom forbade James and her from wandering into the forest even after the local authorities assured her that the forest was completely safe. They even informed that there has been no such murder case since 1979, the year the two boys were ‘murdered’ in the forest.

However, her mind still kept wandering back to her nightmare. ‘Was it pointing at something?’ thought she before shaking her head and assuring her, ‘Nah, mom and dad were talking about it during dinner. Telling stories to scare James and I. My mind just made up a scenario to scare me. My mind’s a snitch, taking mom and dad’s side.’ A yawn escaped her natural pink lips, causing her to walk back to her bed before laying on it. Another yawn and she knew that she was going to wake up very late in the morning. The last thought before her eyes closed were about the forest.

The very first thing she heard when she woke up was James’ voice singing, “Lately I’ve been, I’ve been losing sleep....” He was in the room next to Julia’s so it was difficult for the former one to stop his voice from reaching his sister. Julia groaned as she listened to her brother’s singing practice. She wasn’t angry at James’ singing skills because, even though she hated to admit it, James was an amazing singer. In fact, she was angry at her parents for giving her idiotic brother that room. “They should have shifted him into the garage,” muttered Julia as she struggled to get up from her lying state.

As soon as she was out of her room she banged on the door that led to James’ room. However, it was unheard due to the loud music, causing Julia to shout, “You ***, open the door!” Still it was unheard. Julia thought that he was doing it intentionally so, she kept on banging on the door while shouting curses as she knew her parents were at work.

After what felt like eternity James opened the door before asking angrily, “What?!”

“You have a horrible voice! So, quit singing!” exclaimed Julia angrily.

“Right,” started James with a roll of his eyes before asking, “Weren’t you the one who wanted me to sing on your 12th birthday.”

“Well, I was a kid back then.”

“You are still a kid, dumbass.”

“No, I am a teen.”

“Well, you are a kid to me.”

Julia rolled her eyes before asking, “Is it because you are three and a half minutes older than me?”

James smirked, “Of course.”

Julia was about retort something when their doorbell went off. Julia and James exchanged a look before descending down the stairs and walking up to their front door. Julia was still wearing her nightwear that’s why she let James open the door. As James flung open the door, a blonde girl appeared in the doorway with a cookie jar. She beamed at the twins before saying, “Hey, I am Patricia Peyton, but everyone calls me Pat.”

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