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The forest was alive. It was easy to tell, looking at the green leaves and glowing flowers by the sides of the road.
But at the same time, it felt soulless. As if all this cheerful, brightness was just a facade, sending unsuspecting adventurers in a calm state only to scare them out of their skin later.
Adrien had never anticipated that he would end up in a situation like this. Alone in the forest, a day of walking from the closest village, with the bare minimum of water and food.
At least, his lucky charm was with him.
He found it one day before going out to the city on the brink of his door with the note to keep it close to him. That it was a lucky charm that would defend him from dark forces and spirits. The note was anonymous but somehow, somewhere deep inside him, Adrien knew that it was true.
And now, standing on the fork, he was playing with it, trying to figure out which way he should go because there weren’t any forks on his map and other people that he had met didn’t mention it.
“If you have a fork, bring the knife.”
A sudden voice behind made him jump and turn around.
No one was there.
“Take a knife and count to five,” the same voice whispered in his ear.
“Who are you? Where are you?” Adrien’s voice shook as he looked around.
“If you see me, count to one,” the voice said above him.
Adrien looked up and saw nothing. Except a big dangerous smile
“Now you’re ready, run!” The smile said and seemed to get closer to him.
The voice didn’t need to tell him twice, and Adrien started to sprint through the middle of the forest.
As he was running, Adrien noticed that the forest around him had started to change. The bright, colourful flowers turned into dark, poisonous lianas, the leaves on the trees shriveled and disappeared, leaving bare branches looming over him dangerously. But he still was running, clutching his lucky charm very tightly.
“Oh, just look at this beauty that walked in the den of the beast,” the voice appeared again, this time it was somewhere in front of him.
Adrien tripped, trying to stop running, and fell to the ground.
Right under someone’s feet.
“The beast is getting ready, it's time for their feast.” Now that the voice was close to him, Adrien could tell that it was a female voice, though it didn’t give more information about it’s wielder.
“But look at this, this lonely, scaredy man,” okay, that was a little insulting but, it was true. He was shaking in fear. The voice, the dark, the fakeness of the forest - they were pressuring him, making him feel miserable, powerless, someone who was going to accept his fate even if it was a death.
“Had enough courage to wear my lucky charm!” The voice seemed… pleased?
Adrien very carefully looked up at the figure above him.
She was dark. Almost the same as the forest around them. He couldn’t tell if it was just a way of disguise or something else. But he knew: that woman was the real owner of the forest.
“Y-your luc-cky c-charm?” Adrien finally caught her last words.
“Silly boy,” her smile wasn’t dangerous this time but it still made him shiver. “You’re in my forest, I could feel you from the moment you entered it. And only my lucky charm helped you avoid my gifts.”
“G-gifts?” Adrien finally stuttered out.
“Oh, do you like gifts? Do you want to see them?” She leaned close to his face, almost touching his nose with hers, and looking into his eyes.
“They’re blue,” Adrien thought to himself. “As blue as the sky in the middle of the afternoon when the sun is shining bright and making everything alive…”
“I’ll take that as yes.” She giggled and stood up. Then she snapped her fingers and Adrien felt as he was picked up in the air by one of the branches.
“Are you ready?” She asked him cheerfully.
“What’s your name?” Adrien blurted out. “And ready for what?”
“My name? You know it already. After all, you had bad luck to meet me,” and she was rhyming again, though, he admitted, it was scary.
“Bad luck? As misfortune?” Adrien looked at her, confused, before the realisation dawned on his face. “No, it’s not possible…”
“Ready for what? Let’s find out. Branches, fire shout!” Miss Fortune smiled at him before waving her hand.
“Fire? Wha… AAAAAA!” Adrien wasn’t ready to be catapulted into the air, flying higher and higher before starting to fall down. “NOOOO!”
“No for what? Are you scared? Didn’t you like to be in the air?” Of course, she was already waiting for him in another part of the forest where he landed with the help of the magic. “Wasn’t it freeing for you? After all you had gone through?”
He wanted to say no, but he couldn’t. After all, what would a crazy villain from the legends do with him if he would say this?
“Let’s find out your first gift! Let’s see, oh, I think you two had a rift?” Miss Fortune pointed at something behind him.
He hadn’t got a choice. He needed to turn around if he wanted to stay alive. And Adrien turned around.
Only to meet the empty eyes of his long time friend Chloe.
She was hanging on the branch, moving slightly as the wind touched her body. Now Adrien could remember that a few months ago there was a panic in the whole county as the only daughter of the treasurer went missing. And no one could find her.
“Do you like my gift for you? Only deadmen can speak true,” Miss Fortune snapped her fingers again, making Chloe raise her head and look at him with dark, empty eyes.
“I’m sorry, Adrien. You were right about my life. Now I see it in the afterlife,” though her lips were moving, the voice sounded ghostly, as if somebody was whispering it in his mind.
“W-why? W-why are you d-doing this to me?” Adrien asked, shaking and with tears in his eyes.
“Because you have something that no one else does,” she shrugged. “But are you ready for the next door pass?”
Judging her words, Adrien came to the conclusion that it was sort of a challenge. If he could pass all of them, then he would make it alive. At least, he hoped for it.
“I g-guess, I can’t just turn around and leave, right?” He asked.
“Why? You can. But you would give your charm away. Then you just can't come back here, that’s just fair play,” it made him freeze in his place. Is it his chance? Was she telling the truth? She could let him out of here if he would say yes now?
But… something told him that it would be a wrong decision.
“I... I’m ready for the next challenge,” Adrien still was scared but at least now he wasn’t stuttering.
“Cool! Let’s go!” She seemed to smile even more now.
In the blink of an eye, they appeared in the graveyard.
“My parents are buried there,” Adrien whispered.
“But look there! Who’s this? I think he's doing some weird things,” Miss Fortune pointed at two graves where he knew his parents were buried.
Adrien didn’t see something weird at first but as they stepped closer he could see that somebody was digging the graves. The graves of his parents!
The next few minutes of his life went blank. When he finally snapped back into reality, he could see his hands were in the blood and he was standing over a dead body.
The dead body of his best friend Nino.
“Even the friends could fall for the gold, that's what this story told,” Miss Fortune whispered in his ear, and then brought his hands to her mouth and licked the blood. “The traitor’s blood is sweet and bitter, it’s the rule to watch and filter.”
“Nino… how could you…” Adrien looked in shock at the body that still was holding the gold watches that his dad made as a present for his mom on their wedding day.
“Are you ready to go? This one might actually be the show.”
“Let’s get out of here. I saw what you meant,” Adrien turned around and closed the distance between them. “Lead me on.”
Miss Fortune searched his face for something before she silently took his hand and moved them back on the fork.
“There’s a choice you need to take. It’s going to be the one that’s hard to make. Go left - and have a happy life, a lovely family, and a beautiful wife. Go right - be ready for disastrous nightmares where there is only one person who cares,” it seemed that it was his final challenge. He had two options. First, the left road, that was the way to his life. the life where he is surrounded by friends and other people. But had they ever been his friends? Had they been like Nino? The road was looking too good, too bright and sweet for his sight to be true. But the right road… Dangerous, dark, as Miss Fortune herself. But it was real.
A life that seems like a lie or a life full of danger but where he could see the truth?
“I choose the right way,” Adrien finally said, looking straight into Miss Fortune’s eyes.
“I chose that way a long time ago, it’s time to say to your past ‘no’. It’s time for you to walk that plank, welcome home, my dear Chat Blanc.”
It seemed right. And the lucky charm on his hand seemed to agree with him, slowly fading inside his bone and turning his clothes white.