Chapter One

The air was dry and cold. The trees were left bare, their leaves scattered across the hard ground. Their skeletal branches reached towards the dusky blue sky, grasping for the last trace of sunlight before it vanished behind the hills. The mountains were silent. Nothing was moving, except for the dry weeds that lined the edge of the dead forest. They brushed back and forth with the freezing wind from the North.

It wasn't an ideal place to go for a hike, given both the temperature and the time of day. However, out on what was left of the abandoned trail that led into the darkening forest, two figures walked along. They talked, and laughed about things they'd experienced; trying to summon courage and warm themselves along the way.

Their breath hung like smoke in the air. They waved their flashlights back and forth, illuminating the path before them. The field of grass that surrounded them just before the woodland grew suddenly still and frigid as they stood before the looming shadows.

“Well, this is it,” said one to another.

He was of average height, and seemingly in his mid-twenties. His eyes were a frosty shade of blue, and his hair was a dark shade of chocolate brown. It went down past his ears, but stopped short before it hit his shoulders. His skin was a dark ivory shade, though it looked paler in the dim light.

The second figure was a woman. She was tall and about twenty or so in age. Her auburn hair was shoulder-length, and spunky. She had wide, brown eyes and pale white skin. She looked brave; ready for adventure to happen.

She took in a deep breath. “I'm so excited!”

“So you should be,” he said with a grin. “If everything they say about this place is true, we should be in a good thrill.”

She lifted her head up, and raised her flashlight in the air. “Bring it on!” she shouted. Her challenge seemed to echo through the desolate landscape. She smiled, pleased with herself.

He winked at her and let out a laugh. “Calm down a bit now, Lottie, we don't want to scare the spooks away.”

Lottie bit her lower lip and rolled her eyes. “Alright, I'll try to keep myself under control. I'm just so excited about this, though. All the stories we've heard – this should be great.”

“Well,” he said, tilting his head, “let's just hope that the locals weren't exaggerating. Wouldn't it suck if we'd come out here for nothing?”

“Wouldn't it!” she echoed. “They seemed pretty sure about it, though.”

He nodded. “They did, didn't they? You can't really fake that look of fear and uncertainty – it was just too real.”

“Geez, Daran, you sound like you're narrating a mystery novel or something,” Lottie said, snorting with laughing.

His eyebrows raised. “Well, you know, I just might turn this little adventure into a novel... provided we make it out alive and all.”

Lottie's eyes brightened. The looming threat of danger was like a drug for the couple. Their lives revolved around adrenaline and seeking adventure. Every day they were either out risking their health for the sake of a thrill, or on the internet looking for somewhere to go to. They'd been all across the country – even out of the country – visiting allegedly haunted places and participating in risky activities. At one point, Daran had declared that they'd dived out or off of most anything that could be dived out of or off of.

By this time, they'd already walked into the woods. The path before them was slowly disappearing beneath leaves and dying plants. It wasn't as though they minded, though. They would rather no path to guide them through the timber, it made the game more fun to play when there wasn't anything to guide them along.

The sun had finally disappeared completely beyond the horizon, leaving the couple in a near complete darkness, save for the dim beams of light their flashlights gave off. They wandered forward, looking back and forth, and up and down. So far, nothing interesting had happened, but that wasn't about to stop them from pressing on.

Their footsteps crunched on the ground as they stepped on dry leaves and broke twigs beneath their shoes. They sniffled repeatedly as they continued to inhale the chilled air. They had gone deep into the forest now, and neither of them quite knew the way back. They'd gone mostly straight since they lost the path, but it was easy to get lost in a large wooded area.

“Do you remember that time we got lost in the mountains, and you kept telling me that one of us was going to have to die to feed the other?” Daran said suddenly, breaking the silence.

Lottie got a look of mischief in her eyes. “I seem to recall saying something like that at one point, yes. Why, do you think we're going to have to resort to cannibalism any time soon?”

“Hopefully not. I was just remembering, that's all.” He flashed his light in the direction of a snapping noise in the distance, only to be dismayed when it turned out to be a squirrel.

“Aren't they supposed to be hibernating or something?” Lottie asked, noticing the frightened animal as it ran from the beam of light.

Daran shrugged. “Actually, no. I don't think squirrels hibernate.”

