This is my first story so don't judge me.

Nick POV

I was riding my motorcycle on a road when I saw something I was looking for. A sign. I stopped in front of it and it said, 'Briarwood 25 miles'.

"That must be Briarwood." I said before taking off toward the town.

Maddie POV

Multitasking. That's what I'm good at. I was video taping Vida at her tables while tuning the guitars.

"Tobes what do you do to the guitars?! Twist the tuning keys randomly and hope they sound good!" I yelled.

"Maddie. He's taking the day off remember." Vida said.

I sighed and put the guitar I was tuning down and picked up the camera.

"Sounds great V." I said before I turned to Chip who was fighting an invisible force with a rubber chicken.

"Battling again Chip?" I asked before he ran away.

I turned to Xander who was sitting in a chair messing with his skateboard.

"Hey!" Xander said.

"Hey Xander." I said before he showed his biceps in front of the camera.

Then I turned around to see Toby.

"Toby!" I said surprised then shut my camera.

Vida shut of her music, Xander got off his lazy ass and Chip calmed down and they walked over to me.

"Hey." Xander said. " Nice snorkel, boss."

"Weren't you taking the day off today?" Vida asked.

"hmm ey wss." Toby said with his snorkel in his mouth.

"Yes I was." He said finally taking off his snorkel. "Matter of fact I was at the beach. Uh, snorkeling with the little fishies. And one swam up to my mask and looked at my with big fish eyes and said, "Are your employes taking care of the store like they said they would?" Toby said smashing his face together making fish lips.

"Now I have to go back to the water, back to the reef, find the fish and say 'no'." He said before walking inside.

"Cool story bro. Tell it again." I said as Chip and Vida laughed.

"Relax boss. Take a breather. I'll gather the troops and assign things for them to do." Xander said.

"You man do the things I pay you for? Guys!" He yelled before he walked in his office.

"Alright you heard the man. Chip grab a broom, Madison you'll take out the trash and Vida stock the albums." Xander said before clapping once and sitting down on his chair.

While Vida and Chip left I went over to him. I pulled his pillow from under his head.

"And what are you doing?" I asked him.

"I am supervising. It's not as easy as it looks. It may look like I'm doing anything. But I am. Up here." He said pointing to his head.

Then the ground shook.

"Earthquake!" Xander yelled. "Everyone take cover."

"It's the end of the world!" Chip exclaimed. "Just kidding."

"Chip!" Vida yelled as he pushed him to the ground.

"Don't panic." Toby said coming out of his office. "Remember the safety procedures." Then he went back into his office.

Xander had his helmet on and I was under a counter. And Vida and Chip were under the counter that the register was on.

Nick POV

I was getting closer to Brairwood when an earthquake hit. My bike slid and I ended up in a ditch and my motorcycle was damaged.

Maddie POV

"Is it over?" Vida asked as she and Chip came out.

"I'm alive." Chip said.

"Oh great." I said looking at the mess. "The store is messier than before."

"You'd thought that wouldn't be possible." Vida said.

"Well the good new is the worst is over." Xander said.

outside

We went outside to take a break and I took out my camera. I video taped Xander jumping over a bike on a skateboard before saying,

"After escaping death the human species cope with it in very different ways."

"Some use physical activity." I said shooting Xander with his skateboard.

"Some listen to music." I said shooting Vida reading her magazine and listening to her speakers.

"And some eat." I said shooting Chip who was eating some weird pizza.

"Chip what is that?" I asked.

"Chicken, pepperoni, cheese, and chocolate marshmallow pizza." He said taking a bite.

"Charming." I said.

I shut the camera when an old man said, "Somebody please help me."

We ran over to the crowd to see what was going on.

"Please someone. Anyone. I need help. It's my brother. We were walking just up the road when some creature grabbed my brother. I fear the worst. It's just out of town the creature took him into the woods." He said.

Everyone started to shake their heads and back up.

"Imagine that fate. Asking someone to go into the woods." Xander said.

"Will somebody please help me." Old man asked again.

"Maddie." Vida looked at me.

