Laugalækjarskóli English 2012
The forest of fears
Ástríður E. Guðmundsdóttir
María Nathalie Mai
Þórunn P. Sleight 9-A
Waking up was not so hard. I had barely slept all night. It took me a long time to figure out where the book had lead my sister Amy to. She had left a code in her room and papers with the descriptions of the place. My results were the dark forest of fears. I picked up my old coat and backpack with some biscuits, weapons and a map of the dark forest that Amy had drawn. No one was outside, usually nobody is about at this time of the day so I decide to go through the market place. On the ground I pick up some old oranges and cauliflowers and put them in my backpack. Now I’ve been walking for fifteen minutes, over bridges, hedges and through small towns. Then I finally reach the gate that will lead me into the forest. I’m not quite sure if I should go inside but then a powerful storm rises and forces me to. Everything gets dark, I don’t know what to do but I trip over a piece of driftwood and find myself lying on the ground. In front of me appears an old woman in a green cloak. “Get up quickly” she says with and old woman voice, and I do as she says. “My name is Brenda and I’m the gatekeeper of this forest, you must be Lucy Crosswood, am I right?” Now I’m getting scared but I confess. “I believe that you’re looking for your sister. I’ll tell you this, in this forest there are many frightening things that will scare you. But don’t give up on looking for your sister.” She said and then vanished like a snow flake when it hits the ground. I’m not sure if she’s good or bad, if I should trust her or not but I have to find Amy. She’s right about one thing this forest is terrifying. As I walk I see faces in the lakes shouting and screaming very painfully. And when I look closer I see that these faces are those of people I know. I convince myself that this is only a hallucination or a trick. Creachers I’ve never seen before run into me and someone near is singing a scary song. I follow the sound and see a girl sitting at the riverbank with blond hair worked into a long braid that hangs down her back. Maybe she’s one of the frightening things that the forest has to offer, but I’ll never know unless I go to her. I walk slowly towards her and she turns around and stops singing. “Hey, I’m Annie, are you lost?” she asks? “Yes. I’m looking for my sister Amy. You know this forest well?” I ask. After a short talk she tells me that she does, that she’s been stuck in here for eight long years. “ I Would get mad, and I already am. How can you not be after staying in here for so long?” I ask. “The forest holds what you fear the most. I’ve learned to face them and I’m not afraid of anything anymore, just that I won’t find my way back home. But the forest can only
frighten me by not letting me go, so I guess that’s why I’m still here.” She says with a dreamy voice and then we take a walk through the woods. She says that she wants to help me and I let her. We search everywhere but without success. At one point I get the thought that I might be looking for her in the wrong place, but Amy’s descriptions matched perfectly to this forest. “You know Lucy this is a game. I figured that out a long time ago. First you passed the gatekeeper, she does not let everyone get through, kills most of them if they have no purpose of coming here. You completed level one. There are said to be three levels and we have two to go.” she says. I had never thought of this as a game but I think Annie is right. I read Amy’s clues again, and now I’m confident that this is a game. It says: 1. Brenda 2. Mazes and faces. 3.Crowd. Number one was to pass Brenda and so we did. “I Think we have to swim over the lake with the faces that we already saw but I’ve never seen any mazes” she says and we get into the lake. The water is freezing. The people in the lake are screaming and they try to pull me to the bottom of the lake. Annie is on the other side and shouts: “They know that you are afraid of them, think of something else, then they’ll release you” I think of a warm cup of tea and that I’m not frightened of them. They release me and I swim as fast as I can to the other side were Annie is waiting for me. We look everywhere for a maze but don’t find one. I’m tired and tell her that I’m so exhausted and I’m giving up. “Don’t worry we will find her. I know you miss her but if you absolutely want to see her again destiny will guide you back to each other. You just have to believe deep in your heart that you will never be apart. If you give up you will never find her, so don’t.“ she says and I appreciate her kind words and know that she’s right. Suddenly I remember that I’m afraid of mazes. When I was a little girl I went into a maze in a theme park and got lost. I cried so much and was very scared. A maze appears in front of us and we go inside. The walls are made out of yellow old bushes that are as high as skyscrapers. We stand on a thin layer of ice that holds both of us. Beneath us people from the lake are swimming and banging the ice. We run and get lost. Then I think of that event in the park when my dad came to me where I was lost in the maze and got me. Then I was safe. I see the exit of the maze and we run out as we see the light. The people from the lake
crawl out of it and head into the woods and we follow them. I think I see my sister. She’s pushing through the crowd and Annie and I do the same. We have cleared level two and now the third one will have to be faced. I reach Amy’s hand and she pulls me as I pull Annie along. We manage to get through the crowd and see another gate. There is the exit and we run fast. The gate is closing but we manage to get through. All three of us. “You scared me Amy, why did you come to this horrible place?” I ask her. “I’m sorry Lucy. But it’s not horrible anymore. The thought of never getting frightened again was exciting, I was drawn to this forest I couldn’t stop myself. I’ve always been frightened of everything but by coming here I would never have to feel like that again.” She said and she’s right, the forest was not horrible anymore. It made us strong and now we don’t have to be afraid anymore.“ I came here for the same reason” Annie says. “But it didn’t work to make me fearless because I still was scared that I would never be able to go back home, and that was in fact also your sisters fear. You came and saved both of us. Thank you. And now this game is finally over.” “But it isn’t over.” I say and they ask why. I’m not in the mood to explain and I know that they won’t understand. This was a game that taught us to be strong and have no fears. As soon I walked through the last gate a new game had begun. Life is a big game with many levels and from each and every one you will learn something new.