“They don't?” Lottie said, blinking in surprise. “I could have sworn I read somewhere that they did.”

“Well, if they do, that one is breaking the rules.”

Minutes went by without conversation after that. They were too busy listening for noises or searching for that looked out of place. Perhaps they'd find strange piles of rocks, or an odd ornament of sorts hanging from a tree. Anything that would suggest paranormal activity would be fine with them. They'd driven cross country, after all, to visit this place.

“Wait, I think I heard something,” Lottie murmured in a hushed, but still excited tone of voice. “Did you hear it? It was a big crack or something like that.”

“If only we'd brought a video camera.” Daran smirked and shined the light in the direction of the noise.

Lottie squinted, eyes darting back and forth as she searched for ghosts. “You know, I actually liked that movie,” she said.

“I thought it was alright.”

Both of them stood disappointed when nothing frightening revealed itself to them. Perhaps the locals had been exaggerating the stories of the supposedly haunted forest. To Lottie and Daran, that was a worse case scenario. Finding out that there was nothing thrilling hiding behind the barren trees was an ultimate let-down.

“This is totally lame,” Daran grumbled harshly. “Should we leave?”

Lottie stopped walking and frowned. “How long have we been here?”

“An hour, maybe more.”

“And nothing to show for it, except a squirrel? Yeah, let's get out of here.”

Defeated, they turned around and began headed in the direction they figured would lead them out. Maybe they'd at least get lost, and have to brave a night or two out in the cold. At least that would be better than nothing.

Alas, after a good amount of walking and shivering, they managed to make it out of the woods and back to their car. Neither of them had even a hint of happiness on their faces. They slammed the car doors shut, and Daran slammed his foot against the pedal in disgust. He turned the car away from the forest, and began to head back towards the town.

“I want to give those locals a piece of my mind. That was absolutely pathetic.” Lottie reached to turn on the radio before crossing her arms over her chest.

Daran shook his head. “Hey, don't worry about it. Tomorrow I'll get on the 'net and find us someplace that's guaranteed to be freaky.”

She sighed, tuning the radio to what seemed to be the only station that played music. “Sometimes I worry that we're going to run out of places to visit,” she muttered. “You know, we've run into some really weird things before, but it usually turns out it's easily explainable by science or it was set-up by some people looking to attract tourists.”

“That's not true. We've been to plenty of places where the phenomena is unexplained. Trust me, Lottie, I'll take us someplace really good this time – even if we have to travel across the world to get to it.” It was clear he felt bad about the entire situation. He was happy when Lottie was happy, and when Lottie was unhappy so was he.

They drove to the nearest motel they could find. It was run-down, and the vacancy sign had a few letters burned out, but it was the best they could do. There wasn't much of a choice when they were in such a rural area. It was either stay in a crappy motel, or spend hours driving to the next major town. They chose the former.

Stepping out of the car, they looked around. If they were lucky, the motel would have some sort of a ghost story attached to it – and free Wi-Fi.

They stepped up to the front desk, only to find that no one was there. Magazines – of the dirty kind – were laying on the counter and were scattered on the floor. That alone gave them a good enough idea of who was running the place.

Sure enough, a slightly overweight, middle-aged man with a pug-like face walked from the restroom in the lobby to the desk, wiping his nose on his hand before he sat down.

“How may I help you folks?” he asked, his voice thick and stuffy, with traces of an unidentifiable regional dialect to it.

Daran stepped forward, his face contorted with thinly veiled disgust. “Um, we'd like a room, if that's not too much to ask.”

“Of course you'd like a room. Most people come to motels for the rooms. So, one bed or two?” The middle aged man once again rubbed his leaking nose onto his hand.

“One, please.” Lottie smiled, stepping close to Daran and holding his right arm.

The middle aged man raised his eyebrows, knowingly. “Are you two married, by any chance?” he asked.

“I don't know, Lottie, are we married? I just can't remember,” Daran said jokingly.

She fluffed his hair and giggled before turning to the man at the counter. “Yes, we were married just two months ago, actually. I don't know why it took me so long to say yes to his proposals. You know, we spent our wedding night in a graveyard!”

The motel manager stared at them both. “Okay,” he said, drawing out the word. “One room for the newly married couple. You'd better not be lying about your matrimony, by the way. I hate it when they do that.”

