It was a typical Saturday afternoon in Vermont when the falling of red-orange leaves made way for cabin fever. Winters were long in their part of the world

Amelia Bradford wanted to burst into laughter as the look on her boyfriend's face moved from tenderness to mock-terrifying. "Before the frost hits the ground, it seems only right to make you a proposal, Amelia."

Her eyes widened as Avery's mysterious voice, an imitation of the narrator in every horror film, spoke up. "I propose we go on a picnic in Alderfall Forest before the long winter keeps us inside for the next six months of slush. We can even see if it is..."

Avery paused for a moment for dramatic effect. "...as haunted as the town believes it to be. I dare you!"

A menacing look passed over his face before he fell over in genuine laughter, putting his arm around Amelia. 

"Amelia! You should see your face. I didn't mean actually to scare you. I was practising my evil voice for Jeremy's next movie. I'm going to get to kill Angelina."

She dropped the look of terror, punching Avery in the arm. At twenty, Amelia and Avery were in their final year of college and full of dreams. Her heart had stopped at the word proposal, but not out of fright.

We've been together for five years. Angelina says he'll propose before we graduate.

Amelia's eyes were slightly melancholy, and she giggled. "It was a good performance, but it's hard to picture you as the killer."

She turned a light pink as Avery leaned in to kiss her. "I'm serious about the forest, though." Avery sported the kind of boyish grin that made it impossible to argue with his ideas.

"I'm going with Jeremy and Angelina to get some footage for the movie. I know that stuff bores you to death, so how about a nice picnic as an incentive?"

From under the well-worn table in the student commons, Avery produced a picnic basket with a flourish. Amelia snorted, secretly impressed. "You're going to make a great director one day. You think of everything."

Her heart melted a little at the immodest, crooked grin on Avery's face. "I do, don't I! I shall be the director extraordinaire!"

Amelia knew he meant it. After graduation, Amelia planned to stay put and work toward her MBA. She came from an affluent but not ostentatious family that valued education and hard work. Avery, on the other hand, was a few months shy of a theatre degree and had no concrete plans.

She'd known Avery since sophomore year of high school. He was a dreamer and a charmer, in love with all things theatrical. He went from wanting to be a screenwriter one day to plan to become a world-famous actor the next.

At the end of his junior year of high school, he'd looked nervous and abashed as he asked Amelia to prom. The two were a couple ever since, absolutely inseparable.

Amelia's mother was troubled by Avery's lack of direction. It was her greatest fear in life that any of her four children wouldn't find the kind of contentment she had. "I don't know that he's the kind Amelia can count on for stability."

"I'm not worried." Amelia's father had replied with a shrug. "Once he comes back down to Earth, he'll start teaching English and putting on high school musicals. She'll work in a nice office, and they'll build a happy life. You coddle her too much. She's only twenty, but acts like she's forty already."

Amelia knew the words were right. That's why she loved Avery's sense of whimsy and never-ending attraction to adventure. It brought out a different side to the shy girl. "When are we going?"

His crooked smile lit up. "Well, since you agreed so easily, let's go! Jeremy has his van in the parking lot, along with Angelina, who is no doubt complaining about how she needs to stop and get coffee to function. Brad is coming, too."

Amelia rolled her eyes a little. Brad was the most recent addition to the group and grated on her nerves. "Ugh. He's intolerable. I mean, I know actors are like that, but the world has to revolve around him, or he sulks like a child."

Her boyfriend let out a dramatic pretend cough. "Ahem. I think you meant some actors are like that." Avery winked at her playfully, grasping her hand as he carried the basket in the other.

"Besides, he's the one who suggested the Alderfall Forest. It has the tallest trees, and he said it would make us famous if we caught sight of Mirabelle." Avery's voice sounded amused. "If nothing else, it gave Jeremy the name of the movie. We're going to call it 'Mirabelle's Revenge'."

Amelia frowned, not liking the note of intrigue in Avery's voice as he says the name. "Who is Mirabelle? No real person could seriously be named that."

She grasped his hand a little tighter. "Don't worry. Brad will spend most of the hour-long drive talking about it. Mirabelle is a legend. People say she haunts the forest. I doubt she'd come out in the daytime, but imagine how fast that would go viral. We'd be YouTube celebs!"

