Chapter 1

The snow-dusted road opened up to reveal a small, rustic house. The chimney released thick, black smoke surrounding the building. The dark red curtains were closed leaving people to wonder what was happening inside. I squinted at the house groggily, I was still exhausted from the long trip. I continued to look around, the bus came to a sudden halt."Mount Pine" the bus driver sighed. I suddenly sat up straight and clutched my bags. Scurrying over to the bus driver I stepped off the bus, before waving. Watching the bus drive down the dirt road I waited, and waited, and waited...

My head began to flood with worrisome thoughts. What if's circling my head like a shark about to catch its prey: What if my foster family got lost? What if they're mean? What if they're late? What if they leave me in the cold? What if? I was stopped mid-thought as a white, rusting pickup truck drove towards the bus stop. The dusty window slowly wound down revealing a large man with fiery red hair he stepped out of the car. He was wearing a grey shirt with stains on it, light blue jeans covered in holes, and big boots. He looked at his hand to read a smudged mark and said sheepishly. "Is it uh… Anna?".

"No, it's Alice... Alice Baker'' I replied shyly. We both looked away awkwardly. The man tried to hide his embarrassment. "Well anyways, I'm Richard, but most people call me Rusty." "Why?" I asked curiously. He motioned over to his truck covered from head to toe in rust, it was a miracle it was still working. I could make out patches of chipped paint barely showing. "Well, any way Alice, we better get going before the wolves come out." Right on cue, distant howls were coming from the near hills. Now more anxious than ever I sat in the front seat, I noticed the car smelt a lot like dog and sawdust. Weird.

I've always overthought everything so it was no surprise that when I saw the dangers of the property that Rusty lived on I was a bit anxious. Although it was dark I could still see the deep river, now an inky black but it was obvious that it was water as the moonlight glistened off the ripples from the gentle breeze. I thought of all the things that could be in the river: Crocodiles, snakes, piranhas, or maybe even some kind of hideous monster, who knows?... I knew I was too old to believe in monsters but it's always worried me what's out there deep in the water, especially when you can't see underneath you. "Ohh, the thought of that makes my skin crawl". I thought to myself while shuttering as I watched the water glisten in the moonlight, as we made our way closer to the house. The water reminded me of a book I have read many times before. I always imagined the water in the book would look a lot like this river, dark and mysterious but somewhat beautiful. Most people say that I read too many books, but in my opinion, you can never have enough of them, that's why my bag is so heavy, I just could not leave them all behind. And I know, I can get them again but these are special, you see these books were my parents when they were my age. I guess that's where I get my love from books, as they both loved to read. We spend almost every evening by the fire reading books together. That was until they went out one night and just never came home, but let's not get into that just yet.

As we approached the house, Rusty began pointing out various locations around the property. The barn where they kept the horses, the shed where Rusty did his carpentry and that's when I noticed a narrow purple bridge. Rusty's eyes locked on the bridge with a grim expression. "Now I'm pretty loose on rules here but Alice listen to me..." He stopped the truck and turned to me. "Never, and I repeat never cross that bridge... Do you understand?" I nodded quickly, quite scared of what lurked over the bridge and said, "Understood!". Rusty's grey eyes suddenly lit up seeing a silhouette of a house. "Home sweet home" Rusty exclaimed merrily as we came to a gentle stop by the front steps of the old wooden farmhouse. As we opened the doors a delectable aroma drifted out of the windows. And I thought to myself "Mmm, Dinner". I was famished after my giant trip.

The house had a silver tin roof lined with rust, that's when I began to realize everything here seemed so old, first the car now this. The car pulled up a few feet away from the building, the welcoming scent was much stronger. My stomach growled with urgency. I went to grab my bags but Rusty had beat me to it. He mumbled something about his back hurting and how he was too old for this, as he hobbled towards the house.

I walked through the double doors, my eyes lit up as I stood still looking at the old house. The walls were painted a pale red there was a brown two-seater couch next to the fireplace. The fireplace was made of brick with an old wooden mantle, there were old black and white photographs which were coated in a fine layer of dust. The floor was made entirely out of pinewood, there was a rug underneath the handmade coffee table that was old and stained with what looked like coffee. The rug was made of what appeared to be wolf skin, I shuddered at the thought of an innocent animal dying to make some house decor. But then I smelt something, what was it, oh wait, I know that smell... steak. My stomach groaned in desperation once again. I looked back to see Rusty struggling up the stairs with my bags. I immediately felt guilty. "Rusty, let me help you," I said concernedly.

