This story begins with the legend of the Black Forest. A dark, unspeakable story. No one ever escapes the mysteries of the Dark Forest, it eats you alive and you don’t even see it coming. Those who know the secret of the forest, never escape it. In Southwest Germany, Baden-Württemberg our class made a trip to the dark lands called the Black Forest. I walked alongside May, I could hear her heavy breathing in the attempt to make her hands warm, but it was pointless, even sweaters couldn't take this cold away, It was freezing. May and I have been best friends for a long time, I’m Anne, the quiet girl that sits at the back of the class, I don’t have many friends, apart from May.

As the sun touched the mountains, the forest got darker and colder. We made our way through the trees following the rest of our class.

“Are we there yet?” The sounds of May’s whining filled the whole forest.

I looked at her annoyingly, she had asked that question so many times by now, “I don’t think we are going anywhere, May, I think we got ‘there’ when we entered the forest”.

I would bet anything, that if someone dropped a rock on the other side of this forest, we would be able to hear it. The absolute silence of this place gave me the creeps. We couldn't get out of this place soon enough. There was no sound at all, well, except for the occasional screaming and the branches on the floor breaking as we walked, making a crack sound. I looked deep into the forest, wondering what was in there, what mysteries it held. I could feel May’s glance as we walked, staring at me.

“What are you thinking?” She asked me.

I didn't know what she meant, until I noticed that I was staring right past her, into the forest. I shook my head as a kind of wake up.

“Um, oh, nothing.”  I started to say, “I just can’t wait to get out of this place, I don’t know about you, but this place creeps me out.”

She looked to the forest and then right at me,“Yeah, me too.”

I just noticed, the snapping of the branches on the floor was gone now, gone with our class. We had lost them, wandered off as we were talking.

“Wait, where are we? Where is the rest of our class?” I know I needed to point it out, but suddenly I wish I hadn't.

May is the kind of person that gets panic attacks and overreacts a lot, but I couldn't blame her if she started panicking right now, even I had a faint urge to do so too, and I am not that kind of person at all. I turned and looked at May to see how she had responded to what I had just said, and just as expected, she was nowhere to be seen. I kept on walking calling out her name, I knew she couldn't have gone far. I looked to my left and saw a figure, May, running in a distressed way. I made my way up to her and took her shoulder, hoping to calm her a little. I had a lot of experience with May and her breakdowns, she had them quite often when she got really stressed at school or when something was going on with her family, so I knew how to handle them. Or I thought I knew how to handle them. She couldn't stop running, I literally had to tackle her.

She shrieked, “Ow, what was that for?”

All I could do was stare at her, she said that so normally, as if the last 5 minutes had never happened, as if she truly did not know why I tackled her.

I ignored her question and helped her get up.“I know you must be scared ok? But running around panicking won’t do anything but get us more lost, and it surely won’t help”

She looked at me with a frightened look in her face, “So you're admitting we are lost!?”

“Yes, OK? We are lost, there is no doubt in that, but please, pull yourself together and help me find a way out of here”

We were silent for the next few minutes, thankfully she was the one who broke the silence.

“Its getting dark, it must be about 10-12” she made a pause and looked around  “I don't know, I mean, it may be 10, 11 or 12, but you can never tell here.”

I nodded in agreement. I remembered back to when we got here, it was so dark, and it was barely 4 pm, time didn't go with light here, light came when it wanted, and time always kept advancing.

We walked around looking for any sign of people, but unfortunately we found nothing. It was a creepy forest against two girls with only their backpacks, and their non-working phones, thanks to the terrible service here.

Before we knew it, time passed by quickly, we were able to see some light barely making its way through the trees, so I guessed it was about 1 pm, we had been here for an entire day. I wont lose hope, for the sake of May. I could see the terrified look in her face as we sat down to rest. I tried to sleep, but it was next to impossible. The floor was so uncomfortable and I had the fear of something creeping up to us, and besides, it was extremely cold. I turned around and saw how I wasn’t the only one who couldn't sleep, May just a few feet from me, was laying down and playing with the dirt in a calm way. I hoped she was truly calm now, and she did not just look it, because it would be way more easy for me if she wouldn't have anymore breakdowns while we were here in this forest.