Amelia shook her head as they walked to the van. She adored Avery, but even the most ludicrous things would capture the imaginations of Avery and his friends. Amelia knew her responsible nature was a buzzkill. She was ever the sensible one. As was often the case, Amelia said nothing in reply.

*************

The hour-long trip to the forest went much as Amelia predicted. She sat in the backseat with Avery next to her, her head resting on his shoulder. Jeremy and Angelina were the boisterous sorts, perpetually performing to an invisible audience.

They didn't care and cranked up songs Amelia had never heard. In the end, everyone sang along, even Avery. "You should listen to more music, Amy. It's impossible to be unhappy when you're singing show tunes."

Amelia cringed, hating the nickname almost as much as the show tunes. She was relieved when Angelina turned down the music and announced., "Oh my God, my throat is so dry now, and it's cold for October. Let's stop and get those Pumpkin Spice coffee things!"

Amelia could hear Jeremy rolling his eyes. "Angie, I told you to get coffee before we left."

Angelina pouted like the natural performer and high-maintenance princess she was. "C'mon, please? There's a Starbucks at the next exit." 

Amelia liked Angelina but found her demands tiring. The other girl's worst fear was that the world would ignore her existence. Amelia felt guilty, but she sometimes pretended not to hear the petite prima donna's constant litany of concerns.

Jeremy never did, though. He doted on Angelina like they were an old married couple. In reality, they weren't even involved. Innocent as always, Amelia had remarked on the sweet way Jeremy treated his partner-in-crime.

Angelina had burst out laughing. "Oh my God, seriously. I'm not his type. No girl on Earth's Jeremy's type, if you know what I mean." Angelina looked chagrined, brushing her dark auburn curls back. "Don't repeat that. I mean, he'd rather die than have people say that out loud. That's why I don't care if people think him and me are---you know, whatever. We protect each other."

Amelia never repeated anything, but she felt stupid for being so sheltered and oblivious. She wondered why the other girl would need protection. Angelina was small in stature but feisty and self-assured. She was the sort of girl full of curves and perfectly polished nails.

Jeremy and Angelina couldn't wait to graduate and move to Manhattan. While a year was too short for Amelia, it was an eternity for her friends.

The tires squealed as Jeremy maneuvered the van off at the exit. Amelia clung to Avery, whose eyes danced at the look of fright on her face. "Calm down. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to us, not even with Jeremy's bad driving."

"I heard that!" Jeremy's voice yelled back to them. "I didn't want to miss the exit and risk Angie dying without coffee. Five Grande Pumpkin Spice Lattes, please?" He handed over a well-worn Starbucks card.

"This trip is the last chance we have to film the autumn leaves in Vermont, you guys. The forecast says the first snow is rolling in before Halloween this year." The van falls silent as the reality of it being their last year sinks in.

Amelia was surprisingly thankful when Brad broke the silence. "Does everyone want to hear the legend now, the story about Mirabelle? She visited me in a dream, you know."

Mollified by the warm cup of coffee in her hands as Jeremy passed everyone else their coffee, Amelia shyly pulled her unremarkable dark blonde hair into a ponytail as her eyes finally paid attention to Brad. "Mirabelle sounds like a made-up name. What did she say to you, in the dream?"

Amelia ignored the slightly condescending half-smirk on Brad's face as he replied. "She's not made up at all. She was a pretty young thing, with jet-black hair and crimson lips and a figure made for the movies. It was back in the 1940s when she went missing."

Jeremy started to drive again, but all eyes and ears were on Brad. "Everyone in the Northeast was scared to death, especially in the small towns. One evening, Mirabelle went out with two other girls for drinks. None of them ever came back. Instead, they found the car abandoned in Alderfall forest, lying on its side."

Amelia's eyes met Avery's like a little shudder of fear enveloped her. He pulled her closer, almost instinctively. "Mirabelle died in a car accident?"

Brad shook his head. Amelia hated the way his eyes looked at her as if he got some perverse pleasure from frightening her. "Of course everyone thought that. The two girls in the car, though, they had marks around their necks, strangled to death. It was no accident."

