12 Illusionary Fores

Numerous red eyes sparkled in the darkness. In the obscure environment, the same number of hairy legs were squirming closer at rapid speed.

"D-don't come closer!" Bridget Will desperately yelled.

She ran and ran. Trying to get away from those creepy crawlers. With every step, a crunching sound ensued below. Juices stuck onto her bare feet. However, no matter how much distance she traveled on her two legs, she could not widen the gap between her and those terrifying arachnids.

Although she could deal with a single spider, albeit screaming in the process, she could not take an entire army chasing after her.

"Huh?"

While running, she suddenly noticed that there was no floor under her, but instead, a bottomless hole.

"Whaaaa-!"

And then, she fell into the deep abyss.

------

"I-I wo-wonder if Bridget is alright," Natalie Blois looked around, noticing that not just Bridget, but everyone else was gone.

"I-I'm back?"

She inspected her surroundings. A familiar room with several wooden easels. Blank canvases were situated on a couple, while others had wet canvases painted by different girls, including her. The smell of fresh paint enveloped. On one of the walls was a large hole, which contrasted from the orderly room.

She picked up a paintbrush out of habit and began painting on a blank canvas. However, she stopped after a few strokes. She forgot what she was going to paint.

Once again standing up, she ambled around the room she used to visit every weekday after school.

Completed paintings hung upon the walls, featuring many diverse subjects. For example, one had a fluffy blue kitten, another had a green frog with thick lips, and next to that one was a picture of a freckled-faced girl with a cheerful smile.

"T-That's my painting!" Walking toward the picture of her dear friend, Natalie touched it and noticed it was damp.

"I-Impossible! I drew this years ago!"

Suddenly, the door opened and a girl, whose appearance was exactly the same as the painting, entered while holding a magazine.

"Natalie! Natalie! Look!" the girl pointed to a segment in a magazine, "You won! Your painting won! Isn't that great!"

"Y-Yes it is great, Bridget!" Natalie replied as she hid the painting of the girl.

Laughing, Bridget patted Natalie on the back, "You should be more confident! Also, stop looking down so much! You worked hard for weeks and did your very best. You deserve to be proud of your achievement!"

"B-but, that competition was s-small and there weren't many competitors," she really didn't feel anything regarding her accomplishment.

"You still won though," Bridget smiled as her white teeth shone.

"By the w-way, Bridget, how was t-the track and field meet?" Natalie asked, changing the subject.

Bridget sighed, "It was no good. I tripped over a hurdle because there was a dumb spider on it. But, I did really good in the sprint! I even beat my time by .20 seconds!"

"But enough of that!" Bridget grabbed Natalie's hand, "Anyway! I'm hungry, so why don't we head next door to the baking club and see if they have anything today!"

"O-Okay," Natalie nodded as the two moved from the art club's room to the baking club's.

Opening the door, Natalie received a whiff of sweet, diabetes-inducing pastries.

"Hm? Natalie? Oh, and Bridget as well. Hello. Here for food again?" A girl with platinum blonde hair and amber eyes greeted the two. In her oven mitt covered hands was a tray of freshly baked cookies.

"Ooo, those look delicious Iris!" Bridget advanced to steal a cookie.

Yanking the cookies away from the thieving cat, Iris Meyers smiled, "You need to wash your hands first. Furthermore, I'm not done decorating them."

"Uh, why don't you let Natalie decorate them as usual," Bridget said as she rinsed her hands in the sink.

Natalie recalled that while Iris was skillful at cooking, her decorations were...unique. Or rather, her decorated cookies were shaped like grotesque animals whose blood and guts would squeeze out.

"Y-yeah, why d-don't I do it?"

Iris giggled, "Well, if you insist."

As they waited for the cookies to slightly cool, Iris and Natalie prepared the multicolored icing. They appeared accustomed to doing so together. While the two were mixing, Bridget dashed to her locker and came back with mini candies. Natalie utilized her skills to create cute animal cookies with pastel colors. The trio enjoyed goreless cookies.

"By the way, Iris, you're a year older than us right? What are you going to do after graduation? You're pretty smart, so you could probably enter any college you want," Bridget munched on another cookie.

"I'm going to visit an old friend of mine before deciding," Iris smiled.

Natalie observed as the two continued their conversation.

For some reason, she felt there was something wrong with this place.

Was she forgetting something?

-----

In appearance, Layla Gibbs was absolutely depressing. Her fashion sense was poor in contrast to her slightly above average looks. Her hair was an oily black mess. And, she usually wore long black or grey clothes, which covered most of her skin. After all, she never liked showing off her body or wearing make up like the popular kids. Because of this, she was often bullied by the other girls in middle school.