We had to bring 2 snacks for this trip, because we were told we would stay for a while, but what they didn't tell us is that we would get lost and stay here a whole day. Thankfully I hadn't gotten hungry while we were still with the class, so I still had my snacks, and so did May. I was starving so I took my sandwich out and ate it quickly as if I feared someone was going to take it away from me, which I knew would probably not happen, but I was so hungry.
Walking around, and talking, time passed so slowly, but before we knew it, the number of days we had been there had changed to three.  I turned to look at May and noticed she had fell into deep sleep, she must have been really tired to be able to sleep here. This was our third day, and our first day without food. Hunting would be pointless because we did not have any weapons, and even if we did, it wouldn't get us anywhere because the forest was more deserted than any place I had ever seen. It was as if animals could sense the feeling of dark and death here, because I sure could.
I wanted to lay down and give sleep another try, but just as I was sitting down, I noticed a little wooden cabin nearby.

“May. May. HEY! Wake up!” I shook her hard until she started fluttering her eyelashes with a weary look on her face. “Get up, I can see a cabin close by, we can walk there, knock, and hope there is someone in there”

She nodded, I could tell she was too tired to talk. We walked to the cabin and knocked three times. Someone answered. Some people may say he answered too quickly , as if he was expecting us. At the door was a guy, medium height, white hair, and long beard.

“Hi ladies, what, are you lost?

I paused, did he get many people here? Is that why he guessed we were lost? I pushed that thought away and answered him. “Um.. Yeah, we kind of are”

“Say no more, ladies, I’m Argent Carson, would you like to come in for a bite? I bet you're hungry”

We nodded and made our way inside. I was shocked at how nice this guy was, many people wouldn't just let in strangers inside their house, but now that I think about it, many people wouldn't go into a stranger’s home without knowing a single thing about them.
We each ate stuffing the food in our mouths, after my third sandwich, I couldn't eat anymore.

Argent Carson broke the silence, “Make yourselves comfortable, ladies, you will be able to stay here some time”

I did not know what to make of that, it did sound sketchy, but I was just so thankful for the water and the plate of food. He told us that we could rest in the basement, he said he had a bed down there, I normally wouldn't just go into a person’s basement I barely knew,  but the tiredness overwhelmed me and I couldn't refuse. We entered and heard the door slam behind us followed by a ‘click’ sound a door makes when it’s being locked, there is where I passed the line of creepiness I tolerated in one day, I tried to open the door, but it was hopeless. The door was metal, but still, May and I  kept on hitting our fists and yelling in an attempt to open the door. We did not succeed. A shiver of panic made its way through my body, I did not know what to do, for once, there was nothing I could do. As we shouted some more, I could hear eco’s, I could tell that this place was big, so we decided to go look for something to help us get out of here. We made our way through the basement,  this place was no better than outside, it was still freezing, I looked around, and then we saw someone. No, I correct myself, we saw many people, some were asleep, I could tell because they were still moving and shaking, but others weren't moving at all, I decided not to think the worst. I wondered how long they had been here, how long they had hope, just like us, how long it took for them to give up.
We looked around for a while, then sat next to someone who seemed the most awake. I made a conversation with him and tried to ignore the fact that we were here, that we could end up like this, lifeless and hopeless. His name was Gerard, he was really kind, he had lost his daughter right here in this basement. He was weak, so he couldn't help us get out, but he told us that we might make it out by digging. We could make it if we didn't get too tired or even died in the process, which apparently, was not rare. There was nothing in the basement, no bed, barely enough food, and about 100 other people.  I spent the most of my days there focused on getting out and digging, but when I was just too exhausted, I spent my time talking to people there who  had enough strength to talk. I did not see a lot of May in the time we were in the basement, when she was not digging, she was sleeping, or getting panic attacks, it was just too much for me to deal with. Argent Carson would occasionally, about once a week, send some pieces of bread down the stairs, that is what helped us keep the little strength that we had. We dug and dug and dug for days, maybe even weeks. I was so exhausted I could just drop,  and finally, the light came to me, and I felt a sudden weight off my back, I felt relieved.