The mystery

Everything suddenly went quiet… Some crickets had been chirping noisily but now… silence…

I shivered as a cold gust of wind howled, penetrating the still silence.

I continued walking faster and more frantically than ever. My house is just 15 minutes away, I kept telling myself but seeing the woods all around surrounding and enveloping me in eeriness made me wonder how I could be that close to civilization.

Suddenly, through a gap in the trees, I spotted a glow of bright light! Curiosity being greater than my fear, I followed the light to a clearing in the woods. I could make out a dim shadow kneeling on the grass. Hiding behind a tree, I tried hard not to make a sound while I watched this mysterious person. Completely enthralled in the mystery now and eager to get closer, I dodged behind another tree, until I was very close. When I finally saw the figure in the dark, I almost fell back in shock! Megan Spelster! She's the mysterious person! What was she doing now? Here, all alone in the woods?

She was certainly the last person I had expected to see here. She was certainly not the type, being a new girl at school. And she seemed to be a queer and shy girl who had a certain childish curiosity about her that would make you like her nevertheless. Maybe she's in trouble I thought.

I was quite tempted to go talk to her when suddenly the glow of light became brighter. As I watched from my hidden spot, I heard a voice boom out, "Your work here is done Meganista! You may go on to your next destination!" Who was that, I wondered. I strained my eyes to see the person with her, the owner of the booming voice but there was no one. The voice seemed to come from a glowing flat stone in her hands which was giving out the bright light. It seemed to me as if she was speaking into it. Was there a person in there?

An insistent twitching of my nose had been bothering me and now, I couldn't hold back a sneeze. Megan or is it Meganista, whirled around and shouted, "Who's there? Show yourself!" "Do not bother Meganista. It is one of your earth friends who will be no harm," the strange voice said. Earth friend? I thought, no-one's ever referred to me that way before. This was getting more and more weird.

"Yes, of course," Meganista replied, looking around as if she would like to know who it was, and waved at the clump of trees where I, the 'earth friend' was supposed to be. As she waved, a bright green light shot out from the silver stone, blinding me. I shielded my eyes and turned my head away from the light, and all I heard at that moment was some strange word being shouted into the air!

The light disappeared and everything suddenly went quiet again. I looked to where Megan was but she was gone! I looked around in shock but there was no one in sight. I ran to where Megan was last and there was no trace she had ever been there, except a ring she always wore with a realistically beautiful red planet on it. I picked it up and smiled… After what I had seen tonight, anything was possible!

The mystery - short story