The Tree's Heart

XXIII

Clover had no idea how long they had been running already. She could feel her lungs burning and she was feeling dizzy. The whole experience was disorienting, and the flower crown was starting to weigh heavy on her head. Clover had discarded the veil a while ago because it wasn't helping her with running and getting away from the fae realm fast. But it seemed like the dark thicket was endless.

Clover wondered whether they were being followed. Willow seemed to know where she was going, but Clover often had no idea. She sometimes saw Willow among the trees, just standing there, but she knew that this wasn't the real Willow. It had to be some sort of confusion, meant to confuse them.

The only way Clover had of knowing about which Willow was the real one was by holding onto her hand. Willow didn't seem to mind, although Clover was slowing her down, since she couldn't run that fast due to not eating enough. Clover was feeling the effects of that diet now more than ever. She was feeling dizzy and nauseous, as if her knees were going to give out underneath her any second.

Clover wished they could rest somewhere, just for a second. There were already a few times when she had stumbled and almost fallen to the ground, nearly losing grip of Willow's hand, but so far, she had managed to hold onto her. But it was only a question of time until she would fall for good and lose Willow and she could only hope that there were no illusions around that time. She couldn't lose Willow.

After a while, the illusions even started calling out to her, all of them sounding exactly like Willow. Clover had turned around a few times to look, because they just seemed so real, but Willow told her to just ignore them and focus on her. It was easier said than done if she was honest. If she lost grip of Willow's hand, how would she know which Willow would be the real one? What if she followed an illusion?

And what if Willow showing up at the wedding was herself an illusion? What if Avery had tricked her all this time? It was a scary thought and it almost made Clover let go of her hand and run another way. But she wouldn't know where she was going and following this Willow was her only chance to really make it out of here. If she ran off there was absolutely no chance that the fae wouldn't catch up with her and make her go back to Avery. So, she had to trust that this was the real Willow, flesh and blood Willow.

After a while it seemed like the forest around them was changing. It wasn't as dark anymore, there wasn't as much thicket anymore and Willow seemed to slow down a little bit. Had they gotten through the worst of it? Clover wanted to ask her, but she needed to save her own breath at the same time. She would just have to follow Willow wordlessly until they were back at the cabin, back in the ward.

And that was when it finally happened. Clover had been distracted and hadn't seen the massive root of a tree that was coming up from the ground. She stumbled over it and fell and for a few seconds everything went black, and she found it hard to get any breath at all. At first, all Clover realised was that there was some pain, that she must have fallen hard on her back and that was why the breath was knocked out of her lungs.

The second thing she noticed was that she wasn't holding onto Willow's hand anymore. She had no idea where Willow was. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times against the sunlight shining through the trees. She sat up, pain shooting through her spine. Willow was standing in front of her, giving her a concerned look. Clover didn't need to turn around to know there were other illusions of her around the place. She could hear their voices, loud and clear, calling out to her, calling to tell her to disregard the other ones, that all of them were the real ones. Clover had no idea which one to believe.

She chose to go with the one that was right in front of her. What other choice did she have? This one was smiling at her with the same kind of concern and worry in her eyes that the real Willow would have. And she was closest to her, so surely that was the real Willow, right? Clover slowly got up and brushed off some dirt.