"Are you certain you want to go through with this?"
"I have to," Moira replied. "It's the only way."
There was a silence.
"Please, Mother Nature, you have to help me. I don't know where to start!"
"Very well. It seems I can't talk you out of it -"
"It wouldn't make much difference now," Moira cut in ruefully. "I… I gave him a lock of my hair."
The portly woman looked alarmed.
"You… you did what?"
"I gave him a lock of my hair. He was desperate, and I certainly didn't want to risk losing him to that... that…"
"My dear, this changes everything. If you should fail… oh why did you have to do that?"
"Su broke the rules and now she's trying to drive him to kill himself. She has no right to do that, and I'm going to stop her."
"With that kind of determination," Mother Nature smiled, "you have a chance of success. Very well, this way."
They stood up and Mother Nature led Moira to the Forbidden Road. Moira thought it looked rather spooky, not to mention desolate. Mother Nature pointed.
"At the end of this road there is a portal. Once you pass through that portal, there is no turning back."
Moira nodded and started walking down the road. She felt like her skin was crawling and it was eerily silent.
"If this is only the beginning…" she muttered to herself.
Moira decided to avoid that particular train of thought.
The road got darker the further down she walked. Colder too. The strangely shaped trees threw creepy shadows in the dim light.
At last Moira saw the portal. It was like a vortex of red light, swirling around and around. She gulped.
"No turning back," she said. "C'mon Moira. You have to do this. It's for Taylor. Taylor!"
Taking a deep breath, she took the final steps and plunged into the portal. She started moving through the portal at an amazing, incomprehensible speed, and almost immediately she saw crooked arms reaching out for her.
"Remember, they can't get you unless you let them," she reminded herself. "They can't get you."
There was evil laughter in the air at these words and Moira noticed she was shaking. She had never been to petrified in her life, and her quest had only just started!