The Tresspasser

Dragontail Forest was one of the darkest in the world. It could be bright on a noonday and somehow if one were to step into Dragontail Forest it would cast an invisible veil over their eyes, causing everything to be dark. Dragontail Forest was also legendary. People grew up hearing of Dragontail Forest, even from a different continent. There were legends of its name, which brought on the myths that there were real dragons that lived and hid in the forest. There were legends of fantastic creatures thriving in the shadows, of curses following to tracks of explorers, of thieves and bandits stashing their treasures there, of fairies, ghosts, vampires, goblins and orges, legends of the forest having a mind of its own.

But most of them were legends of the Tresspasser. The title was misleading, as the Tresspasser didn’t do anything but ward off trespassers. She was said to have a hidden treasure deep within the forest, enough to rule the world. But if she had caught anyone trespassing her territory they were sure to leave the forest without their hearts beating.

But a new dawn was approaching. Stuff of legends and myths were in the past. It was the year 1932 when a group of professional explores had decided that the curses of the forest were a myth and would travel in there and collect any items and accent articles they could find for museums.

It was a group of three men and two women, all of which had spent weeks preparing for the journey. Simon West was the leader, a rough and stubborn man who was extremely against believing in anything mythical. He was the one driving the jeep to the village, Wimborne, that was one of the few villages on the edge of the forest.

He stopped at a small inn where the rest of the party unloaded the truck as he worked with the manager of the inn.

“What can you tell me about the Dragontail Forest?” Simon asked with a gurff voice. The manager smiled.

“What have you not heard about the Dragontail Forest?” He asked. Simon wasn’t pleased at the manager’s sense of humor. The manager cleared his throat, slightly intimidated by Simon’s  ruffian manner. “Well, most people say that the Tresspasser will kill anyone who steps on her territory, but in my opinion, I don’t believe that is true.” By this time the rest of the party, Breanna Stark, Anna Godard, Franklin Beard, and David Sparow, had all stopped their work to listen in on the conversation. “The Tresspasser isn’t just this insane homicidal murderer. I’ve seen people walk from the Forest after having gone missing for days without a scratch on them. No the Tresspasser doesn’t just kill anyone that she comes across. She kills with reason.”

“Yeah, to protect her hidden treasure,” Breanna said as if it was obvious.

“No, on the contrary. She’s not guarding any treasure. She’s an avenger. She is Karma. Every person that’s ever gone missing in the forest and stayed missing had done something terribly sinful. She can see into your soul and read who you truly are. That’s when she kills you.” Simon looked back at his team, all sharing the same unconvinced look.

“So, for the records sake, can you tell us how you know this information?” Anna asked. The manager leaned away from them, clearly offended.

“Well, it’s what I believe. There is nothing said about the forest that isn’t rumors or myths or theories,”

“What about those people that appear from the forest after missing for a couple of days?” Breanna asked.

“Well, they don’t remember much after getting lost. They remember blacking out and then coming to not to far from the village.”

The party walk away, heading to their rooms.

“I say it’s all a hoax to attract tourists,” Frank says. Simon unlocks the door to the men’s room as the girls unlock the door to their room.

“Alright, we have an early start tomorrow so good night all,” Simon says, opening the door wide for the men to entire. He watches Anna entire the room and catches Breanna’s eye. “Tonight? Right here?” Simon whispers. Breanna gives him a teasing smile.

“My husband almost caught us last time,” she whispers, “wasn’t that enough to scare you off forever?” Simon touches her pink lips.

“Not even the Dragontail Forest could keep me away from you,” he says.

“Okay,” she whispers. They smile before they both turn away and walk into their own bedrooms. As soon as Simon closes the door Frank tosses him a large wad of dollar bills.

“That’s your cut,” he tosses one just as large to David, “that’s yours. And this is mine.”

“I love my job,” David says.

“That’s only because you do it crooked,” Simon says. “If we didn’t keep some of the items we find for ourselves and sold them on the black market, we wouldn’t be living as well off as we are now.”

“I suppose it helps that millionaires are big in the black market, even with a depression going on,” Frank says.

“Let’s hit the sack,” Simon says, shutting off the lights.

***

There weren’t any recent roads that lead into Dragontail Forest, so the party had to follow an older road that the trees had almost over run. The forest was unusually dark but that didn’t worry them at all. What really made them concerned was when their path was blocked by a fallen tree.

When Simon had gotten out of the jeep to examine it he had discovered that it was no accident.

“This tree’s been cut!” He exclaimed to the others.

“How recent? Can you tell?” Anna asked.

“What difference does it make? Looks like it’s on foot from here.” Each of them had an empty backpack to carry back whatever they found except for David, who carried the water and food supply.

They began walking immediately into the dark forest, scanning the grounds and the trees.

“It seems as if the sun where setting,” Anna said.

“That’s impossible, it’s only-” Frank began, looking at his watch. He tapped on it but to no avail. “My watch has stopped working,” he said.

“We’ve only been driving a few hours. It probably barely past ten,” Simon said.

“Hey, look right there,” David said, pointing near Anna’s feet. She knelt down and picked up an old, dirty, round coin from near her boot and stood up straight. She scraped the dirt from the surface as much as she could before she held it up for the party to see.

“It looks like an old Spanish coin. First find of the day,” she said, smiling. She tucked it in a side pocket before the party kept moving.

“Do you guys here that?” Breana asks
Ed after a few more minutes of walking. They all stopped to listen. It was a quiet drizzling sound that was close by. Too close. Anna looked around and gasped.

“David, look!” She said. Simon rushed over to him and gripping at the water bag just as the last of it ran out.

“You bone head! That must’ve been leaking since we left the jeep!”

“I’m sorry I had no idea!” David said.

“Well, that’s it,” Simon said droping the water bag. “That was all our water supply. We might as well head back to the jeep and be done for the day.” Simon was still glaring as he turned around to return to the jeep.

“Simon, that’s not the way back,” Breanna said, looking at her compass. “It is that way,” she said, pointing ahead of her.

“Are you crazy? That’s the way we were just going,” Simon said.

“Well, when we left to truck we were heading East. And my compass says that this way is West.”

“It’s broken! This way is West.” Simon said. Suddenly Anna heard a whispering that sent chills down her spine. She turned to Breanna.

“What did you say?” She asked.

“I didn’t say anything,” Breanna said.

“Will you two knock it off?” Frank said.

“There it is again!” Anna said, spinning around to look behind her.

“I heard that too,” Breanna said.

“Will you guys pick it up!” Simon shouted.

“Look!” David said, pointing behind Simon. They all turned to see a figure of a woman a long distance away. She wore pants and a jacket with a hood so large it cast a shadow upon her face. Long wavy blonde hair hung in front of her but the thing that they were most concerned about was the large branch that she held over her should that was sharp enough to kill. And this time, they all heard the chilling whisper.

“Trespassers are not welcomed.”

Finish The End! All readers are welcome to share the way they want to end this story. Message me or send me an email and send me your ending! It can be as short or as long as you would like. I will publish it on Wattpad at Almb40 in bold and italic and give all credit to you!