The truth

The forest had separated them.

But Ethan could still hear Jake’s voice somewhere beyond the trees.

“Ethan! Are you there?”

“Yeah!” Ethan answered. “I’m here!”

For a few seconds, there was only silence.

Then Jake spoke again.

“Don’t move. I think the forest is changing.”

Ethan looked around.

The trees were no longer standing in the same positions. The crooked pine tree with three scratches had disappeared, and the narrow path behind him had become covered with thick, tangled roots.

His flashlight flickered.

He opened the black notebook.

A new sentence had appeared on the page.

THE TRUTH IS BURIED WHERE THE FIRST NAME WAS TAKEN.

Ethan stared at the words.

“Jake,” he called, “I found something.”

“Read it.”

Ethan read the sentence aloud.

A sudden cold wind moved through the trees.

Then Jake’s voice came from directly behind him.

“The first name…”

Ethan turned quickly.

Jake was standing several feet away, holding his flashlight.

“How did you get here?” Ethan asked.

Jake looked confused. “I followed your voice.”

“I didn’t call you.”

Jake’s expression changed.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then they both looked down.

The ground beneath their feet was covered with the same strange symbol they had seen near the abandoned building.

At the center of the symbol was a small, rusted metal box.

Jake crouched beside it.

“There’s something written here.”

Ethan cleaned the dirt from its surface.

A name appeared beneath the rust.

ELARA VALE.

Jake frowned. “Who is Elara Vale?”

Ethan did not answer.

The name felt familiar.

Not because he had heard it before—but because something inside him seemed to recognize it.

The notebook suddenly opened by itself.

Several pages turned rapidly before stopping at an old, damaged entry.

The handwriting was different from the previous pages.

It looked older.

Much older.

Elara was once a woman from the Ward bloodline.

She wanted power beyond the limits of human life.

She performed a forbidden ritual inside Blackwood Forest.

But the ritual did not give her power. It changed her.

Her body remained human, but her soul became something else.

After that night, she began to hear every name spoken inside the forest.

And anyone whose name she remembered could never truly escape her.

Ethan’s hands tightened around the notebook.

“Ward bloodline…”

Jake looked at him.

“Ethan, your family?”

Ethan slowly nodded.

The next page contained a faded drawing of a woman.

Her face had been scratched out, but her long hair and dark eyes were still visible.

Beneath the drawing were the words:

ELARA VALE — THE FIRST ONE TO ANSWER.

Jake looked toward the trees.

“So the entity…”

“Was once a person,” Ethan whispered.

“A woman from your family.”

Before Ethan could respond, the forest became completely silent.

Then a woman’s voice spoke from the darkness.

“Ethan…”

The voice was soft.

Almost gentle.

But Ethan knew it was not his grandmother’s voice this time.

It was something older.

Something that had been waiting for him.

Jake stepped closer to Ethan.

“Don’t answer.”

The notebook turned to another page.

SHE CANNOT BE KILLED BY HUMAN HANDS.

Below it, another sentence appeared.

HER LIFE IS BOUND TO THE OBJECT USED IN THE FIRST RITUAL.

Ethan looked at the rusted metal box.

“Then this must be it.”

He tried to open the box, but the lid would not move.

A symbol had been carved into the lock.

The same symbol that appeared throughout the forest.

Jake examined it carefully.

“There’s a keyhole.”

Ethan remembered the wooden box inside the abandoned building.

The key marked with the symbol.

“We left the key back there.”

A low whisper moved between the trees.

“You came to find the truth…”

The voice was now closer.

“…but the truth found you first.”

The rusted box began to shake.

Jake grabbed Ethan’s arm.

“Ethan, we need to leave.”

But Ethan could not move.

The name Elara Vale was still visible on the box.

And beneath it, another line slowly appeared.

SHE WAS NOT THE FIRST VICTIM.

Ethan’s breathing became uneven.

“What does that mean?”

The notebook answered.

THE FIRST VICTIM WAS THE WOMAN WHO SURVIVED HER.

A sudden image flashed through Ethan’s mind.

A woman running through the forest.

A baby crying.

A burning ritual circle.

And behind them, a tall figure standing among the trees.

Ethan stumbled backward.

Jake caught him.

“What happened?”

Ethan looked at him, shaken.

“I saw someone running… She was carrying a baby.”

The woman’s voice whispered again.

“She took my place.”

The trees began to bend toward them.

“She stole my name.”

The ground trembled.

“And her blood continued.”

Ethan looked down at his own hands.

The symbol on the notebook had begun to glow faintly.

Jake stepped in front of him.

“Whatever you are, leave him alone!”

The forest answered with a quiet, terrible laugh.

“He belongs to me.”

Ethan finally understood.

The entity did not recognize him because he had visited the forest before.

She recognized him because he was her descendant.

The notebook’s final page revealed one more message.

THE RITUAL OBJECT MUST BE FOUND.

THE OLD RITUAL MUST BE REVERSED.

THE BLOODLINE MUST CHOOSE.

Ethan looked at Jake.

“What does ‘the bloodline must choose’ mean?”

Jake shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

The woman’s voice became louder.

“Come to the place where it began, Ethan.”

The rusted box fell open.

Inside was a small black stone wrapped in decayed cloth.

A thin crack ran across its surface.

The moment Ethan touched it, every tree around them seemed to whisper the same name.

Elara.

Then the voice spoke one final time.

“If you want to destroy me…”

The darkness between the trees grew deeper.

“…you must first learn what your family did to me.”

The notebook slammed shut.

The forest went silent.

Ethan stared at the black stone in his hand.

Jake looked toward the abandoned building.

“We need that key.”

Ethan nodded slowly.

“And we need to find the place where the first ritual happened.”

Behind them, somewhere deep inside the forest, a woman began to hum.

The same melody Ethan had heard in his grandmother’s house.

The melody his family had always forbidden him to hear.
Ethan looked into the darkness.

For the first time, he was no longer searching for a missing girl, a strange voice, or a way out.

He was searching for the truth about his own bloodline.

And the forest had finally shown him where to begin.

End of Chapter 6.