Choosing Sides

I wasn't sure how long I kneeled beside the boy's body in the eerie silence of the Shadow Forest. I kept wondering why the forest killed the boy but not me. I refused to believe that the spirits only killed those with dark souls because that would have meant that this child's soul had been corrupted for a long time…

No. He wasn't bad. He was just… lost. He had trusted those whom he shouldn't have. He had been manipulated and used in the most disgusting way. It was those who had poisoned his mind who deserved to die.

“Why?” I whispered, asking the spirits, even though I doubted they would answer.

Suddenly, a cold breeze licked the nape of my neck. “Dark… soul,” a hoarse and airy voice whispered.

I swallowed and rose to my feet, looking around. “He was just a kid. He could have changed,” I argued, my voice cracking.

“No,” the airy voice answered. “We've seen… his future…”

Chills ran down my spine. I knew that I shouldn't have challenged the spirits who could kill me in less than a secon