The Red Bark Tree

After

She sits up and her eyes take a minute to adjust to her surroundings. It's nighttime, and the only light is from the stars. Wiping off some tears and leaves, she stands up and runs back home. She counted each turn she made, and then made her last turn. Stopping, she looks around. It wasn't the exit from the forest, which meant one thing: lost.

A stick cracks from behind her, and she heard a man's voice. Thinking that it might be some people near the entrance, she runs in that direction. The voices get louder and louder as she cuts through poking bushes and scratching trees. Eventually, she notices the trees are clearing out until they were gone. But it wasn't the exit, it was a lake. And it was dead silent.

The waves lapping against the shore made no noise, the leaves blowing in the breeze made no noise, not even the bird perched on a log by her made a noise. Her heavy breathing started to calm, and then she could hear it. The whispering. It was faint, but it was there. Kaia couldn't quite pick out what it was saying, but she did figure out that it was coming from the waves.

The waves started getting bigger and bigger, and with them the sound of the whispers got louder and louder. They got so loud that it hurt Kaia's ears, and she crouched down with her hands over here ears. Soon, the water lapped at her feet, and the whispering stopped with a loud ringing. She stood up, and looked around with a confused look on her face. Thinking the sound might have to do with touch, she skipped a pebble on the water. Each touch gave out a little ring, and then it stopped on top of the water.

The pebble wasn't floating, it was just sitting there like the water was a solid. Kaia, now even more curious, threw another one and it landed on top as well. Deciding it was safe to walk on, she took a cautious step into the water and instead stepped on top of it. Kaia was now walking on the water, and it was acting just like a solid. Approaching where the pebbles had landed, she looked down at her feet. The water looked really deep where she was standing, and she got worried that it wouldn't hold her for much longer.

She reached the middle and looked around. The edge of the lake was masked in fog now, so all she could was the water. Kaia felt her feet getting wet and looked down. Her feet were submerged in the water, and the rest of her was sinking fast. Panicking, she tried to grab onto the solid water, but quickly found it was normal water again. Her scream pierced the silent air as she slowly drowned. Soon after, the water swallowed her and the silence swallowed the scream.

[AN: Sorry the tense switched, I have a habit of doing that..]