"Don't worry kiddo," said Rusty, obviously tired.

"Don't worry?" said a voice coming from the kitchen. "Isn't that all I do Richard?" Rusty then rolled his eyes and continued up the stairs. He kicked off his boots by the door and sat my bags on a bench seat by the shoe rack.

"First room to the left," he said, not looking back as he made his way into what I guess would be the kitchen as that's where the delectable smell was coming from. I pulled my heavy bags off the bench seat and went down the hallway to the left following Rusty's instructions.

I opened the door and stepped into the room. The first thing I saw was the lilac walls with fairy lights draped from wall to wall, lighting the room with a delicate glow. As I stepped further into the room a little to the right was a big double bed. The frame was made of what looked like pinewood and had beautiful purple covers.

"They must like their pine here, and purple for that fact" I mumbled to myself.

After hauling my heavy bags onto the end of the bed I continued to look around the room, there was a bookshelf, a cat bed... "But wait, I don't own a cat," I said while staring puzzled at the cat bed. After pausing for a moment I decided to make my way out to the kitchen, My bags could wait until after dinner. Finding the kitchen was not easy. I have never been here before, as I followed my nose I thought to myself. "Thank goodness my sense of smell is great".

As I entered the room a woman with blonde hair done up in a tight bun was busily setting the table, she was wearing a knee-length navy-blue dress and a pair of light brown boots. She looked over at me. "You must be Alice!" she said cheerfully. She had a southern accent. "Well anyway I'm Elizabeth" she continued. "Can you go get Richard and tell him his dinner's goin' cold?, He's in the living room she said while pointing towards the room across the hall. ' I gestured with a shy nod and made my way in the direction where I saw the wolf pelt rug and brown couch. "Rusty Eliz-" I was stopped mid-sentence. "I heard her Alice," Rusty said, struggling to get up. Rather than wait, I decided to walk off to the kitchen and made myself comfortable at the kitchen table, which coincidentally was made of pinewood "hmm, I'm seeing a trend in this house" I thought to myself as we waited for Rusty.

Rusty soon joined me, and Elizabeth began to dish up the steak and vegetables. She passed around the plates before sitting down. We ate in silence for a few minutes, I was okay with this as the only thing I wanted to do was eat, I was starved. "So Alice?" Elizabeth asked. "How are you liking Mount Pine?" I stopped eating and looked up. I didn't see much of the town on my ride apart from the quaint cottage, and dark river. "It seems like a, ahh.. really interesting place," I said politely trying not to offend her, as from what I actually saw there are no more than a few pumpkins and cow pads here. "That's good to hear Alice," Elizabeth said. "Because Richard will show you the town tomorrow… Won't you Richard?" Elizabeth then nudged Rusty hoping he was paying attention. "Uh, yes of course! Tomorrow I'll show you Herman's lake and The local bakehouse. If we have time I might even take you up the mountain and show you the only oak tree on Mount Pine!" said Rusty, attempting to sound enthusiastic. I smiled wondering what the town would be like. My thoughts were interrupted by Elizabeth who was lecturing Rusty. "The poor cat will starve! You need to remember to feed her." She made Rusty leave the table to feed the cat. "Uh, so you have a cat?" I asked Elizabeth. "Yes, we do. It used to be the previous owner's cat, just a kitten at the time..." replied Elizabeth. "Her name's Taffy." Elizabeth smiled and looked down at a fluffy, brown-orange cat that was as fat as mud. Despite her size, the cat's head was quite small and had a bit of her ear chewed off. I wondered how that may have happened. Maybe it was the wolf that now their rug? Who knows? But she seemed very content as she ate her food.

When I looked up Rusty was looking at the giant grandfather clock I hadn't noticed before. "Time for bed kiddo, you've had a long trip you must be exhausted," Rusty said. "Night Alice!" Elizabeth called from the dining area. I walked back towards the purple room and collapsed on the bed. I couldn't be bothered to get changed or have a shower for that fact. I just pulled the covers over my face and closed my eyes thinking of the events of the day. First, a 7-hour bus ride from the city I saw a creepy bridge that came with a strict warning and now a really cute cat that was oddly disproportionate. Overall, it was an ok day. I soon drifted off to sleep, forgetting about the day and everything that had happened and hadn't for that fact and began my peaceful journey into my imaginative dream. Not that I would remember it.

