It was a clear night. The stars were bright, and the moon was in a sharp crescent shape. The temperature was also comfortably chilly, making it the perfect night for camping. I was on a trip with some fellow sophomores in a forest away from the city. Everyone else had fallen asleep, but I was still up. I was enjoying the night sky by the orange light of our campfire, but I was also waiting for my twin sister, Elizabeth. She had wondered off a few minutes before I sat down near the fireplace. I checked my trusty silver watch for the time; it was precisely ten at night. I was considering calling out for her when she came darting out of the woods.  Her short brown hair was a mess as it usually was. She also had a mischievous grin on her face; her bright green eyes were looking intently at me. I knew that grin all too well. It’s the same grin she wears whenever she’s about to get herself in trouble.

            “Ethan! Ethan! I found something amazing. You have to come check it out!” She had already grabbed my arm, anticipating that I’d immediately come along. I attempted to stand my ground, for I had no intention of ruining such a peaceful night.

            “Not this time, Ellie. It’s rather late, and we really shouldn’t go running off anywhere at this hour.”

            “Aww, come on! It’s just right over there. We can make it quick.” She was pointing in the direction that she had come from. I didn’t find the idea of wandering off alone without the others else very appealing.

            “Ellie, we shouldn’t go wandering off this late. We’d best be going to sleep now….”

            “You were probably going to sit here watching the stars for another hour anyways, weren’t you?”

            I took another glance at my watch. It was true that I normally stayed up a bit later than this when given the chance. “Erm, well, uh, we still shouldn’t….”

            Too late. She decided to run off without me, no longer listening to my shallow lies. As much as I wanted to stay behind and enjoy the beautiful night, I couldn’t let her go somewhere potentially dangerous on her own. Reluctantly, I followed my sister.

            When she came to a stop, I peered into the same direction as her and quickly noticed what had caught her curious eyes. A small light was floating above the ground, flickering blue and purple hues like a flame. It hovered there, silently tempting us to follow. I was about to make a comment, but my sister dashed forward before I could open my mouth. She galloped towards it and made a lunge for the small light. It floated lazily out of the way, leaving my sister to tumble into the soft grass. I followed behind at a more cautious pace, wordlessly remarking at how childish she was for a girl of her age. The little light was now leisurely moving away, heading deeper into the woods. I was quite sure I’d read about this phenomenon before. These small lights are called will-o-wisps.  I also recalled that these cheeky spirits enjoyed leading travelers astray, so following them tends to be a bad idea. I relayed this knowledge to Elizabeth, but of course, that didn’t convince her to cease her blithe chase. If anything, it seemed to encourage her. Deeper into the forest she wandered, and deeper in I trailed.

            I lost track of the time. I tried to check my watch, but the darn device had run out of battery at some point, while we were walking. That agitated me a bit. As we walked, I turned towards a nearby tree and was greeted by the gaze of a small spider. I immediately tensed up and held back a yelp. I have an instinctive fear of spiders, so even a harmless fellow like that gentle arachnid sent chills down my spine. As we kept walking, I started to notice something odd about the trees. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that each one that we passed was larger than the last. The branches above now seemed heavy enough to crush a car, and the leaves were blocking out the starlight. A new light was now coming from several tiny lights that weaved in and out of the branches. Judging by the colors, I concluded that they were also will-o-wisps. Their dance around the leaves created a captivating light show. I found myself so mesmerized by the performance that I bumped into Elizabeth, who had come to a stop. When I looked ahead, I was astonished at the sight. The ground up ahead formed a steep slope that curved into a circle, creating what seemed to be a belly button in the forest floor. From within this hole grew a gargantuan tree, far larger than any of its surrounding trees. Its canopy may as well be a forest of its own with leaves the size of trucks or larger. The trunk looked like a city could fit within and stretched down into the darkness of the pit. The branches stretched out and rested at the ditch's edge, providing a long pathway to walk across. The wisp we were following flew across one of these branches, and my childish sister darted after it. I followed behind slowly, careful to keep away from the branch’s edges. I had no intention of testing the lightless hole’s depth.

            Within the jungle of leaves, Elizabeth and I continued to follow our wispy guide. Or, so I thought. I had lost sight of the small spirit, so I asked my sister, “Hey, where’d the will-o-wisp go?”

            “I dunno. I lost track of the little guy. I think he flew back that way when we started climbing,” she pointed in the direction we had just come from. I really wanted to smack her there and then.

            “Where are we going, then? Can we turn around now?”

            “I wanna see the top of the tree first. I bet the view’s amazing!”

            “We’re in the middle of a forest. How good can the view be? It’ll just be trees for miles.”

            “Come on! We’ve already made it up here. I bet we’re almost there!”

            She continued her ecstatic accent, humming to herself happily as she did so. Not wanting to leave her here by herself, I climbed after her. The leaves that surrounded us reminded me of those big, bouncy balloon forts that we would climb in as kids. The leaves were soft and smooth to touch, but also sturdy enough to support our weight. They bounced up and down as we scaled on top of them. Climbing them felt like climbing those rubber structures from our childhood. I was lost in thought making this comparison when a rather loud rustling noise made me snap back to reality. The sound came from somewhere above, and it was close enough to put me on guard. As we kept going upward, I kept my ears open for more foreign sounds. I started to become aware of how eerily silent it has become. There was no noise other than the rustling of the leaves Elizabeth and I were climbing. Not even the wisps seemed to come near here; all of their light came from outside the leaves. The canopy had become very dark.

