Into The Forest Of Secrets

Chapter 7

Laxy POV

The mermaids let out a scream at us as if warning us not to come near them. They couldn’t reach us as they needed to stay in the water. A loud hiss came from the mermaid as she grabbed a rock to throw it at Aiden, hoping to hit him. Aiden held the rock effortless as his mouth twitched in anger. I must admit it was impressive. He dropped the stone onto the ground, not wanting to anger them any further.

One of the mermaids swam around aggressively, and she wasn’t happy with our presence as she swam closer to the shore. The soft melody started to play again; the mermaid opened her mouth and began to sing with the melody. Her voice was gentle yet ghostly. I felt my body relax to her voice but slowly started to lose control over it. My vision started to go black as all sounds faded except her voice; my body began to move on its own as if she paralyzed me. My body has a mind of its own as I started to feel it moving.

I couldn’t see where I was going, but her voice started getting louder the more I moved; it felt like I was moving towards her. My body came to a complete stop, but the song continued; I felt hands grabbing my ankle as nails dug into my skin. The melody was coming to a halt as well as the song. I heard a high pitch scream yell out my name.

“Laxy!!!”

I snapped out of the trace as I face Meg’s ax coming down onto the mermaid hands that were wrapped around my ankle, cutting them off. The mermaid screamed in pain as she swam back, hissing at meg in the process.

“You i***t!” Meg yelled at me.

I was shocked at how she didn’t hesitate to cut off the hands of the mermaid; my eyes widen as I let out a small scream, quickly kicking the hands off of me. I crouched next to meg, who was fuming in anger. She pulled me away from the water. The once clear blue water started to turn red from the mermaid spilling blood; they weren’t beautiful creatures anymore. They were vicious. 

Preston came out from the bushes as he turned human, “I found an entrance behind the waterfall.” He brushed away the leaves.

“Eh? Behind the waterfall?” The mysterious man looked at the mermaids who were waiting for us to get closer.

He nodded his head and motion for us to follow; Meg gave me a glance making sure I would follow. I rushed to her side as we followed Preston. We went around the lake, keeping as much distance as possible. A mermaid reached over to grab me again, but my reflex kicked in this time as I kicked her hand away before she could touch me. We reached a small path leading behind the waterfall. We carefully made our way, our back against the wall the closer we got to the waterfall. We walked through, leaving the angry mermaids behind; it was a dark cave. 

“Alright, so now what?” Aiden crossed his arms, questioning Preston.

“Well, there is a light further down into the cave; we can follow that” He spoke proudly of himself.

“And what happens when it’s a dead-end, mister?” Aiden said with a hint of smugness in his tone.

“Well, umm…” Preston huffed, annoyed by Aiden, “It was our only way out unless you want to go back to angry mermaids and have them eat you alive, sure you enjoy that. You are the definition of a masochist; if anything, why don’t you test out the mermaids for us and see how bad they are.”

That shut Aiden up real quickly as Meg let out a small laugh enjoying the feud between them.

I cleared my throat, getting their attention, “Let us just focus on the task at hand right now.” I pushed past them, going ahead.

I walked forward, hearing the water drip as it hit the ground; a small light started to form ahead of us as it lit up the cave. There were doors with animal prints on each door. An old podium stood in the middle of the room, writing on it. 

The mysterious man walked over to it, “Welcome to the first puzzle; you have six doors in front of you. Only one leads to your freedom; pick wisely. The odd one out will be the door you are seeking.” He read it out loud.

I looked at the doors, two on the right, two on the left, and two in the middle. On the right, it was an eagle and a hawk; on the left, it was a shark and a killer whale, and in the middle, there was a fox and a zebra.

“Two sea animals, two land animals, and two birds,” Meg spoke, scanning each door.

“Sooooo, who the odd one out?” Aiden questioned.

“I don’t know, Aiden, why don’t you try and figure it out,” Preston said to him, smirking in the process.

Aiden glared at him, ready to kill him but kept his cool. I looked at the doors.

The odd one out is our freedom?

Eagle and hawk are both predators, so that’s a pair; a shark and killer whale are also a pair because they are predators. That leaves a fox and a zebra. A fox is a predator, and that leaves the zebra, which is prey. It’s the zebra!

“It’s the zebra!” I yelled out.

They looked at me, confused and unsure about my choice.

“Why the zebra?” The mysterious man questioned me.

“Because it’s the only prey animal on the list,” I answered him. 

The mysterious man continued to stare at me before looking back at Preston, ignoring what I just said. I was appalled. I watched them as they talked to figure it out, my mouth twitching in anger; making my way over to them, I raised my foot and stepped down onto the mysterious man’s foot. He winced in pain.

“The hell you do that for!?!” He yelled at me.

I crossed my arms, waiting for them to have their attention on me because this is getting ridiculous.

“What do you want,” He glared at me.

“I said it was the zebra door because it’s the only prey out of all of them,” I spoke harshly.

He rolled his eyes at me, “Yea, we heard you, but how do we know we can trust you?”

I let my mouth fall wide open, thinking he was crazy that I send them in a trap,” I’m not trying to kill myself here! Just because I am a human and you don’t trust me, it doesn’t mean I am planning my death with you guys!”

He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off, “No, you don’t get to make an excuse; you can follow me if you want to, but this human reason you keep using needs to stop. I blindly followed you guys here, and the least you can offer me is respect!” 

Meg’s ears perk up and smiling softly at me, “Well, if that is it, then I trust you.”

I looked at meg, seeing her gaze turn gentle, and it made my heart ease a bit; I couldn’t help but smile back at her. Aiden’s mouth twitches, and he walks over to the door with the zebra print on it; he pushes it open. I smiled brightly and walked past Aiden, going through the door.

“Well, let us hope I am right then,” I whispered to myself, a bit unsure about my choice.

The others shortly followed me, and it was a narrow path leading to a pair of stairs going down. It said this was our first puzzle; then there are more coming. I looked at the stairs; I hope the second puzzle won’t be challenging or dangerous. The forest has shown signs of it being alive; it wasn’t a regular forest, something about the mermaids changing and the boulders turning into monsters as soon as a melody plays. Who is controlling the forest?