Short stories, (PJO, HP, Sanders Sides, anything really. I take requests!)

The trees.

Althea was lost in the woods.

The Grimesby Wood was not a place you wanted to get lost in. Many said it was haunted, even cursed, and certainly it looked the part, dark, gloomy, and foreboding. Strange noises echoed from it at night, wailing and a strange cracking sound. The trees would sway back and forth, back and forth, howling with the wind in their branches.

And little by little, the townspeople disappeared.

Many tried to leave the town, but some strange misfortune befell whoever tried. A daughter, dead in her bed, a father, impaled by the branches of a nearby tree. And soon, nobody dared to leave their living hell.

And Althea was trapped in it. The trees, tall, looming over her, hemmed her in, and she did not dare to move. Where would she go? The trees were so close-set it was impossible to leave the eerie circle she was trapped in. And all around her the wind howled and shrieked and the trees moaned and swayed, branches whipping toward Althea, who scammed and hid her face.

A creature had brought her here, a creature like a tree and yet not like a tree, and it had stepped into the circle and laid her down. Now it was leering at her, enjoying the small human's fear.

All around her the branches whipped, tearing at her skin. Several latched on to the fresh wounds, digging into them, causing the frail girl to scream in agony. Thoughts flashed through her head, her mind a swirling whirlpool of hate and anger. The humans had corrupted the world, killed the trees, and now the trees were coming back. The branches dug deeper, breaking and tearing out the bones, and turning the girl into the thing her kind had killed. The cracking, popping sound echoed through the woods as sap mixed with blood and the girl changed, slowly, agonisingly.

It was over. The girl walked slowly out of the village. In a month's time branches would sprout and the girl would turn. She knew that.

And she had a whole month to find a victim.

Althea struggled past the nightmarish thoughts of the trees. She walked back to her home, picked up a piece of paper, and started to write.

My name is Mia, and I'm scared. I'm the last one left. My friend Althea sent me a note before the trees fully took her mind, but it's been a few months since then, and she and everybody but me and a man, Daniel, has gone. Daniel has been changed into one of those tree things, I know it, and soon I'll be gone too. Please, for the love of god, find me quickly, before the monfxgtysjioserdtyfguhij

We have taken the girl. We're coming for the rest of you, and there is nowhere you can hide. Run, little humans. It may be the last thing you do.