Tuesday, October 11th, 2016

After getting permission from their parents to spend the night at the Bray's residence, Sid had picked Cory up at home to guide him towards their home. Cory was understandably nervous, but Davy's confident attitude made him feel slightly better. He had been silent for most of the evening, obviously not knowing how to act around Janet and Carlo—Annika and Davy's parents. Sid had told himself he needed to invite Cory over more often, to show him that he was just as much welcome as the rest of his friends.

But it wasn't important in that moment. Because that evening, they had been looking further into the woods and its history, and Davy and Cory would try to aim for a stronger connection with Angie, hopefully enabling them to see her during the day as well.

Sid himself was nervous too, and that hadn't been solved by Davy's confidence. He still clearly remembered how he felt when Angie had left him briefly, to show him what to look out for. He didn't ever want to feel like that again.

And now Angie wouldn't be present to protect him for at least a couple of hours. Hours in which he would be vulnerable.

But it was important. The more people Angie had to share information with, the bigger the chance was that they would find out what was going on, and how to stop it from haunting Sid. Besides, it would be a lot easier if he didn't constantly have to pass on her words to everyone; Cory and Davy could do the same once they managed to make a strong enough connection.

When they eventually settled for the night, Sid was slightly trembling with nerves, and Annika was doing her best to comfort him. It just wasn't helping at all, since Sid still didn't understand how Annika was going to keep the shadow away. But he tried pushing it to the back of his mind, pulled her in his arms, and tried to catch some sleep, knowing it was going to be a challenge to fall asleep.

As expected, Annika fell asleep before he did, leaving him more nervous than he already had been.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he did manage to fall asleep, but when he did, his dream was weird from the beginning. For starters, Angie wasn't there and after so many nights in a row of dreaming with her, it felt lonely.

He did dream about the woods, but he didn't recognize the place he was at from when they had been in the woods. By now, he knew enough to know there were some cabins spread throughout the woods, and he was standing in front of one of them. There was no way of telling which one, Lake Ranger Cabin, or Hunters Lodge. The rest of the cabins—The Devlin Cabins—were grouped alongside the lake, and that wasn't where he was at.

It felt as if he wasn't dreaming his own dream, as he watched a man get out of the cabin in the dark, with a riffle in hand. Without having a choice, he was forced to follow along as the man walked away from the cabin, down a path that led slightly uphill.

It felt like hours as he was forced to follow him through the woods, until the man went off path, walked for another few minutes, and settled close by a river. His vision blurred, until it went dark, and he suddenly stood in a different part of the forest. The man was hiding behind a tree, when his vision blurred again, and he saw quick flashes of the man in different places of the woods, until he heard a shot being fired. Everything he saw turned red, as if washed over by blood, while his vision focused on a different man, on the ground, with a single shot wound through his chest.

Sid wanted to scream, yell, call out for help, when darkness started to creep up from all sides. Another collection of images from the first man flashed in front of his eyes, the guy now covered in blood as he stared at him with glowing red eyes, laughing like a maniac.

He had no way of getting away from the darkness, as the black smoke rolled over the ground, closer towards him, engulfing the man in its path. It swallowed the guy who was shot, and Sid felt his chest tighten, as breathing became more difficult every second. An immense sense of hatred and anger washed over him, followed by the worst sadness he could imagine. One that made him want to jump of a cliff to just end everything right there and then.

It felt as if his world was going to implode and explode at the same time, his breath hitching by the heavy feeling. He panicked, grabbing hold of his throat, wanting to desperately open his airways again while he swirled around to look for a way out. A path away from the darkness.

Sid felt as if he was being hit in his face. He closed his eyes, sinking to his knees as he started to feel dizzy. He was being shaken back and forth, and the darkness slightly retreated the moment it felt as if an earthquake hit the forest.

"Sid!"

Sid grasped for air, opening his eyes, finding Annika staring down on him with wide eyes.

"For fucks sake!" Annika cried out, hugging him tightly as she seemed to be sobbing. "What the hell was that!?"

"I... I don't know," Sid whispered, still slightly in shock, "I had a nightmare."

"Not just a nightmare! You were chocking yourself!"

"What? I was... what?"

Sid stared at her bewildered, noticing movement in the far corner of the room, from the corner of his eye. When he looked to see if it was Angie, he choked on his own breath when a dark shadow figure stood silently in the room, staring at him with the same glowing red eyes he had just seen in his nightmare. "I, I need Angie," Sid whispered in shock, "right now!"

"Wha—"Annika yelped when he grabbed her wrist, "Sid, stop! You need to calm down. It was a nightmare, you're fine."

Sid wanted to push her away so that he could run to Davy's room and wake them all up, but when Annika pulled him in her arms, the glowing eyes seemed to fade, and shortly after, the entire shadow figure vanished into thin air. Whatever Annika had done, it had scared it away, and Sid felt his body relax into her arms, while she whispered into his ear that he was safe, and it had all been a dream.

Wednesday, October 12th, 2016

Sid was still trying to make sense of the things he had seen that night, when Davy and Cory entered the kitchen, the former yawning shamelessly. Neither looked like they had much sleep, and Sid knew how they felt. Angie could be a bit much, even if she was talking to them in a dream.

Davy stretched his stiff muscles with his arms up in the air before he slipped onto the chair opposite from Sid. Cory silently sat down next to him.

"Morning, fools," Davy mumbled while Janet handed him a plate with his breakfast.

"Morning, boys," she cheerfully greeted them, pecking a kiss on top of Davy's head, earning a scowl in return. "Did you all sleep well? Sid, no trouble sleeping anymore?"

Sid shook his head, denying the fact he had just woken up from one of the worst nights so far. The glowing eyes had followed him in every dream, and hugging Annika had seemed to be the only way to get it to leave him alone.

"Could be worse," he replied with a shrug, when neither Davy, nor Cory, responded to her initial question addressed to them all. Sid wondered how things went. Whenever Angie was around him, he slept fine. He just couldn't ask them about it as long as Janet was in the same room, or within hearing distance.

But then Angie appeared next to him, humming happily as she descended on an empty chair, ignoring the stack of books on top of it. Sid curiously looked over at his friends, who both shortly looked at Angie before focusing on their food again.

As soon as Janet left, he leaned over, close enough for them to hear him while he whispered: "so, I guess it worked? You guys see her?"

"Uhu," Davy replied with a nod, side-eyeing Angie annoyed, "you could've warned us about her hyperactivity though."

"Oh, yeah, you're in for something now," Sid replied with a chuckle, leaning back, smiling happily at Angie. At least he wasn't alone in it anymore. At least he now knew for sure he wasn't going crazy, seeing the ghost of a nine-year-old girl.

"We have an hour in between classes today," Cory said as soon as they heard Janet head upstairs again, "and we suggest going to the library and look more into her death and the details."

"Yeah, uh," Sid replied, scratching his head as he looked at Annika, "I kind of have a few questions for Angie about this shadow thing, and it is a bit more urgent, I think."

"What questions?" Angie asked, perking up in her seat.

"I... had a nightmare. But it wasn't a normal one," Sid told them, keeping his voice down just in case. "That shadow was there, and when I woke up, it was in the room until Annika pulled me in a hug."

He was glad Annika and he had already discussed the matter in her room before, so she wouldn't react shocked once he admitted seeing the shadow figure with glowing red eyes in real life.

"Don't forget to mention that you chocked yourself in your sleep the first time," Annika added, sending him an annoyed look. She leaned closer, pulling down the collar of his hoodie. But the red marks and bruises he had caused himself, weren't there any longer.

"Huh?" Annika frowned confused, but Angie interrupted her, causing all three boys to focus on her instead.

"You healed, how surprising," she said as she made a gesture to tell them it wasn't impressive. Apparently, it wasn't weird for paranormal wounds to disappear just as quickly as they showed. "What questions?"

"I saw a man, well, actually two but one of them was a victim. The other guy shot him."

Angie's eyes went wide for a split second before she recollected herself and nodded her head. "Baywick."

"Who?" Cory asked hesitantly.

"Baywick, founder of this area. The woods, mainly. I've seen him around a few times. Always shortly before things go haywire in the woods. I was going to tell you guys to read more into him too, yeah. I stay the hell away from him because he's always around that shadow and I don't know if he's it, or he's helping it."

"Oh, he is it," Sid replied, shuddering at the mere memory of Baywick's red eyes, staring at him in his dream.

"What is she saying?" Annika asked, pulling Sid's sleeve nervously.

"That we need to read into Baywick, founder of the woods," Cory replied, handing her a paper where he wrote most of Angie's words onto. "Let's use our free hour, and after school, to find out who he was."

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