Chapter Text
Chapter One
Jonathan drove up to the forest, Will sitting in the passenger seat next to him. The car ride was silent, except for the quiet static of the car’s radio. They didn’t say a word to each other as Will got out of the car and grabbed his bags, the two having gotten into an argument on the way to the forest.
As Will walked away from the car he heard the sound of the gravely dirt path under the tires, and just as Will turned around he saw Johnathan driving away and leaving the forest.
“He’s just being stubborn, he’ll change his mind.” Will muttered under his breath as he slung his camping backpack over his shoulder and started walking into the woods, passing an old sign made of now rotten and moldy wood, with white painted words reading “Welcome to the Red-Wood Forest”.
This was the forest from the myths, he and Johnathan had planned this trip for months, they would camp in the woods for a week or so to prove that nothing was actually happening here, and John had just left him here, alone, because of a stupid argument… What even started it? Will couldn’t remember.
He walked, and walked, and walked, until his legs hurt to the point he needed to take a break. So he did just that. He sat down on a nearby log and he set his bag lazily off to his side as he sat down, taking a few minutes to ease his feet and back while applying some bug spray and sunblock. As he took a break from walking he took a chocolate granola bar out of his camping bag, peeling the wrapper off and taking a bite, chewing for a minute or two before swallowing and taking another bite.
Once Will finished his granola bar he crumpled the wrapper up and dropped it onto the forest floor, then he picked his bag up and continued walking. After another few minutes of walking he eventually came to a stop in the middle of a clearing, an array of older looking stone bricks lay in a formation near the middle of it, as the now cracked and moss covered stones had once been the foundation of a house.
“Hmm… This should be a good place to set up camp.” Will stated quietly to himself, not seeming to notice that he’d spoken his thoughts aloud.
Will then laid his camping bag down before opening it and getting out his tent parts and the instructions, then he got to work setting it up. After a few hours of working on-and-off on the tent he completed it, then he ventured into the nearby forest, grabbing some sticks off the ground and breaking larger sticks off of fallen trees, snapping some of them a bit to get them to the size he’d need for the campfire.
As Will came back to his campsite he would notice that he only had a few more hours of daylight left, so he set the sticks in the burn pit he dug up and decided to explore the foundation of the nearby house, attempting to step over some of the stone bricks only to trip and stumble inside it. Once he caught his balance he noticed immediately that there was something shining underneath the burnt wooden board in front of his feet, lifting it to reveal a metal box with a lock on the lid, and a chain necklace with a silver key on it. Upon picking up and examining the key, Will noticed a red splatter on it, one which looked almost identical to dried blood.
“What the!-” Will remarked to himself as he dropped the key and backed up, almost tripping on the cracked stone bricks that surrounded him, his fear almost palpable in the air around him.
Will then tilted his head with morbid curiosity about the key that was very noticable to him, mostly wondering why the key was bloody, why the box was there, and why it was locked in the first place. These were all questions that swirled around his head as he approached the box and key once more, picking the key up and removing the lock from the box.
The inside of the box was lined with a soft red fabric, and there was a small toy sitting inside it, a Jester doll with stitches all over its body, different shades of red and white fabric. But despite the doll having been inside that box for who knows how long, its coloring wasn’t faded and the white of the doll wasn’t even stained. Will found it creepy and very weird, yet surprisingly cute as well.
Will picked up the box and the chain necklace with the key on it, then he closed the box without locking it, then he started walking back to his campsite, which was less than ten feet away. As Will entered his tent he pulled a small fold-up plastic slab, one he’d bought specifically for this trip so he would have a flat spot to place his food on that wasn’t the ground, and he placed the box on the slab and opened the lid of the box and moved the doll so it was in a seated position. Will almost chuckled at the way its head flopped to the side combined with its silly grin made it seem almost adorable.
Will then unzipped his camping bag once more, taking out his sleeping bag and setting it up, unzipping the tent to check on the sun, which was no longer visible above the treeline and left a beautiful array of vibrant colors that almost looked painted onto the sky, then Will zipped the tent once more and climbed into the sleeping bag and closed his eyes, falling into slumber quicker than he'd previously imagined imagined he would.
Thank you all so much for reading the now updated chapter one. I might post the original chapter at the end of the story for those curious about how it originally read, since there are some scrapped plot-points in it that I didn’t want to add in this updated version.