            “Hey, bro! Check this out!”

 Oh bother, she’s managed to find yet another distraction. I hauled myself up the next bunch of leaves to catch up. At this point, I was quite short on breath. I’ll admit that I’ve never been the most athletic person. When I found my sister, I stopped dead in my tracks. My instincts were kicking in, and they were telling me to be terrified.

            “Pretty, ain’t it? Do you think the wisps made this?” She was looking at a large network of white, shining strings. The pale ropes were stickily attached to the leaves and branches, and they split apart and reconnected to form a shape that I was all too familiar with. I grabbed my naïve sister by the arm. “We need to leave. Now,” I stammered. Elizabeth was beginning to protest when another large, rustling echo, much louder and very much nearby, entered my ears. Elizabeth pulled herself free from my grasp.

            "We’re almost there. Just a little more!”

            “Ellie, this place is too dangerous. We are leaving.”

            “But we’ve come so far!” she fumed. “We can’t just give up now!” That’s a surprise. I don’t remember the last time she’s committed to anything.

            “Ellie, it’s too dangerous to be wandering around up here with a-”

            Scratch. Swoosh. Rustle. I turned look at the noise. Emerging from the leaves, eight large, disgusting, green eyes, as big as car tires, gazed back at me. Those eyes appeared to glow in the darkness of the leaves. The rest of the creature appeared from that darkness. The monster continued to move toward us with its eight long, stick-like legs. Its hairy skin had the same blue and purple shades as the wisps we’ve seen. The pincers by its mouth looked sharp enough to pierce right through steel. The pincers also seemed to be moist, as if the overgrown arachnid was drooling at the sight its next meal. I found myself frozen with fear. I couldn’t move or think. All rational thought had left me. I then felt my hand seized. I glanced over to see Elizabeth detaching my watch. She pulled it free and, after a moment of hesitation, chucked it at the spider. The small time-telling device landed in one of its eyes with a small thump. The beast winced slightly from the light impact, but it didn’t seem to be majorly harmed. Fortunately, that wincing was all my sister needed.

            "Run for it!” She turned and ran to the nearest leaf. Finally coming to my senses, I followed behind as quickly as I could, looking back to catch a glance at my now broken watch. The colossal spider stepped on it and started moving. I turned to face my sister, who was now climbing upward again. At this point, I was too dazed to question her.

            We climbed up as fast as our limbs would carry us. The scratching and screeching below only further fueled my fear as we frantically fled skyward. Leaf after leaf we climbed. Then I heard a faint whisper from Elizabeth. “Wow,” she was saying under her breath.

             I looked up and caught sight of the view. We had reached the top of the gigantic tree, and there were hundreds of will-o-wisps dancing in the sky. They proudly shined along with the stars, creating an indescribably beautiful scene in the night sky. “It’s… stunning,” I whispered back. We didn’t get long to admire it, as the spider was heard gaining on us from below.

            Elizabeth grabbed my hand again. “This way!” She pulled me along, racing to the edge of the canopy’s top. I peered back to see that the arachnid was showing its menacing legs. The nearby wisps fled. I didn’t dare to look back again. We reached the edge of the furthermost leaf. I was about to ask my intrepid sister where we were supposed to go when she jumped off, pulling me with her. The two of us plummeted into the lesser trees below.

            The landing was painful; I needed a few moments to pull myself together. As I as lifted myself off the ground, I found that I had suffered no major injuries in the fall. I could walk with minimal problems. The smaller trees’ branches and large leaves must’ve broken the fall. I looked around for my brave sister and found her nearby cradling her left ankle. She had an extremely pained look on her face. It seemed that the branches weren’t so kind to her. The spider continued to screech in the distance, so we didn’t waste a minute. I pulled her up, she leaned onto my shoulder, and the two of us hobbled away from the immense tree. It quickly occurred to me that we really had no idea of how we’d get back to the camp. As we continued to limp away, a small light floated in front of us. Another will-o-wisp, it seemed. “It’s him,” I heard Elizabeth say in a soft voice. The wisp hovered there, patiently. I started turning into another direction; I had no intention of following the troublemaker into another potentially fatal situation. “Bro, follow him. He’ll take us home, right buddy?” The wisp didn’t respond. It continued to float there patiently. I stood there, unsure what to do. I habitually looked to my wrist for the silver watch that was no longer there. The spider was still making noise in the distance. The wisp started to float sluggishly away as it has been doing all night. I took a deep breath and started to follow it.

            We followed it the best we could. I couldn’t help but notice the wisp was flying faster than it typically did. I wondered if it was also in a rush. Putting my faith in our mischievous spirit and my twin sister, we trekked in the darkness. Soon, the leaves above started parting. Starlight started making its way to the forest ground. I looked up to see that the branches were no longer larger than life. Putting my eyes back ahead, I noticed an orange light, burning faintly in the distance. We hurried our pace a little, and, with a bit of struggling, managed to pull ourselves back to the campsite. The others were still fast asleep. My sister looked back to her little flaming friend. “Thank you!” she whispered to the wisp. The small spirit seemed to brighten up a bit, as if in response to Elizabeth’s gratitude. I pulled my sister along. “Sit down,” I commanded gently, “I’ll get a first-aid kit.” As my sleepy sister sat down to rest by the orange light of our campfire, we glanced back at the will-o-wisp. The spirit was now floating back in the direction it came from, going back to its home by the titanic tree.