Illusions

A mysterious black notebook, half empty with nonsensical hogwash, an incentive in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and a small note describing what the two of us needed to do. To deliver this notebook to a man waiting in the Forbidden Forest. Sounded easy at the time and the pay was unbelievable, but standing in front of that thicket of death, I knew this assignment was going to be a little different...

The fog was getting more dense as we approached the forest, barely able to see my own hand in front of my face. The air was beyond thick and it was hard to breathe. Regardless, we had to keep going, even if it cost us our lives.

The trees towered over us, an immense thicket of fauna covered the landscape, making it far too easy to get lost. There were countless sounds around us, murmuring echoes against our ears from beyond the brush.

Shadows danced around the darkness, playing tricks on our senses. Animals scurrying along the damp ground, insects crawling against the bark of trees, and the echoes, the damn echoes were getting louder and louder.

We were instructed to follow the trail of a certain mushroom with a distinct scent of peppermint once we arrived at the forest. The fog made it almost impossible to see anything but the scent was definitely in the air. Wafting from what I assumed was north, was a faint peppermint smell. We followed towards it, minding any exposed roots beneath our feet.

There were specks of lights throughout the forest, small bioluminescent insects shining their bodies in the darkness, fungi in various spots, of all colors and types. None were the ones that we were looking for though.

We approached a clearing, with much less fog around us, and an even stronger scent of peppermint was in the air.

Looking around I spotted a glowing cyan colored mushroom the size of a soccer ball, with black spots covering its stem, and an aroma stronger than peppermint itself. This was definitely the one, now to just follow the trail to its source.

The mushrooms led us deeper into the forest, the dense fog covering everything. We had to be careful, low visibility was most likely the least of our issues.

Just then, ahead of us, a loud shriek filled the air, deafening us completely. Three more times, each one longer than the last. Covering my ears did nothing to stop the sound from echoing inside my head.

"Stay... away... go... now..."

There was something in the air around us, speaking to us, giving us warnings. No, this had to be a trick, we had to stay focused on this mission, failing was not an option.

"You... will... die... slow..."

The echoes got louder as we got deeper into the forest, screeching sounds all around us. As if the souls of the dead were screaming out in agony.

I began to hallucinate on and off, every few seconds I would see the shadows walk around us, grabbing, pulling, screaming. The fumes around us were beginning to take effect on our physical bodies, we needed to hurry lest we become food to the fauna.

We came out into another clearing, only this time, something wasn't right. Not a single sound, not a single scent, everything was completely still... including us. We couldn't move, time felt frozen, life felt nonexistent.

Shortly after, a howling wind filled the air. In front of us, a cloaked figure walked slowly towards us, its mere presence filling me with dread.

The figure stopped a few feet in front of us and reached its hand out towards us. Was this our guy?

I slowly reached behind my back to retrieve the notebook, assuming this was indeed our client.

I grabbed ahold of the notebook and could feel something within it, a kind of energy emanating from its contents. This wasn't just an ordinary notebook, not anymore. Something has changed. The cloaked man took another step towards us, hand still reaching out towards us.

"Are you the owner of this notebook? We're here to return it to you."

"You... don't... understand..."

Don't understand? What did he mean?

"Can't... leave... curse... trapped..."

Suddenly, the notebook sent an electric shock through my hand, the vibrating was getting more intense. I reached out my hand to give the notebook to the stranger, but as the book touched his cloak, he vanished.

"Curse... written... trapped..."

The echoes were back, ringing in my ears. Was that just an illusion? A mirage? As I opened my eyes I could see that I was no longer in that same clearing, instead, I was at the mouth of a cave surrounded by the cyan mushrooms. I was also now alone, my partner was nowhere in sight. Crap.

The notebook was no longer acting strange, but I was skeptical. I opened it up and glanced through the pages, weird symbols, equations, and formulas littered the pages, most in some weird language I was unfamiliar with.

"Read... it..."

I stared closely at the lettering, beyond confused by its contents, but drawn to them. As if the words were... grabbing me.

"Read... book..."

There was no end to the constant voices around me, I felt like I was going crazy. I stood there looking at the pages, mesmerized, entranced even. I began to understand the words inside, each one slowly making sense the more I focused on the words.

"Red moon, blood fowl. Stir the mind, fade tomorrow. Seeping in poison, a fool follows. Words written, tastes unrelenting..."

Symbols danced around the pages, glowing faintly, the notebook vibrating once more.

"Shit."

I dropped the book and backed away, not wanting anymore of this. I had a terrible feeling and decided I needed to leave. I turned to run away and was face to face with the cloaked figure once more, only this time, he was blocking my path. Hissing out intangible phrases.

"Dvur snii... asaka tay... varsh don..."

Instantly I'm grabbed from behind by two possessed roots, coiling around my biceps and cutting off circulation. I turn and see that they are coming from inside the book, slowly but forcefully dragging me in.

I reach for my knife on my belt and barely grab it in time to cut one of the roots away, just then three more grab me by my feet and knock me down to the ground.

This is it, there's nothing I can do, is this really where I'm going to die?

"We brought you back your book! What more do you want from us, leave us be!"

The cloaked figure stalked towards me, getting close enough that I could smell his rancid breath. He reeked of death and despair and began chanting something dark.

"Shvay don noose... teesha moon. Shvay don noose... teesha moon. SHVAY DON NOOSE... TEESHA MOON."

The roots started pulling me in faster and faster, there was no way I was going to get out of its grasp. A few seconds pass and then I'm looking at the last thing I'll ever see, a smirk from underneath his hood and the snap of his finger as the book closes.