If You Go Down To The Woods

I am alone. Here, in the woods I feel like I’m at the edge of the world.

I hope no one observes me. To them, I would be a peculiar spectacle, a young girl, dressed as if for a fashion magazine, yet here in the woods she treads as if she belongs here. I remove my watch and slip it into my pocket. For those whose lives aren’t controlled by it, time is but a hollow clattering cymbal.

There is, as ever the subtle scent of nature in the air. The light is fading. Anything could befall me, out here in the swelling darkness. Solitary. But I am not frightened. I know he will protect me.



He had protected her the first time she found herself there. In those shadowy woods which held numerous secrets. Only that forest knew the answer to the labyrinth that had tormented her family for eleven lengthy years. What had happened to Ben? Her older brother who aged eight had last been seen heading towards the woods. He had not been seen since. The police had combed the forest, looking for some sort of sign. But there was nothing. Not even a body. The spectre of these woods had overhung her life since and she had not dared to penetrate, scared of what might greet her. Until now.

Today she entered. She took the entrance just outside the housing estates on the edge of town. The foremost thing that struck her was the stillness. It was almost as if someone had closed an invisible door to the exterior world. Which path should she take? The one to the right. In truth it wasn’t actually a path that lay before her but a muddy track. But she was undeterred. Something was calling her towards the centre of the woods and she had to follow.

Eventually, she perceived a stationary figure inclined against a tree. Her initial thought was that he was a human version of a Roman God. His hair was thick, dark, the colour of the night sky at its deepest. By contrast his skin was pallid. The only word she could conceive of to describe him was haunting. With apprehension, she approached him.

His eyes had been lowered but as she came closer, he raised them to meet hers. She was startled to discover that they were a vivid blue. She moved closer and felt any fear of the stranger exiting her body. Instead curiosity reigned within her. She came to a halt in front of him and looked bravely into his eyes. “Who are you?” she questioned him.

He did not answer. In the peacefulness of the gathering dark, he purely observed her. And then- he grasped her hand.

She wanted to scream. She knew she should. The stranger was dragging her away from where she stood into the dimness of the trees beyond. But she came with him and uttered no protest. He led her through the darkness, through the trees and into a moderate moonlit clearing. Here he came to a standstill and placed his arm around her. “Welcome to my home,” he announced to her.

“Erm, ok.” She crossed her arms as she surveyed the chasm in which she stood. To her it was not a home, but a cleared space between trees in which a few objects were scattered about. A dishevelled blanket lay upon what appeared to be a pile of leaves. In the middle of the clearing, a fire blazed.

“Sit down,” he said to her, indicating a tree remnant. “I have no chairs but I use that stump for guests. “ Well,” he smiled awkwardly at her; “I don’t have that many guests to be honest. You’re the first in-,” he ran his fingers through his hair engagingly, a perplexed look upon his face, “-well I don’t know how long.”

She sat down tentatively, remember he might be a madman and he seated himself next to her. He offered her a cup of some hot tea-like substance though she was reasonably sure it wasn’t tea, due to what appeared to be twigs and leaves drifting within it. She took it but didn’t drink it. Fixing him with a steely gaze, she asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

He grinned at her. “I told you, this is my home. I live here.”

She put the mug of-well whatever it was –down, not caring if it spilled and her mouth curved into a smile. A laugh poured out of her person. “You live here?” she asked, when pausing to draw breath. “But no one lives here! What are you, some crazy hippy?”

He ran his fingers across his lips in what seemed to be a nervous action. “I have my reasons for wanting to be here,” he replied.

She opened her mouth as if to answer but he extended his hand and laid it across her mouth. “Don’t ask any more questions now for you might not like the answers.” He removed his hand and looked frankly into her eyes. “Now what were you doing here?”

She was loath to tell a stranger her secrets. However she found herself starting to talk. She tripped over her words clumsily at the beginning but as she spoke the words ebbed out of her easier. Talking to a stranger forced what she had buttoned up inside for years about Ben and his disappearance to spill out of her.

She knew the tears were coming and humiliation followed. Before she could brush them away, she felt his hand at her cheek, wiping the tears for her. She turned to him. His eyes were lingering on her mouth.

“What’s your name?” she asked him, horrified that she hadn’t bothered to ask him before.

He shook his head sadly. “No names.” he told her. “Don’t make this more difficult then it already is.”

She bit her lip at his puzzling reply and felt anger with him. Seeing him smile gently at her, she snapped, “What’s up?”

“You really are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he answered her sorrowfully.

She turned from him. “I don’t know you,” she said. “And I don’t think I want to. But I feel like I’ve known you for a long time.” She took a breath before continuing. “Don’t be upset if I go and never come back.”

He chuckled “I think you’ll come back.” Unable to think of anything else to say, she walked away from him.

But she did return. She had found him and since that day she was unable to keep away.
It was frosty. Winter covered her exposed neck with icy kisses and brittle winds caressed her cheeks as she made her journey.

He showed no surprise when he looked up and found her standing at the edge of the clearing, nervously weaving her fingers together. At the sight of her, his face cracked into a beam and he held out a hand to her. “Beauty,” he said to her, “I’ve been waiting for you. Sit.”

She did as she was told.

“You never told me” she said bluntly to him, “why you’re here.”

His eyes fixed on hers. “You want to know. Well the outside world doesn’t accept me because I am different.”

“How?”

He moved closer to her, “My dear I am a werewolf.”

Her expression didn’t change. “Yeah, right,” she said. “Werewolves don’t exist”.

“Yes, they do,” he told her gravely. “Except now I’m a lycanthorpe. I guess you’re scared now.”

She shook her head. “No, I can deal with you being a werewolf.”

His eyes flickered over her face as if trying to read her but she looked boldly back unwilling to reveal anything.

“So,” he said his voice subdued, “Could you ever be friends with a werewolf.”

She pondered. “I suppose I could. If I could trust him.”

He leaned closer. “Could you ever love one.”

She drew back. “I-I don’t know.”

“Try” and he reached over and kissed her. Of course she kissed him back.

“I think I have to go now,” she told him morosely after their kiss had ended. “This whole thing...it’s just too weird. It’s unhealthy.”

“This forest owns you now,” he told her tenderly.

She shook her head and scrambled to her feet.

“Come back,” he whispered to her retreating back. “Come back to me.”

As she walked away, she sensed a difference. The woods were brimming with colours now as if all had transformed. The kiss had impassioned her senses, she felt as if the cloud that had encircled her had lifted.

Left alone, in the depths of the wood, he stood and waited. Around him, everything paused as if expectant. He did not know what they were waiting for but there was a feeling that they were watchful for something. The trees ceased their rustling. And in the darkness he could perceive footsteps. A figure stepped into the light cast by the moon.

Standing there was she. Her face was solemn. She studied his face for a while until-

Her face broke into a smile.

She stepped forward and took his hands in hers and drew him to her. The tranquillity of the wood broke into sounds as if of jubilation. He moved to take her into his arms but she pulled apart from him, still clutching his hand.

“Can you see them too?” he whispered to her. She gazed and then nodded. It was like all the creatures of the world had turned out to view them. The trees bowed towards them. She giggled excitedly when she realised what she was wearing. A dress composed of shimmering crimson fabrics, hung in orderly folds upon her frame and the whole magnificence of the dress was set off by the pearls around her throat.

“Is this why you like it here?” she asked him. “Because of this?”

He smiled, “The whole world shuns me for what I am. But my sweet, I made my own world to escape. The forest welcomes me.” He led her forward and she accompanied him.

“Let’s dance,” he said to her and this time, she allowed his arms to encompass her as they danced to the symphony of the woods.