Standing next to the fence separating the town and the woods is a 15 year old boy named Zack and some other kid, he didn't know his name. He saw at school that they shared a class but they never talk until today. Zack has red-brown hair and blue eyes. They were outside of the fence because some kid stole their belongings and hid them somewhere in the woods. Zack got a letter and a map in his locker at the end of school on a Friday. The letter said that his most favorite book was hidden somewhere in the woods and that they had to find it before nightfall or it would be lost forever. The map looked badly degraded, it is the map of the woods.

He turned and looked at the kid. Zack is a little taller than the kid so he had to look down a little bit. Zack asked a question. “What have they stolen from you?”

The kid jumped, he must not be used to somebody talking to him. “They stole my Nintendo Switch. I only just got it a couple of days ago.” He looks down at his shoes.

“My name is Zack.” He held out his hand.

The kid looked up and said “Liam. My name is Liam”. Liam shook Zack's hand.

“So Liam, are you going to sulk about losing your game thing, whatever you call it, or are you going to get it back and show those losers that you were brave enough to go into the woods?”

Liam smiled at that and said, “it's called a Nintendo Switch, and yea, I will show them that I can be brave.” at that, he started to climb the fence but he kept falling.

“Do you need a hand?” Zack said with a smile and held his hand out. Liam took his hand and pulled himself up off the ground. He helped Liam up and over the fence.

“What about you?” Liam asked while getting up, wiping the dirt off his pants and his blue hoodie.

Liam looked up and saw that Zack climbed up and over the fence effortlessly. “Showoff,” said Liam. Zack smiled and pulled out the map of the woods from his shoulder bag. He started to walk into the woods but stopped when he noticed that Liam hadn't moved.

“What's wrong?” He asked.

Liam stared at him. He opened his mouth then closed it like he couldn't decide what to say. Then after a few seconds, Liam asked Zack a question. “Don't you know the legend of this woods”

“What legend?”Asked Zack.

Liam looked at him with confusion and said “You don't know the legend about these woods? That's impossible, everybody knows about it”.

“What legend? I just moved to this town a week ago,” asked Zack.

Liam looked surprised and said, “It's getting late, I'll tell you about this later but first we need to find our things”. Liam took the map from Zack’s hands and headed into the woods.

Zack looked at the sky. “It's not that late,” he says while catching up to Liam.

“Trust me, you don't want to be here when the sun goes down,” said Liam, who was looking at the map and looked up at the two paths ahead. Liam went left.

“Isn't it the other way?” asked Zack with a confused look, pointing at the other path.

Liam stopped and looked at him, he said “ I'm the one holding the map” and continued to walk fast. Liam seems like he doesn’t want to be there any longer than he has to. They walked for miles. When they turned another corner they were in the same place that they started from.

“Are you sure that you read that map correctly.” Zack took the map and saw that it was upside down.

“Sorry. I guess that I'm not as good with maps than I thought.” Liam looked at his shoes again.

Zack patted Liam’s head and says “its all right.” Zack looked at the map again and went right. Liam is fixing his hair while blushing a little and then ran to catch up with him. It only took a few minutes and they saw their stuff laying against a tree. Liam brightened up when he saw his Nintendo Switch. He ran towards it. He picked it up and hugged his game, then put it in his hoodie pocket.

Zack picked up his book and opened it. He found a picture on a chapter page.

The edges of the picture are burnt from the fire. The picture had four people in it. The man on the left is smiling and looking at his wife and kids right next to him who is looking at the camera. He has messy brown hair and blue eyes, he is wearing round glasses and has an old fob watch with some kind of design on it. The fob watch rests in his hand while the chain is attached to his vest pocket. The woman on the right has a child on her lap while she is sitting in an armchair, she has red hair and green eyes. She has an old skeleton key necklace that she has on, she is wearing a red dress with a white bow on her head, and has a wedding ring on her left hand. The ring has two different colors on it, one is garnet and the other is Aquamarine. The daughter is standing in front of her dad. Her eyes are green and she has brunette hair made into a french braid that is resting on her shoulder. She is wearing a blue flowery dress and has a bracelet on each arm. The son is sitting on his mother's lap. He has red-brown hair and blue eyes. The boy is wearing a dark blue vest over a white dress shirt and is wearing a black blazer on top. Zack turned the picture over and it said, ‘Will - 38, Tessa - 37, Isabelle - 15, Zack - 10’. Zack turned the picture over and looked at it. He made a sad smile and thought ‘good, it's still here’.

“What's that?” asked Liam, when he looked over at Zack and saw he is holding a tiny piece of paper. Liam walked over and realized that it is a burnt photograph of a family. He leaned over Zack’s shoulder to get a better look at the photo. Zack felt his face flushed. He looked at Liam and noticed that he had two different eye colors. His left eye is blue and the right is green.

“That boy looks a lot like you”. Liam looked up and saw that they were so close that their noses almost touched. Liam backed away blushing a lot. “Is that your family in the photograph?” asked Liam who is still blushing.

Zack looked at his photograph and made the same sad smile before. Zack nodded as he put the photograph on the same page and closed the book.

Liam was about to say something but he was cut out by the sound of bells coming from town. Liam looked alarmed. He looked at the sky and then said “we have been here too long, we need to leave.” Liam was walking away fast and Zack was following him but some glowing light caught his eye. He stopped and walked in the direction. Before he could get close to the glowing light, Liam grabbed his hand and pulled him away from it and they started to run. He didn't let go until they were at the fence.

“What was that glowing?” Zack asked.

Liam bent over and put his hand on his knees, trying to catch a breath now that they stopped running. Instead of answering the question, he said “Can you help me get over the fence again?”

“If only you would tell me about the glowing that I saw”.

“I will tell you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” asked Zack.

“Yea, you'll give me your number, and then I’ll text you when I’m free tomorrow. Then I’ll tell you all I know about the legends of these woods”. Liam said while gesturing to the gate. “So will you help me over the fence?”

“Ok, fine”. Zack helped Liam over and then he climbed over the fence.

“So, phone number?” asked Liam, pulling out a pen from his pant pocket to write on his arm.

“Oh yea, here”. Zack pulled out his phone from his bag and read his phone number to Liam. “There, now you can text me tomorrow.” He says with a smile.

Liam smiled back and said “Will do. I got to go back home.”

The sun was setting and cast an orange look over the town. Liam and Zack said their goodbyes and went home for the night. It was the beginning of their story.