Tales of Lost Souls | Mia's Journey

CHAPTER 1 - the last normal day

My name's Mia and I was 17 years old when my life turned around. I lived with my mom on a small Island named Turtle-Bay. Whe moved there from Germany after the death of my father. My best friend Erik lives nearby and helps me to take care of my father's grave. Erik and my dad knew each other before he died. That's why Erik is always helping me while talking good about my dad. He was a great guy with a big heart.

Erik invited me to go camping with him for a week and helped me to prepare everything. We packed two backpacks with many things and a few survival books.

Today was a normal sunday morning. I woke up, ate breakfast, and then went to the graveyard. Erik seemed to have arrived quite a time before me because he decorated my father's grave ground with a circle of flowers. "Didn't think ya would come today~. Look! I took care of it myself. Those are tulip magnolias 'emperor', your dad's favorite flowers. All that's left to do for ya is to water the flowers. I already got a bucket for you from over there. Come on, water the flowers already.~", he kind of pushed me towards the water bucket.

"You're weirder than usual. It is because of our camping trip today?", I watered the flowers he planted. My friend answered with a smile.

"Yes. I have a big surprise for you! We will do a 'find your true self'-trip. I already know who I am. An old man like me had quite the time to think about it, ya know?", he gave me a head pat and I gave him a strange look in return.

"Old man? You're just 23. And what? I know who I am too, so what are you talking about."

"There's a loooot that you don't know about yourself, little miss~", he laughed and got punched by me soon after. "Ouch... That sure hurt, Mia. How mean! Anyway. Give a proper bye-bye to your father before we go, okay? I'm sure your voice reaches him, and he would be sad if your cute voice doesn't say nice words to him. You don't know when you will have the chance to talk to him again." I said goodbye, not knowing that there was a bit of truth in Erik's words.

After having lunch, we drove into the forest with our bikes. "Follow me, Mia!", he jumped off his bike and carefully walked up a small hill. I followed him.

"What are you that excited about, Erik?", I asked, and followed his glance to a small lake. He smiled and said nothing. "It's nice here, don't you think? Let's camp here instead of the usual place". We walked back to our bikes and got all the stuff we needed. Erik set up the tent while I was busy building a fire place.

I looked up at the sky. It has already become night time and the stars were shining bright. The moon was full and looked absolutely stunning. Erik stood up and placed his hand on my head. "I will go to sleep now. Please make sure that the fire doesn't burn the forst down.", he said before vanishing inside the tent. It was weird... Erik never went to sleep this early when we were out.

Using a stick I pocked around a bit in the fire.

I sighed loudly and closed my eyes for a bit... The sound of a strick cracking woke me up again. My surrounding was pitch black, I guessed that the fire might have gone out. I feld around for my phone or a flashlight, when I notices a small flame in the distance. I decided to see where it came from.

Looking back, I shouldn't have done it...