[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة] Luke stood behind a clump of bushes staring at the other side
of the lake, staring at all the other boys
playing in the forests laughing. Luke was in his eleventh summer,
tall and scrawny. He shuddered as his eyes travelled to
the snarling demonic faces that had been carved
into the bark of each tree. They had been put there
to frighten off any evil spirits who might
approach the village during the night.
Luke knew that he shouldn't look at them -
they always terrified him - but his eyes wouldn't let him;
every time he thought this his eyes focused on them even more.
He had never explored the forest; he'd never even
crossed the lake that linked the world of the living and the dead
. His cowardly fear always stopped him,
on the safe human side of the lake.
It was silly, he knew. But as long as you didn't venture too deep
into the forest and stayed out of the caves,
you were perfectly safe. All the children said so.
The fact that they always came back alive and unharmed
was proof that what they said was true.
No matter what anyone said he was scared down to his toes
. Luke shuddered and reached toward a rope tied to a tree
that the kids used to swing across the lake.
His hand closed around the rope and jerked away immediately,
as if he'd been electrocuted. Luke ran away.
Back at home…
"Don't be such a chicken and come on!" said Charlotte
"DON'T CALL ME CHICKEN! It's dark! No!"
Luke and Charlotte, his little sister,
were arguing. She wanted to go to the
forest with him.
"I'm not scared," he snapped
"I just don't think we should disturb the dead
or anger the spirits."
"Nonsense," she replied smiling
"you're just afraid a spirit will jump out of
the ground and eat you!"
Luke glared at her, but there was nothing
he could say in his defence.
"Fine," she said turning round, "I'll go myself"
and without another word she ran out the door, into the night.
Luke waited, weighing things out, then ran after her.
When he finally caught up with her his legs ached,
his energy and patience run out.
"Come back!" He called.
"Let's go home I'm hungry."
Charlotte grinned and stuck her tongue out.
"Come and get me!"
"Don't be stupid," he growled "come back quick,
before father notices us missing."
"I wanna play!" she insisted.
"You can't, everybody's gone home.
There's no one except you…and the spirits."
Charlotte's cheeky grin disappeared when he said that.
She looked around nervously, noticing the shadows
and the eerie emptiness for the first time.
He saw her make up her mind to return.
She took one step towards him…
Then stopped when someone laughed.
It was a child's laugh and came deep within the forest.
Charlotte's face lit up and she smirked at Luke.
"No!" His voice dripped with anxiety. "Lotte don't.
You don't know who that is. It might not even be hu-"
But she had already spun round, grabbed hold of a rope
and swung across the lake. She raced away from her brother,
hurrying towards the spot where the laughter had come from.
Luke called after her, but she ignored him and,
seconds later, vanished from sight into the forest.
It had been thirty minutes or so since
Charlotte had entered the forest
and there had been no sight
or sound of her since.
Luke had called after her several times,
but there had been no answer, not even an echo.
What frightened him most was that
he could not hear any laughter,
so what had happened to Charlotte?
Luke was safe were he stood,
protected from the evil spirits
by the lake - but she wasn't.
Charlotte was in the midst of all of them,
and if the spirits hadn't found her yet, they would soon.
"I shouldn't have let her go," he moaned.
"If anything happens, then it'll be my fault"
I have two choices, he thought.
I can either go find my missing sister or
I could stay here and die of frostbite and guilt.
He took a deep breath and, summoning up all his courage,
grabbed hold of the rope his sister had swung on.
As he gripped on to the rope the hairs
on the back of his neck stood up;
his spine began to tingle. He took another slow deep breath
and tried to calm his body.
He grabbed on and swung…
…and stopped halfway, hanging in the middle of
the land of the humans and the land of the evil spirits.
He looked around for something else to grab onto,
not looking down. He didn't want anything to do with down;
down was where the sudden stop and splash was.
Luke felt his grip on the rope loosen.
His fingers were burning and the muscles
in his arms were screaming at him.
Come on, he thought. You can do it, it's easy.
Everyone can do it. Your sister's in trouble.
She needs your help. If there's
a time for you to face your fear it's NOW.
A new surge of power and energy shot through his body.
He lent on his side and he began to swing, he lent harder
and he swung faster until
he came to the other side of the lake.
He let go and was glad to have
his feet on solid ground once more.
Feeling glad with himself
he walked confidently toward the forest.
"Luuuuuuuukkkkkee…"
Luke stopped in his tracks; the voice was like one
he had never heard before - hoarse and tired.
He stood quite still, his senses alert, straining to listen.
The faintest of sounds but Luke missed nothing.
Footsteps. The sound of someone
stepping on fallen branches.
"AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"
Charlotte. He heard pleading and screaming,
he would know that voice anywhere.
"LOTTE!" he called out,
"LOTTE WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU HURT?"
And then the footsteps came louder,
but it didn't concern Luke,
after all spirits didn't have feet.
"Lotte?!"
He sighed a sigh of relief, he ran over to her,
never more pleased to see her.
But there was something wrong.
"Charlotte?" he asked, his brows furrowed.
She had a blank expression on her face,
and she had a weird sort of smirk.
But it was her eyes that made
his own grow wide in his sockets.
Normally brown eyes that now were -
"Red."
He said, "Your eye colour's changed. How did that-?"
he paused. "Never mind, what happened in there?!"
He almost screamed the words.
Her smile grew wider.
She held her palm out and whispered "Axe".
He stared at her, confused. "Lotte what the -"
An axe appeared in a puff of black smoke. She held it up,
cocking her head to one side,
a curious expression etched on her face.
Suddenly she screamed and fell to her knees.
Her eyes rolled and she began to froth at the mouth.
Suddenly she became normal again, she pleaded to the sky.
Stammering words of sorry, her body began to shake.
Luke could only stare as his sister rose in the air
and black smoke came out of her mouth,
swirling around her, surrounding her.
She looked down at him as he ran below her,
to catch her if she fell. But then she dropped gracefully
down beside him, her eyes as black as death itself.
Luke began to walk away. His heart was hammering
against his ribs. Thoughts raced through his mind
but only one registered. Run.
She smiled again, that sinister smile and said,
"Oh I don't think so"
She swung the axe and slammed it into his chest.
He couldn't have screamed out even if he wanted to.
Luke fell into the lake, axe lodged in his chest,
sticking out comically, the water a ghastly red.
Charlotte grinned wolfishly,
as she watched her brother
drift away into the night.
[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة] 
موضوع: On the Other Side of the Lake by ThePinkElephant من قصص الرعب باللغة الإنجليزيه 
