The door in no man's land

"That's impossible!"

"What do you mean I "can't kill the lich"?"
Mia whined, she was new to the group and quite frankly annoyed at the fact that she had to play a stupid tabletop game just to satisfy her friend

"Well, you did for now but its phylactry is still intact, meaning that your quest is still not truly over"
Jacob responded with an awkward chuckle, he wasn't exactly fond of Mia but he decided to try and act friendly so he wouldn't disappoint his dear sister and Mia's friend, Lea.

As Jacob continued with the game Lea dragged Mia away, saying:
"Hey, sorry if that was annoying but I just wanted to do something with you, you've been pretty busy recently"
Mia sighed a bit heavily and looked at Lea, shaking her head.
"Don't worry girl, I'm fine it's just not my thing. I have to hurry to my football practice now though, so I guess I'll see you again tomorrow"
As Lea was preparing to respond Mia was already out of earshot.

Lea just shook her head and went back to the her group of friends which involved Jacob's friends Theo and Mitar.
Mitar smiled a bit at Lea and said "Good news, my parents will let us go to that apperantly haunted forest tonight, though we'll have to be back by 1am or they'll probably kill me"

He was a bit bummed out that he had to be home at such an early hour, for him at least, but at least they could do the thing they've been looking forward to for at least a few months now, and it pretty much instantly made Lea feel better which was even better news since now they wouldn't have to listen to her ramble about Mia again.

'I swear she's obsessed with that girl, glad she stopped thinking about her for five seconds'
He thought as he got up, looking back at Theo and Jacob and then adding:
"I have to go back to my place now, see you later!"

When he walked away Lea Jacob and Theo started talking for a bit before Theo got a phone call from his mother, meaning that he had to go too, it always weirded Lea and Jacob out, the way Theo needed to talk to his mother but they didn't want to be intrusive or call CPS without knowing anything about Theo's private life, he was concerningly secretive but Lea knew better than anyone that someone being quiet didn't mean being abused, even if she had her suspicions.

As she walked home with her brother she thought about this awkward situation with Mia, hoping that she would join them tomorrow.

Friday, Halloween night

Pretty late into the night the whole group was together again at the entrance of the only big forest in the town, which was only now available to the common man because of the rumours of an unknown threat which was deemed safe but turned into a tourist attraction, the haunted forest of their humble town, many people still believing that a ghost lived in it, a smaller group believing it to be a demon but most people agreeing that it wasn't a normal presence. Lea and her group were going to discover the truth for themselves at just fifteen years old, though right now Lea was focused on something else

"Ugh why won't she respon- Oh hey Mia, are you going to make it to our mission?"
There was some silence while a big car was parking near the entrance to the forest, Mia walking out of it with her phone in her hand, wearing an angel costume that Lea could describe as nice looking without making the situation weird.

Mia greeted everyone pretty shortly, finally walking over to Lea and saying
"What, you seriously thought I'd ditch my bestie for no reason? Do you mind me turning this into a vlog though? I think it could be pretty fun you know"
She waited for everyone to give her the thumbs up, with only Theo saying
"I'm sorry, I can't, my mom will probably know I snuck out if she finds out that Lea is hanging out with you..."

Mia was a bit annoyed at first but said "That's okay, I understand what you mean, so... are we looking for that ghost or not?"

Lea chuckled a bit, walking in with Mia right behind her and everyone else following. Theo Jacob and Mitar were pretty focused on their little ghost hunt but Jacob soon got annoyed at Lea being so focused on Mia, saying
"Olá, você pode parar de olhar para Regina George ali e nos ajudar?"(Hello, can you stop looking at Regina George over there and help us?)
Lea shook her head a bit and said
"Jeez, fine fine sorry."

Mia just laughed a bit at how embarassed Lea sounded, not knowing that Jacob was talking about her. Since their grandma immigrated from Portugal to America both Jacob and Lea learned her language and used it as their special secret language since in their middle of nowhere town noone bothered to learn any language but English.

After about an hour of exhausting walking and no results Mia heard a noise to her right, coming from behind a bunch of trees you could barely walk through, saying

"Guys, I think there's something over there, wanna check?"

Truth be told she didn't believe in this ghost story but knowing that it was Halloween she didn't want to ruin the fun, thinking it was just some animal.

Mitar decided to be the hero and clear the way out a bit, since he was the biggest, tallest one out of the four he managed to let the others through to the other side of the forest, and what they saw honestly made them more unnerved than any horror movie they ever watched: an old looking altar and more disturbingly a pile of what looked like crows that started to twitch right before their eyes.