"You have wandered into the Forest of Lost Souls." Whispers swirled around me in the fog.

He found me! Huddled on the ground under a pile of leaves and shaking with fear, I fumbled with the leather pouch tied to my leg.

When my car broke down, a man appeared out of nowhere and tapped on my window. He smiled, and by hand motions, indicated for me to unlatch the hood. Something about his eyes bothered me. They gleamed bright against his pale face. I sat alert. He pulled a pair of scissors from his back pocket and snipped apart the battery cables.

My grandmother warned me about men like him.

I was twelve when first attacked. While I was getting ready for school that morning, she came into my room with a leather pouch in her hand. Untying the string holding it together, the fabric fell open, and a flat knife was revealed.

My eyes widened as I stared at the polished blade in the light. Grandmother smiled and handed it to me. The weapon felt weightless. I studied the pictures and words carved into its shaft while turning it over in my hand.

"Keep the knife in this leather sheath and wear it tied against your leg. Always be prepared to protect yourself. After school today, I will explain."

I wanted to ask a question but stopped at her head shake.

“For now, Elizabeth be aware of your surroundings. But enough of that, hurry and eat breakfast. The bus will be early today.”

Grandmother always seemed to know when children were sick and missing school, and the bus would not stop at their house. I gobbled my food, grabbed my lunch bag, and slipped on my coat. The school bus approached with a loud ‘honk’.

My parents disappeared in the fog one day. Grandmother held me tight and whispered, “It was their time.”

I dreamed about seeing them floating in the air while waving and blowing kisses to me. They were happy.

Later I found out, they swerved their car to miss a deer, hit a tree, flipped over, and landed in the deepest part of the lake. The car surfaced a year later, and the police retrieved their bodies. They had a proper burial. Throughout the ceremony, I clung to my grandmother and cried. She stood stoically and focused on something in the distance.

But I digress. The attack at school was by Edward, the custodian. My stomach churned with nausea all morning. I slipped into the girls’ bathroom and bent over the sink to throw up.

He followed me in. “I’ve heard murmurs about you. They say you’re the one.”

I straightened and stared at him in the mirror. Overweight and furtive, the man always gave me the shivers when I passed by him mopping the floor. This time was something different. His mouth opened in a grin, revealing a set of rotten teeth. Eyes were dark and menacing. He held a rope knotted in each fist and raised it over my head. As the rough threads touched my neck, I screamed and popped him under his chin with the top of my head.

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His moment of stunned surprise was all I needed. I dropped to the floor, at the same time instinctively going for Grandmother’s knife. Rolling out of reach, I crouched and waited. He came at me with slow, heavy steps.

The thin knife now clutched in my hand; I went after the only thing I could reach. I stabbed his feet, driving my knife through the shoe leather. Up and down my hand went. I stopped when he fell and hit his head on the sink edge. Edward collapsed on the floor with an expression of surprise. Blood spread around him from his head wound. Slipping the knife back into its sheath, I sat on the floor and screamed.

My teacher drove me home. The school administrator did not want my neighbors to see a student brought home in a police car. I was quiet all the way home and could feel Teacher Ms. Smith glancing at me. My mind was too full. Hoping Grandmother could give me some answers. Teacher’s car barely stopped at the house, before I grabbed my bag and ran for the front door.

“Grandmother!” I yelled.

“In here, child. The school called and told me what happened.” She sat in the rocking chair, her hands busy with knitting.

Always careful about her rules, I hung my school bag on the hook by the door. Rushing in the living room to my favorite chair, I collapsed on it and stared at her. “You knew!”

“Yes.” The needles clicked as her hands kept moving.

“The knife. All the wounds on his feet disappeared. Only the slits in the shoe leather remained. Police said he must have slipped on something and hit his head. They assumed I came in afterward and found him.”

She put her knitting aside and opened her arms. “Come, child.”

I threw myself against her chest. Soothing hands went up and down my back.

“The silver knife has passed through my family for many generations. Two things about it. You found out about its sharp and sure abilities, but also there is something else. No matter how you drop or throw it, the knife will always come back to your hand.”

“What is it for? Protection?”

“More than that, it attracts a rare element of evil. Something hidden deep inside a person. You may not ever need to use the knife again. But it will never leave you.”

Waiting huddled in a pile of leaves, I thought about what she said. Ah, Grandmother, I wish what you said was true. You may have lived a peaceful existence with the knife, but not me. For the last twenty years, I have been attacked four, no five times, including today., I felt the ground vibrate under my attacker’s heavy steps. Coming to a stop next to me, the heavy breather waited. My heart beat so hard, that could be what he noticed. He bent down to dig through the leaves.

This was my chance. I sprang up behind him and sliced through his ankles. No longer able to stand, he fell forward. When his head hit a rock, it sounded like a loud drum.

“Good job. He is mine now.” The whisperer was back.

A white mist swirled in front of me. I held the knife in my hand and slowly stood. “Who are you?”

“Gatekeeper for the Forest of Lost Souls. Thank you for sending another one my way. You can’t see them, but all the captives are pressed against the restraint, eager for a glance of the new Catcher. No need for the knife. They’ve already been taken care of,” the voice chuckled.

I raised the hem of my skirt and slid the blade in its sheath. “You called me, the Catcher.”

“Yes. I received the other four you sent my way.”

“Grandmother said the knife has gone through our family for generations.”

“The stories I could tell. Your ancestors were very imaginative.”

“Are my parents here?”

“No, they went elsewhere. This is for only the worst of mankind.”

“Can they escape?”

“A few have tried. The second they pass through the grid, an electric shock hits them, and they dissolve in a flash of light. Very impressive, too. It keeps the others inside. The ones that dissolve go below to a worse place but that’s my secret.”

I sagged against a tree. My legs became weak. I tried to speak, but the effort was too much.

“Elizabeth. Yes, I know your name. The knife pulls energy from you. Go to your car. A helpful Samaritan will be by shortly and assist you to get it going. Rest today.”

“Can I come back tomorrow and learn more about my ancestors and the knife?”

“Of course, I am easy to find.” In a swirl of mist, the ghostly Gatekeeper vanished.