Chapter Text
Pleasure to meet you. I'm Maxime, but most people call me Max. My whole life I’ve had adventure upon adventure. I’ve seen the world with all its marvels and its ugly truths.
To be honest I wasn’t born an adventurer. The road we call life shaped me into that. Besides my adventurous developments I’ve also picked up the art of storytelling and fell in love with it.
So let me guide you on the journey with me to the moment that my life changed for good. I was much, much younger and I believed I knew the world. It changed my life and the life of many others as well. All that rest me to say is buckle up and let’s dive right into it.
****
I once lived in a picturesque and cosy town in a rather mountainous area.
Our town was built in one of the many valleys in this region, so we’re surrounded by steep mountains, lush green forests and often blue sky. We’ve lived here more or less remote from the rest of the towns and bigger cities, yet the wifi was good.
All the facilities like a hospital, a school, sports and cultural centre, the mayerhouse and a library were built here. So our life was full and self sufficient.
If you looked at our town on a map, you’d see that it was divided into two equally flanked parts. The mountain tops formed the natural fronts and in the valley, was an ever flowing river.
The water was clear but cold as the source of the spring rises high in the mountains. Every summer we had a stand up paddle board or SUP contest and it gave us the perfect opportunity to cool down on hot days.
In winter it froze and we went ice skating. But most of the time it was a place where people of all ages met. Young lovers on their first date or an old couple reminiscing about long gone times.
Returning from school, I often stopped on one of the many bridges that connected the two halves of the town and made it one. Then I sat all alone, listening to the loud rushing of the water.
It brought me peace and it helped to clear my head. After listening for a while and observing the passengers, my thoughts would begin to wander. Often I wandered off to the same subject. A subject that I was forced to leave behind the moment I stepped on my front door porch.
The subject involved the surrounding Woodlands I could see everywhere I looked. So did the disappearance of my older brother in said woodlands. The uphill forest had existed much longer than the town, it was a rather large forest that lined many mountains.
There were well mapped parts with trails and signs that helped navigate the hikers. Other parts were less described and recorded. One of those areas was given the name: “The Danger”.
Over the many years there had been reportedly cases of people who went missing after being seen hiking close to that area. There had been search parties but with no success that far.
I had always been interested in the forest and the less explored parts. My father and mother hated it when I started asking questions about it. They were so scared I couldn't even go into any part of the forest.
Once I wanted to spend an afternoon with a couple of friends wandering in the woods, it was in the close area to our house. Still, when they got a notion of it, they forbade me to ever go near the forest again.
Mother shouted angrily, while tears were welling in her eyes: “Max it is way too dangerous out there and we already lost your brother, do you want to put us through the possibility of losing you too!”
I felt devastated at the admission and tried to stay away for their sake rather than my own. But after a while the shock subsided and I was left with curiosity.
So like all young people I tried anyway, I sneaked out and explored little by little the wooded grounds around our property. I sadly got caught more often than I pleased.
Afterwards my parents would sit me down and start with the same lecture every damn time. Words like 'not safe', 'losing', 'your brother' and 'we forbid' were thrown easily at my head.
In the end I would get grounded for a while, depending on how much time was between the sneaking out and the previous punishment.
Personally, I didn't think they had the right to ban me from going into the forest. After all, no one has ever gone missing in the parts closest to our house. Most importantly, the call from the woods I felt was way too strong to ignore anyway.
A while ago it was my 16th birthday. With every passing year the pull towards the forest I felt inside me got bigger and harder to resist.
Becoming 16 years old was difficult for me as well as my parents.
Because, like I mentioned before, I had a brother. His name was Maurice. He was 15 years older than me, but I never really got to know him. We lost him before I had the chance.
When I was a little over one year old, my brother Maurice mysteriously disappeared. He was 16 years old at the time.
There wasn’t much known about his disappearance and my parents avoided talking about him like the plague. All I knew is that one day he left and he never came home.
The theory the police and my parents went with is that he ran away and something must have happened in the forest. They sent out search parties and stuff but they never reported anything back. Something felt wrong and I got the impression there was more to the story than they let me believe there to be.
So I decided to launch a secret investigation into my brother's mysterious disappearance case. Even if they never retrieved a body, my parents concluded that he must have died, but I never gave up hope that he might still be alive and somewhere out there.
I had plans for the investigation more than once before. Plans about the forest would form in my head every time my mom forbade me to speak about Maurice.
Sadly It stayed there, I stopped every attempt before I could really find something. The reason was out of fear of being caught and never getting the chance to search again.
One completely normal Friday morning I decided to rack up havoc and restart the conversation about my brother. I couldn't bear it anymore, my parents looked at me like I could’ve disappeared at any second right from under their nose. They started restricting my well-earned freedom more and more and that didn’t sat right with me.
The moment my brother's name tumbled from my lips the silence fell, both their heads snapped up to me. Dad looked away first, I could see his jaw clench while he left the table.
Mom followed dad with her eyes, out of the room and glared back at me while telling me how unnecessary it was to ruin a perfectly nice day.
That day something broke. I felt ready to restart my investigation and I would proceed this time until I knew the truth, no matter what had happened.
First things first, I needed to find a way to gather information. I didn't really had a clue where to start, because stupidly enough the first idea that came to mind was my parents.
I couldn't pursue that idea, because they would ignore me or get very angry again like when I mentioned Maurice that morning. So I’ll have to figure out another way. Suddenly, one of my dad's favourite statements popped up in my head.
He has always been a big book nerd and never comprehended the in’s and out’s of the internet. So he told me "If you're searching for the truth you should not look for it on the internet, no, you will find them in old books and preferably between the lines."
At that point it was too late in the afternoon to go and visit the library. I told myself it would be the first thing I'd do in the morning. I would tell my parents I had to study, it was a Saturday so it seemed plausible. That way I had time to have a good look around.
My inspration picture for max: