All Chapters of Ardenvale: A Cursed Myth : Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Reverie had been unemployed for twenty-three days. She knew because she had counted them, although she couldn't remember when she had started. The number simply kept appearing whenever she opened her calendar, sitting among a collection of empty days as if quietly mocking her. Twenty-three days since she had resigned. Twenty-three days since she had walked out of the office with a cardboard box containing a water bottle, two pens, a half-dead desk plant, and the last fragments of whatever dignity she thought she had left.She had told everyone she needed a break. That was the polite version. The truth was that her body had been asking her to stop for months, long before she finally listened. It had started with headaches that came and went throughout the day, then settled behind her eyes whenever she stared at a screen for too long. Her shoulders were perpetually tense, her neck constantly sore, and she often woke with an aching jaw from clenching her teeth in her sleep.Even after le

“Easton, go fetch the firewood your father gathered yesterday. And catch some fish for dinner tonight.” Arbelle, a beautiful woman now in her thirties, called from outside their wooden house to wake her son, Easton. The one being awakened only let out a small groan. He turned his body the other way, covering his ears with a pillow before his older sister, Elara, kicked him in the back. Easton immediately groaned in pain and muttered a curse under his breath. He glared at Elara, who was now sitting behind him while reading a book. The young man then stepped outside. “Yes, Mom,” he answered, still half-asleep. After cleaning himself up, Easton approached his mother, who was hanging laundry in the yard while yawning and stretching his body slightly. “Is it just me, or does it feel a little quiet around here?” Easton said, helping his mother hang the wet clothes on the simple handmade wooden clothesline. “I heard the people from the city came back,” Arbelle replied. “What do

“Come on, Reverie, this isn’t the time to joke around. My mother asked me to come home before dark, and I’m already late.” Easton turned toward the girl, who still hadn’t moved past the boundary of Ardenvale.“I’m not joking, East. I can’t get through,” the girl replied, her voice half-panicked.Easton clicked his tongue in slight annoyance and immediately turned back, walking toward Reverie again.The young man then took Reverie’s hand and began leading the way once more, letting her walk behind him. Yet the moment he managed to cross the boundary of Ardenvale Forest, the pull on his hand suddenly stopped, as though it had caught on something. Easton turned back toward the girl behind him.And sure enough, Reverie’s body could not pass through the forest boundary, as though an invisible wall stood in front of her.“You’ve got to be kidding me...” Easton stared at her in disbelief. This only made the situation even more complicated. He couldn’t possibly stay with Reverie in the forest