We nodded at the same time and took at step forward.

"We'll do it." We said at the same time.

"So will I." Said a guy.

Some people stepped to the side to see a hot guy with tan skin wearing a white t-shirt, black jeans working on a motorcycle.

"I could use a break." He said.

"Thank you." the old guy said looking at us.

The other guy stood up and started walking toward us when Xander stepped in his way.

"Hey. I'm Xander. You're new around here aren't you. Probably not aware of the facts. And there is just one. You go into those woods. You don't come out. Except for Maddie but she's the exception." He said.

I rolled my eyes.

"Heard about. The guy needs help. No one else seems to care except for those two over there." He said looking at us. "And maybe for that Maddie girl you said. Maybe she could come along."

"She is." I said as he looked at me. "You're looking at her."

"I'll go too." Chip said. "I always wanted to go on a dangerous quest. This is a dangerous quest right?"

"Then why didn't you go into the woods with me when we were ten Chippy?" I asked.

"Oh you know. Umm, my parents said no?" He replied.

"Well let's go." The guy said as we walked toward the woods.

"Are you sure you're willing to enter? The woods is a scary palace." The old guy asked as we reached the beginning of the woods.

"You sure ask a lot of questions for someone who's brother is in danger." The motorcycle guy said.

"Everyone is in danger." Old guy said.

"Everyone's in danger. Yeah." Chip exclaimed.

"These woods aren't so scary as they were told to be." I said.

Then I heard Vida's car horn honk.

We turned around to see Xander driving.

"Xander is so dead." I said as I saw the look on Vida's face.

"Xander I told you if you ever took my car I would rearrange your limbs." Vida said walking up to Xander.

"You're going into the woods and never returning. As if you're going to see it again." Xander said.

"He's got a point." Chip said.

"Maddie may see it but you won't." Xander said.

"And so there is five." I heard the old dude say.

And so we walked into the woods.

"It's creepy out here." Vida said. "Maddie how did you survive?"

"It's not like I had to walk through the whole woods V." I said.

We walked a little farther something felt weird.

"What was that? I felt something. Something weird." I said looking back.

"Wait." Motorcycle dude said walking beside me. "Where's the old man?"

"10 seconds in the woods and we're already lost." Chip said. "Alright."

We started walking and Chip kept on say what lived in here.

"There's also trolls and goblins. I also heard a witch lives here. She's hideous. With green skin and a black tongue with yellow drool that slowly drips from the corner of her mouth."Chip said.

"SO basically Vida when you wake her up too early in the morning."I said.

"Hey!" Vida yelled. "I heard that."

"You were meant to." I said.

"You've been reading to many fairytales, friend." Motorcycle dude said from behind everyone.

"You have no idea." I muttered.

"Guys." Motorcycle dude said, "There's no such thing as witches."

We all see a person in a black cloak behind him as he talks.

I burst out laughing as everyone got a scared look in there eyes.

"What?" He asks. "Oh okay. So now you're playing with me. Oh. Someones behind me. I'm so scared. Boo!"

"There is someone behind you." Vida said.

I was still chuckling when I walked up to him and spun him around.

"Ahhh!" He yelled as he pushed both of us to where everyone was.

"Anyone want to run." I said seriously as the person got closer to us.

"Already tried. But my feet won't move." Xander said.

Then these ugly things jump out of no where and surround us.

"It has friends." Vida said. "Did this happen to you Maddie?"

"I don't think I would have came out if it did." I replied.

Then the cloaked person pulled out a wand thing with a glowing snowflake and it said something then brooms came and lifted us off the ground. I was hanging on by my hands when I spotted a really big tree and the brooms dropped us at the bottom of it.

We all stood up and Xander said,

"Okay. So new guy now you know why nobody goes into these woods."

"The names Nick." Nick said.

"I prefer motorcycle dude." I said.

"What is this place?" Vida asked.

"I call it Rootcore." The lady in the cloak said.

We all backed up into a weird opening in the tree.

"Quick in here." Nick said.

Well that was chapter one.