Madame De Bosse went over the rules at least ten times, boring the students throughout the journey to the Game Reserve.

  “Alright students, here we are,” Mr. Gruff, the chemistry teacher said, and then blew into his whistle, seeming to use all his strength to blow. The students hopped out in excitement, chattering and taking pictures.

  “Okay kids, settle down!” he said into a megaphone.

  “Welcome to the International Game Reserve. Funnily, I’m not sure if that’s the name,” he said as he nervously chuckled.

  “Ok before you got here, you were all told to group yourselves in two. No groups of more than two members will be permitted,” he said, as he gave his watch a quick glance.

  “Each group will be given a map, and you are supposed to follow the directions on the map strictly. You are not allowed to go off on your own and if you get lost, which I doubt you will, shoot the flares which will be handed to you.”

  “You are not to………”

  “Ugh, so many rules,” Annabelle said. She noticed Jackson and the others paying rapt attention, which kept her wondering if they were actually going for the treasure hunt.

  “The main purpose of this excursion is to find a lost treasure I have taken the liberty of concealing in these very woods. You are all meant to be back by four, and if a team isn’t back by then, we will assume something bad has happened to them.”

  Gruff bored the students with some more rules, and “Go!” he said, and blew into his whistle. Every student including Anna and her friends collected the flares and maps provided for them, and headed into the woods.

  They had walked in the woods for about five minutes, when “This place seems okay,” Crow said as she placed her backpack on the ground and looked around, making sure she wasn’t being watched. James Bludovitch, who planned on tailing them that day wasn’t able to go due to an upset stomach.

  “Gather round,” she said.

  “If we do this right, we should be back in time to find the treasure,” Crow said.

  “They can’t find it because it’s not on the map. What’s on the map is a decoy, but I know where to find it,” she whispered playfully and winked, after which they all vanished into thin air.

  About two seconds later, Mrs. Crow and the team appeared in front of a beautiful cottage, the morning sun soaring high in the cloudless sky.

  “It’s really beautiful,” Jackson complimented, as Jacob ran a few meters away from the team and puked.

  “Ohhhhhh eeewwwww,” they all said, as Jacob hurled out the food he had eaten that morning.

  “I think I prefer it when you drive,” he said, and rinsed his mouth with a bottle of water.

  “Welcome to Astra 12,” Crow said, dramatically spreading her arms.

  “What of those blurbs?” Annabelle asked, feeling uneasy in her abdomen.

  “They are somewhere in that forest,” Crow said, pointing in the north east direction across the horizon.

  “And we are going over there,” she said, as she pointed at a wall, at the far end of the horizon which looked at least a hundred and fifty feet high.

  “What’s that wall?” Jacob asked, opening the cottage door.

  “It’s the border that separates the prison from the common realm,” she replied, as she entered the cottage, the entire team doing the same.

  “So apart from Doom, what other creatures are there?” Jacob asked with a smile on his face.

  “Anything and everything that spells death,” Crow replied with a grin on her beautiful face.

  After a delicious meal of spaghetti bolognese, everyone gathered to discuss how they were to meet Doom.

  “Ah, one last meal before we finally die,” Jacob said, as he rubbed his belly and burped.

  “Eww, that’s disgusting,” Annabelle said, covering her nose.

  “Okay now that we are all here, is there anyone who would like to back out and remain in this safe, beautiful cottage?” Crow asked, in expectation of a raised hand but no one obliged.

  She was about to remind them about the dangers the prison posed, when “Just get on with it, our minds are made up,” Jackson insisted, wriggling a toothpick in his mouth.

  “What’s the purpose of that stupid fence? Can’t the creatures just climb over or better still break it down? It’s not like it’s that tall,” Annabelle commented as she walked over to the door to take a look at the wall.

  “Well, I don’t know how it works, but if it can hold Doom, it can hold anything,” Crow replied. The question Annabelle asked had never crossed her mind all those years she had been alive.

  “Ok so we get in through the pass, meet with doom and get out,” she said as she gave the map of Astra 12 a quick glance.

  “This pass you speak of, is it not a way for creatures held captive to escape?” Joanna asked skeptically, stroking her chin and raising her brow.

  “Well, she has a point,” Annabelle mentioned.

  “This is why I told you that I should go alone. There is only one way in and one way out of the prison. Creatures, sorcerers or let me say anything that goes in through that pass never comes out except permitted by Doom, so we are really walking a thin line here,” Crow said as she rolled up the map.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Let’s go,” she added, and walked out the door, the fresh horizon breeze blowing on her face.

  ***

  They had walked halfway to the prison and Jackson, on multiple occasions wanted to ask why they didn’t just vanish all the way there, but didn’t bother because he suspected he wouldn’t have gotten an appropriate answer.

  “Okay, when we get to the front of the wall, let me do the talking,” Crow said, brushing her hair behind her left ear as the wind blew all over her face.

  “Hmm, windy,” Annabelle said, just as Jackson held her hand, giving her a comforting smile.

  “Also, you aren’t allowed to talk to anyone or anything except me. The creatures beyond the wall are very crafty and can show you the faces of loved ones to lure you away and kill you,” Crow added.

  “We can’t even talk to one another,” Jackson said, pointing back and forth at himself and Joanna.

  “No, until we reach the black gate of death. You’ll know it when you see it and it’s only then you are allowed to speak.”