As if on cue, Daran and Lottie held out their hands to display their wedding rings.

“It's legit, Mr. Moral Guardian,” Lottie smirked.

The motel manager was unamused by the sarcasm. “Right this way, please,” he said, motioning for them to follow him towards the stairs. “You know, there's only about five people total staying here – seven, counting the both of you. Business is slow out here. Mostly, they're here to explore the old Witch's Forest –”

“We just did that. We were both terribly disappointed by the lack of actual paranormal activity,” said Lottie, looking sour at the very thought of their failed trip.

“Don't you know there's no such thing as ghosts?” the motel manager questioned as he unlocked the door to a musky-smelling room.

Daran put on a fake look of shock. “No such thing as ghosts?” he echoed. “My dear sir, ghosts are as real as you or I!”

“Huh. You actually believe that?”

They both nodded, taking their bags in and setting them down on the floor. The motel manager gave them a look of disbelief before he left, shutting the door behind him.

Lottie walked over to the bed and sat on it, bouncing lightly up and down to make the springs squeak.

“It's a terrible mattress,” she concluded after a few seconds of inspection.

Daran stretched his arms and sat down next to her. “Were you expecting anything other than that?” he asked.

“Nope, not really,” Lottie said, also stretching. “Say, maybe tomorrow at breakfast we could catch a few of those people before they leave and ask them if they know any good places to go to. The manager did say that they were here for the ghosts.”

He nodded, taking off his shirt and tossing it to the side. “That's a good idea. And maybe if they're avid adventurers, like us, we can invite them to come a long.”

“Oh! Wouldn't that be fun?” she exclaimed. “Though it might take away some of the atmosphere, having several other people babbling on about stuff as we walk around.”

Daran lay back on the bed, avoiding slipping under the sheets for hygiene related reasons. He ran his fingers through his hair, smoothing it back. “I'm sure if they're like us, they won't be doing much talking,” he said.

She crawled up next to him and smiled sweetly. “Goodnight Daran,” she whispered, turning out the light.

“Goodnight, Lottie.”

--

The next morning, Daran was the first to wake up, albeit groggily and hesitantly. He grabbed Lottie's shoulder and shook her back and forth couple times to wake her up before he went to explore the shower.

She protested vocally to being awakened in such a harsh, abrupt manner. She rolled over, her arm over her forehead now. Her eyes slowly opened and she groaned, slamming a fist down into the pillow.

“Daran?” she murmured sleepily.

Lottie looked around, only to find he'd already rushed off to take a shower before she. Bothered she sat up, doing her best to fix her hair with her hands. When this failed, she reached over inside her travel bag and pulled out a brush. If she couldn't shower immediately, she'd have to settle for second best – looking decent until she could wash.

“Hurry up, Daran!” Lottie yelled, trying to make herself heard above the sound of running water.

She imagined that the quality of the shower wouldn't be good, just like everything in the dingy motel. The water would likely run too hot, then too cold, and who knew when the tub had last been cleaned.

After a couple more minutes of waiting, she began to grow impatient. “Seriously, Daran, get out here. I want to take a freaking shower!” she called.

The sound of running water stopped, and was replaced with distant clamor. After a few moments, Daran opened the door and walked out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel. Lottie jumped up off the bed and pushed him to the side, slamming the door to the bathroom behind her.

“Hey, you know I only showered for five or ten minutes. Your showers typically take thirty whole minutes,” he grumbled, though not loud enough for her to hear. “Why so impatient?”

He dried himself off thoroughly and rummaged through his suitcase for something to wear. He finally settled on a blue cotton polo and a pair of black jeans. He put his clothing on and pulled his laptop out. To his dismay, there was no internet connection. One look around the room also revealed the lack of a television set.

Daran was left with nothing to do except wait for Lottie to get out of the bathroom. Luckily, she didn't take too long to finish. She rushed to get dressed and ready so that they could hopefully meet other like-minded individuals at breakfast.

“Ready?” she asked Daran as she walked towards the door.

He laughed. “As I'll ever be.”

They walked down the stairs side by side, following the scent of eggs and sausage to the breakfast area. To their surprise, it actually looked rather decent. It was as though the motel owners had sacrificed every other nice thing for the sake of a good-looking breakfast bar.

