Drop University

   Saffron helped Oliver on with his costume. Smearing makeup on his round cheeks still. He seemed anxious fiddling with a clock in his hands as she worked. She tilted his chin up to look at her. 

   “Are you sure you want to try this whole test of courage thing?” Saffron asked with a bit of worry. It was his first event at school. She just wondered if such a nervous kid would do well. He nodded though.
   “Big sis I’m sure. I want to join the board game club… but first I wanna prove I’m really really brave like when i play a hero in games at home” he mumbled setting the clock aside. He always participated in the games they played at home. Saffron afterall loved a good game of Demon’s path. She’d host the game and the whole family would play. Oliver always played the wizard. He’d draw his character too. It was pretty clear by the sparkle in his eyes he considered this the same sort of thing. She took her witch’s hat off and set it on his head. 

  “Okay well now you can use your super duper special wizard magic!” she giggled and took his hand in hers giving it a gentle squeeze. Oliver gasped and nodded happily causing the hat to almost flop off his head. Saffron stiffled a giggle.

  “Off we go! Lets impress that club” she cheered as they headed off towards where the school had set up the trail. 

  

   The trail was a lot creepier than she expected. The darkness made her feel a bit uneasy and then there was the shapes out of the corner of her eye. She squeezed Oliver’s hand as they passed fake tombstones marking the entrance heading into the mountain forest. Oliver hopped ahead yanking her hand with him. She took a deep breath and followed him. When had she started being scared of forests at night? She couldn’t really remember. 

  The trees felt like they grew closer with each second and it felt like the shadows were shifting around them. She wished she had kept her own hat to hide in. Oliver was quick to notice she was scared and stopped in his tracks. He frowned seeing his usually excited sister unnerved and quieter than a grave.

   “Big sis don’t worry” he muttered “I’ll protect us!”. He gave her a tight hug then tried to tug her forward. 

   Right at that moment an actor playing a ghost popped out from a tree behind Saffron in that moment. Chaos sparked. Saffron screamed firing a fire spell. Oliver screamed and immediately let go of Saffron’s hand running the other way.

  The poor actor subjected to this incident seemed to scream too. Saffron immediated darted in the opposite direction as fast as her feet could carry her unable to even focus on the path. Saffron ran until her lungs burned and tears formed at the corner of her eyes. She wanted to be out of the forest but she had just gotten herself lost deeper. Worse… the minute she had managed to stop she realized she lost oliver. She couldn’t see him and the trees just seemed to almost look like they were laughing at her. Her whole body hurt and she looked around for the small boy. 

   “Oli?” she called her voice quivering with her whole body. She tried to form a spell in her fingers but it fizzled in a crackle of light in front of her. Would someone steal him? What if he was crying or what if he got hurt? Her mind was reeling and the sight of the trees just made her stomach churn. She grasped her ears with her hands and sunk to the ground infront of the tree closing her eyes tightly. She let out tiny stiffled sobs shaking her whole body. 

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  Oliver found himself deep in the forest when he realized he couldn’t see any ghosts. The path had disappeared and so had his big sister. He tugged her hat down trying to hide in it as he looked around for some path back. Everywhere there was just trees and a scattering of glowing mushrooms. He wondered if the glowing mushrooms would make Saffron happy. He took a few steps forward and kneeled down scooping the glowing mushrooms into his shirt in armfuls. 

    “Hello? Im here by the mushrooms” he called hoping someone might here as he scooted along picking up more mushrooms. He took a few screws out of his pockets then began to leave them where he had picked up mushrooms previously hoping some adult might find the trail.

   “Hello!” he called again hoping to see someone.