  A while after an exhausting walk, they all arrived at a tall wall, measuring at least a hundred and fifty feet and spanning over the entire diameter of Astra 12.

  Mrs. Crow walked towards the wall, placed her hand on it and “Hrah!” she screamed as she pushed hard against the wall. She had released a portion of her magic into the wall and it began to tremble.

  “Oh the trembling again,” Annabelle said.

  The wall furiously shook for a while, almost knocking everyone off their feet, and then the quaking suddenly stopped.

  Crow placed her finger over her mouth, gesturing to Anna and her friends to be quiet, just as a compartment of the wall opened up.

  “Welcome to Astra 12, the place where we keep the worst of the worst, besides Haggrid Hallows,” a small looking creature said in a tiny voice. It looked like the combination of an elf and a goblin, really difficult to describe and it wore a pink colored long sleeved shirt. It was about two feet tall and had unkempt nails.

  “Is there someone you would like to imprison, Mrs. Crow of the Blackwater?” The creature asked, as it gave Anna and her friends a quick glance.

  “Mortals? They wouldn’t survive unless Doom permits it.”

  “I’m not here to imprison anyone,” Mrs. Crow said as she gestured to Anna and her friends to come closer.

  “We are here to see the worst of the worst. We all have business with him,” Crow said, as the team hesitantly approached her.

  “Hmm,” the creature grunted, as it peered at Annabelle through its recommended glasses.

  “Okay, you all can go in, may you not die,” the creature said, but had a look on its face like it knew they wouldn’t survive.

  “Thanks,” Mrs. Crow said as she walked past the creature, Anna and her friends right behind her.

  “Okay, here we are, remember do not say anything, just follow me,” Crow said.

  Anna and her friends looked back to check if the creature was still there, but it was long gone, and so was the opening on the wall.

  The prison area was nothing like what was on the opposite side of the wall. The trees were tall, with dark leaves and they almost completely blocked out the sun, allowing only a few rays of light to touch the ground. Strange looking epiphytes swung through the tree branches and the sand on the ground was deep black.

  “We are a long way from home,” Crow said, as she looked up at the trees. Why is she the only one permitted to talk? The rest of the team thought to themselves as they progressed further into the creepy woods.

  “Oh Jackson, come here I love you,” someone said from within the woods, someone who sounded exactly like Annabelle.

  Jackson looked at Anna who was right beside him, but at the same time felt a compelling force calling him from within the woods.

  “Jackson, help! Help me Jackson, the people with you are all fake, we have been captured!” someone screamed, sounding just like Annabelle. Jackson seemed to be the only one who could hear it, as he shook his head trying to block out the voice remembering Crow’s instruction.

  As if the voices weren’t enough, he saw Annabelle struggling, tied to a tree with a rag over her mouth, muffling her screams.

  “Jackson, get away from them!” she screamed, managing to remove the rag from her mouth.

  “Jackson! Help me! Won’t you help me?!” she persisted.

  Just to be sure, he looked at Annabelle who was walking beside him, and interlocked his fingers with hers, as she gave him a bright smile.

  “Jackson, those people with you are fake,” Mrs. Crow, who was tied to a tree said.

  “I’m the only one allowed to talk, Jackson! Believe me!” Crow screamed, trying to break free.

  Jackson ignored her, trying to focus on the real Mrs. Crow in front of him.

  Meanwhile, Joanna had also been suffering from illusions of her own.

  “Why did you do this to me? I had no idea you were acquainted with magical people. I’m just a pizza guy!” Ron cried out in agony.

  Joanna shook her head, as she struggled to ignore Ron’s screams. It looked so real, and she started to doubt whether the Annabelle who was with her was real.

  Everyone except Mrs. Crow saw different illusions and heard different voices from the woods, until “Here we are,” Crow said. They had arrived at a black metal gate which was built in such a way that one could easily grab the bars.

  It looked like the doors of a prison holding cell, but only bigger and very ominous. The gates were at least seventy feet tall in height and “You can talk now,” Crow said, as she playfully kicked the black sand beneath her feet.

  She noticed the entire team was a bit shocked, probably due to the visions they had seen and voices they had heard.

  “Oh I guess you guys must have seen a lot,” she said, as she walked closer to the gate which opened itself.

  “Remember, do not say anything,” she said to the dumbfounded team, and they walked through the gates.

  They all entered into a gigantic dark-colored ominous-looking building. Immediately they entered the building, “Now it’s do or die,” Crow said, as the lamps on the cracked walls lit up all the way to the far end of the corridor.

  Annabelle nearly screamed, but covered her mouth, on seeing the skulls of humans and other things she couldn’t identify scattered all over the corridor.

  At the far end of the corridor was a big red door and, “Behind that door lies Doom. When we enter, be sure to bow down, and do not raise your head unless he tells you to,” Crow said, seeming a bit scared.

  Many images of what Doom could have looked like flashed through Anna’s head, seeing that Crow hadn’t actually described him.

  Slowly, they approached the big door and “Well here we go,” Crow said, and banged on the door three consecutive times as loud as she could.

  There was a CLANG and then a CLICK, followed by the opening of the door. It creaked loudly as it opened, and Anna and her friends covered their ears.

  CRRRREEEAAAKKKKKKK the doors slowly opened until the gap was wide enough for everyone to walk through.

  Anna and her friends walked into the room, with their hearts almost in their mouths and their heads bowed.

  They all walked further into the room and the doors slowly shut behind them.