Chapter 2
The Mysterious Forest
The gates of Vantage Point Castle swung open, and two horses attached to a cart raced out; Twilight Knight was sitting inside of the cart. She was wearing a maroon cloak so no one would recognize who she was. The cart started to slow down when she got further away. Twilight looked around and saw farms; the people working stopped what they were doing and looked at her. Twilight tried to stare forward and ignore them, and noticed that the sky was starting to change each day. It was getting darker. She continued to Eclipse Island; the mysterious place of where the Lace Family lived. Eclipse Island was known for thick forests, and disappearances of tourists from other worlds. It was never fully explored; no one got far enough. As Twilight neared the bridge to Eclipse Island, she looked over the deep chasm separating Eclipse Island from the mainland. She shook her head and looked at the floor.
As the click-clack of the horses crossing the bridge could be heard, she had a strange feeling...like there was an aura protecting Eclipse Island...or maybe something else.
"Are we on the island yet?" Twilight asked as she stuck her head out of the carriage.
"Yes, we are on the main road now." said the driver.
Twilight sat back in her seat and looked outside. Vantage Point Castle was still visible in the distance, but was soon shrouded by the forest that passed them. It started to get dark, and shrieks could be heard from bats and other animals living in this dark place that was seemingly uninhabitable. The road wasn't paved, it was a plain dirt road with wooden signs that appeared on the side every once in a while. The signs were pointing to places such as Hilltop Town, Lagoon Street, Serene City (the only city on Eclipse island), Luna Lane, Chaos Corner (the oldest area in all of Twilatropolis where everybody lived at when it was created, but everyone suddenly disappeared one day), and last but not least, the small town full of the dark and shady Twilatropians, called Misty Valley.
Soon the sign with the name 'Misty Valley- 2.5 miles ahead' was planted in the middle of a fork in the road pointing to the right. Each road seemed to be dark, but they continued down the Misty Valley road. Then, suddenly, as the darkness and fog swept over the cart, there was a thump. The wheel on the right side had fallen off and the driver, the royal chauffer, went to the side to go look at it. There was some rustling in the bushes, and the chauffer never came back.
"…Hello?" she inquired to the darkness, as she swept away the almost see through purple curtain and peered out the window.
The darkness didn't respond.
"Is anyone out there…?" she inquired again. When nobody answered, she stepped out of the lopsided cart and looked by the wheel. She then started walking over to where the horses were. Unable to find another way out of this situation she took the horse off of the halter, which was strangely the last thing that the horse was attached to, and on the ground was the rest of the horse's tack. There used to be two horses, one got away, somehow.
"Well then, I guess this is the only way out…" she said to herself. She nervously hopped onto the back of the horse, and trotted off. The darkness behind them growing, this seemed like a horrible place for a queen.
"How come no one ever told me about this place? How come I've never been here… and why am I talking to myself…" she said.Then, suddenly, the horse spooked and reared up, then ran into the pitch black forest, where its echoed whinnies reverberated off of the trees in the lightless forest. She was left there, on the dirt road. Her only choice was to walk.
The street lights were dimmed, flickering every once in a while, due to age. In the distance, a gate formed. It had the letter L on it, on a plaque to the side; it read "Lace Residence". Twilight pressed the 'call' button on the plaque, and a farmiliar voice of an operator or a secretary answered.
"What do you want?" inquired the unknown speaker.
"I would like access into the Lace Residence please." replied Twilight.
"In English please!"
"Listen here, I'm the queen, here to see some relatives, if you don't let me in you'll find your precious stuffed pink poodle tied to a pole in the middle of the forest…"
"What?! No, please no… anything but that, Mrs. Snuggly-poo was my first stuffed animal!"
"5… 4… 3… 2… 1 more second until I…"
Twilight makes a cutting gesture across her neck, and the secretary opened the gate for her almost instantly.
"That's more like it!"
"Just shut up… and it's between you and me… Mrs. Snuggly-poo, got it?!"
"Fine."
Twilight went up to the door, but as she gripped the door knob, she looked at the red stone embedded into the door. She felt faint, then the door opened by itself. Everything got fuzzy, and then the world started falling. Then, everything went black.