Chapter 3

“Lisa, Lisa,” Bruce, Lisa’s father, yelled and a group of men comprising police and rescue teams yelled.

They all walked in the night’s dimness, sharpening and focusing their vision to find Lisa’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Sean and some police officers waited at the edge of the cliff.

Bruce hoped Lisa was safe and that nothing bad had happened to her. His thoughts and feelings were chaotic. If anything happened to his daughter, he could never forgive himself.

They descended the cliff slowly through a path that one person could only travel using safety equipment. The trail was quite dangerous with the wet ground.

Several men from the rescue team led the way in front of Bruce, and Sheriff Webb and one of his men followed behind. The fog at the bottom of the ravine was thick.

Unyielding, they all continued to walk down the cliff, even though the more they walked towards the bottom of the cliff, the thicker the fog became, and the more it obscured their visibility. Finally, the rescue team leader gave up and called out to all of them, “The fog is too thick, it’s too risky. How about continuing the search tomorrow morning when the sun rises?”

Sheriff Webb looked at Bruce and waited for his answer as he said, “His words are true, Bruce. It’s too risky, though I know you’re anxious about Lisa. But all of our lives are in danger if we continue the search tonight. The decision is yours.”

Bruce was silent and answered nothing. He stared into the misty bottom of the ravine. On the one hand, he wanted to find Lisa as soon as possible, but he couldn’t act selfishly at the expense of many lives.

“Alright, I agree. Let’s go back up and continue the search tomorrow morning,” Bruce said.

Then, Sheriff Webb called out to everyone, “Let’s go back up and continue the search tomorrow morning when the sun is just beginning to rise.”

They all went back up the cliff. That night, the search was called off, and they all returned to the temporary headquarters at the edge of the forest. Bruce walked side by side with Sean. Occasionally, Sean looked back and murmured, “Lisa, please hang in there.”

They walked with slow steps while looking straight into the darkness of the forest. Everything felt like a dream that passed quickly. Just a few days ago, Lisa and Sean arrived in Stowe Town and now something terrible had happened to both of them.

Arriving at the temporary headquarters, Sheriff Webb intended to interrogate Sean about what happened to him and Lisa. Then he walked over to Bruce, who was sitting pensively alone in the room’s corner. Bruce and Sean sat separately. Then Sheriff Webb sat next to Bruce while touching his shoulder.

“Bruce, how are you doing? I have to interrogate your son. Are you okay?” Sheriff Webb asked.

“I’m worried about Lisa. I’m afraid she won’t make it. They entered the forbidden forest, and you know about that too, right?” Bruce replied sadly.

“Yes, I know. Bruce, I promise you, we will find Lisa tomorrow morning. Do you trust me?” Sheriff Webb asked.

“Yes. Do what you have to do, Webb.”

Sean, who was sitting on the sofa facing out the window, heard the conversation between his father and Sheriff Webb. He was quite curious about what they said “forbidden forest” was. Sean was sure there was something his father and Sheriff Webb were hiding.

Then Bruce and Sheriff Webb came over to Sean. They sat facing each other. Without waiting long, Sheriff Webb immediately asked a question.

“Sean, tell us what happened?” Sheriff Webb asked curiously.

Bowing his head and looking the other way, Sean said that this afternoon he and his sister had been walking at the edge of the forest with one of their friends named Jessy.

Moments later, Lisa saw a white wolf passing between the trees. Curiosity got Lisa’s attention, so she invited Sean and Jessy to enter the forest and follow the white wolf. Although scared and reluctant, they both accompanied Lisa into the forest.

Just a few steps away, Jessy got a call on her cell phone. It turned out that her grandmother asked her to come back immediately and take her to the hospital. Reluctantly, Jessy left them both in the forest. But Jessy promised to come back soon to pick them both up when they returned from the hospital later.

That’s when the two of them got separated. Lisa and Sean went further into the forest, while Jessy went back to her grandmother’s house. As the sky darkened, Lisa lost track of the white wolf and the two of them got lost in the middle of the forest. Until finally, they heard many very long wolf howls. To be honest, the howls sounded very scary.

Lisa invited her brother to find out where the sound came from. So, they both walked towards the source of the sound, and from behind the trees, they witnessed a fight between two large groups of animals with large size, exceeding the size of a dog, but with fangs and sharp eyes, and a terrible grin.

Lisa and Sean realized they shouldn’t be there. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time and lives were at stake. Both of them became panicked and scared. Then, Sean took Lisa and ran away from the place.

As their feet stepped away from the battle arena, a wolf who was near their hiding place realized that there were humans who saw their fight. The wolf looked at and walked towards them.

Lisa and Sean, who knew that they had become the target of a wolf, then ran as fast as possible without looking back. They were so scared that they went further into the forest. Until finally, it pushed them to the edge of the cliff and when the white wolf was about to attack them, a brown wolf came and attacked the white wolf.

But, because of the unequal strength, the brown wolf and Lisa were pushed into the ravine. Meanwhile, Sean didn’t know why Jessy didn’t come back and pick them up.

“Sean, Jessy was asked to accompany her grandmother into the night. When she dropped her off, I called her and asked where you were. She said that you two went into the forbidden forest. When I heard that, I became panicked and scared, so I called everyone,” Bruce said.

“Forbidden forest? We didn’t see any sign telling us this was a forbidden forest,” Sean replied.

“Why is this forest called a forbidden forest? Jessy didn’t tell us anything,” Sean asked.