Even today, she was bullied.

"You ugly b****! Go to hell!"

"Get away from me, maggot!"

"Don't even look at me!"

Getting hit by dirty water was normal. Being pushed around was normal. Eating dirt was normal.

Walking around like the living dead, she roamed around the streets, hoping for something to change her life.

"..."

She was honestly tired of the repeated blasphemy and torture. However, she could only endure till graduation so she can get a degree, a job, and out of this godforsaken town.

"Hey, over there! It's Layla! She looks a hundred years older than me! Even though we're in the same year."

'That's just calling yourself old.'

Retorting internally, Layla lingered on the streets for longer.

"It's Layla! That b**** dared touch my boyfriend!"

'I bumped into him on accident.'

As she passed by more familiar buildings, she reached a fountain in the town square. There was a dark hole in the fountain.

Something felt wrong. Missing.

A memory flashed through Layla's mind.

During middle school, there was once a time when Layla was nearly killed due to the escalating bullying. A bully pushed her off the ledge of a four-story building in a fit of unjust anger.

However, she did not fall.

"How dare you commit a crime right in front of MY eyes!"

A confident girl with fierce green eyes and curly brown hair heroically caught Layla's outstretched hand and pulled her up. Her demeanor was stunning and powerful.

The same strong girl slapped the bully's face and lectured till the bully was in tears. Furthermore, she kindly helped Layla up and complimented Layla's looks.

"Wow, your clothes are awful, but I can fix that. On the other hand, the base is barely good enough to stun some men with strange fetishes."

Yep. Complimented.

From that day on, Layla was her admirer. The girl was Layla's ideal self. She was Layla's everything.

She was Clara Nixon. The girl who will rise up in prominence.

"And I won't let anyone besmirch my memory of Clara!" Layla asserted as she jumped into the hole in the fountain.

-------

"Y-you know. I don't think this is right," Natalie interrupted Bridget and Iris's talk.

"What's wrong, Natalie?" Bridget asked.

"You weren't here, Bridget. Not on this day," for once, Natalie stopped stuttering, "You broke a leg during the meet and I visited with a portrait of you to cheer you up. Although you accidentally dropped it and it broke, we had a great time in the hospital."

She paused for a second.

"In other words, I never won a contest and you weren't the one cheering me up."

"What are you saying, Natalie?" Bridget worriedly stared at the girl.

Natalie glared at 'Bridget' without avoiding eye contact, "You're not Bridget."

"Wait, Natalie!"

Pushing 'Bridget' aside, Natalie dashed back into the art room. Taking a last glance at the portrait, she jumped into the hole in the wall.

'Thank you for showing me my painting one last time. I'll make a new one with everyone in it next time.'

--------

The mist in the forest cleared, revealing the appearances of five misshapen children.

One was on the ground while raising her limbs into the air as if she were falling.

Another hit her head on a tree trunk with a mouthful of leaves.

A third was wet as she hopped into a puddle.

Those three were perplexed about the transition in their settings.

"I-I saw everyone get killed~. It was so scary~!" Wendy wailed as she embraced Nora Cheng like hugging a teddy bear.

"On the contrary, it was an interesting experience to see those illusions try to scare me with my deep repressed memories and fear, in which I actually have none. It was funny seeing random horror flicks and my awful test grades, but nothing I can't take. Unfortunately, they ran away before I can experiment with them, scared of what I was going to do. Oh yeah, I woke up first, then Wendy," Nora replied, "On the other hand, I got to see everyone else run around like headless chickens. No matter how hard I slapped all of you, none of you would wake up."

Bridget and Natalie blushed hard at Nora's last sentences, but Layla didn't care. She would only care if Clara spoke.

"W-where's Melody?" Although the Natalie wasn't aware, her incessant stuttering had restarted.

Bringing her tentacles to her non-existent hips, Nora answered, "When I snapped out of the illusion, I only saw you, four. I couldn't just leave you, girls, running around like crazy in the middle of nowhere. In addition, I can't move that fast anyway."

"Hey, guys! Are you all alright?" A chirpy voice echoed in the forest.

"Melody?"

On a golden throne overflowing with fragrant flowers perked a little girl with thin-membrane wings. Her wings flickered between the entire color spectrum.

Supporting the throne were other fairies whose wings reflected fewer colors than the little girl.

"So, when I met the fairy king and queen, they found out that I had royal blood! I evolved from a fallen idol to a princess!"

"WHAT!?"