Stars That Light ✨️ a short story collection

The Enchanted Forest

Eliana saw her grandmother rummaging through the attic for something. She was curious and went inside the dusty attic to peek at what her grandmother Red was doing. After all, it wasn’t every day you get to see inside your grandmother’s attic.

She assumed it was for storage, but it was not.

“Grandmother Red, I was wondering what’s for dinner tonight?” She pretended to ask while she looked around the attic.

“I thought I told you we were going out to eat with Auntie Sue…Oh, and don’t bother coming in, it’s dusty and–Woah!” Eliana heard wood clashing with one another, then metal and glass. A swoosh of wind passed through her, and she got chills.

“Grandmother Red?” she whispered. She heard something creak and she spun her body around. No one was there. Her grandmother was gone too.

Looking around, she spotted a weird-looking mirror at the end of the room, standing near the broken cobwebbed window. She felt intrigued by the mirror and wanted to touch it. From afar, she could already see the beautifully detailed designs of flowers and leaves, tracing around the mirror’s frame. Pulled by an irresistible force, Eliana walked towards the mirror.

Staring at its huge frame and the mirror that was slid inside, she was in awe at such a beautiful thing sitting in the attic. For a second, she thought she saw not her reflection but a forest in it. Then, her hands, tracing the frame found the mirror glass.

Surprisingly, you were to be able to touch the mirror’s cool surface, as it’s made of glass. But this mirror was different. Her hands went through it, and the mirror was like melted water! Her eyes were wide, she realized that her body was gone, and she could only see a blurry picture of the attic she had left behind. IN front of her, was a huge forest, in the shade of black.

And the mirror was gone behind her.

The mirror had been a portal.
~
She had not eaten dinner at all. She was alone in the dark, murky state of the forest, with no way out because she didn’t even exactly know where she was. Earth? Or some other world no human had ever yet to discover?

But there was no time for thoughts, for she could hear the rumbling of the skies above her and her stomach, growling loudly.

Eliana did not know this place, so she didn’t know whether to pluck the berries that hang in the bushes nearby. What she knew about this place was, now and then, strange creatures’ cries could be heard and she would grow scared and try to climb a nearby tree.

Her eyes, growing accustomed to the dark ahead had started to droop down slowly. She wanted so badly to sleep for one moment and forget about the beautiful strange mirror and just rest for a while. But rest called to her as an unknown word. Her tired skinny legs pushed her forward, again and again, trying so hard to find a speck of a plain, where no tall black trees surrounded her little, tiny body.

Soon, just as she couldn’t take it anymore, she heard a lady’s cries from behind her. The little girl turned sharply at the sound of her. Breathing jagged, she tried to stop herself from trembling and shaking.

“Eliana! Over her!” she heard the lady again.

“Who are you?” she looked at the lady, approaching her. She started to walk backward, afraid.

“I’m Teressa’s mother, and it's my daughter you always play with. Don’t you remember me? Why have you not come home for years?” the lady walked into the shadow of the trees.

“N-no, I don’t,” she said, backing up to a tree.

“Well, come along with me to the village of Ganisha then! You can meet Teressa again. She’s eating dinner right now because she had flu for the past week and hadn’t recovered yet. I can tell her you’re a visitor though,” the woman spoke rapidly.