You see that's the silly thing with dreams, you remember them when you need to…. Like if you dream of something useful you always seem to remember it….

I awoke to the sun shining through my window, and the sound of a rooster crowing… "That's weird I thought the blinds were closed last night..." I thought to myself. I got changed into a long-sleeved crimson dress, black leggings, and a pair of light brown ugg boots. I walked out groggily towards the living room, the first thing I saw was Taffy scratching the side of the couch. Deciding it wasn't my place to tell Taffy what to do I just walked over to the brown, leather armchair and plonked down. Elizabeth rushed through the door, flustered, and sat down on the leather couch. "Is everything okay Elizabeth?" I asked. "I'm fine Alice, just had to go catch Mercury," she said exhausted. "Whos Mercury?" I questioned. Elizabeth paused and thought about it for a while. "A retired racehorse that, well-" she stopped speaking. "Oh that's right breakfast, you need breakfast!" Elizabeth exclaimed. She hurried off to the kitchen. "That was odd.." I mumbled to myself, looking where Elizabeth was. Taffy jumped onto my lap and put her paw on my hand as if to tell me everything was going to be okay. For a moment, I believed her. "Everything will be alright Alice, trust me." a soft voice said. I looked around trying to find where the voice had come from, I looked down and saw the cat's warm hazel eyes staring into mine. "You didn't speak, did you?" I asked the cat. Taffy swished her elegant tail in the air and leapt down from my lap and walked away. "I must be imagining things." I thought to myself. "Or maybe I might just need a little more sleep" I mumbled to myself as I walked towards the kitchen.

As I entered the kitchen Elizabeth was working busily away flipping pancakes. "Alice please go get Richard, he'll most likely be in his work-shop." It took me a moment but I remembered where the work-shop was and raced outside in my ugg boots, through the thick grass. The metal shed was further than I thought from the house so I decided to slow down, otherwise, I might be too exhausted to walk back, let's not forget how big of a day I had yesterday. I began to walk towards the shed inching closer with every step. I found myself humming merry tunes and thought to myself "Why am I so relaxed here?". I was about a meter from the shed now, I could hear pounding noises from outside the building. And questioned if I should knock before I enter but wondered if Rusty would even hear me. I decided it would be best to knock. I knocked against the metal, which was cold to the touch. No answer. I knocked again harder this time, this made my knuckles ache. Still no response. "Rusty! Breakfast!" I called out, and still... no response. I decided to walk inside the average-sized shed, I was greeted to a breath full of saw-dust which made me cough quite a bit. I spotted Rusty whistling away with his headphones in. "No wonder he couldn't hear me," I thought. I quietly walked over to where he was and tapped his shoulder. Rusty's eyes instantly widened. "Alice what are you doing here?" he questioned. "Well, Elizabeth said to get you for breakfast" I replied simply. He just looked me in the eye as if to tell me to leave him alone. "Tell Elizabeth I'll be there in 5" he grumbled. I nodded and made my long trip back to the house.

Rusty never came to breakfast, in fact, he was half an hour late for our trip. Once he finally came inside the first thing Elizabeth did was tell him he needed better time management skills. I looked up at the grandfather clock, we were now 40 minutes late for our trip. I sighed and Elizabeth looked at me. "Look what you've done now Richard, you made Alice late!" she sighed looking at him. He began grumbling to himself before grabbing his coat and his keys. "Are you coming Alice?" Grumbled Rusty. I followed him to the rusty pick-up truck waving to Elizabeth as I walked through the front door and onto the porch. Stepping down the stairs I began to wonder where Taffy had gone, she had just vanished.

I was now sitting in the car next to Rusty. He turned the radio on and listened to what appeared to be the news. I looked out the dirty window barely being able to see what was outside, I thought to myself; "how did the window get so dirty" then I remembered how long the dirt road was that we drove up and this seemed to make a lot more sense. After trying to figure out what was outside my window for a few minutes I gave up and I decided to listen in on the radio. "The Knight family has been stolen from. $700 in cash was stolen last night at roughly 11 pm. If anyone has seen any suspicious behavior please report it to the 'Mount Pine Police Station'." Rusty sighed and then turned off the radio and began to speak. "So many thefts have been happening lately, first the Robinsons, now the Knights?" "The worst thing is it's such a small town anyone could have done it." he continued. "Just have to hope it won't affect you and move on from it."

