The Forest

The Forest

“Do we really have to do this?” Amber pouted, her chestnut curls glowing in the fading light.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Vikki retorted rolling her silver eyes. Amber whimpered.

“Don’t start you two,” Natalie sighed, “yes, we have to do this. We made the deal, now we have to follow through.”

“I should’ve never let you two talk me into this.” The brunette sulked shoving her hands into the pockets of her lavender hoodie. For a while the girls walked in silence, each thinking about the task at hand.

Everyone knew the legend of the Black Forest. Tales of gruesome happenings traced as far back as the first days of the town’s existence. Those who wandered among the twisted trees would come back with horrific tales of screams and red eyes, show up dead or simply vanish, never to be heard from again.

Most tales centered around one particular tree, The Blood Tree. The forest was said to have sprung up around this dark and twisted tree over a single night. Its black branches soared above all of the others and its leaves were forever rotting, never fresh and green. Townspeople said that sap didn’t run through its veins, but a thick red substance that smelt of copper. Those who survived their trek through the sinister woods said they had seen the tree move without the aid of the wind. All agreed that even from the other end of town, The Blood Tree seemed to keep watch over the residents of Dark Hollow, as if judging every soul that walked the streets. So it was no wonder Amber was frightened. Hell, they all were, rather they’d admit to it or not.

As they made their way across the damp fields towards the ever darkened woods, Vikki began singing the familiar nursery rhyme under her breath. “Black as night by day—“

“Stop it Vikki,” Amber pleaded looking at the trees anxiously.

“Vikki, don’t be a bitch.” Natalie glared at the blonde. True, Amber was annoying but that was no reason to torment her. The wind picked up all of a sudden, cold and biting, as if warning the three friends to turn back now. Natalie shoved copper waves out of her eyes and shivered. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to be doing this in the evening. If they didn’t make it back out before the sun set completely they were screwed. But that had been part of the deal, now hadn’t it?

“Go into the Forest tonight, at dusk and grab a branch from the Blood tree” Billy had said, “Prove ye ain’t chicken shit.” And of course, Vikki, being the short-sighted guy crazy moron that she was, said they’d do it before either she or Amber could protest. So here they were, testing the infamous forest simply because the dumb bitch wanted to jump Billy’s bones. Natalie really needed new friends. The girls paused on the edge of the trees.

“Do you think the stories are true?” Vikki asked fear had crept into her voice.

“Dunno,” Natalie replied, looking up at the towering trees. They seemed to be watching them.

“This place is creepy,” Amber whimpered. The other two nodded in agreement.

“Stay together. We only have to go a short distance in,” Natalie instructed, “if we hurry we should be out in no more then twenty minutes.” Without another word, they moved forward as one, stepping into the forest and flipping on the flashlights they had brought with them. It was darker then the dead of night among the bark covered plants. The trees crowded in around them, dark, twisted and watching. Picking their way past briar bushes and tree roots, they made their way in the direction of the Blood Tree.

A scream sounded in the distance making Vikki jump.

“An owl, just an owl,” Vikki said trying to convince herself more then the others. She took a few steps forward, snapping a twig and screaming. “God, you’d think I was more scared than Amber,” Vikki laughed a little hysterically turning to look at her brunette friend. She froze. Amber wasn’t there. Whipping around she discovered Natalie was missing too. “What the…? Natalie?! Amber?!” No response. The blonde tried to back track but found that absolutely nothing looked familiar and to make matters worse the trees seemed to shift, forcing her down a path she had the feeling she didn’t want to see the end of. She was right.

Yawning before her, blacker then the blackest pits of hell, was a hole big enough to swallow a house and something was crawling out of it, an army of somethings. Vikki took a quick step back and tripped over a tree root that hadn’t been there a moment before. She slammed to the ground, yelping in pain as her rear made contact with the concrete-like dirt. Several glowing red eyes turned on her and the stench of rotting corpses hit her full force.

It took a moment for the stars to clear from her vision and in that time the multitude of creatures had inched close enough for the frightened girl to register what they were. Children. Hundreds of them. Their rotting flesh falling away to reveal blood stained bones, skeleton grins gaping wide in cries of triumph, blood red eyes leering at her. Vikki hated children. They were noisy, filthy, disgusting creatures and dead ones were even worse.

