Maria's mother died last year in midsummer because of a very tragic illness. She had fallen sick on the 29 July and died only three days later. Now Maria and her dad live in a little village in a quite big house near a huge forest. No one dares to enter the forest by night, because dark creatures hide behind bushes, ready to tear you up into tiny pieces. If you do decide to venture into the woods at night, you will find ghosts, dark shadows of creatures that nobody is able to identify properly, vampires and werewolves. Although these are only known as being legends. No one, who has gone into the forest at night, has ever come out again to tell the story, so it is unclear, if these legends are true or not.

Ever since Maria's mother passed away, Maria's dad would be studying the stars upstairs in the tiny attic by night. The attic only has a small desk, stacked with papers and books on top of it, and Maria does not see him until the next day, where they would sit at the breakfast table in silence.

* * * * *

Maria wakes up early one day and goes to have breakfast. A little later her dad appears in the doorway. He is smiling. Maria has not seen him smile ever since her mother passed away.

"Good morning, May. Today I may be meeting the woman of my dreams."

"But mum will always stay the woman of your dreams. Isn't that right, dad?" May looks worried. She does not like the feeling of her father replacing her mother.

"Yes, darling, but your mother isn't with us anymore and I just thought it would be nice for you to have somebody, you can call your mum. I'm going to meet her this afternoon, she's coming here. Her name is Vera Elisabeth. Oh, and by the way, she has two daughters that are your age, Erica and Victoria. Wouldn't it be nice to have two sisters?" Maria looks away. "May, please! Just wait out, see how nice they are, ok."

At two o'clock they arrive in a carriage. May's dad goes to greet them, while May stays at the door. The first one to come out is one of the daughters. She comes to the door and smiles at May.

"Hi, my name is Erica. And you must be Maria."

"Hello Erica, nice to meet you", May smiles back at her. 'She seems to be quite nice', May thinks, as Erica goes past her into the house, 'Let's just hope it stays that way.'

The next one to come out is the other daughter, Victoria. May wants to be nice, so she says. "Hi, I'm Maria. It's nice to meet you."

Victoria just totally ignores May and storms past her. She is wearing really fancy clothes. Her dress is a bright red colour and only just covers her bum. Her boots are as black as the night and go all the way up her legs, ending just over her knees. She is also wearing a ton of makeup in her face and a pair of massive round silver earrings are hanging from her ears. Although her face more or less only consists of makeup and she seems to have a terrible personality, May cannot help but be a little jealous of Victoria's beauty. The last one to come out is their mother. When she smiles at May's father, she seems really nice. But after May's dad goes to make some coffee for Vera Elisabeth, she comes up to May and whispers quietly. "There'll be a few changes in this house, once I'm ruling over it, is that clear?"

Before she leaves, she gives May a really dirty stare, then she disappears. Not a long time after their first encounter, May's father and Vera Elizabeth marry. May still does not like her.

About three years later her dad says he has to leave to meet an old friend on a little island. He wrote May's father a letter, telling him that he needs her dads help. May says she is going to miss him. Then he leaves and never returns.

* * * * *

One night, when May can't stand it without her dad, she sets of into the dark forest to find him. Creatures attack her and want to tear her into tiny pieces. She gets frightened and rips herself away from the screaming creatures and runs further into the forest. Then suddenly there's an opening in the forest. May sees a little river, next to it there is a girl about May's age crying. May runs to her and starts talking to her, when she suddenly disappears. May rubs her eyes. 'I must be getting tired. Now I am already starting to imagine things that are not there.' To prove that she is not completely going insane, she dips the tip of her finger into the river and feels the cold water on her finger.

Now she knows she hasn't seen things. 'But where did the girl go?', May thinks, getting scared. She starts running again, when suddenly a ghost patrol on white horses appears beside her. A man puts her onto his horse and says in a low voice.

"Girls like you shouldn't be in the forest by night!" The others start laughing and set of deeper into the forest, followed by the man and May on the last horse.

May is in such a shock to see ghosts around her that she completely forgets to scream. She just lets the ghost patrol lead her even deeper into the forest, not knowing where she will end up.

After a few minutes they arrive at a big camp. The camp is surrounded by nothing but darkness and all the huts are made of dark wooden planks that look as dark as the night itself. May shudders. 'This doesn't exactly look like a nice place', May thinks. The man that is with her on the horse gets off and helps May down. He leads her to a house, pushing her on in front of her. Then he knocks and steps in. May sees a throne and a woman sitting on it. She has a long dark red dress that is the colour of blood and matching lipstick on. She has raven hair that stops just underneath her shoulders. She looks at the guy and May, waiting for an explanation of why she is being disturbed at this time of the night.

"We've found this girl running around in the forest", the man says.

"Well, throw her into the dungeon", the queen replies and starts cackling which gives May a frightful scare.

The man takes May to the dungeon, which is a smaller house, guarded by fierce looking guards. The man throws her into one of the dungeons and leaves. May thinks she'll be there the rest of her life, when suddenly a boy opens the dungeon, where May is in and gets her out quickly.

Outside the camp another patrol is waiting. The boy puts May onto his horse and they ride even deeper into the forest, until they get to another camp. This camp seems less scary to May. They bring May to a big tent, where a queen is sitting, having her dinner. The boy quickly explains where they have come from and what has happened. The queen looks at May and offers her to sit with her and have something to eat. After May has finished the boy appears again and says he has to bring May home. May says thank you to the queen for the lovely meal. Then she leaves.

The patrol is on the way to Mays house, when dark creatures attack them. The ghosts try to defend themselves, but are beaten. Just when the creatures are about to eat the poor girl alive, a cute ghost boy appears out of nowhere and scares the creatures away. He then helps her up and places her onto his white horse. They then ride through the forest, until they get to the end. The girl thanks him for saving her life. Then the boy turns around and he and his horse disappear into the dark forest. She quickly makes her way up the path that leads to her house, turning around every so often, hoping the boy would reappear there, where he had been standing only a few minutes before.

* * * * *

In the night May dreams of the dark forest, the creatures that attacked her, the camps, the cute boy, who saved her and the horse. She feels the warm breathing of the horse and its soft fur. Then she sees the boy's eyes as he helps her up of the floor. His hair is waiving in the wind, a perfect brown colour, as dark as chestnuts. Then she sees nothing.