A loud wail of a horn signals the start of the game, but a lot of time has passed since then and we are in the heart of the woods, the heart of darkness. Even since I was a kid, hiking wasn't my jam. It was a necessary torture for all the family to gather and spend some time together and have fun together. At first, it was okay and a really nice experience, but everything changed since Gustave was born. He became the light of my parents' eyes, their world, their everything and I was left plagued by a severe middle-child complex.
Now, I don't want to say that I hate my family. Nor that I have any intention of strangling my little brother with the shower curtain next time we meet. My family is, fortunately, a fairly normal one and I am very grateful for this. The problem is something else: where do I fit in? I have always felt myself slowly drifting away from my family and I have done a lot of things in a desperation to prevent this nasty feeling. I am sure that this puzzle must have a place for me, the third weel, to fill in.
"I have told you, focus!"
Erik snapped his fingers and brought me back to the present.
"Are you alright?" April asks me, at which I nod in approval.
"You lost a lot, de Chagny!" Jacklyn chuckles. "You zoned out again. Are you absolutely sure you are fine?"
"Wait!"
Castro raises his hand and, through a subtle gesture, told us to shut our mouths. The forest is quiet, eerily quiet, only a faint gust of wind makes the leaves rustle. We stay like that in silence, waiting tensely the slightest movement of the bushes around us. I feel my heart racing a hundred miles per hour, threatening to come out of my chest. I feel a certain sense of dread looming over us and my legs start shaking. I now regret making fun of April. I have never felt so affraid before...
Looking around cautiously, Erik Darcy signals the girls something, a code known only by them. Jacklyn immediately vanishes through the bushes like an aglie deer, followed closely by April White. Now, it was just the three of us: the mastermind, the squire and the one looking as if he had just fallen from the moon.
A greyish arrow splits the stiff air in two, ripping through it as if it were nothing but a thin sheet of silk. It does this with a sinister whoosh, similar to the howling of a mad wolf. A girl with brown hair reaching her shoulders, the goddess of these dark places herself, emerges from between the trees holding a bow in her hand. Then, young man appears, with long black hair and a look of sheer determination, wielding a bronze spear. And, lastly, in the clearing, I see emerging from the shadows, with a look of crazed satisfaction, my worst nightmare himself.
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Post scriptum - 1. Act One
قصص عامة"And they lived happily ever after..." And what happens next? Well, for Logan de Chagny, the answer is far from fantastic: he has always struggled to live up to his parents' expectations and feels like in his perfect family there is no room for some...