Letting out a scream of terror, the blonde scrambled to her feet and turned to run, but there was nowhere to go. The trees had pressed together, cutting off her escape and trapping her in her own personal hell. Maybe if she had been nicer to the children in her neighborhood this wouldn’t be happening to her. Maybe if she had taken the time to care for someone other than herself she’d have been saved. But Vikki hadn’t been a nice person. She had been mean and now it was time for her to pay the price.

~*~

Natalie heard Vikki scream, the sound echoing as if from far away. “Shit,” she swore under her breath. She knew this was a bad idea. She knew something like this would happen. Why had she gone along with this? Why? It wasn’t worth the aggravation… or the danger. “Well Vikki, looks like there’s no Billy Boned for you.”

The red head rubbed at her throat, still sore from calling out to her missing friends with no results. She had tried to back track but quickly found that she was running in circles. Somehow she got the feeling that was more the forest screwing with her than her own directionally challenged mind getting in the way.

Jumping at every snapping twig and every owl hoot, Natalie made her way down the only obvious path in sight, the childhood rhyme playing in her head mockingly:

Black as night by day
The Forest beckons you to play

With whispering words of death
It tempts you to take your last breath

Beware the Forest that plays
By black nights or by bright days

Unless your heart be of pure gold
Your journey will unfold

A shiver ran down her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself. Even as a child that poem had freaked her out. She knew the forest was alive; she could feel it watching her as she stumbled her way down a path seemingly chosen for her. The only thing she didn’t know was what it had in store for her. She really didn’t want to find out, but she had no choice.

Jittery and jumpy, Natalie stepped into a clearing and froze. Yellowed grass circled a dark, twisting mass no more then twenty feet in front of her. The Blood Tree. Ebony bark glistened in the fading light of evening. A crimson stream of goop slid down moving branches —there was no wind — and dropped to the ground with a sickeningly wet splosh. An overpowering stench of copper and decay filled the space like a thick haze. Natalie gagged on the foul odor and forced herself to breath through her mouth, the taste of rot coating her tongue. The trunk was twisting and turning, bending to and fro as if wresting with an invisible giant.

“No way in hell I’m I going near that thing!” she thought before turning on her heels to bolt out of the clearing. She considered herself a nature lover, but this was too much. A deafening sound like a gun shot ricochet through the meadow and something rough and hard wrapped itself around her ankle, tripping her. Natalie fell to the ground with a grunt as it began to pull her towards its trunk. Twisting around, she saw a large line split open like a mouth. She let out a scream and kicked at the branch that was now winding up her leg, but the blows didn’t hurt the disgusting plant. Frustrated the red head rolled back over and clawed at the ground, desperately trying to cling to something, anything. But it was no use. The tree was hungry and nature lover or not, it was going to feed on her flesh.

~*~

Amber whimpered; her hands shoved in her hoodie to hide her trembling. She was angry with her friends. She knew they were playing a vicious trick on her, leaving her on own like this. They were always doing things like that, saying she was a baby when she complained. They were always mean to her.

Something ran through the bushes, rustling the leaves and making the brunette call out in surprise and fear. She hated being alone, always had. Her therapist said it stemmed from a traumatic childhood experience, something else her friends teased her relentlessly about.

Amber had been two years old when her mother had left her all alone in a Wal-Mart department store. She had wandered the aisles for hours crying and calling out for her mother. A few people had stopped to help her, but they succeeded in only frightening her more and she ran the other way. Finally she spotted a man wearing a police uniform. She remembered her aunt saying policemen were the good guys so she approached him. It didn’t take them long to locate her mother stumbling down the booze aisle. She hadn’t even noticed her child had been missing.

The incident had happened nearly two decades ago, but the fear of being left alone remained with her. And here she found herself, alone once more because her friends had decided to be mean. One of these days she’d get even with them for teasing her, but for now she had to concentrate on finding her way back out. Lost and afraid, Amber continued to wander deeper into the woods. As she maneuvered over tree roots and rough patches of earth she didn’t notice the trees closing the trail behind her. She didn’t know she’d spend the rest of eternity wandering those dirt paths never finding her way out and forever plotting her revenge. But the forest did and the forest was glad as it fed from her building hatred and need for vengeance.