Chapter 1

The man gazed upon the scenery before him and a tear came to his eyes. A tear not of sadness, but of happiness.

“Ah, its just so beautiful”, the man exclaimed. He had a life-long ambition and now with the help of his friends, he had finally achieved it. The man felt nothing but pure joy.

{13 years and 5 months earlier}

“Dad, can you read the story to me again?”

“Of course, give me a minute. This one, right?”

“Yes!! I love this story!”

“Ok, now where did we leave off last time? Ah, yes. A castle collapsed and………”

The man starts reading the story to his son. His son quickly falls asleep listening to the story and the weird humming sound. The boy wakes up after a while due to feeling wet and cold. The boy calls out for his dad.

“I HEAR SOMETHING. HE’S STILL ALIVE. BRING IN THE PARAMEDICS.”

The boy was very confused as this was a voice he did not recognize.

“Don’t worry son, you’ll be just fine.” This was the last thing the boy heard before losing consciousness. When the boy woke up in the hospital, he had lost all his memories.

“W-where am I? Who are you? W-Who am I?” The child had truly lost it all.

“Your awake? Good. I am Dr. Dre. Tell me, do you know your name?”

“N-no. W-what happened to me? Where am I?”

“Oh. Don’t worry kid. Just rest for now. It’ll all be fine”

The doctor went out of the room. His concerns had become a reality. It was a miracle the boy even survived. A plane had crashed in his neighborhood killing 27 civilians and 58 passengers. His whole family had died. The kid had no one to turn to and the doctor wasn’t kind enough to adopt him. Hence, the kid was sent to an orphanage. There the kid was given a new name, Jaiden.

He stayed at the orphanage for about 2 years before he was adopted by the Joestars, a fairly rich and well-known family. They had a good reputation and had everything one could need except for children. They had always wanted to adopt one and Jaiden immediately caught their eye.

Jaiden was extremely excited but also nervous. The Joestars took him to his new home, a fairly big mansion-esque place with a great garden full of flowers and a forest in the back, the spitting image of what one would imagine a millionaire’s house looked like. Jaiden was shown around and even given a new necklace as a gift. The Joestars loved him as their own and Jaiden loved his new family.

{6 years later}

“Mom, Dad, I’m going now.”

“OK, son. Stay safe and have fun. Buy some eggs on your way back”

And just like that Jaiden was off to meet his friends. Him and his friends were planning to go explore the woods near his house, unbeknownst to his family. These woods were famous in the neighborhood. Many rumors circulated about them, from ancient ruins to skinwalkers. As many others in the community, Jaiden and his friends were also intrigued by such rumors and wanted to see for themselves if there was any truth behind them.

He quickly met up with 5 of his friends, Randy, Drake, Emily, Jacob and Jean. The 6 of them went to explore the forest at once. The forest was mysterious and kind of hazy with very little sunlight. Most of the rumors were focused on the north part of the woods so they travelled due north. After walking around for what felt like hours, they came upon a large clearing with a beautiful lake and beds of Orchids and Spider lilies.

“Hey guys! Look over there, across the lake. There seems to be some kind of path” Jacob yelled suddenly pointing off in the distance

“I don’t see it, maybe your seeing things. All these trees are messing with your head” Jean said.

“No man, there is something over there. We should check it out” Emily said excitedly

And so, they started heading towards the other side of the lake. There, they saw an old path in between the trees. After following the path for some time, they reached upon a hut.

None of them expected to see any kind of man-made structure this deep in the woods. Something about the hut was just unsettling. It had an eerie atmosphere. The wood was rotting and the roof seemed as if it would collapse any time. Two windows were visible from the front, both broken.

As they stepped into the hut, they felt a chill. Inside the hut, half-rotten books were scattered in one corner upon remains of what once was a bed. One the other side was some metal cutlery and a fireplace. It would’ve been fairly dark if not for the beam of sunlight coming from a few holes in the roof.

“Theres so many books here. Why would anyone want to live in the middle of a forest?” asked Randy

“Wait a second. What’s that in the fireplace?” said Drake

Drake had noticed something shine in the fireplace, which was weird since all other metal items were rusted. He cleared away some ash and old wood revealing some kind of small handle. The handle was of a small trapdoor hidden in the fireplace. Upon pulling the handle, a small hatch opened up with ladders leading into pure darkness. It was getting late now. If they didn’t leave soon, they’d have to travel through thick woods in the night.

“Maybe we should leave now. It’s getting too weird.” said Emily

“She’s right. We should get back or it’ll get too dark and I don’t want to travel in these woods at night. Who knows what might be out there.” said Jean backing away from the hatch

“And who knows what could be down this hatch. We’ve come this far. We can’t just go back without taking a look.” said Randy persuasively

“I don’t know about you but I think we have enough time. I’m going, any of you wanna join me?” said Jacob boldly

“Count me in too. This is exactly what we came here for. If we find something cool we can brag about it to the others” said Jaiden

“Fine, if you guys want to go then go. I’m staying up here.” said Emily, clearly annoyed

“I’ll stay here too. I don’t think I’m fitting in that hatch anyway.” said Jean

“OK you can stay here. We’ll be sure to come back up soon.” said Drake hurrying down the hatch

And so, Drake, Jacob, Randy and Jaiden went down the strange hatch into the darkness below. They used their phone flashlights to look around. The room had weird markings and graffiti all over the walls. A lectern stood at the center of the room with a book open to a blank page. Candles and chalk lined the room. The lectern faced a weird circular symbol with lines and triangles pointing towards another circular shape. Drake steps towards the lectern and inspects the book. It had a turquoise cover with purple writing in a strange language, a truly weird book. As Drake is inspecting the book, he notices a familiar symbol and calls Jaiden.

“Jaiden, doesn’t this symbol look kinda similar? I swear I’ve seen it somewhere before”

“What the fuck? It almost looks like the symbol on my necklace. What does this page even say?”

Jacob seemed to recognize the language and said “Wait, that looks like Arabic”

“Arabic? Do you know what it says?” Asked Randy

“Not really. I can try to read it but I don’t know if I should”

“Come on, man. Don’t get cold feet now. Just read it”

Jacob starts reading the weird text “تعفن دماغي عشوائي. سكيبيدي أوهايو فانوم تاكس ريزلر جيات”

Suddenly the ground starts shaking and all the candles light up. The symbols on the walls start glowing Vermilion and Aureolin. The book turns to a blank page and words start writing themselves. Suddenly, they hear Emily shouting

“GUYS GET OUT OF THERE NOW!! THE WHOLE PLACE IS COLLAPSING”

They quickly climb out of the weird room. The roof was breaking down and the floor gave in underneath their feet. They quickly ran out of the hut. The hut completely collapsed sealing off the hatch forever.

“What happened? Did you find anything down there?” asked Jean

But his question was met with silence. The 4 of them were clearly disturbed by what they saw. Sensing this, Emily simply told them to calm down and head towards Jaiden’s house since it was the closest. All 6 of them started walking back down the path they came from. The lake now seemed melancholic and the flowers seemed too eerie. Dusk was upon them and they had to hurry up unless they wanted to spend the night there.

As they left the forest, the sense of dread had settled down and the 4 of them had calmed down. The 6 of them agreed to talk about it once they were in the comfort of home. And hence, they went to Jaiden’s house not forgetting to pick up some eggs on the way.

--Chapter 1 end--