We drove into the ghost-like town. I squinted my eyes in an attempt to look out the dust-covered window, failing once again, I looked straight ahead. Rusty parked in front of a small building with tan walls. There were a couple of cars in the car park that looked oddly similar to Rusty's, guessing we had arrived at our destination I reached for the door handle. Rusty got out of the car and motioned for me to follow him. I carefully stepped down from the truck and followed him through the double doors. A bell chimed a sweet tune as I stepped into the brick structure and looked around. I looked around the '50s themed diner. There were big red booth seats, black and white checkered tiles and baby blue walls with number plates screwed to the walls. I looked up at the bench with near full bar stools in front of it, a woman with dark skin and emerald green eyes was on the opposite end of the chairs. She had dark brown curly hair which was tied in a loose ponytail. Her face was decorated with a kind smile and a few freckles as she served demanding customers their coffee and muffins. Rusty walked up to one of the stools and I followed behind him like a sheep to a shepherd. I sat down and looked straight at the plain white bench. Rusty turned to me. "Hey kiddo what do you want?" he asked. Both him and the woman were staring me straight in the eyes which made me feel kind of uncomfortable. "I, uh could I please have a hot chocolate," I said awkwardly. "Sure thing honey," the woman said in an enthusiastic tone. She went to what I assumed to be the kettle and pulled out 2 mugs from under the counter. She then went on to put coffee and hot chocolate into the cups and poured the boiling water. She spun around and grabbed the milk and shook it, next the woman poured the bubbly milk into the hot chocolate and put it back in the mini-fridge. She put the mugs on a tray and plopped some marshmallows into one of the mugs and slid them in front of us. "Thanks, Ebony," Rusty said cheerfully for once. "Not a problem Rusty," she said with her contagious smile. I could not help but smile myself as I sipped my drink. It tasted so good!

"So, Alice," Ebony said. I was quite surprised she knew my name. "Do you know where your school is yet?" I looked up to Rusty for help, but he had his back turned to me as he was talking to the man next to him. "I well… I uh." I had no idea what I was going to say. "Rusty!" Ebony said in an assertive tone. "Yes, Eb's," he asked. "Have you shown Alice the school yet?" she said sort of annoyed. Which from what I've seen from before was really out of character for her. "Well I was going to sh-" Rusty was cut off by Ebony. "I don't want to hear it, Rusty, Elizabeth is right, you're always procrastinating." I quickly finished my hot chocolate and looked at Rusty. "Are we ready to go?" I asked Rusty nervously. "If you are going anywhere you're taking Kiara with you, I'm sure she'll want to check out her new school too. Hold on…" She walked over to a plain wooden door and opened it which revealed wooden stairs. She walked up the stairs, she walked in a cheerful way swinging her arms back and forth at her sides.

She came down a couple of minutes later with a short girl behind her. The girl kept looking out from behind Ebony's back. From what I could see she had the exact same curly hair, but her hair was done up in pigtails. She had lighter skin and large brown eyes which made her look quite innocent. "I wonder if that's Kiara?" I thought to myself. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs the girl was still hiding behind Ebony. "Come on Kiara, don't be scared. You've met Rusty before, he doesn't bite." Ebony told the girl and nudged her gently from behind her. She wore a black beanie, a dark gray jacket, black jeans, and a pair of sneakers. The girl was looking straight down at her shoes. "Kiara." she said meekly. She held out her hand to shake. I shook it gently, she had quite a firm grip. "Well honey I'll see you soon," said Ebony. She bent down and kissed Kiara on the forehead. Rusty put $15 on the counter and went towards the door. Kiara walked out from behind the counter and followed Rusty to the truck I was following swiftly behind. Our trio exited the tan building. Rusty opened the door to the truck and got in. "Now you and Kiara will have to sit in the back, don't fall out ok?" Rusty said in a cheerful voice. "Maybe he just needed his coffee?" I thought to myself. I climbed up into the back and sat down and saw Kiara struggling due to her lack of height. I reached out my hand to help her up, she reluctantly took it. I pulled her into the back and then Kiara sat down and pulled something out of her pocket, it was a short pink strip Kiara put it into her mouth and chewed slowly. "Is that uh gum?" I asked, trying to break the ice. She simply glared at me and took another strip out of her pocket and handed it to me. I put the light pink strip into my mouth and chewed it a bit. It tasted like strawberries and was very sweet. "What's your name anyway?" she questioned in between chews. "It's Alice," I said simply. I looked out to the road. "You know…" I began "We could never do this where I came from," I said randomly. "Do what?" Kiara asked in an interested tone. "Well ride in the back of trucks it's just not allowed," I said speaking the truth. "What crazy world do you live in then?" Joked Kiara. We both started to laugh. Rusty looked at us and couldn't help but smile as he watched us giggle like school girls.