He eyed Amelia as he spoke. "The third girl was never found. The last time anyone claimed to have seen her, she was running through the forest clad in black, barefoot, with pieces of a red tattered scarf. Whenever people go missing in Alderfall Forest, everyone calls it Mirabelle's Revenge."

The silence hung in the car like an eerie passenger. Jeremy said, "It reminds me of this movie I saw about a beautiful actress who disappeared. They show her looking the way you described Mirabelle. She was called "The Black Dahlia".

"I don't like that story. Mirabelle sounds like me." Angelina interjected, her brows pushed together in concern. "I don't want to be creeped out about the forest, please."

Brad nodded his head in agreement, finishing the story. "Police remembered the Black Dahlia. They also thought maybe Mirabelle was the killer. It's possible she got away with it and lived as a fugitive until she died of old age. Still, I see her in my dreams sometimes, so I have to go looking for her even if it's a silly legend."

Amelia's eyes were full of doubt, and she couldn't help but think Brad made this whole thing up for attention. It was hard to fit into a new group. Amelia couldn't put her finger on it, but something about Brad seemed "off". The way he delighted in this less-than-upbeat story didn't help.

"What does she say, then, when you dream about her?" Amelia turned toward Brad, asking the question despite herself.

Brad's lips turned up into a mocking smile that makes Amelia's stomach turn over a few times. "She never says much that I can remember. Her black eyes stare into mine, and she says, "Show me what you fear the most."

The light faded from Brad's eyes, and he almost whispers the final part. "I always feel paralysed, as if I should run but I can't. Mirabelle is like a Siren. She puts her hand on my shoulder, and whispers into my ear, "Dare you."

Amelia sank into Avery's shoulder, letting him hold her in his protective way. She didn't care if everyone thought her a soft and fragile child not grown-up enough yet for these kinds of adventures. Amelia was starting to think it was true.

She couldn't leave Brad alone for some reason, poking at him even when he fell into quiet reflection. "Maybe Mirabelle has a crush on you. What's she daring you to do, anyway? What's your greatest fear?"

Brad's eyes flash as he looks over the dreamy-eyed Avery to face Amelia. "I don't have one, Amelia. I never run, and I never flinch. That must be why she chose me."

His voice held a triumphant note, but Amelia could see cold eyes full of hatred.

Brad leaned back in his seat, and the van was oddly quiet, minutes marked by the clicking of tires against the now gravel road. Angelina played on her phone.

Like Amelia herself, Angelina undoubtedly noticed the signal bars disappeared slowly. The trees were taller and created ominous shadows that made Amelia forget it was afternoon.

After fifteen minutes of disturbed silence, Jeremy called out. "We are officially in the middle of nowhere, folks! Alderfall Forest is to the left. Wake up, and let's go make a movie!"

"And have a picnic." Amelia smiles brightly as Avery's words whisper into her ear, as reassuring as a caress.

Angelina yawned loudly and put her cup in the cup holder. "Come on, guys! Let's make some memories."

Standing about five-foot-one, Angelina was not easily dissuaded from a good time. "Are you guys still freaking out over Brad's ghost story? There are no ghosts in the forest. It's us making a movie and being awesome. Mirabelle is me wearing a wig, that's it!"

Angelina walked around to the back of the van with Jeremy, slinging a bag over her shoulder. One by one, the others followed suit. Amelia was still unnaturally pale, and whispered to Avery, "I'm still freaked out. I don't like Brad, either. He gives me a bad feeling."

"I know, sweetheart. It was creepy, but you've got to admit, you get startled easier than anyone I've ever known. It's part of your charm." Avery kissed Amelia quickly while no one was watching.

"Okay, future stars of America! Since we're all loaded down with thirty extra pounds of equipment, race you to the forest!" Angelina's naturally well-projected voice disturbed any sense of quiet in the wilderness, and she flipped her hair over a shoulder carelessly.

Amelia could see the colour matched the leaves, bringing out a natural beauty hidden behind too much make-up.

Everyone moved slowly in response, but the diminutive Angelina took off scampering with excitement, even with thirty extra pounds on her frame.

"Come on!" She turned her head to look at the group and giggled before moving deeper into the forest. "Dare you!"

Word Count: 2498