Sitting at the largest table were four people, chatting together about just the things Daran and Lottie wanted to hear. They gathered breakfast for themselves before approaching the table, like the new kids at school.

“Hey there. We couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about – we're thrill seekers, dare devils – something like that. Do you mind if we join you?” Daran asked.

A woman with long, light brown hair who was wearing far too much makeup despite not needing it nodded and motioned for them to sit down.

“You too, eh?” she said. “Were you just as disappointed with the Witch's Forest as we were?”

Lottie sat down and nodded. “Were we ever! All that build-up for nothing.”

“My name is Daisy Burke,” the woman said. “I'm a professional ghost hunter. This is my partner and brother, Terrence Burke. He's not exactly as zealous about the paranormal as I am, but he's handy to have around.”

Terrence was a lanky man with short, wheat blond hair, wearing thick-rimmed glasses. His brown eyes were droopy, and he looked as if he hadn't slept a wink the night before. He gave Daran and Lottie a slight wave before going back to eating.

Daisy then pointed at the other two people at the table. “That's Hayley Willis and Zack Miller. I just met them, so I can't say much about them. They seem rather interesting, though.”

Hayley Willis was a short woman with platinum blond hair and blue-green eyes. She seemed bored, and was halfheartedly stabbing at a piece of Canadian bacon on her plate.

Zack Miller seemed much more alert and interested. He had spiky black hair and very dark brown eyes that almost looked black as well. He was well-muscled, and had high cheekbones and a charming smile.

“It's nice to meet you all,” said Lottie. “My name is Lottie Fox, and this is my husband, Daran.”

Daisy reached out across the table to shake hands with each of them. “So, six people interested in the same thing,” she said. “We should do something with this.”

At this, Zack took a swig of orange juice and nodded rapidly. “You know what? Let's all get together and go on a little trip,” he suggested. “I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. I want to go to what they call theworld's most haunted place.”

Lottie perked up, listening attentively. “The world's most haunted place?” she repeated. “Where would that be?”

“On an island in the Atlantic ocean. Allegedly, it's got more ghostly activity than any other place in the entire world,” he said. “I have the funds and the transportation to get out there. I was just waiting for some good travel companions.”

“I don't want to go,” Hayley growled. “I am sick and tired of you dragging me everywhere with you.”

Zack shot Hayley a look of malice before turning back to everyone else. “So, what do you say?”

Daran grinned widely. “It sounds great to me. Lottie and I would love to join you.”

“So would Terrence and I,” Daisy said. Her green eyes were glimmering with the anticipation of adventure. “I'd never pass up such a good opportunity.”

“Ghosts don't exist!” Hayley piped up angrily. “You idiots are wasting your time.”

She was once again silently berated by Zack, who bared and gritted his teeth at her. “Don't mind her,” he said to the others. “She's on her period or something like that.”

“It's like you want me to break up with you,” Hayley murmured, glaring at him with disgust.

The others were visibly unsettled by the tension between the couple, but none of them wanted to say anything about it.

“So, it's settled then,” Zack said to them. He pulled out a stack of cards from his pocket and passed them around. “This has my home number and address on it. Contact me by the end of next week if you're still interested by then, and we'll arrange a nice trip to Hell.”

Lottie's heart was pounding with excitement. Perhaps this would be the ultimate thrill that she and Daran had been seeking. She stared at the card that Zack had given her, and then she looked at Daran. He was just as excited as she was.

“This is going to be great,” he whispered to her.

“Yeah,” she whispered back happily, “it is.”

After a half hour of excited chatter and planning among the thrill-seekers, everyone was ready to disperse. They checked out of the motel and said their goodbyes to each other before going to their respective vehicles and pulling away from the shabby motel.

In their car, Lottie and Daran looked ready to burst. Thoughts of danger and fright were going through their minds, which only increased their enthusiasm. They exchanged little words, but their facial expressions told all. They sped down the highway with rock n' roll blasting from the radio. If all went well, this would be one of the most fun things they'd ever done.

And perhaps the most thrilling.

A/N: This year I decided I'd post my NaNoWriMo as I went along, writing it. Don't kill me in the reviews or anything. It's tough to write decently under pressure. ;D