Very soon we arrived in front of a white building with a large red door and a matching red roof. It kind of looked like a small church. Kiara stood up and jumped from the back of the truck onto the curb. She stumbled a bit but then stood up straight and put her hands on her hips triumphantly. I stepped out of the back of the truck and stood next to Kiara, waiting for Rusty. He stepped out of the car and walked towards us. He stepped right past us, eyes locked on the red door. Kiara began to follow Rusty so I reluctantly walked behind her. I was kind of nervous but a tiny bit excited to see what was beyond the door. Kiara jogged in front of him and opened the door for me and Rusty. It was a small room with chairs and tables all around the room, there were different learning posters on the walls, some not attached properly revealing cracks and water damage. There was a man at the front of the classroom room in front of a huge blackboard. He was very tall and had brown hair and large blue eyes that almost looked turquoise. He had very pale skin that looked white. The man looked over at our trio and walked over. Kiara looked a bit nervous. I squeezed her hand in reassurance as if to tell her everything was going to be alright. I don't know what happened to the joyous and bubbly Kiara I saw in the car, but she seemed to have disappeared when she saw the man. "Hello I'm Mr. Huntington," the man said, shaking Rusty's hand. Kiara gripped my hand tighter. "Hello Miss Williams, I see you're doing well." Mr. Huntington said in a polite tone staring Kiara in the eyes. He then looked down at me. "Ah you must be Miss Baker, it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I have heard remarkable things about you." The man held his hand out to shake, I shook it cautiously. "How does he know my name?" I questioned myself. "Maybe Rusty and Elizabeth had already enrolled me?" I sighed and just decided to let it be as most people around here seem to know me. I guess in such a small town like this news spreads like wildfire. Mr. Huntington stood there kind of awkwardly as if unsure of what to say next. "Well I'll see both of you next week." he said somewhat sheepishly. We then walked back to the truck. I thought about questioning Kiara and why she was acting so weird but the answer for that could wait another day.

We ended up dropping Kiara off back at the diner. I waved goodbye as I walked over to sit in the front seat still wondering why Kiara was acting so odd. Maybe she already knew the teacher before? Maybe he wasn't as nice as he appeared to be? I kept questioning why Kiara was acting so strangely, but I then noticed we were going uphill. I looked around, my eyes locked on an old-looking tree which in this light looked kind of gray. We stopped a few meters away from the tree and Rusty got out of the car. I followed behind him looking at the leafless tree, I felt a bit uneasy as we approached it. I ignored the feeling and continued to follow Rusty. "This is The Old Oak," said Rusty with pride. "Even though it's not exactly a pine tree it's the heart and soul of Mount Pine, every year on The Woodland Festival we come up here at the end of the day and light a bonfire and celebrate our town. We tell stories, sing songs, things like that." He smiled pleasantly as if reliving a happy memory. I kind of just stood there smiling looking at the tree. I was looking forward to The Woodland Festival, whenever it was. "Rusty?" I asked looking up at the tall man. "When is The Woodland Festival?" his gray eyes met mine. "Why the festival is on the 18th of September, so it's only a couple of months away," he said cheerfully. Rusty looked down at his wrist. The smile on his face instantly dropped. "Come on Alice, time to go home," he said. We walked back towards the truck. On the way back Rusty continued to talk about The Woodland Festival. "In the morning at 9 o'clock, everyone gathers on Main Street to go to the markets. Elizabeth usually sells dresses she makes herself while I make furniture," he said cheerfully. "Banners are everywhere, usually made by the school children, and at 12 o'clock we all have a big community lunch. At 5 pm we all march up the hill to The Old Oak and have a bonfire, we eat dinner, sing songs, tell stories then we head home." we kept talking about the celebration until we reached home.