The Tree's Heart

I

Clover had thought that this was a stupid idea from the start. Going into a forest as a dare? It was a pretty lame dare, if she was honest. Sure, the forest was cursed and there were plenty of legends around it, but those were all kid's tales. That's why Clover hadn't been too keen on doing this dare when her friends proposed it. It was absolutely not because she was feeling a little scared of this place.

So she had gone in. The dare was to stay until sundown and then get back out, which should be easy to do. Clover had been doing her best to keep track of where she was going and she had been careful not to wander off too far into the woods. Besides, she still had her phone and could find her way out via GPS, right? She would be fine. She wasn't going to get stuck in some old forest. And she was not scared.

But no matter how often she repeated that mantra to herself, Clover couldn't help but feel a shiver run down her spine when she set foot in the forest. There was something about it that made it eerie and at the same time something that made it strangely appealing. It was a weird atmosphere and Clover knew that she couldn't wait to get out of this place again. She had made the mistake of reading up on all the stories out there about this forest, before going in. She knew she shouldn't have done that.

The most recent story was the one of two girls going in and never making it back out again. There were plenty of theories why they didn't make it out of the forest again – the most rational one that Clover had heard was that they had just run off together and decided to break all contact with the people they left behind. Everyone had known that they were a couple and while most people were fine with that, this was still a small town and with a small town came talk and gossip and all kinds of nasty things.

There were other, far more gruesome, stories out there. One theory said that there was a serial killer living in this forest and that he had killed the two girls, that he was responsible for other disappearances as well. The theory held up – as long as one didn't consider the disappearances that went back hundreds of years. But who knew? Maybe those happened for different reasons. Clover couldn't be sure.

There was also some children's story about a witch living in the woods and that sometimes you'd be able to hear her wailing in the middle of the night. That story was obviously bullshit, but Clover had heard the weird noises coming from the forest at times. She had no idea what they were – probably just some animal or something – but they were still scary. Whenever she heard them, she felt like the blood inside her veins was freezing.

But none of those stories mattered. The weird noises were animals, the girls that had disappeared had probably run away and other people that had gotten lost probably just lost their way and died in this place. Creepy, but nothing to worry about. She would be fine. She had been paying attention and she had her phone. Everything would be fine. The weird atmosphere was just in her head, something she was imagining.

The only issue was that Clover had stopped paying attention a while ago. She had been so lost in thought that she had wandered deeper into the forest than she had planned. She could see it from the way the trees were changing, the way the plants were different in the part she was in. But that was no issue. She could always turn back, walk back in one direction and at some point, she'd find something familiar. Or she'd get out of the woods, at least. This forest wasn't endless, after all, despite it being big.

Clover still had her phone. She was holding it tightly in her hands, because if all else failed, that phone was her ticket out of here. She sure as hell didn't intend to stay the night. And judging by how tired and exhausted she was getting, there probably wasn't much time left for her, anyway. Maybe she should just make her way back – if she could find it. Out here it was nearly impossible to see the sky and judge the time by how bright it still was. There was still light coming through the branches of the trees, but not much.